News Valve to add music, video to Steam?

[CardJoe]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02...eo_to_steam_/1

According to comments by Doug Lombardi, Valve is considering bringing music and video content to Steam before the end of the year.

[will.]

Eugh.... Why? Are there not already enough of these? Steam is going to start looking more and more like bloatware if it isn't careful.

[Delphium]

I find it kind of ironic as for me, and some of my friends, it is steam that cuases our sound cards to die / frezze up, it could cause the sound cards to die at any random time, and HAVE to reboot the pc in order for the sound card to work correctly again.

As such we have taken a disliking to steam for this, that and its apprent bloatyness, and only load it because the game requires it

I like the steam model, however I feel they should resolve current issues before piling on a load more

[freedom810]

I think it sounds like a great idea, id love to see movies on there though maybe thats asking too much. Still music would be good. Ive never had a problem with steam. I just hope valve hurry up with Episode 3!

[[USRF]Obiwan]

Why music? Why movies?

I want more games. If i want a movie or music I switch on the tv or radio or rent/buy some at my dvd/cd outlet. They (all online music download shops) act if music is a 'god' and nothing else on the planet is more important. IF you dont listen/buy/dowload music you will die, get sick or feel very unhappy, screw your cd collection, must buy all other music. If you dont you will probably fell dead on the floor right now.

Its getting crazy. I allready have all the bands Ii like on cd or dvd since 1988. I dont want the 20th year ani, or the superduper special edition with all the songs. I allready own all the cd's. And NO i dont want the new **** because those are.. **** to me.

[Zut]

UGH! NO!

Steam is bad enough as it is... I daren't imagine how flaky it would be with MORE needless crap tacked on.

I don't want to download music, I don't want to download movies.... I don't even want to download games. Why the hell would I want to tie up my internet connection for days and days to get something I can just pick up at the supermarket down the road for the same money (or less in many cases!).

[Leitchy]

I dont mind if they introduce the service, the more the merrier and hopefully some more competition for iTunes and the likes.

[Jordan Wise]

that' good, i think steam is by far the best method of online distribution yet, its not bloated or intrusive like itunes- the only thing i hate more than apple itself- though i do agree with obiwan, it need to have a more complete catalogue of games

[Rexxie]

I feel they should totally redo the steam platform to use something else than the IE rendering platform.
I don't like how slow the pages load, they should be instant - how about some decent caching and/or layout drawing functions instead of just loading HTML from a server (I assume that's what they're doing, since it takes so long).

Would be nice if the downloads didn't lock up or take 3 days either (well, that's a bit harsh, this only happened to me when I bought the GTA pack and downloaded San Andreas, but still...)

[rjkoneill]

they should concentrate on getting the service localised instead - and by that i mean curency in £gbp
and also drop the price of the games a bit

i got orange box for £17 from asda
its £25+ on steam after the exchange tax they put on and you dont even get a hard copy!

they need to sort the pricing out before putting more junk on there

[steveo_mcg]

Last thing we want is localisation, with that rip of Britain tax is automatically applied before vat. Most Valve published games are sold in $ so its only local taxes which effect the price. While some publishers using Steam are charging more for Britain most aren't so I don't think we need any further localisation. Orange box was a bit of an aberration it was cheaper bought retail with EA than steam.

[Kamakazie!]

Most things are cheaper through retail than through Steam and will be until retail PC games sell significantly less/nothing. Retailers put pressure on publishers to make sure the Steam/DD prices are high enough so that retail can compete. Inevitably, retail cuts prices/drops prices quicker and so they almost always end up cheaper.
Still, you have far more convenience with Steam and stuff like Audiosurf/Darwinia is what it was made for.

I've never had any problems with the program and it is much lighter than it used to be. it is by no means bloated any more. As for the sound issues.... it is strange that it is a group of you with the same problems as i don't know anyone with such issues.

Still, i don't think Movies/Music are needed at all. First off they need to get every single game on the platform and secure most new games to be built with Steam in mind (achievements/stats etc.). That is the first step.... they can branch out afterwards.

[jakenbake]

i just want to be able to control my mp3s while i'm in game without having to minimize while i'm dead...

[fargo]

the idea has legs but I think valve has all it can handle right now, I'd rather see
a speedier episode 3

[Hydra]

I think game music and game trailers/videos would be cool. Otherwise, leave the music/movie thing to iTunes.

It took me a while to forgive Steam for the whole HL2 release fiasco. (Took damn near 2 days till I could play it! Course, I had a slower connection back then.)

[Phil Rhodes]

Outstanding, we can all have a collection of movies and music that go piff when Valve get bored of supporting the software, too!

Um, hello, is this thing on? I feel like I'm talking to the wall here. Everything you buy from Steam will vanish as soon as Steam vanishes. Even if you can make a case that it doesn't matter because all the games will be hopelessly outdated before this happens - and I don't think you can make that case - I have music I bought (or rather, was bought for me) in 1987. Is that OK with everyone except me - am I being especially unreasonable?

When will people wake up and realise this is not OK?

[DXR_13KE]

if this makes games cheaper and the music they sell is not infected with crap and is cheap..... i am in.... if any of the previous is fake.... screw this.

[johnmustrule]

Another way to buy a movie... yay. And I don't believe they would have any reason to sell games cheaper because of media sales. I wonder if they'd have one of those Valve head logo's play for a couple seconds before your movie?

[Kamakazie!]

Originally Posted by Phil Rhodes

Outstanding, we can all have a collection of movies and music that go piff when Valve get bored of supporting the software, too!

Um, hello, is this thing on? I feel like I'm talking to the wall here. Everything you buy from Steam will vanish as soon as Steam vanishes. Even if you can make a case that it doesn't matter because all the games will be hopelessly outdated before this happens - and I don't think you can make that case - I have music I bought (or rather, was bought for me) in 1987. Is that OK with everyone except me - am I being especially unreasonable?

When will people wake up and realise this is not OK?

Erm Valve have already confirmed that if Steam ever closes, they will release unlock codes to allow all games to be played without the need to connect to Steam servers.

[Kamakazie!]

Originally Posted by fargo

the idea has legs but I think valve has all it can handle right now, I'd rather see
a speedier episode 3

There is a different group of people that work on Steam development. EP3 will take as long as it was going to regardless of the updates/additions to Steam.

Originally Posted by jakenbake

i just want to be able to control my mp3s while i'm in game without having to minimize while i'm dead...

This would be a very good addition, although i don't actually listen to MP3s whilst playing. If there was some sort of control like that then i might be bothered to try