I guess it's also because they feel absolutely no pressure to do anything. As things are right now, Steam generates massive revenues for them (and profits since they remain a fairly small organization) so everything else looks like pocket money in comparison, especially anything hardware related.
Now they have no pockets to put todays money into for tomorrow.
Without SteamOS and Steam Machines we wouldn't have 3100 games with linux compatibility on steam so I would consider that a moderate success. For the remaining unsupported games using the windows steam client via wine works reasonably well because the client installs the missing libraries automatically.
But you're right they are certainly lacking in focus.
I could see it being useful like, on airplanes or something, but I don't think we're at a place yet socially where someone could wear a VR headset on a plane and not look like a weirdo/pervert.
To jump to "weirdo/pervert" is quite a leap. Consuming 2D video in a headset that fits correctly (the Go is not adjustable in width) is much more relaxing and reduces eye strain in my experience.
As another commenter posted this has a lot of potential as a media consumption device (movies, moving comic books, spatial data) outside of the immersion or 3D gimmicks.
While I will concede VR is still, at it's best, in to it's toddler years you should still give credit where credit is due.
The form factor and experience for the first standalone, wireless VR device is above par and raised the bar. The price point is, IMO, still too high for fast adoption but the experience is unparalleled and, dare I say, revolutionary in its space and makes me very excited to see where VR is going to _go_ (pun intended).
Also watching / listening to ASMR on the Oculus Go in bed is a very relaxing almost therapeutic experience.
Do they, or we, even want a single company to run the most popular game distribution service, the most popular gaming chat service, the most popular game streaming service, the most popular VR platform and the most popular gaming OS?
That sounds awful to me.
What's a competitor store that's caught up with Steam?
You heard right. They have quite a good setup: the Steam-style GOG Galaxy client is entirely optional, you can also download, install and run your games manually without hindrance.
Well done web site with lots of user reviews. They also have very cheap older games and regular freebies - they're such a nice seller that you feel like buying something more expensive (Witcher 3 at half-price was a good deal ;-)
Edit: they also have a 'connect your Steam account' feature that allows you to have some of your Steam library games added to you GOG library.
That said I think the Valve hating in this thread is... overblown? DOTA2 and CS:GO are some of the most played games period outside of Fortnite, LOL and PUBG. HN has been complaining about Valve not releasing a new game for years but why release a new game when you have multiple, popular, heavily played titles? All the complaints seem strange coming from a site where many of the users work for SaaS companies that don't follow a business model that requires releasing an entirely new product every year or two.
The Tyranny of Structurelessness
I don't think so. DXVK is extremely promising, as a way for running DX11's crap API on Vulkan.
Crap is having a 3D API and respective shader language stuck in a C world in 2018.
Instead of having to play "go fish" for libraries of various quality and support levels.
By the way, this applies to same productivity offered by Apple, Sony and Nintendo 3D APIs as well.
If you read the article properly, the only place where Vulkan is getting traction is on Linux.
Even on mobile space, Samsung and Google keep trying to advocate it, because being optional and with only Pixel and Samsung S devices having good support for Vulkan, no one is really bothering to use it, when considering targeting the widest user base.
https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/vulkansupport.php#android_devices
The Lab was released in 2016, Artifact recently went to beta.
They shipped SteamVR with HTC, which is cool! But you need a powerful PC, $800, and plenty of free space. There's no competition to the $200 Oculus Go.
I guess the flat management structure isn't all that its cracked up to be.