Steam Faces a New Dev. Friendly Competitor
If you've been watching the news flow this week, you've probably seen that game developers are a bit up in arms about the latest changes to the Steam store. It doesn't necessarily affect gamers directly, but it does have an impact on the types of indie games and the availability of them in the future.
Steam had decided to now implement a tiered system for game revenue, which were already a bit steep. On average, you are looking at Steam taking up to 30% of the earnings, with the percentage dropping off after doing millions of dollars in sales. Naturally, this impacts the small developer's wallet since they are paying more and making less than the more successful game developers.
Enter Epic Games.
The unstoppable monster behind Fortnite is going head to head with Steam and making a gaming store that is developer friendly. Not to mention, they put emphasis on connecting the developer with the gamers more than anything.
Epic's game store will only take 12% of all revenue, a total flat rate. If that wasn't generous enough, they are also going to eat the royalty for using their Unreal Engine. That will come out of their 12% cut.
As it stands, Epic has hand-selected the first games that will be available in the store but they are keeping that a highly guarded secret.
We will know more about the launch in the coming days!
Developers and Gamers alike might want to see the huge upside list found here on the Unreal Engine page:
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/announcing-the-epic-games-store
Speaking of Steam...
Steam Link Revived with Pi
The production of the Steam Link from Valve has stopped and the supply is almost gone, but for those people that haven't purchased one, you aren't out of luck!
The Steam Link is a streaming box used to Stream your games from your PC directly to your tv, and also utilizes a controller connection. The good news is that if you own a Raspberry Pi, you will have no problem making your own!
The Pi serves so many purposes, especially for the casual gamer on a budget. If you have a Pi 3 or 3B +, the Steam Link app is now available for beta! The only thing you have to check is that you are running the proper OS (stretch), which has been standard since 2017, input a couple lines of code, and you're ready to emerge from the gaming cave!
And game! In other parts of your house!
Oh, and the best part? It will set you back a cool $38 USD and does a lot more than just the standalone Steam Link.
Audio AR Coming from Bose
Augmented and Virtual Reality has become pretty big buzz words in the gaming sphere, but a lot of the concepts just aren't catching.
However, there is one thing that will always sell when it comes to enjoying the gaming experience, and that is audio. From Haptic Feedback headsets to wearable sound bars, when it comes to the audiophile there is no limit.
And now, you can enjoy Augmented Reality Audio in a pair... of sunglasses. Yes, sunglasses.
Bose is working on a pair of "audio augmented reality" glasses that uses small speakers that are practically silent to those around you, and project sounds right into your ears. Which means you can still hear what is going on around you without disturbing anyone else!
It works using GPS and a nine-point axis/ directional sensor that knows exactly where you are looking. The demo features giving you pertinent information based on your location, things you are passing, and even things around you. This headset can be adapted for use in so many things, that it is a very exciting development.
Utilizing these glasses while gaming will allow you to know where targets are, side quests, and even enemies or teammates based on where you are looking. This could improve the gaming experience for those that don't enjoy the disorientation of VR.
This could even be used to include blind gamers while using the audio cues in development for many games already on the market!
Here is their brief promo video:
I just want to be able to "look" at certain sounds in layered music and focus on the specific instrument. I am sure that will be available, too!
Are there any pieces of news you are excited about? Are there other interesting pieces of news you've seen this week? Let me know below!
Stay tuned for more similar content and e-sports!!
Have a fantastic day,
@SammoSK
Comments