avatar
Steam Wants Your Living Room’s Brains

Posted By about 8 months, 1 week ago

I can't think of a better puppet show on the internet.

That headline would make a lot more sense if Steam were an undead zombie, and your living room was the slow fat guy you know isn’t going to make it to the end of the movie, but as it stands neither one of those things is true. What is true though is that Steam certainly does want to get its fingers into the way your living room works.

They call it “Big Picture,” and it’s all over your Steam beta right now. Those of us in the know have been going through the weird process of getting our PCs to display on our television sets for years now, but without the proper wireless mouse & keyboard setup, it can be a bit of a hassle. It can be even more of a hassle for those of us who decide to lug our entire gaming rigs up or downstairs in an attempt to take control of the “good TV” when the parents, the wife, or the kids are otherwise occupied with something other than watching the Teletubbies over and over again (the wife, I mean – not the kids). I regret to inform you that this won’t help with the heavy lifting, but will certainly help if you enjoy sitting in front of your tv with a controller, rather than a mouse and keyboard.

Behold – Steam: Big Picture

Touché, Steam. When you integrate Netflix, I may just have to marry you. I’m pretty certain that’s legal in Canada, marriage between a man and a digital distribution service. Time to do some legal reading.

Source: Steampowered.com

avatar

Johnny Maloney

Having been a gamer since 1986 when his father brought home an IBM PCjr with King's Quest and Crossfire included, it seemed destined that PC gaming and Johnny Maloney's life would run parallel forever. Despite his occasional affairs with movies, books, music and single malt scotch, he's never once left the side of his PC. In fact, on a full moon on a friday the thirteenth, if you sit in his old chairs... chills will run up your spine if you say "you fight like a dairy farmer," and you can sometimes hear ghostly whispers in the night respond "how appropriate, you fight like a cow…" -- Attempting to contact Johnny at Johnny@Blisteredthumbs.net may be successful.

More Posts - Website - Twitter

  1. September 11, 2012 at 12:54am
    shadedevlin
    avatar
    In response to Article
    VN:F [1.9.21_1169]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

    So, when the rumors were flying that Steam was working on a console, maybe this is what they were really working on?

    Either way, I’d love to have a box along the lines of an AppleTV that has Steam hooked up to my TV.

    Report

  2. September 10, 2012 at 11:09pm
    TheDeviot
    avatar
    In response to Article
    VN:F [1.9.21_1169]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

    I started using the beta version. It’s actually pretty great. I can definitely see people building HTPC’s around it, and with a couple of apps on the storefront, maybe a possible branch out into selling movies, and music, they could really one up PSN/Live.

    The beta has crashed after exiting a couple of games. Outside of that it’s been pretty smooth sailing. If I had any minor nitpicks with it it would be a lack of cut/paste for when you may have the same response for the same topic on several boards. Really digging it so far though. Webbrowser is fast, and responsive. If the few bugs are ironed out, and they add a few new features, this could really take off.

    Report

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.