Steam on 360?!

chin_grin

http://www.destructoid.com/steam-has-xbox-support-section-omg-steam-on-360--210978.phtml

I've never created a Steam account, is it any use?

The recent discovery of an "Xbox Support" section on Steam's forums has ignited rumors that Valve's popular digital service may be heading to the Xbox 360 in the near future. The section was buried deep in the boards, but Steam users are experts at digging stuff up. You'd think Valve would know that ... or maybe they did!

Despite the rumors, it's entirely likely that the section could be for Valve's existing Xbox 360 titles. Valve likes Steam to do its own thing, which runs contrary to Microsoft's equally controlling practices, which is why we've never seen the service on an Xbox before. Still, it wouldn't be the first time Microsoft has bent for Valve, so who knows?

In any case, speculation abounds!

“XBOX Support” On Steam [TheSixthAxis]

Shiminay

Steam is, IMO, the best thing to have happened to Games distribution and sales in the last 10 years. It was woefully broken at the start of it's life, but it's stable now. Steam Sales are a thing of joy - great games that you might have missed or didn't fancy paying full whack at seriously knocked down prices.

But the best part of it is, you register a Steam Powered game on your account and you can throw away the install media and box - it will always be there and you can always download it again if you have a system death or an upgrade or new PC. You can also install on multiple machines with no penalty (just can't be logged in from more than one place at a time which is fine). It also downloads new games ahead of time and has them ready to rock once the clock ticks and it's officially "out."

I'm curious how MS and Valve would marry XBox Marketplace and Steam though. Unless they're planning on doing away with that and Games for Windows entirely, I'm not sure I see it working.

It might just be that they were toying with the idea of opening up the forums for other general gaming related topics...

Mantel

Gabe wants it to happen but so far Microsoft have refused. This may be just a way to get interest generated and get people asking microsoft to allow steam on the xbox ala "sony has it! Why can't youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

Fnz

I would be amazed if Microsoft allowed Steam/Steamworks on their console.

Steam and Live are direct competitors in the PC space and everyone hates Live there. Why would Microsoft open their Xbox platform to competition when they've been so thoroughly trounced on PC?

SeantheMan

I love Steam
I love Valve
I love Half Life 1/ 2
I love Portal 1/ 2
I love Team Fortres 2
I love L4D1 / 2
Best developers ever

Mantel

Fnz wrote: »

I would be amazed if Microsoft allowed Steam/Steamworks on their console.

Steam and Live are direct competitors in the PC space and everyone hates Live there. Why would Microsoft open their Xbox platform to competition when they've been so thoroughly trounced on PC?

I think Live could be compared to the badly ported console-made games we see coming across from the developers that don't see the point in putting time/money in to the PC market. Just so god damn clunky.

Steam started out that way but look what they've done with the time they've had on the PC,... and look what live have done with theirs, PC is, at best, an after thought for them, sure they've even integrated it in to their phone OS..

I can't see them allow steam on the xbox anytime soon, they'd loose control over a portion of their revenue stream and some of the control they have on their console. It would be nice though, to have features that consoles are screaming out for, cloud saves for savegames and configs, etc.

Burgo

Can't see it happening tbh, microsoft wouldn't like the fact valve push out updates for games constantly and you know don't charge for it, going against the microsoft model.

ED E

SeantheMan wrote: »

I love Steam
I love Valve
I love Half Life 1/ 2
I love Portal 1/ 2
I love Team Fortres 2
I love L4D1 / 2
SLOWEST developers ever

FYP

Skerries

but consistently good, not too many in their class are good with the time keeping either

danthefan

Steam is absolutely superb. OP, make an account now.

B0X

danthefan wrote: »

Steam is absolutely superb. OP, make an account now.

But don't actually buy any games from Steam because they milk you dry. Buy them in the shop and register them with Steam... everyone wins!

Gunmonkey

B0X wrote: »

But don't actually buy any games from Steam because they milk you dry. Buy them in the shop and register them with Steam... everyone wins!

This. Steam is a fantastic service, great sales and well supported but by god someone needs to email Valve a link to xe.com so they know $1 =/= €1

Skerries

only buy Steam games during the June and December sales
G2play also sell Steam games but there is a small chance that they will cancel them

ED E

While steam may be more expensive at times, when its not too muc over I dont mind paying as that what supports the service. And its a pretty fricking great service. New machine? Install steam, spend 3 mins picking games you want on it, then f#ck off to the pub while they download.

If we all buy elsewhere steam could eventually fail, and that would be a sad sad day for pc gaming.

Chris_Heilong

Steam is a great service but it is still cheaper to buy in shops or on Amazon/playasia, I mean they should be selling quake and halflife at €2-3 most not €9.99.

ScumLord

Having your games on line is handy but I've had problems with them since half life 2, I still can't play that game even though I paid for it in a shop and I've never got a resolution from their support. They're also to expensive steam would be the very last place I'd look to buy a game.

Elmidena

Tis a crime against gaming not to have a Steam account! Sales are awesome, you can play non-Steam games just as easily, get gifted/gift stuff (got two versions of L4D? No problem, give the spare to a mate free of charge) It also lets me see games I'm interested in without me knowing before I'd be interested in them....got a few nice little gems over the years that I bought on a whim because it was ridiculously cheap.

Also, as finding this xbox support thread thingy is a few clicks away and I'm not bothered expending effort, maybe it's more to do with xbox controller compatibility etc? I know someone who uses it on a few games but meets difficulty here or there, so maybe it's just stuff that's been made compatible to PC rather than interconsoles? There are xbox files in any valve game though (that's on xbox too, obviously) so it could be for reporting glitches there so they can find out where they're going wrong. But as I've said, I didn't call the actual thread up on Steam so I am only guessing blindly, but it seems a lot more likely to me than MS and Steam being best buddies all of a sudden....they're competitors at the core of it.

Take L4D for example: if it was cross platform and say, you play the Sacrifice, you have PC players playing as normal but laughing at the suckers on xbox who not only are playing with a controller, but they also paid a lot of MS points for the map. Equality'd mean MS couldn't really charge for addons in that environment and I don't see them throwing away a cash cow like that. Just my opinion!