The WAN Show: STEAM deleted a game, NASA using Oculus, AMD Mantle delayed - Jan 3rd, 2014

The WAN Show episode from January 3rd, 2014 covers a broad slate of tech and gaming news, with Linus and Luke handling topics in a freewheeling, opinionated style. The opening segment establishes the show’s holiday timing, noting the absence of a guest and the fact that travel schedules prevented collaborations. The first major topic is Valve’s unprecedented action of removing a game from Steam, including removal from user libraries rather than just from the storefront, which sparks discussion about digital distribution, ownership, and platform control. The hosts pivot to a lighter note on eye tracking technology, highlighting SteelSeries’ collaboration to enable eye-tracking interfaces with computers, signaling a trend toward new input modalities beyond mouse and keyboard. They also cover NASA’s experiments using an Oculus Rift and Kinect to control a robotic arm, illustrating cross-industry adoption of VR and motion-tracking for research and robotics. A technical aside on USB power capabilities introduces the idea of USB delivering up to 100 watts, enabling power delivery to larger displays and peripherals directly from a standard USB port, which they contrast with Thunderbolt and discuss in the context of future peripherals. The show then thanks Hotspot Shield and Intel Rome 2 Total War promotions as part of their sponsorship segment, translating sponsor content into a seamless integration with the show’s flow. Linus critiques the complexity of YouTube’s platform behavior around monetization and syndication, noting how default settings can revert and how that affects content reach across devices. The hosts move into their first topical block, praising the charm of user-submitted content from the Linus Tech Tips Forum, including indie game projects and community-driven hardware hacks. They analyze a Pixel Proposal project that reinterprets a classic game with a personal twist, including discussions about the emotional resonance of simple retro games and the importance of storytelling in user-created content. An in-depth look at a Ness cartridge mod demonstrates the passion of hobbyists who customize hardware, from hex editing to name changes for a couple’s names on the game, underscoring the culture of DIY game modification and personal touch in retro gaming. The conversation returns to the forum post that introduced the Ness-based tribute, framing it as a heartwarming example of creative engineering and personal motivations behind a project. A playful banter about the couple’s Halloween portrait illustrates the show’s lighthearted vibe and camaraderie among the hosts. The eye-tracking segment is revisited with more detail, as the SteelSeries/Toby collaboration is discussed in terms of new interaction models for UI navigation, augmented reality, and gaming experiences, with emphasis on potential accessibility benefits for players who can be empowered by gaze-based control. The discussion explores practical demos including a StarCraft mini-map interaction and how eye-tracking could enable dynamic UI responses in real-time, potentially changing how players perceive attention and engagement in games. The hosts debate the challenges of implementing gaze-based interfaces, such as screen real estate, performance overhead, and the risk of over-reliance on a single input modality. They consider how eye-tracking could be used to augment traditional inputs rather than replace them, enabling smarter aiming or selection in fast-paced titles without dumbing down gameplay. There’s a broader reflection on how future games must be designed with eye-tracking in mind to realize meaningful benefits, including accessibility gains for players with physical limitations. The Galaxy Camera 2 is critiqued for perceived incremental improvements and for not incorporating compelling connected-phone features like calling, arguing the broader trend toward converging camera and smartphone capabilities rather than keeping them separate. The hosts analyze Samsung’s camera hardware choices, discussing optics, sensor performance, and the limits of making the Galaxy camera a viable standalone device versus a companion to a smartphone. They propose that a Galaxy Camera with integrated cellular connectivity and hardware-software synergy could have broadened appeal to photography enthusiasts who want independent camera hardware with mobile data access. The show also delves into general camera feature expectations such as 4K recording, which is noted as absent on the Galaxy Camera 2, with commentary about the importance of future-proofing devices as 4K becomes increasingly common on mobile devices. Viewers are invited to imagine how eye-tracking could influence mobile devices and around-the-screen interactions, broadening the scope beyond PC gaming to everyday computing and mobile use. As a closing round, the hosts return to ongoing tech conversations, including thoughts on how early eye-tracking and gesture interfaces may mature, the need for robust software ecosystems to support new hardware, and the importance of developer adoption for long-term viability. The program ends with a reminder to viewers about sponsor messages and how promotions tie into content, followed by a tease for topics to be covered in future WAN Shows. Overall, the episode blends hardware tinkering, game industry shifts, VR and eye-tracking tech previews, and fan-driven content, delivering a compact snapshot of 2014’s evolving tech landscape with a signature Linus style.

Topics · science_and_technology · gaming · technology_news · virtual_reality · hardware · digital_media · entrepreneurship