Steam is big, but Valve wants it bigger. With the digital download platform’s dominance on the PC growing every year and the platform opening up to Mac users, the mouse and keyboard crowd is covered. Now they’re aiming for the gamepad players.
“Our partners and customers have asked us to make Steam available in more places. With the introduction of Steam on the Mac, and soon in Portal 2 on the PS3, we’ve done just that,” said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing for Valve. “With big picture mode, gaming opportunities for Steam partners and customers become possible via PCs and Macs on any TV or computer display in the house.”
I like this idea. If more computer software came with a gamepad option, I’ve hook my PC up to my television right now. The only thing stopping me is the awkwardness of having a mouse and keyboard in the living room.
Valve will be sharing plans for this “big picture” mode with developers at GDC 2011 this week, along with data gathered from their customers regarding Steam’s micro transactions and integration of Steam features into titles like Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3.
Stay tuned to Kotaku this week for complete coverage of the 2011 Game Developers Conference.
blaze0041
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 10:03 AMI, for one, welcome our new overlords at Valve.
Chaz
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 1:51 PMhahaha +1
Alastair
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 8:36 PMYeah. When has a monopoly ever been bad for consumers? … =|
v4next
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 10:17 AMBye Bye OnLive!!
Ndroste
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 10:32 AMTotally.
Jimu Hsien
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 11:52 AMWish it would work through my 360..that’ll never happen.
My craptop is too…underpowered.
womble
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 1:24 PMThis is GREAT news.
Sorry PC gamers, but plenty of people want to play games in their lounge room or home cinema, without mice and keyboards.
If (if!) they can make this work with a 10″ interface, and decent gamepad support, I’ll consider adding a PC to the lounge room alongside the consoles.
But, for this to work, developers have to sign onboard, and have to remove/work-around current keyboard/mouse requirements. That won’t be easy, even for those games that support gamepads.
And Windows will have to shut the hell up and let Steam play in fullscreen with ZERO interruptions.
jabso
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 4:46 PMI’m the last person to defend mouse/keyboard “elitists” but even if PC gaming does head out into the lounge room and onto our TV screens I think they’ll come up with comfortable mouse/kb solutions, although ergonomically it would be tricky with the mouse positioning.