On Tuesday evening, Valve Software used a forum in the Steam games-store app to announce a delay, though for once, it wasn't for an internally developed video game. Instead, the company slapped a "when it's done" sticker on its Steam Machine living-room PC project, which has now been bumped to "a release window of 2015, not 2014."
Valve staffer Eric Hope posted the bad news on the Steam Universe group's announcements page, and it was the company's first official Steam Machine update since a mid-March news item detailed the addition of buttons and a d-pad to the PC project's peculiar controller. Tuesday's brief update centered primarily on that controller, describing a series of "live playtests" on its current, wireless incarnation. Those tests resulted in a lot of constructive feedback, Hope said, but "it's also keeping us pretty busy making all those improvements."
The image attached to the post shows a messy sketch of the Steam Machine's controller with no major changes to its design. At this point, we can only speculate that the feedback Hope mentioned has to do with its circular touchpads. During our playtests with Steam Machine controllers at this year's Game Developers Conference, those elements notably proved difficult to maneuver.
Valve is only one of 14 companies set to produce Steam Machines, and today's announcement doesn't mention whether the other producers will delay in kind to pair the hardware with its intended controller, or if they'll forge ahead with standard keyboards and mice. This is Valve's first project delay announcement in years, as the company has otherwise avoided attaching far-off release windows to its projects (presumably to avoid recreating the pains fans suffered over lengthy delays in the Half-Life series).
