Valve's Friday announcement (prediction based on symbology)

So to no surprise to anyone, Valve today announced it's plans for Steam Machines, an opportunity for hardware builders to create consoles out of any PC build.

From day one i've been looking at the symbols on Valve's teaser page and, like anyone else with too much time on their hands, i would try to predict their meaning. With the information we have now my prediction is that the final announcement will be that the SteamOS will also support Android games and possibly a partnership between Valve and Google...and Nvidia.

The Logic

In the first button we see a small circle which we would later find that this represented SteamOS, today we see that circle encased in brackets which i believe represents the OS installed onto a machine. So in the final button we see one circle plus another circle, one OS plus another OS (both open source)

Android in the Living Room

It's no secret that everyone and their mother's shoving a little computer box under your TV, installing Android onto it, and calling it a console so why not make Steam the all inclusive place for open source gaming while gaining the mainstream interest Android is receiving to lure others into Valve's marketplace.

But it's more tech's recent history that i'm extrapolating this idea from and that comes from a third partner in the process, Nvidia

What's Nvidia up to?

With Nvidia being shunned this next generation in gaming for AMD's hardware it would make sense that they would want to be more involved in PC's biggest marketplace. What is more catalyzing to this theory, however, is that Nvidia has basically already built a Steam Machine (sans-linux) with the Nvidia Shield (plays Android games, streams Steam games) and Nvidia's (maybe not so random) announcement to increase support for linux.

Update:Nvidia and Valve partnership confirmed

My Final Theory

Steam Machines will come in two flavors, a low cost android consoles that can stream your Steam games from your desktop and, the other, a PC...that has SteamOS installed on it.

...and they'll probably show the new controller this Friday too.

The other theory that is floating around is that they will announce some platform exclusive games. I would love to have Left 4 Dead 3 be announced. :D

I doubt they would release anything on that platform that isn't on steam proper, though it would make sense if it was only on PC and SteamOS (not XB1 and PS4).

It's going to be a controller. Expecting Half Life 3 is foolish (though I could be proven wrong, but I'm willing to bet otherwise).

And they won't do exclusives. That's just silly.

Half Life 3 will never happen, at this point it's nothing more than a meme.

If we take what's been already been announced so far and translate them to the markings.

• ( ) = Steam OS
• [ ( ) ] = Steam OS on a 'SteamMachine'
• ( ) + ( ) = ?

So if ( ) = OS and '( ) + ( )' is the OS plus something, from what we've learnt I'm thinking it's software based.

But then again they have said this -

Am I going to be using a mouse and a keyboard in the living-room?

If you want. But Steam and SteamOS work well with gamepads, too. Stay tuned, though - we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input.

And they've announoced an OS and a system so logically and not taking the symbols into account the next thing has to be a controller right? (I love Valve mindgames)

It's Portal 3. ( ) an O for operating system, [ O ] a box symbolizing Steam machines. ( ) + ( ) Two portals, in and out.

It is in development, though. Gabe Newell and other Valve people have talked about it not too long ago, usually pretending they're talking about Ricochet 2.

Gabe Newell is going to announce that he was inspired by his portrayal in VGCW, and is starting VGDCW (Video Game Developer Championship Wrestling) as GM. Starting roster to contain Swery, Brad Muir, and John Vignocchi as faces; John Drake, Jeff Green, and Dave Lang as heels; Hideo Kojima and Phil Fish as wildcards. Jeff Gerstmann will be reprising his VGCW role as Ref Gerstmann.

Final announcement is a third person free to play MOBA that takes place in the Half Life universe.

It will be called Half Life 3

One thing is clear: it won't be a game. Valve isn't into making games anymore, they're into making money and world domination.

@razielcuts: I'm sure the controller will be announced as well to go along with the announcements of partnerships.

As far as software goes, i think Valve would benefit more from announcing a new SDK with their new engine, and their licensing plans for independent developers, rather than a specific game.

I can see the Source 2 SDK integrating with Steam's Workshop system and creating something like Unity3D's Asset Store creating a place where developers can outsource their art assets from the Steam community.

"we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input"

its the input device

They need some kind of exclusive software to push things over. And if you devlop lets say Half Life 3 exclusive for Steam OS you will have such thing. will it be half life 3? I don't know. But it should be software related.

