Steam Sales

[Snakespy]

Snakespy just grabbed l4d2...let's get a group going tomorrow night on the new DLC.

agreed! I should be on all day if you cant find me look on xbox live

[Astros Fan]

agreed! I should be on all day if you cant find me look on xbox live

I won't be on until tonight because of work. Anyone else? We used skype last night in MoH and it worked great, anyone else using it?

[taggart6]

I'm down for some L4D2 this weekend. Doing an apartment finding trip at the moment.

[ImaNihilist]

I'm down for some L4D2 this weekend. Doing an apartment finding trip at the moment.

Sunday Zombie Apocalypse

[Geforce255]

Yeah we have those. They are called consoles.


your basically advocating Valve becoming a console dev. I agree that would be awesome. I just don't see it happening any time soon.

Valve doesn't develop most of their wares, they are just an awesome distribution model.

90% of the games on Steam will play on a GeForce Ti4200, so a couple hundred is all you need for a "gaming machine."

Steam needs to support Android next. There will be $200 Android tablets out in the next 6 months, that is a killer market for Valve.

[Geforce255]

Why are you being so closed and blunt about this? Its about releasing all of Valve's steam games into the console market and valve getting a piece of the major gaming industry.

That will never happen. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are not going to give up their markets to Valve. Xbox Live want to BE Steam, that ain't gunna happen either...

[Timman_24]

That will never happen. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are not going to give up their markets to Valve. Xbox Live want to BE Steam, that ain't gunna happen either...

The same could have been said when MS joined the fray.

[taggart6]

The same could have been said when MS joined the fray.

Thats a great point, though I think we've seen current console shift from game playing stations to multi-media centers and the multi media area are both sectors MS and Sony want in. Valve, however, I think is a game developer through and through and will continue to function so..at least in the near future.

I think the whole point of Steam, is simply to enhance the over all gaming experience by making multi-player, game purchasing, and game storage easier faster and centralized. I'd even say cheaper with the insane Steam sales.

[taggart6]

Valve doesn't develop most of their wares, they are just an awesome distribution model.

90% of the games on Steam will play on a GeForce Ti4200, so a couple hundred is all you need for a "gaming machine."

There are multiple ways you can look at that, but I think 2 of the primary formats would be: A Valve console that only plays Valve games or a Valve console that plays all games purchasable under Steam.

However, regardless of the option chosen, you would have to ensure that the hardware could support past, present and games looking to be released in the 2 to 5 year range too seriously compete against other consoles. As we've seen with current consoles, backwards compatibility can be an issue to manage with hardware and the average console life is roughly 5 to 8 years.

I absolutely agree that Steam Mobile App should be put on Android. Basically a front end that lets you purchase mobile games that are managed by steam and use the Steam services for data management, multiplayer, and game library management. However, I'm not sure if Android allows apps to be purchased from 3rd party apps. If not, then Valve would have to partner with them much like they did with Sony.

[Timman_24]

The problem is that Valve has no where to expand except to consoles. They could do mobile stuff, but I don't think that is really where they want to be.

Some could say to my last point that MS has a huge amount of money, which is why they broke into a crowded market and muscled out a slice of the pie. However, they went about it in totally the traditional way. Make proprietary console hardware, make development environment, ramp up exclusive support, buy into developers, run enormous ad campaigns, etc etc. Valve doesn't need to do any of that except advertising. They would use an existing platform, running existing code and underlying programing, and they don't need "exclusive" content. They could also sell their "console" at cost, which is something MS struggled to do. Since Valve would use off the shelf parts, it would be immensely cheaper.

Valve needs to penetrate the console market to grow appreciably and they can't do it through MS or Sony.

[ImaNihilist]

The problem is that Valve has no where to expand except to consoles. They could do mobile stuff, but I don't think that is really where they want to be.

They are going to get into mobile, no doubt about it. Not a matter of if, just when. there is no way in hell they spent millions to port the Orange Box engine and all the Orange Box games to OpenGL under Mac OS X for the few extra Mac users like me. Yeah, I appreciate it. Reality is, there aren't that many off us. Maintaining two version (DirectX and OpenGL) of all their major games comes at huge cost. This is a mobile play. Maybe not today. Maybe not in 2011. But in 2012 and onward, yeah... you will see Steam games running on the iPad. Bookmark this post and talk to me again before December 31st, 2012. If I'm wrong I'll give you $100.

[Timman_24]

They are going to get into mobile, no doubt about it. Not a matter of if, just when. there is no way in hell they spent millions to port the Orange Box engine and all the Orange Box games to OpenGL under Mac OS X for the few extra Mac users like me. Yeah, I appreciate it. Reality is, there aren't that many off us. Maintaining two version (DirectX and OpenGL) of all their major games comes at huge cost. This is a mobile play. Maybe not today. Maybe not in 2011. But in 2012 and onward, yeah... you will see Steam games running on the iPad. Bookmark this post and talk to me again before December 31st, 2012. If I'm wrong I'll give you $100.

But the world ends then, so that's a easy bet.

[taggart6]

Valve needs to penetrate the console market to grow appreciably and they can't do it through MS or Sony.

Portal 2 is being released on PS3 with some Steam Services. I wouldn't count a partnership out yet.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3...ortal-2/101577

[Timman_24]

Portal 2 is being released on PS3 with some Steam Services. I wouldn't count a partnership out yet.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3...ortal-2/101577

That's a valve game, not the entire steam distribution network. Although, Sony is the most likely to adopt steam.

[Snakespy]

HEY I have a great idea for this topic. Make its own thread please. I really enjoy the steam sales thread lets keep it at that. Please. (That's why I revived the LFD2 thread instead of jacking this one).