Apple's Phil Schiller Explains Why Valve's Steam Link App Was Rejected

[fairuz]

I said gaming industry, not one company. It was $108.4 Billion in 2017. And I was replying to a poster with zero interest in gaming implying gaming was a minor nothing company. Do give you a sense of Gaming's place in the entertainment industry, the entire National Basketball Association makes about $5 billion a year. Last year, the entire Music Recording industry including all streaming services, CDs, downloads, etc was $8.4 billion.

This is a huge deal for Apple.

Well we're talking about Apple vs Steam and who makes more, and it's Apple by a huge margin, even just looking at the App Store. If it's about Apple vs PC/serious gaming, PC gaming and baseball are both niche. Anyone who thinks the average person cares about non-mobile video games is either in high school or one of the nerdy college dorms I was in.

 

[cube]

My friends play most of these games fine on their Mac desktops. With eGPUs in play now, even a MBP can play anything using an RX580.

You can play quite nice games on a TB1 MBP + $200 box + $110 75W card.

 

[Delta-NC]

Deleted.

 

[DevNull0]

To run most modern AAA title at decent video quality you needs seriously powerful hardware far beyond *anything* Apple currently sells.

My friends play most of these games fine on their Mac desktops. With eGPUs in play now, even a MBP can play anything using an RX580.

Either you're lying about them playing the games, or they are turning the quality settings way down, in which case your point is irrelevant. This App is just for people with the gaming hardware to run in high quality who want the high quality experience on the Apple TV and iOS devices. And your last point about the eGPU implies you do know why people use these expensive cards, which leads me to believe your first part about running them on the Macs anyway is just arguing for the sake of arguing.

 

[fairuz]

Either you're lying about them playing the games, or they are turning the quality settings way down, in which case your point is irrelevant. This App is just for people with the gaming hardware to run in high quality who want the high quality experience on the Apple TV and iOS devices. And your last point about the eGPU implies you do know why people use these expensive cards, which leads me to believe your first part about running them on the Macs anyway is just arguing for the sake of arguing.

If you want to call me a liar, I don't know what I can say other than sending you videos of them playing games, but they do it. Usually high settings on 1080 or 2K resolution, and Steam Link only does 1080p anyway. I've been hearing the same nonsense about "no Mac can ever play this game" since 2008, always to be proven wrong. It's just that it's a lot cheaper to build a PC if that's what you want it for. Edit: Actually, you can just check the recommended specs for some current games if you don't believe me. CoD WWII for example.

I mentioned the eGPU for use with a laptop cause ofc the MBP by itself won't play much. You don't need that with a high-end iMac.

 

[charlituna]

I’m glad Apple responded to this and are working to bring the app to iOS/tvOS.

The ridiculous comments from, it would seem, Apple fanboys, or at least non gamers, about customers buying from Steam exclusively are quite deluded and unrealistic.

I don't pay for HBO, Hulu or Netflix via those apps and Apple hasn't cut those. so bypassing Apple getting their cut is unlikely to be an issue. proper sandboxing, memory usage etc is more likely. the only thing about purchasing they might have an issue with is the compatibility with restrictions

 

[ersan191]

You can stream a game while someone else is using the PC. I think it must have two GPUs (quite common with many CPUs).

Also, someone may want to play casually elsewhere in the home even if the PC is free.

This is incorrect - you cannot use the PC while streaming a game, at least not without extra modifications and major inconveniences.
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Ways to still play till resolved

1. (Best) Use an android phone

2. Use teamviewer installed on pc and iphone

3. Use moonlight, since it probably works better than Steam IHS anyway.
[doublepost=1527386655][/doublepost]

Apple could buy Steam with today’s sales.

Some of you have no concept of business. Sure, Apple would like to have the app available, but acting like this is some monumental decision point is just absurd. In the end, it was Apple that walked away.

Apple can't buy Steam at all, since Valve is a private company and Gabe has no interest in selling it. The original post is obviously absurd, though.

 

[cube]

This is incorrect - you cannot use the PC while streaming a game, at least not without extra modifications and major inconveniences.

It is not incorrect. You need to do the proper setup. If you're lazy, it's your fault.

 

[ipponrg]

Apple needs Steam because it might help them gain traction among gamers. I don't own an Apple TV and have no interest in one. But Steam alone make Apple TV a lot more interesting.

Just playing devil's advocate here.

I don't think Apple really cares about Steam nor "needs" them for their ecosystem considering they won't bend the rules for them. If anything, it just helps each company make a little more money. Apple gets more for doing less though.

 

[buklauu]

OK, he said something but in the end he didn't say anything.

Yeah, I think a better title for this article is "Apple's Phil Schiller Talks About Valve's Rejected Steam Link App"

 

[groadyho]

Nope, I’ve only been drinking. Much different and much more legal.

Edit: It was also a horrible analogy.

That depends on what state you live in. Imvho being high in Colorado trumps drinking by far and it is legal.
[doublepost=1527388878][/doublepost]

There’s a reason why the iOS App Store takes in more revenue than android despite its smaller market share.

Apple has the best customers. The iOS App Store represents an extremely lucrative market for Steam (arguably even moreso than android) and I believe being banned from it would be quite financially damaging to Steam.

