Elon Musk wants to offer more and more video games to owners of a Tesla car. He is therefore thinking of integrating the Steam library to accelerate the development of this feature.
When you navigate through the interface of a Tesla car, you quickly realize that the manufacturer has thought of many features that you are not used to seeing elsewhere. Among them, there is the Arcade tab, which provides access to video games, directly displayed on the big screen. And we’re not just talking about little experiences at the 2048 : today, we can play a demanding title like Cuphead aboard a Tesla (vehicle stationary).
The multinational obviously wants to go further in the field of gaming. It intends to offer a real gaming platform, that is to say with a substantial catalog. It is undoubtedly for this reason that Elon Musk evoked the integration of Steam, on the occasion ofa tweet posted on February 22. He indicates : ” We are working on compatibility of Steam games in Tesla rather than the integration of specific games, one by one. The first option is where we should be long term. »
Steam soon in the Tesla?
Tesla would be right to turn to Steam to offer more video games to owners – as it did for music with Spotify or for films and series with Netflix. Valve’s platform, which has been in place for ages, concentrates several thousand games in one place. This would be a quick way to increase the library, rather than adding titles one by one through regular updates.
Can we believe it? Yes, because Tesla cars are like computers on wheels. The most recent models are equipped with AMD chips with Ryzen architecture. The Model S and Model X squarely promise power comparable to that of the PlayStation 5 – enough to run games, even graphically demanding ones, without any problem. However, there are still some issues to work around as they stand: where will the games be stored if they need to be installed (it might be enough to plug an SSD into one of the USB ports)? And how to access Steam without a compatible operating system? There would be the streaming option, but you need a PC to connect to and that would be a pitfall in terms of data consumption (outside the home). No fear on the other hand for ergonomics, since it is enough to connect a joystick.
We feel in any case the ambition of Tesla to want to offer a maximum of sources of entertainment in the cabin to meet the needs of tomorrow. When cars are 100% autonomous, if they ever are, passengers will have to be kept busy and video games seem relevant for a very long journey. Or to keep busy while charging. The Steam catalog would add this notion of diversity to satisfy everyone. It is also possible to consider other hypotheses, such as a rapprochement with Microsoft (Game Pass), Google (Stadia, but it would only be streaming) or Sony (PlayStation). The hardware is ready, it now remains to manage the software part.