|
|
Valve to add music, video to Steam?
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 26th February 2008
Valve's Doug Lombardi has dropped hints that Steam could be expanding into music and video media later this year.
Lombardi was cornered by Tom's Games last week at the GDC conference and spoke about how Steam will grow.
"We're looking at more casual games and international games. And we're also looking at other types of content like video and music. We're definitely having those conversations and meetings, and we're reaching out to folks with other types of digital entertainment," said Doug.
Asked for a rough time-frame, Lombardi hinted that prototypes could be running by the end of the year.
"I think before the end of the year, you'll probably see some pilot programs with other digital entertainment on Steam."
The idea of music and video content on Steam could certainly bode well for indie favourite Audiosurf.
Are you excited by the idea that the Half-Life developer could be getting ready to take on iTunes, or do you just wish they'd shut up and finish Half-Life 2: Episode 3? Let us know what you think in the forums.
Comments (27)
Stats: 0.147 seconds
As such we have taken a disliking to steam for this, that and its apprent bloatyness, and only load it because the game requires it
I like the steam model, however I feel they should resolve current issues before piling on a load more
I want more games. If i want a movie or music I switch on the tv or radio or rent/buy some at my dvd/cd outlet. They (all online music download shops) act if music is a 'god' and nothing else on the planet is more important. IF you dont listen/buy/dowload music you will die, get sick or feel very unhappy, screw your cd collection, must buy all other music. If you dont you will probably fell dead on the floor right now.
Its getting crazy. I allready have all the bands Ii like on cd or dvd since 1988. I dont want the 20th year ani, or the superduper special edition with all the songs. I allready own all the cd's. And NO i dont want the new **** because those are.. **** to me.
Steam is bad enough as it is... I daren't imagine how flaky it would be with MORE needless crap tacked on.
I don't want to download music, I don't want to download movies.... I don't even want to download games. Why the hell would I want to tie up my internet connection for days and days to get something I can just pick up at the supermarket down the road for the same money (or less in many cases!).
I don't like how slow the pages load, they should be instant - how about some decent caching and/or layout drawing functions instead of just loading HTML from a server (I assume that's what they're doing, since it takes so long).
Would be nice if the downloads didn't lock up or take 3 days either (well, that's a bit harsh, this only happened to me when I bought the GTA pack and downloaded San Andreas, but still...)
and also drop the price of the games a bit
i got orange box for £17 from asda
its £25+ on steam after the exchange tax they put on and you dont even get a hard copy!
they need to sort the pricing out before putting more junk on there
Still, you have far more convenience with Steam and stuff like Audiosurf/Darwinia is what it was made for.
I've never had any problems with the program and it is much lighter than it used to be. it is by no means bloated any more. As for the sound issues.... it is strange that it is a group of you with the same problems as i don't know anyone with such issues.
Still, i don't think Movies/Music are needed at all. First off they need to get every single game on the platform and secure most new games to be built with Steam in mind (achievements/stats etc.). That is the first step.... they can branch out afterwards.
a speedier episode 3
It took me a while to forgive Steam for the whole HL2 release fiasco. (Took damn near 2 days till I could play it! Course, I had a slower connection back then.)
Um, hello, is this thing on? I feel like I'm talking to the wall here. Everything you buy from Steam will vanish as soon as Steam vanishes. Even if you can make a case that it doesn't matter because all the games will be hopelessly outdated before this happens - and I don't think you can make that case - I have music I bought (or rather, was bought for me) in 1987. Is that OK with everyone except me - am I being especially unreasonable?
When will people wake up and realise this is not OK?
Erm Valve have already confirmed that if Steam ever closes, they will release unlock codes to allow all games to be played without the need to connect to Steam servers.
> the need to connect to Steam servers.
Is it in the EULA? If it isn't, it's vapourware.
You have to consider the legal position, which is that if Valve folds, no receiver is ever going to authorise the expenditure to do this.
P
It's a godsend being able the skips tracks that way when i'm playing wow :)
Going back to the main point: i think steam is great. It was a little flakey when it first came out, but it's run faultlessly for me for many years now and is my preferred way to buy games.
Grab "Winamp [key] controller 4.0 (gen_wkc4.dll)" allows you to set custom hotkeys for winamp, which works in any game. ;)
So you have an actual physical copy of the product, which dont take many hours to download, of which in some cases, for example TF2, where its cheaper to get from stores than online, also as Phil Rhodes quite rightly pointed out, should steam fold, how does one go about reinstalling said product from a download... as its steam that installs it, thus you would need to head to shops and cough up again, at least if steam is offline I can always put my dvd in the drive and still play LAN/VPN.
I can relate to some games ive purchased in the past with copy protection and had to use a 'patched' .exe to get them to play right, however I still rather have a hard copy of said product/s.
I can see your point, i think it's all down to personal preference really.
And at the end of the day, if steam *did* fold for some reason, the games would still be available on the more dodgy areas of the internet, and i'd feel quite justified downloading them if i'd already paid for them :)