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Steam's Big Picture Mode Launches in Beta Today

The big step towards making the PC experience in the living room way better.

We seem to be talking about Valve quite a bit these days, huh? In addition to sparking speculation with a job posting for an industrial engineer, launching an indie-focused marketplace embroiled in controversy over a $100 requirement for entry, Valve’s also about to launch Big Picture on Steam.

Big Picture isn’t a new idea. In fact, Valve’s been discussing it since 2011, but only now are we finally seeing what the company has been working on for all that time.

If you’ve listened to the Bombcast in the past year, you know a few of us have started moving our PCs into the living room, realizing even the poorest of PC ports of today’s console games tend to run much better than the discs spinning in our aging TV-rooted hardware. Steam’s current interface isn’t designed to cater to this, though, and Big Picture should hopefully go a long way towards making it more elegant.

Though Big Picture is compatible with a keyboard and mouse, it’s primarily engineered to make using a controller a more pleasant experience. Steam’s web browser has been appropriately tweaked, and Valve’s made some surprising input innovations to make a controller easier to type with.

Big Picture’s beta goes live on Steam later today for PC users, and a Mac version is “coming soon.”

Patrick Klepek on Google+

160 Comments

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miva2

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Edited By miva2

@Oi_Blimey:

The oroginal Killzone for ps2 had a similar input system. I thought it was really great but haven't seen anyone else use it.

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Cirdain

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Edited By Cirdain

@selbie said:

@Cirdain said:

Daisywheel.... arrcgggghhhhhhhhhh. That's so damn clever.

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Gabey, Gabey, Give me your answer do, Why so crazy, I spend all my money on you!

That... That was pretty good.

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Majkiboy

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Edited By Majkiboy

@RuthLoose said:

@Majkiboy said:

@John1912 said:

@moomoomashoo said:

@John1912 said:

@moomoomashoo said:

Please tell me this includes the ability to start a game on my second screen by default... If so, this is perfection.

If your using two screens for you pc You can extend the displays. Chose which one is the main display IE screen 2. Or swap which position they are in under screen resolution.

Yeah I know, I have a laptop hooked up to me TV. I know I can start fiddling and make it work, but it would be pretty dandy if I didn't have to.

Not really fiddling if it takes 3 secs.

There is no fiddling. Press "Windows + P" until desired display shows up :)

"Every real PC gamer disabled their Windows key back in '95." -Hardcore Dave

Was trying to be helpfull. And the key combination is not used when you are in a game. It is just for the setup of the displays. Very easy, no hassle. Also, if the Windows key will be removed on future keyboards (as indications are right now), something just as easy or easier will replace it.

Even though you tried to make a humorous remark on my comment I felt that I had to make a serious reply since it might actually help people wanting this easy functionality.

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RuthLoose

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Edited By RuthLoose

@Majkiboy: I was merely implying how annoyingly placed the Windows Key is for power gamers reaching for Alt or Control instead. Accidentally hitting it in Diablo II, only to find yourself dead upon relaunching the application window nearly drove me up a wall the first couple times it happened.

The thing that blows me away is how difficult it is to disable the Windows key in Windows 7. Instead of having an option in Control Panel, Microsoft would rather you download an applet that disable the registry item governing the key's use. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216893

Silly.

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Edited By Humanity

I just tried this and holy shit is it good. I can't believe how much better it is than both the XMB and the Dashboard combined. Everything is right there, big, easy to read and navigate. I was always shocked how confusing and stupid both the PS3 and 360 interfaces were and this is so simple and elegant. I'm not often blown away by something, but this really just shocked me with how it delivered on all gaming needs. I wasn't ready before, but at this point just bring it on, give me the Steam console whatever - it is now more obvious than ever before that the Steam guys know what they're doing while Sony and Microsoft are just stumbling in the dark.

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striderno9

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Edited By striderno9

Big Picture Quick Look!

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Sanity

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Edited By Sanity

After using it for a few days i really like it, will be using it for all my controller enabled games on steam i think.

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Edited By gametrkr

The interface is really snazzy and slick. I just wish they would overhaul the main interface, its so clunky and old.

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Sploder

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Edited By Sploder

The thing I got most excited about was the controller typing interface. Why has nobody thought of that before? It's fucking great!

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Majkiboy

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Edited By Majkiboy

@RuthLoose said:

@Majkiboy: I was merely implying how annoyingly placed the Windows Key is for power gamers reaching for Alt or Control instead. Accidentally hitting it in Diablo II, only to find yourself dead upon relaunching the application window nearly drove me up a wall the first couple times it happened.

The thing that blows me away is how difficult it is to disable the Windows key in Windows 7. Instead of having an option in Control Panel, Microsoft would rather you download an applet that disable the registry item governing the key's use. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216893

Silly.

I don't think that I really had that problem in W7, maybe it is because I usually tab out alot anyways hehe. But yeah I remember the days when I couldn't play in windowed fullscreen! Hitting the Windows key would fuck everything up :( So I do understand why people want to disable it.