[BLOG] Valve Announces STEAM OS

[PredictedCyborg]

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This was the week of Steam, with company Valve making three big announcements relating to it and their plan for a new open gaming revolution over the week, the first being the reveal of the company's new operating system named simply Steam OS on the 23rd.



The Linux-based system has been introduced according to the website as part of Valve's bid to bring Steam into the living room and that this operating system has been built around that idea in a bid to make it as simple as possible. It will provide access to all the games and features that the Steam client does now, only improved in some ways. Already the website for Steam OS claims that the graphics processing of the system has achieved 'significant performance increases' and that better audio and reductions in input latency are also on the table of improvements Valve hopes to make with Steam OS.



Valve have been talking about bringing Steam 'to the big screen' (the television one that is) for a while now. Along with the announcement of this new operating system, there are many titles being planned for release for Steam OS, with a number of games being ported over, and Valve plan to make the entire Steam library accessible through something called 'in-home streaming'. Valve also lists a number of new features to be included with Steam OS among them streaming, parental restriction options and even provision for other forms of media such as music to be used with the system.



Steam OS will be available as a free download for users and a 'freely licensable operating system for manufacturers'. It will also be the operating system for Valve's offering for the home console market - the Steam Machine.