Just about anyone who follows gaming news, especially PC gaming news, will have read about an announcement of future announcements. from Valve Software, the company behind Steam. There are to be three substantive announcements this week that are related to expanding the service into the living room.
Now, when I first heard this news, I immediately had an idea about what the three could be. Naturally one of them will be the so-called Steam Box, a console-like device for playing PC games on a TV, according to almost everyone's speculation. The other two ideas I had would be absolutely amazing, if they are accurate. They aren't, but why not imagine the possibility for a bit longer? The ideas are that Steam is going to be developed for the two upcoming consoles; the xBox One and Playstation 4. Many of you may scoff at the idea, thinking it is impossible, but it is! Both systems are going to be x86 based, which means they can run conventional PC software, like Steam, and even PC games, though not particularly well. Optimized versions would still have to be written for the most intense games, as the APU-graphics would not be able to run those games at high framerate otherwise. Imagine that setup though: the ability to purchase console-versions of games through Steam, along with PC versions, and having saves synced between them, using the Steam Cloud. Also the friends lists and joined groups could be synced. That arrangement, I am confident, would bring in additional console sales as PC gamers purchase them for their living rooms, and get access to the console games as well.
As I said though, those ideas are not accurate, this is not going to happen, and I have two reasons to believe that. Both are on the webpage Valve put up about the announcements: Living Room. If those ideas of mine were correct, the announcements would all be made at once, but the placement of the countdown clock indicates that the three announcements will come at separate times. (If they were to come together, the clock would be in the middle, and not under the first icon.) The second is the icons for the three announcements. The first is a circle. The second is a circle between a pair of brackets, off-centered to the left. The third is two circles, with an addition sign between. These would not agree with my idea.
What would the icons agree with? Well, if we assume the circles are meant to be people, then the one person would likely be the Steam Box announcement, for one person playing. Assuming that is correct, the circle could also indicate the Steam Box itself. The second icon, with the brackets, is harder to guess. One possibility, though admittedly remote, is that the brackets represent a screen, like 3D goggles or something akin to Google Glass. Rumors have indicated personnel at Valve have interest in both technologies, though that is not an indication of company interest. The final icon, two circles added together, suggests multiplayer, whether you interpret the circles as people of consoles. One issue with that interpretation though is why would it be the final announcement? Multiplayer would be expected, as would any social connectivity between a Steam Box and the computer clients, unless it is a new service, not totally analogous to Steam.
Of course, these are all just guesses (now recorded so if I'm right, I can show people) and we will not know until tomorrow when the clock winds down.
I hope it isn't running on Valve time!
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