Earlier today, Valve announced their game-changing Linux-based SteamOS platform.
SteamOS will act as a free operating platform when it launches sometime in 2014. Valve describes this venture as a collaborative many-to-many entertainment platform that will change the way the living room is perceived for many years to come. Below is a quote straight from the company in regards to their decision to create this platform:
“As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself. SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen. It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines.”
In addition to the above quote, Valve also took the time to highlight 4 key features that SteamOS will make use of once it debuts. These features are listed below with a brief description of each:
- In-Home Streaming: Any machine running SteamOS will be able to seamlessly stream games running on your existing Mac and PC computers to your TV.
- Family Sharing: Multiple people will be able to take turns playing games within a single Steam account while earning their own achievements and saving their own progress directly into the cloud.
- Media Services: Valve says it’s working with “many of the media services you know and love,” to allow “access your favorite music and video with Steam and SteamOS.”
- Family Options: Families will have more control over what titles get seen by whom. A Parental control system will be implemented.
Today’s announcement is the first of three announcements that Valve is scheduled to make this week. The next announcement is slated to happen on Wednesday, September 25th at 1pm eastern standard time. One might expect that sooner or later we will hear news about the SteamBox, but many are now speculating a Half-Life 3 reveal also may not be far off from happening.
What do you all think of today’s SteamOS announcement? Are you looking forward to what Valve reveals next? Feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
