Steam Expands Beyond Games
store.steampowered.com
store.steampowered.com
http://www.chrisnorstrom.com/2011/03/re-envisioning-steam-pa...
Naa. I think it was a pretty obvious move. Although my prediction was that they would tackle film and music before software. They obviously tried but after seeing what a pain in the ass it is to work with hollywood / music industry gave up for now. They renamed "My Games" into "Library" with Games, Media, & Tools subtabs and after giving up on the whole media bit just have "Library" now.
Software is a more logical step considering they're already set up to deliver software (games).
I'd love to have an alternative to the App Store that doesn't mandate sandboxing and have Apple's mysterious restrictions, but Steam's DRM system is too limiting for me to be comfortable buying "real software" from it.
Like http://appbodega.com ?
Bodega really nailed the updates system. It found all of my non-app-store software that was out of date, and handled the updating with one click and a password. It's having trouble with Calibre, but Adium, Transmission, Pixen, BetterTouchTool, and others all worked fine.
Thanks for pointing this out! The only areas I see Steam having an advantage are preexisting users, and the ability to sell cross platform (Mac+Windows+Linux) software.
This happened a long, long time ago (read: as far back as I can remember).
The same goes for mac. I'm sure they realized the mac app store was going to kill their business on mac. In a few OS generations, unsigned apps will be unallowed except for the most power users.
Only way I can see them getting around that and competing succesfully is if they offer a console-like appliance, which still seems like a huge departure and risk.
Although the list of games that exist both on Android and Windows is small I can think of enough games on Steam (GTA3, Max Payne, World of Goo, Osmos, Anomaly, Popcap games, etc.) to make it an attractive feature.
Plus, I will never release on the app store unless I don't plan on making any money on it. It's simply developer-unfriendly: no trials, no paid upgrades - it's as if Apple is trying to kill off using the Mac to make a living of selling software and force developers into subscription/freemium models.
Doesn't mean even slightly that Steam is a better alternative. It's a horrible launcher and a terrible Mac OS X app. It's a great service and games store and I use it all the time, but as an OS X app it's awful.
It requires you to have "enable access for assistive devices" on just to render its interface. Valve knows absolutely nothing about the platform except what it needs to to make basic ports.
Mark my words, they will not become a viable distribution system in OS X without completely and radically overhauling Steam from the ground up. Just "adding apps" isn't going to do anything.
Actually, it's possible to do almost exactly the same thing on other platforms.
I agree. I'm hoping competition will spur one or both of them to actually make a kickass service.
I also don't understand why the MAS is a dud and this would be any better. Steam's standards and review process are way more strict and cryptic than Apple's. Plenty of indie devs have felt the sting of Steam rejection. I have little doubt they will also require sandboxing.
Is it just the cross platform aspect? Everything else about it seems to be the same or worse. Not to mention Steam's integration with its host OS is just awful. It's like a completely segmented world rarely following any UI guidelines or making any attempt to fit in.
If you're a developer and you make an app that doesn't violate the rules of the store, you should be able to submit it. That's how the App Store works.
Having to rally community support with no promise of what the threshold for acceptance is is crazy. Doesn't seem more transparent or less cryptic to me at all.
Note that I said "will" not "does".
>If you're a developer and you make an app that doesn't violate the rules of the store, you should be able to submit it.
You can. That's just no guarantee you'll get in.
>Having to rally community support with no promise of what the threshold for acceptance is is crazy.
Allowing every random to put their garbage up on a trusted store with no vetting is crazier. There's a reason the Google Market is a bit like the wild west. Malware and adware and garbage, oh my!
http://kotaku.com/5901821/did-tim-cook-and-gabe-newell-meet-...
I'm a bit apprehensive about having to decide between Yet Another Storage Provider, but I'm (naively?) hopeful that the open-minded folks at Steam will consider something like Dropbox / Google Drive integration. Valve seems like an incredibly appropriate company to do so.
I hate to play the extrapolation game, but this could potentially encourage cross-platform apps, much like Valve is doing for gaming on Mac/Linux, especially if Valve releases dev tools to help support the process. (Hopefully it doesn't turn into a GTK/Swing nightmare.)
All in all, interesting times should be ahead. It'll be interesting to see how a "gaming" company like Valve adapts to a new field.
Steam has had a storage system for game content for a while—this would let you transfer save game files between computers, for example. I didn't see anything in the story which suggests this would be extended to general purpose content.
I'm assuming my work is more than my save game files. :)
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/15/3161651/valve-steam-softwa...
