Tesla Appears To Be Losing Steam—Gaming, That Is

Tesla’s been downsizing a lot lately — future models, features, pricing, safety, and jobs have all seen some cuts at the EV automaker Well, if you're a gamer who recently purchased a Model S or Model X, sorry, but access to your Steam account is now kaput.

According to Electrek, upon delivery, new owners received a message stating that the in-vehicle gaming computer was "no longer capable of playing Steam games." Tesla further specified that the software update affected only Steam content, and no other entertainment-related apps and features were changed. Steam, for those unawares, is a massive video game storefront and distribution platform.

Tesla introduced Steam Beta in late 2022, and the native app was a compelling add-on. In the 15 minutes it takes to reach an 80-percent state of charge via a Supercharger station, why not access nearly 30,000 games via the Steam platform? Longer wait time at a slower charger? Yay! More games!

Here's a sizzle reel from when the idea was fresh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEhBzX-6FjA

For now, the takeaway appears to only involve new sales of the Model S and Model X. The Verge reports that current owners have yet to receive a similar notification. Other vehicles, like the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck, never had the Steam gaming client to begin with. There is no indication as to why Steam is being removed. But with all the tracking software, maybe owners were underutilizing the platform. Besides, Tesla's been under fire for allowing gameplay while driving, so why not have one less thing to get in trouble with the feds for? Tesla infotainment already enables streaming of Hulu, Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube. If you can't play the game, you can always watch a pro play it. Or, like everything that involves a computer chip, there's always a hacker for that.