Steam, often regarded as the main conduit for the video game industry’s PC-based games, is currently beta testing its up-and-coming new operating system. The Steam OS is being designed based on Linux and meant to run on a PC in your living room. The goal is to give players the option of playing PC games on a big screen HDTV. We see this as a major step up for the future of the PC gaming industry that will set the bar even higher for PC game developers. The Steam OS is also implementing four new features to give even more benefits to their users: they’re adding in-home streaming, music, TV, movies, Family Sharing, and Family options.
In-home streaming is the file sharing from your Steam account to the TV inside your living room and will allow you to play games from your Steam library. They’re also adding movies, music, and TV shows to Steam and Steam OS, which we see as a great expansion opportunity for our Steam libraries as well as unifying our PC experiences. Finally the Family Sharing and Family options are the implementation of easier Steam game and library sharing between family members, and the ability to setup specific family settings for your family’s Steam and Steam OS experience.
Steam has captivated and organized our PC gaming experience since 2003 and we are looking forward to the new implementations that Steam is going to be adding with their new OS. Steam is still in the throes of beta testing the OS, but plan on releasing it sometime during 2014. Steam is also working concurrently on Steam Machines – a line of PCs built specifically for gameplay, and the Steam Controller, which we caught a glimpse of in this demo.
If you want to find out more about Steam’s new OS please visit their webpage.
