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Valve CEO Gabe Newell Discusses Steam Box, Future of Gaming

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January 16, 2013

Yesterday, we posted a story about the potential disruption to gaming that could result from the upcoming Steam Box from Valve. In a rare and candid interview, The Verge talks with Valve CEO Gabe Newell about his company’s gaming hardware, biometrics, gaze tracking and the future of gaming. Newell envisions an ecosystem of content developers, which will include the gamers themselves. Continue reading Valve CEO Gabe Newell Discusses Steam Box, Future of Gaming

With Steam Box, Valve Could Disrupt Big Game Console Makers

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January 15, 2013

The three big game console makers — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii — could see competition in the upcoming Steam Box from Valve. Gabe Newell, founder and CEO of Valve, explains the device is built around the company’s Steam service, which provides PC game publishers with a secure, turnkey solution for publishing, while offering gamers a central hub for buying thousands of titles. Continue reading With Steam Box, Valve Could Disrupt Big Game Console Makers

CES 2013: Biometric Tech Aims to Revolutionize Entertainment

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January 11, 2013

Technicolor debuted its biometric-based content discovery and audience testing project at CES. As it transitions from research endeavor to commercial tool, the question remains, can it become a viable instrument for entertainment and advertising production? It has been successfully tested in Europe and the U.S., but several other companies introduced technology this week that could provide alternatives functionality. Continue reading CES 2013: Biometric Tech Aims to Revolutionize Entertainment

Steam Takes on the Console Competition with Launch of Big Picture Mode

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December 6, 2012
  • In a challenge to console makers, Valve has officially launched its “Big Picture Mode” for its cloud-gaming platform Steam, enabling users to play titles on their televisions by simply connecting their computers.
  • “Steam has been offering its users the option to put the service on their television since September in beta mode,” the Washington Post reports, “but the company has deemed it ready to lose that testing tag. The mode makes it possible to use almost all of Steam’s features including its Web browser, social network and — of course — its games in a way optimized for television screens.”
  • To promote the new mode, Steam has put the compatible games on sale. “All the sale titles have full controller support, which means that users won’t have to tote their mouse and keyboard to the living room,” the article notes.
  • “There are also quite a few partial support titles, such as ‘XCOM Enemy Unknown,’ ‘Hitman: Absolution,’ and ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.’ Steam is very clear about which titles have full support and which do not,” explains the article. “Titles with partial support may need the keyboard and mouse during installation or for ‘limited interactions’ throughout the game.”
  • Because Valve has established itself in the gaming community, the company could move further into the console territory currently dominated by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. “Some see this step into the living room as a test for bigger things in the future,” the article suggests.

DRM Effectiveness: Is Piracy a Pricing Issue or a Service Issue?

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October 27, 2011
  • Valve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell has reiterated his take on the issue of piracy. Valve is the creator of game platform Steam that distributes games to a global community of 35 million players.
  • Newell believes that DRM does not work and pirates are not necessarily always seeking free content.
  • “One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue,” he says. “The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.”
  • “Most games available on Steam are easily found in pirated form on the torrent sites,” writes ETCentric contributor Nick Nero. “Even if you buy the game, many users download the torrent because most DRM requires the disc to be present which slows down the game startup and level load/access times.”
  • “What keeps me as a Steam customer is their cloud service,” adds Nick. “I can download any of my games to another PC, I can backup my games to encrypted physical media, my game saves are stored in the cloud, and I can easily find my friends for mulitplayer. The service layer is what brings in the customers.”

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