Valve Announces Steam OS

[pirovash88]

http://kotaku.com/valve-announces-steam-os-1371869324

Steam is getting its very own operating system, Valve announced today. It'll be a combination of Steam's current platform and Linux.

SteamOS is a free operating system designed for living rooms that Valve says "combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen."P

Valve says they've already got "hundreds of games" that will come to the new operating system next year, and that you'll be able to access the entire Steam catalog via "in-home streaming," a process they haven't quite explained yet.

"In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level," Valve writes. "Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases."

Valve also announced four new features that will be available both for SteamOS and the standard Steam platform: streaming, family sharing, parental restrictions, and options for movies, music, and other media.

"SteamOS will be available soon as a free download for users and as a freely licensable operating system for manufacturers," Valve writes. "Stay tuned in the coming days for more information."

This is the first of three scheduled Valve announcements this week, all connected to the company's plans for bringing Steam into living rooms.

For almost a year now, Valve has been teasing the idea of Steam-branded hardware—an initiative that could prove game-changing as we enter the next generation of consoles. Last December, Valve boss Gabe Newell told me that the Steam Box would compete with Sony and Microsoft's next-gen offerings. The company has been slowly trickling out details since then.

Announcement #2 will go live on Wednesday at 1pm Eastern.

[CrazyT]

Holy shit!

Awesome to see them expanding. Couldn't be a better time to become a pc gamer ;D

[Happy Cat]

I think it's going to be interesting to see if it takes off. Most STEAM users are windows gamers, and i doubt any of them are going to want to install Linux anytime soon, would certainly take some motivating them from Valve.

Halflife 3 exclusive to Linux.

tbh i could see that happening. I know Gabe isn't happy with Microsoft's closed app-store on Windows 8 and refuses to put Steam on it. Could see him trying to use Valve games to convert people to Linux.

[Emmett The Crab]

I'd give it a shot via Bootcamp on my Mac Mini, if it is supported that way.  I wouldn't dedicate a whole computer to it. 

[MadeManG74]

I think this is going to lead into something else, like a piece of hardware that uses this OS exclusively maybe? Is the SteamBox finally on it's way?

I would imagine it's probably tailored specifically for use of PCs in the living room, maybe it's intended for use by hardware developers to use rather than home PC users to install?

[Randroid]

This is getting very interesting. Steammachines are definitely on the way:

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamMachines/

"Beginning in 2014, there will be multiple SteamOS machines to choose from, made by different manufacturers."

Could Sega be one of those manufacturers?

-- Personally, in regards to SteamOS, I'm sold.  Windows 8 is alright, but I'd much rather run a gaming focused linux build. This is definitely going to be a game changer. Steam is big enough to change things.

[pirovash88]

This is getting very interesting. Steammachines are definitely on the way:

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamMachines/

"Beginning in 2014, there will be multiple SteamOS machines to choose from, made by different manufacturers."

Could Sega be one of those manufacturers?

-- Personally, in regards to SteamOS, I'm sold.  Windows 8 is alright, but I'd much rather run a gaming focused linux build. This is definitely going to be a game changer. Steam is big enough to change things.

So they're calling em Steammachines now eh? Interesting.. I'd love to get in on that Beta Testing.

[pirovash88]

Well, here's the new Steam controller, looks crazy..

[CrazyT]

Demonstration of the controller in action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeAjkbNq4xI

I said wow. This is the most inovative controller i've seen in a long while.