The Steam Universe is Expanding in 2014...

[kimplix]

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/

First Announcement (SteamOS): http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

 

 

 

The Steam Universe is Expanding in 2014

 

Last year, we shipped a software feature called Big Picture, a user-interface tailored for televisions and gamepads.

This year we’ve been working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room.
Soon, we’ll be adding you to our design process, so that you can help us shape the future of Steam.

 

In conclusion: 2014 is going to be fantastic for gamer alike

 

Discuss...

Edited September 23, 2013 by kimplix

[Chaos Warp]

Does anyone else smell a Steambox.................?

[MamboCat]

*scrolls down*

 

Free cat with every purchase?!

[Mr Useful]

Does anyone else smell a Steambox.................?

They already announced that though. 

 

I'd buy a steambox mostly because it would be stronger than my desktop.

Edited September 20, 2013 by Dom

[Chaos Warp]

They already announced that though. 

 

I'd buy a steambox mostly because it would be stronger than my desktop.

When?

[Mr Useful]

http://www.ign.com/wikis/steam/Steam_Box

[VGamer]

As a person who can't really afford a PC and doesn't really want to buy one specifically for gaming, the steambox is big news to me. Really looking forward to it.

[JezMM]

Interesting to see where this goes.  The three circles clearly have unique icons, whatever they mean.

 

 

 

EDIT: My bro pointed out to me that they are unveiling in 3 days and there are 3 things to unveil.

 

Valve I hate love hate love I don't even fucking know anymore you.

Edited September 21, 2013 by JezMM

[Frogging101]

I have mixed feelings about this. The console market is an extremely competitive place. I worry that Valve will have to undermine their modus operandi (and possibly throw their fans and customers under the bus in the process) in order to keep up. Seeing as they pretty much have a monopoly on the modern PC game market, them adopting a business model that puts money before customers would be a very bad thing for PC gamers.

[w00tkins]

Group-chat compatibility with Big Picture mode? *crosses fingers*

[Autosaver]

Tabs in the Steam interface?

It's 2013 Valve...

[PaddyFancy]

A Steam box sounds interesting but I'm worried it'll cost a fortune, and that it would be cheaper to build your own gaming PC after all.

[JezMM]

My only fear with the Steam Box is how much OLD games will be able to adapt, whether companies will care to etc.  As a small example, BioShock 1 has the console game's controller-friendly quick-weapon-select menu, but BioShock 2 does not.  Even in Big Picture Mode there are minor problems - for example as I discovered when testing out my new PC when it was disconnected from the internet and plugged into my TV because I only have one monitor...  Playing Left 4 Dead disconnected to the internet sometimes brings up a pop-up in-game to say Steam Cloud is not avaliable.  You cannot dismiss the pop-up with anything other than clicking OK or pushing enter - no controller input was effective.  Had to move my keyboard from the old PC to the new one and plug it in just to play.

 

For a Steam Box to be a viable standalone console, issues like this in existing games would have to be diligently stamped out.

Edited September 21, 2013 by JezMM

[kimplix]

Only 5 hours till the first announcement from Steam. I wonder what's it going to be (Doubt HL3 yet. It may come, but for a future announcement of the 3)

[Candescence]

I guess I could make a few guesses on what the announcements could be. The theme of these announcements are concerning Steam in the living room, so...

 

- A whole new type of controller. Valve has actually been working on a new type of controller design with the aim of getting a controller that can have the best of both gamepads and keyboard+mouse.

- A gaming-based distro for Linux - possible, and it would definitely be a way of providing an open OS for the Steambox concept and a unified Linux distro that developers can focus on supporting.

- Steambox stuff? Keep in mind that Steambox isn't so much a single piece of hardware but rather a 'concept'. Apparently, while it could qualify as one, Valve has stated that the Piston is not an 'official' Steambox.

 

There's other ideas swimming in my head, but those are mostly rather unlikely.

[Chaos Warp]

13 minutes left......

[Badnik Mechanic]

Well just over 2 min to go before Gabe makes many gaming forums crash with people rushing to post the same thing.

[Chaos Warp]

STEAM OS CONFIRMED

[Badnik Mechanic]

OH HECK! OS! Steam OS!

 

WHAT Does this mean?

[Chaos Warp]

What the fuck do they mean by "Living room machines"?

[Candescence]

It's a Steam OS! Exactly as some have predicted. Hoo, boy, Valve is moving in on Microsoft and Apple's territory, with a free OS, to boot.

[Badnik Mechanic]

What the fuck do they mean by "Living room machines"?

 

Machines... Machines that are living rooms!

 

I guess it means stuff that you can currently run Steam on? So PC's, Laptops... Dare I say consoles?

[Carbo]

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

Steam is coming to a new operating system

As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the
environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself.
SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen.
It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines.


Living room & Steam
Finally, you don’t have to give up your favorite games, your online friends, and all the Steam features you love just to play on the big screen. SteamOS, running on any living room machine, will provide access to the best games and user-generated content available.

 

Fast forward
In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level. Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases.

Cooperating system
Steam is not a one-way content broadcast channel, it’s a collaborative many-to-many entertainment platform, in which each participant is a multiplier of the experience for everyone else. With SteamOS, “openness” means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they’ve been able to. Content creators can connect directly to their customers. Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want. Gamers are empowered to join in the creation of the games they love. SteamOS will continue to evolve, but will remain an environment designed to foster these kinds of innovation.

[Chaos Warp]

Machines... Machines that are living rooms!

 

I guess it means stuff that you can currently run Steam on? So PC's, Laptops... Dare I say consoles?

You can run Steam on a console?

 

The PS4 and Xbox One might be strong enough to run this if it shut off the console OS and ran this, if that's at all possible...................

[Supaidaman]

Jesus. A whole new OS?

 

So, I guess that Steam Box will run this OS instead of a generic Linux (though this new OS is probably Linux based...).  Also, great to see an option to stream my Windows games.