Portal 3 is probably the least interesting thing for Valve to do.

It's gonna be a controller. Nothing good will be exclusive on Steam OS.

Nvidia just made an announcement to promise better cooperation with Linux and open source the core parts of their drivers. Hmm...

Ricochet 2, calling it. the thing inside the bubble is a Ricochet power up. It's Ricochet 2.

I doubt they're going to use the final announcement on a controller unless the controller is also the streaming device that lets you play on any TV in the house. A regular controller is not announcement worthy let alone final announcement worthy.

Nvidia also announced a flat out partnership with Valve in helping to create SteamOS [Source]

They missed on partnering with the big three this coming generation; they need to hook their wagon onto something.

My prediction is they announce nothing.

But I've actually been thinking about something else -

Gabe's openly anti-Windows 8 and is trying to distance PC gaming away from Microsoft. Microsoft has been salting the earth with its PC gaming platform. Microsoft is Direct X. The One will be Direct X.

The PS4? OpenGL. SteamOS? OpenGL. I'm no developer, but I would imagine that a game created with OpenGL first on an X86 platform would port very easily to another X86 platform running OpenGL.

Valve and Sony have partnered in the past before, albeit on limited terms.

Valve and Sony will announce that the PS4 will be able to do Steam streaming. Sony will sell their PS4 to PC gamers who wouldn't ordinarily buy a console, or would pull away PC gamers who were thinking of a One. Valve offers Sony $x for including the Steam Streaming App. PS4 to PC/PC to PS4 porting becomes super easy. PC/PS4 become lead development platforms. Valve games are Sony exclusive when it comes to consoles. Portal 3, Left 4 Dead 3, and Half-Life 3 are PC/PS4 exclusives and will include cross-play and mod support for the PS4.

My thoughts also.

It would shake the foundations of the earth! Doubt it though its just to crazy....but its been a crazy year!

They didn't miss out. They had the opportunity and decided it wasn't worth it.

Steam 2, the sequel to Steam.

Or some game, maybe. Announcing a controller sounds stupid. I don't fucking know.

@darji: I think with Valve's vision in regards to SteamOS being open and free to license I don't think they'd do something like having a game that is exclusive to Linux/SteamOS since that would be contradictory to having more games available on all Steam platforms. If they were going to have a game announcement associated with this, I assume it'd probably available on all three OS's just like all the other Valve-developed games. If anything they'd probably launch the new game at the same time as the new OS. Perhaps they'd make it exclusive to Steam first meaning there wouldn't be a console version, just PC, Mac, and Linux for a set time. This is all just MAD SPECULATION though on my part with the theory you're proposing. :)

Cloud computing, Folding@home-style. (It's probably a controller, but I hope it's something insane like that.)

Probably either Source 2 or Steam 2.

Follow the money.

@zelyre: I actually like this prediction as well...The circles could represent a platform rather than an OS and the final image would still make sense. I feel like Android is the easier (and boring) answer but for a partnership with Sony i think that would be a huge final announcement.

I think the controller will be included in the announcement but, i agree, i don't think alone it is "...and just one more thing" worthy.

I'm hoping for Source 2.0 or something along those lines. They can create something similar to the Unity Asset Store using Steam Workshop.

The idea that in the first two images the circle stood for Steam OS and that in the third image it's suddenly supposed mean something totally different (controller, Source 2 etc) isn't consistent with their own visual language. A language that so far has been pretty consistent. O=Steam OS. [O ] = Steam OS in a box. O+O= Steam OS + Steam OS.

The new part of the language is the '+' symbol. What does that mean in context of two steam OSs? Are they being combined? What is the result of two combined Steam OSs? Are they meant to be independent but connected? How are they connecting together and for what purpose?

In terms of the controller, the details of that thing have already been made public by the US Patent office. It seems weird that Valve's final 'announcement' would be something that's been available to view publicly for over a year.The controller itself sounds pretty cool actually. I especially like the trackball.

Wasn't someone quoted as saying that SteamOS was not just an operating system, but also a "cooperating system"? If that's the case, it may be that O+O isn't 2 SteamOS's, but SteamOS and some other OS. This is just my wild ass guess, but I'd think that would imply that the announcement could have something to do with some system for loading both SteamOS and Windows/OSX onto the same machine. Or it might have something to do with streaming stuff from your high(er) end PC running Windows to your Steam Machine running SteamOS.