It just makes too much sense for microsoft to buy steam, regardless of the price. I know the steam fans would completely hate it, but it really feels like it is going to happen. Microsoft is dieing to have its own successful app store with a niche to have a advantage on the ios store and gaming/steam is exactly the type of 'we have this, they dont' which could completely make MS phones relevant again.
Don't let the silicon valley mindset warp your perception of what a company is. There isn't always an IPO or exit at the end of every company's rainbow. Sometimes, just sometimes, profitable private companies stay profitable private companies.
And what if MS says "We want to buy you, we promise we wont touch you and will sign these docs to ensure you can keep doing things your way" - At that point, its not about morals, its about the fact that not doing something like that isnt fair to those people in the companies who are not yet millionaires, like Newell already is.
In short, if Newell could guarantee that the company would have no changes moving forward and could also get significant wind falls for all his staff, then yes- I expect him to sell. Anything less would be not prudent.
* Nobody knows if MS would be willing to pay as much as would be required to have a outcome like above. I just think that Valve is in the #1 or #2 spot for "Companies we want to buy" at redmond.
>The page you are trying to browse to is categorized as "Games"
>If you believe you are getting this message by mistake, try contacting your administrator or Helpdesk.
Should I contact my administrator?
That's an odd sentence. Is he saying 40 million gamers said they want more than games in their games platform? Or was it just a portion of the 40 million? If so, why not say that number. THE 40 million gamers are interesting in more than playing games? THE 40 million said this? I feel like I stumbled into the smoke and mirrors PR world of EA or Sony, not Valve.
I sincerely think that Valve has legitimate reasons for deriding Windows 8, particularly since their criticism seems to resonate with many early Win8 adapters.
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/08/microsoft-defends-windows-...
What Newell is blatantly raging against is the idea that Windows, in running its own store, will make it more difficult for users to install their own software. No doubt he's chiefly worried about users' ability to install Steam, his store. I felt that was obvious from the onset.
And really? Lost respect for him? For his being an honest business man? And you're on YCombinator?
(Edited for overly mean tone. I don't mean to chastise, I just don't understand what you're saying.)
Anyone know how to export files from Steam Cloud?
Although I suspect that all the steam cloud files are present locally and only put on the steam cloud as backup.
Seems like what Gabe is doing is what Google wanted to do with Chrome OS...without the OS.
I could definitely see Valve becoming a competitor in this sense with a cross-platform app + document experience that works smoothly on most desktop devices. The question is whether they can expand this sort of system onto tablets and phones.
Does anyone know what are their current fees?
The entire "product" already exists, they just need to bring non-game titles to Steam. (and from the sound of that announcement it seems they already have something lines up)
1) Why so late? If this had come out a couple of years ago, they could've cemented themselves in Windows 7.
2) AFAIK the real reason for Microsoft not making an app store for native apps is that they can install spyware, browser toolbars, change browser home page, change default search provider, eat up battery, install always running services and what not because they're not sandboxed.
How will the Steam store deal with the inevitable barrage of such user hostile apps? Will the approval process be highly exclusionary or inclusionary? Where are the app store terms? What's the cut? 30%?
I think dealing with adware, spyware, malware and grayware is going to be a challenge. If they're pretty exclusionary, expect devs to get pissed off.
3) Sadly Steam Store won't be allowed to include WinRT apps but Microsoft allows links to desktop apps on their app store.
If they solve the malware problem, I think they'll have a huge market and help devs immensely.
Anyone know or remember Intel AppUp Center? It completely failed to take off.
2)That seems like more reason to have an app store as you can weed that kind of stuff out.
They will use Steam Greenlight a community driven process to vet apps for inclusion. Basically you submit and if the community wants it they get it.
3)Since most PC users will be on Windows 7 and XP for a while after Windows 8 is released there will still be a huge market for Steam even if by some miracle RT just took over.
Another cool thing about this, if even for Windows users - is that it may mitigate motivations for upgrading to Windows 8. If Steam becomes the most popular, most profitable place to publish Windows apps - and every app is fully compatible with Windows 7 - they will have 'cemented' themselves quite nicely as milesskorpen would say.
If they're pretty exclusionary, expect devs to
get pissed off.
I can see that by being a cross platform marketplace, If I buy something from them on my iPad, I can also use that same software on my PC (assuming both the platforms allow this) But the big question is will they?
Being able to keep all my Windows desktop applications updated easily through Steam would be a lot better than having them all try and do it themselves.