They both need each other, though Apple is in a position of greater leverage and is thus able to dictate terms to Steam (within reason of course).

And dictate terms Apple will.

Ummmm No! Apple just charges for most everything. Many apps at Play store are free.

 

[alvindarkness]

I dont know what the hell Phil is saying exactly, but if his nonsense message in any way suggests Steam have to modify their content to pass the app through Apple's evaluation process, then Valve should just quit devloping for iOS now and not bother. There were suggestions the other day that Valve were pulling some raunchy content due to this iOS acceptance saga. The last thing any Steam user would want is their content being controlled in any backhanded way by Apple. Imagine how medioce things would become. Not worth it. Easier to just purchase a real SteamLink device or go Android.

 

[roguevoice]

This is not Apple's first Rodeo. They have rejected apps way more powerful than Steam link and brought companies to their knees. OnLive and LiqiudSky were victims. OnLive wnt bankrupt and finally got purchased by Sony to become PlayStation Now. LiquidSky may suffer the same fate soon or worse. Another, Blade Shadow service just arrived and probably won't have a chance either. yes, these are a little different than SteamLink and offer a full PC experience in the cloud, but they have not been able to get into the iOS App Store.

 

[GizmoDVD]

Why don’t all these people just buy Steam Links If they want to play so badly on their TVs?

 

[macfacts]

You can play 32bit games with Steam. Apple hates that.

 

[Millah]

Apple need Steam but Steam don't need Apple. Tread carefully Apple.

Apple survived many years without Steam. In fact, their “hey day” was prior to Steam ever coming to Mac. So I’m not so sure about that. The iOS user base far outnumbers the Steam user base.

Does it make Apple look bad and petty? Yes it does, and to a market segment that already thinks Apple is petty (gamers). But if it genuinely violates one of the guidelines, then they have to do this simply for the integrity of the guidelines. Agree with the guidelines or not, but it’s the one thing that separates iOS from Android in terms of security/scams/stability.

I’d be willing to bet that Steam will remove whatever violates guidelines, and the app will relaunch with intended functionality intact. You probably won’t be able to buy from Steam within the app, but you’ll be able to stream games, which is the intended function.

 

[Rogifan]

That's not true. Apple music is baked into HomePod where you dont need another iOS device to "stream" to it. If you want to play spotify, you have to use your phone or another iOS device and use airplay.

How do you subscribe to Apple Music without having another Apple device?

 

[bladerunner2000]

Why does Valve even bother with Apple? Macs are absolute garbage for gaming with their lousy GPUs. Who's even buying Mac compatible games? Is there much of a thrill to play with low resolution, low frame rate games from years ago?

 

[Michael Goff]

How do you subscribe to Apple Music without having another Apple device?

Can’t you subscribe to Apple Music from iTunes or Apple Music on Android?

 

[Regime2008]

And I sometimes wonder if you just oppose Apple for the sake of opposing Apple.

The whole point of steam link is to let you stream games to your device without needing to play it on a PC.

Specs don’t really matter because the processing is all done on their end. All you really need is a good internet connection. As it is, you are able to game comfortably on a 2008 MacBook. That’s the whole point. To bring games to devices that otherwise could not support them, like the Apple TV and iPad.

And this would very well be the killer app for the Apple TV to kill all other gaming apps. Steam knows this, Apple knows this, and I don’t blame Apple for erring on the side of caution here. As they should with anything potentially disruptive to their platform.

The Apple market would be deemed more valuable because Apple users by and large have a higher propensity to spend and would thus be more profitable compared to Android, despite its smaller market share.

I kind of figured you had no clue what steam/steam link are, but you made it quite clear that you don't from your post. I rest my case. I understand that you deeply love Apple, but Android users, and pretty much the rest of the world outside of the restricted ecosystem, would benefit from steam, millions of times more than Apple could ever dream of. Broaden your horizon some, and maybe you will realize why so many users call you out on your posts.

 

[MacHead84]

Bottom line is Apple doesn’t get anything out of the Steam Link so they reject it anyway.
...and by „anything“ I mean constant flow of money trough in app purchases.

 

[Wackery]

Phil once again showing us his courage...

it's like apple needs to be scared into innovation

 

[Regime2008]

Why does Valve even bother with Apple? Macs are absolute garbage for gaming with their lousy GPUs. Who's even buying Mac compatible games? Is there much of a thrill to play with low resolution, low frame rate games from years ago?

I don't get why there are so many who got https for the steam link, without realizing many of their Macs are garbage for gaming. Even console gaming sounds better than having to lower resolution, textures, effects, etc to a minimum, while hoping for a stable frame rate.

 

[Michael Goff]

I kind of figured you had no clue what steam/steam link are, but you made it quite clear that you don't from your post. I rest my case. I understand that you deeply love Apple, but Android users, and pretty much the rest of the world outside of the restricted ecosystem, would benefit from steam, millions of times more than Apple could ever dream of. Broaden your horizon some, and maybe you will realize why so many users call you out on your posts.

Steam is a crap store and you should know it.

 

[Regime2008]

Steam is a crap store and you should know it.

Steam is miles and miles better than Xbox live, PlayStation Network, Origin, etc. Unless you forgot the "/S" at the end of your post, then you are utterly incorrect.