Or it's something completely different, like "every Steam Machine comes with a complimentary Bowie knife", I don't know.

Well, to be fair, SteamOS and Steam Machines weren't really announcement worthy either considering how little they actually had to say about either.

@president_barackbar: i think SteamOS is a big deal but yeah, the Steam Machine announcement was a bit flat.

@bbalpert: I assume the "cooperating system" is implied by the streaming windows games functionality.

@renegadedoppelganger: I like the way you think! yer mu'friend. If there's something to @zelyre's theory of a partnership with Sony falls through ( O = platform, rather than OS ) the + added to the language could be that the PS4 controller will work mutually between the two platforms and THAT could be the input news rather than valve's own hardware...though i do like the idea of replacing the right analog stick with a trackball.

@labam89: Bingo! i agree with you, sir.

@milkman said:

Follow the money.

Clearly this is the only sane explanation.

But in all seriousness, OP's theory seems solid that it may be linked to another type of software. The only thing that makes me hesitate on that theory is that it seems kinda banal for the third and final reveal. You'd think they'd do something really cool.

Oh hey, another Valve teaser that isn't about Half-Life 3.

Personally I don't believe that Valve would partner themselves with Sony (of course I could be proven wrong, it's that kind of year). Sony is ramping up for all-out war with Microsoft in a few months and Valve still has a symbiotic (if tense) relationship with Windows and by extension MS.

Valve can't afford to be seen making big moves against MS when currently Steam is still largely Windows-based.

The third announcement is probably some sort of strategic partnership or compatibility deal to soothe early adopters. What that is remains to be seen. Seeing as it's the "final" announcement, I really hope it's something more significant than simply details on controller support or game sharing.

Tin foil hat time! Will there be a surprise fourth announcement? What is that thing in the planet? What's the deal with the cardboard theme? Why is it called the Steam Universe? That's kind of an odd title, right?

I legitimately have not been this excited about something PC gaming related in quite a long time. I am super super into the idea of Steam in the living room.

Valve definitely prefers Sony to MS at the moment. If only because Valve is scared of the potential of the Windows 8 app store. But Sony is still in the business of locking everything down and making sure every cent runs through them. Which is antithetical to the whole SteamOS thing.

This is what keeps my faith in HL3 alive. If the game was vaporware, Gabe wouldn't take such care laying it out like that. He could have laughed and said "No comment on Richochet 2", which would be the expected reply.

@renegadedoppelganger: The logic behind a Sony partnership is more of a war on DirectX, with AMD announcing their own API for their hardware and also DirectX having a history of "holding developers back" as AMD put it. It seems like moves are being made to phase out DirectX on the PC and if the industry standards (developers) favor a more open API then all console makers win out and Microsoft loses their stronghold on the market or are, at the very least, forced to "play fair".

I like to think the cardboard theme is an allegory to arts and crafts (this could be stretching it) which could imply the announcement of the Source 2 SDK being a free open source engine on the SteamOS platform. Personal arts and crafts representing "indie gaming" or "independent development".

@milkman: Okay that was pretty fucking funny.

My thinking was along the lines of either a controller or if they have multiple user accounts being able to sign in on one Steam Machine or SteamOS capable computer, ala Xbox Live.

I think it's a controller, because even on steam big picture mode there's still a need to have 3 items plugged in. A USB Mouse, Keyboard and Controller. I still don't feel confident with Steam OS third party overlay, just playing a simple game Droid Assault and it uses a weird pop up window to track your stats with their own servers.

Maybe a controller app for phones? Possibly to act as a sort of remote. Maybe even functionality to do something like stream to mobile device, or even tell it to download stuff properly. As that function does not work properly. At least for me it doesn't.

Did anyone say Space Boobs yet? Thats my guess. Space Boobs ( . )( . ) (. )(. ) ( . )( . ) ( .)( .)

It would be super anticlimactic if this was a controller. That's why I think it's going to be a controller. Then the next day they announce Half life 3.

I hope it's the divekick controller.

Came in here to post the same video. Whenever someone mentions the word symbology or symbolism I immediately think of it.