Steam launches 'Beyond Games' initiative
Valve has kicked off its non-gaming initiative with six software applications, most complete with Steam features like automatic updates and cloud saving.
Though slightly later than expected, Valve has expanded Steam's focus to non-gaming software. The company launched its "Beyond Games" initiative today, offering six pieces of creativity and productivity software on sale complete with some of the usual Steam bells and whistles.
The six initial offerings include ArtRage Studio Pro, CameraBag 2, GameMaker: Studio, 3D-Coat, 3DMark Vantage, and 3DMark 11. Valve promises that most of these include Steam's streamlined installation process, automatic updating, and Steam Cloud saves so you can take your files with you between work stations. GameMaker even includes integration with Steam Workshop so you can share your creations.
If any of these applications strike your fancy, you should grab them while the grabbing's good. Each of the launch applications are 10% off this week.
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replySteve Watts posted a new article, Steam launches 'Beyond Games' initiative.
Valve has kicked off its non-gaming initiative with six software applications, most complete with Steam features like automatic updates and cloud saving.-
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This is awfully clever of them.
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I think people are really not understanding how much work is involved in OS development. I don't buy that a "gaming OS" that you'd dual boot is viable so it'd have to be more like a console which is another huge can of worms.
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If they were going to go the custom OS route I am guessing they would probably use a open sourced kernel like Linux. Android for instance at its core is Linux. Its far easier to take a well supported kernel that already has drivers written for it then roll your own.
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And then what? You've gained what? You'd have to do a ton of engineering work to strip out all of the "ancillary" features taking up CPU and I/O bandwidth to make it a "gaming OS." And then you're still left with something with extremely poor compatibility with the existing Steam catalog (which is obviously also relevant if the argument is they wouldn't bother stripping down Linux and just having it be a general purpose OS).
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I can see your point there. I think this is more of thinking in terms of future content. They already have Linux support planned and Big TV mode. They basically already have some of the work needed done. The back catalog is going to tether Steam to Windows and to a lesser extent OSX for the foreseeable future.
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