Valve’s Steam software makes it easy to purchase and download some of the top video games on a variety of platforms. Steam runs on Windows and Mac computers, and the company recently launched Steam for Linux. Now Valve is going one step further and releasing its own Linux-based operating system called SteamOS.
You’ll be able to install it on a computer in your living room to turn any PC into a gaming PC. Users will also be able to stream games from a Mac or PC on you home network, so if you’ve already got games installed on a system in another room, SteamOS will let you bring those games to your TV.
SteamOS is still a work in progress, but it’s expected to launch soon.
In addition to turning a PC in your living room into a gaming system, Valve is adding other media services, although the company hasn’t yet said whether you can expect support for the big players in that space such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or YouTube.
Steam offers access to thousands of games, and this is the sort of service that could make gaming PCs into serious rivals for traditional PlayStation, Wii, and Xbox-style consoles in the living room. It could also lead to a resurgence in the popularity of home theater PCs (or HTPC)s. A few years back there was a lot of talk about people installing computers in the living room and treating them as media centers, gaming systems and more. But these days Microsoft doesn’t even ship Windows Media Center standard with its desktop operating system anymore.
Or maybe SteamOS will only appeal to folks that are already devoted to Steam… which means they’re probably already sold on PC gaming over console gaming.
I’m not interested if you are limited to a console style controller, but using their own OS to unify access to your Steam library over multiple devices (PC, console, tablet, phone, etc) could be a major push in the right direction.
The only trouble is all the games need to be written to work on this new OS, and I can’t see the big publishers/developers doing that. I look forward to seeing some details.
I’m already a Steam devotee on the PC, so this interests me.
Consoles ARE a PC, just one where ease of use has been traded for flexibility. If Steam can write an OS which allows people to market boxes which are as easy to use as an XBox or PS AND have comporable specs AND are competitive on price THEN there is no reason not to use the SteamOS. Add in that PC games CAN be higher specced than console ports and that the online community is much bigger and it could become an attractive alternative to console gaming.