The Steam Link saga has been … something else. Valve teased the fact that they were doing a mobile app for Steam Link functionality, and a couple days later we had a full hands-on preview detailing just how absurdly great it worked, to the point of being almost magical. Unfortunately, like all nice things on the App Store (including but not limited to the TouchArcade app), Apple quickly rejected it, leaving many mobile fans wondering what the heck that meant for the fate of the app. Last week Valve removed the ability to purchase things from the Steam Link app TestFlight, but it remains to be seen if that’s enough to placate the App Store approval gods or not. In the meantime, you can just buy the actual physical Steam Link hardware for $2.50 right now. It’s heavily discounted for the Steam summer sale, and when I ordered one with shipping and tax and everything it came to right around $11 out the door.
I know, I know, it’s one more set top box demanding a HDMI port and I’m sure you’ve already got things like consoles, BluRay players, Apple TV’s, and similar crowding up all that real estate in your home theater setup… But, you have the option to pick one of these up for super cheap and never need to worry about whether or not Apple approves the app. If you don’t already have a controller, on the same page you can order a bundle that includes the Steam Link and Steam Controller for $34.19, which also isn’t too shabby.
You don’t need the Steam controller though, as the Steam Link supports a ton of controllers you might already have including, oddly enough, the Wii U Pro controller. Using non-Steam controllers requires a bit more tweaking and fiddling around (i.e. by default the Wii U controller buttons are mapped weird) but there’s guides for absolutely everything that you can find with a bit of Googling.
As I mentioned in my preview the iOS Steam Link app works fantastic, but if you live in an urban area where the WiFi spectrum is super overloaded, there’s some logic in picking up one of these Steam Link boxes instead as you’ll be able to directly wire it into your network via Ethernet. This is also true for the Apple TV of course, but if you don’t have one of those yet you’re looking at a Steam Link for $11 shipped versus an Apple TV for anywhere between $150 and $200 depending on which model you opt for.
If you miss this particular Steam Link sale, it’s probably not that huge of a deal. It’s on sale with practically every major Steam sale, and has even been as cheap as $1. Or, if you can find one in store, Game Stop has them for $10, which will likely end up costing you about the same out the door as just ordering from Valve once you add in tax, gas, your time to get it, etc.
