At CES 2022, Alienware unveiled Idea Nyx, a sport streaming platform that lets a family of avid gamers stream video games to a number of TVs concurrently from a single, highly effective gaming PC. At-home streaming from a PC is not a brand new idea (opens in new tab), although Alienware is seeking to streamline the expertise, beginning with the controller.
I truly acquired my fingers on a Idea Nyx sport controller at a latest Alienware occasion. Whereas I did not play any video games, I did get to play with most of the controller’s options.
The very first thing you discover in regards to the Nyx controller is that as a substitute of a correct d-pad, it is acquired a round touchpad that acts as a mouse for navigating in-game menus for titles historically meant for a keyboard and mouse. Actually, one of many pre-recorded gameplay demos I used to be proven had the touchpad mapped to expertise in Guild Wars 2. I’d have liked to see this in motion for myself since touchpads could be a bit finicky once they act as buttons and never for motion. I am you, Steam controller. (opens in new tab)
A lot of the demo was primarily spent tooling round with the controller’s options and studying about its position within the sport streaming ecosystem of Nyx. Consider the controller as your corridor go for accessing your video games on any TV in the home. You could possibly stroll into any room with the Nyx app put in on the TV, which instantly pulls up your gaming profile. The Alienware emblem on the middle is a thumbprint reader that identifies you, hundreds up your sport library, and even resumes your progress. The thought is that for those who’ve been kicked off the TV for no matter motive, you may merely decide up the place you left off in a unique room.
My favourite controller function is the ‘self-adjusting variable resistance thumb sticks.’ This implies you may alter the thumbstick stress on the fly with out opening the controller or utilizing a software. Along with the thumbsticks setting, you may customise these controllers’ haptics on a per-game foundation. All that is managed by two scroll wheels positioned on the backside of the controller. No software program is required.
A number of Nyx customers may even share the display to play two fully totally different video games concurrently side-by-side so long as they’ve two Nyx controllers. It is one thing that sounds cool in idea however could possibly be distracting until you are sporting a large TV in your lounge.
In a press launch, Dell and Alienware hope in lower than a decade to make use of the computing energy of Idea Nyx outdoors of gaming for blended actuality experiences and “digital collaborative areas” that function “shows and different instruments that take away the necessity for a VR headset.”
In fact, the oldsters at Alienware reiterated that it is a idea, and there aren’t any plans for Idea Nyx to hit the market anytime quickly. The best way it was defined, it just about needed to see what number of “dream options” could possibly be squeezed right into a prototype. Nonetheless, I would think about if a controller like this had been ever bought, it would not be low-cost.
The corporate isn’t any stranger to exhibiting off wild ideas to the general public that appear like they’d have business potential, solely by no means to be heard from once more, like its model of the Steam Deck, Idea UFO (opens in new tab), a number of years in the past at CES.
