A digital distribution service owned by Valve Corporation. Originally created to distribute Valve's own games, Steam has since become the de facto standard for digital distribution of PC games.
@porjos: I'll never get tired of all the crazy people that get immediately, and crazily defensive whenever anyone says they're worried about the direction Valve is taking. Carry on, dude, you're hilarious.
My pride has no corporate stake. Valve is a company, and that's that. I'm a consumer first, looking out for my best interests. I don't take issue with any beef against Valve, I take issue to worthless comments posed at legitimate opinions.
Then again, I'm responding to you, so you have won 'time'. For that, I applaud you.
Also, the beta updated with "preparations for upcoming features" or something.. i think more news about the family sharing will be released as part of this thing
@believer258: I don't think they'll abandon the install base they have in the other OS so I'm pretty sure they won't just be making a Linux exclusive version of the games but from what I've read of the articles they are just helping with the process of other developers being able to create versions that are also compatible with Linux by creating a debugger, etc.
@jagehtso: probably, but MAN. can you even imagine that? If PS4 had steam support it would be untouchable. But, that would kind of cut into Sonys pie a bit and I can't imagine they would go for that (and especially not Microsoft.) that would no doubt push consoles though but at the same time would probably really hinder software sales.
I mean... they're releasing they're own version of the LINUX kernal. I can just see that... if they were able to develop a version of the OS that is more compatible with games traditionally made for a windows environment than...
That'd be interesting. Linux + their own custom WINE. That would let them ensure driver and game compatibility.
I as a PC player and enthusiast, owe this company the recent resurrection of popularity for the platform and the consequent developers' willingness to develop for it and port to it. And therefore I wish this company luck in all their new projects.
With that being said, I'm very disappointed that their new direction and focus has nothing to do with me as a traditional PC player using a mouse and keyboard, gaming on a desk with a gaming monitor.
Valve has become more and more irrelevant to me over the past few years, with their Big Picture, Dota, TF2 hats and Steam trading systems, and now this Steam console..
I hope soon they'll do something that involves me as a traditional player and consumer. Gabe Newell turned from an interesting PC visionary to a dude who talks about boring irrelevant shit that will make him more money, nothing but streamlining and increased accessibility bullshit.
If it is the SteamBox I just don't get the excitement. A lot of us already have SteamBoxes...our gaming PCs. Regardless there is no way it would ever stop me from buying a Xbox One or PS4 or vice versa (having a next gen console would never stop me from having a gaming PC).
I wonder if this is a console crowd target to increase Steam's reach, or the first step in transition to its own platform... or both? There will be some, but I just don't see that many Windows, Mac or Linux based Steam users buying this. And Valve has to sell those non-PC gamers on an incredibly closed system with a very restrictive DRM policy.
The sales will help I'm sure, but a lot of people (including myself) want many games we look forward to the minute they're available. And in that regard, Steam is absolutely no different than any other platform. Except that if you're play on a console, you can sell your copy of GTA5 when you're done and get some credits towards another investment.
@jagehtso: This would absolutely destroy a competitor. If I could hypothetically get all of my Steam games on either the Xbox One or the PS4 I would choose the one with Steam. The other company would be destroyed in the market.
Finally, Valve is going to make Counterstrike 2. Also, I just bought a PC that is basically a Steam box with Giant Bomb video and streaming added on. Everything else I do on my Macbook.
taking a guess its something that we've all been wanting for a long time, and it won't be a big thing at all, and it will be buggy at launch, and its not going to be a big deal at all. the way they are going to announce it will be a bigger deal than the thing itself. Bringing Steam to the living room isn't Steam's biggest weakness at the moment.
taking a guess its something that we've all been wanting for a long time, and it won't be a big thing at all, and it will be buggy at launch, and its not going to be a big deal at all. the way they are going to announce it will be a bigger deal than the thing itself. Bringing Steam to the living room isn't Steam's biggest weakness at the moment.
I would be really interested to know why people are excited about a potential steam box. Personally I just can't envision it being all that cool, even if it ends up being a fully fledged console and not just some streaming solution.
As a guy who had his gaming PC hooked up exclusively to their TV for years (until last month), why doesn't Valve make Big Picture Mode a worthwhile feature before they move on to other "living room" initiatives? BPM was a cool add-on that I tried a couple of times before just using the regular Steam client again.
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