Steam to get plugin support and start selling movies and music, beta code suggests - Polidicks

[img]http://imgkk.com/i/ada4.png[/img] [url]http://www.valvetime.net/threads/movies-tv-series-music-and-more-coming-to-steam.245398/[/url] [quote]Still missing are a lot of other features that platforms like the Xbox has that the Steam Universe lacks (natively). Where is Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, HBO Go, or other media streaming services that also make up the backbone of entertainment in the living room? Well, according to the folks at SteamDB, a lot of these services, or ones like them, could be making their way into Steam and the Steam Universe soon. SteamDB said that Valve updated their Steam binaries in a beta update today, and they found that a few new application-type IDs were added. Films, TV Series, Videos, Plugins, and Music are all coming to Steam. We were kind of given a hint that Valve was moving towards these services in another beta update a few weeks ago. In the update were references to the popular Spotify music player.[/quote]

Steamflix

[QUOTE=Zenreon117;45653719]Steamflix[/QUOTE] they should just call it Stream

Finally, plugins.

I wish Steam would focus on refining the features they already have rather than adding more. I've been using Steam for ten years now and the community still goes down once an hour it seems like. The UI is ugly (Valve is a billion dollar company and they can't acquire one of the designers from Microsoft/Google/Apple? Come on), it's difficult to navigate and it relies on embedded web-browsers too much. Also the overlay crashes all the time.

[QUOTE=Ehmmett;45653735]There already are movies on steam.[/QUOTE] Like Gone Home?

[QUOTE=Korova;45653805]I wish Steam would focus on refining the features they already have rather than adding more. I've been using Steam for ten years now and the community still goes down once an hour it seems like. The UI is ugly (Valve is a billion dollar company and they can't acquire one of the designers from Microsoft/Google/Apple? Come on), it's difficult to navigate and it relies on embedded web-browsers too much. Also the overlay crashes all the time.[/QUOTE] are you kidding me i love the ui. If you don't like it you can customize it easy

I like the idea of being able to play music and movies and shit with steam if you want (more use out of the forced DRM), but selling them, mnmno. Unless they can think of a way to actually be better than netflix or itunes or whatever, then it sounds like a gimmick, plus, I don't know, I'm tired of there never being dedicated video game things anymore. You pop in to consoles and you've got ads for pizza hut and netflix and shit like that, and all these different things like TV being added, I just want a program or a console that just wants to be a game thing, not in all in one media blob. [editline]10th August 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=ragin cajun;45653930]are you kidding me i love the ui. If you don't like it you can customize it easy[/QUOTE] Not really, I mean granted it's definitely not hard to install themes for Steam at all, and I don't know the process that goes in to actually making one, but the thing is that nobody's making them... You've got a few good ones like pixelvision and metro and then a heaping pile of shitty recolors, so there really isn't a lot of customizing to be done.

Why would I buy those on Steam over Amazon/iTunes/Netflix/Hulu/Spotify/Other Sites/Retail considering their selection will be better and generally will be at a good price? The movie/music industry will certainly not allow Steam to undercut competitors by more than $1-$2 outside of sales. If it's game specific stuff, I guess that's alright.

[QUOTE=UberMunchkin;45653779]If they can add streaming, surely they can add png avatars, r-right?[/QUOTE] I remember some time last year, for less than an hour, they allowed high-quality avatars. I noticed the one I uploaded at the time wasn't jpeg'd to shit.

It'd be cool to have Netflix and stuff on Steam so that the Steam consoles won't be complete crap.

if they added spotify or something to the overlay for games, i would cream my pants.

[QUOTE=The freeman;45653966]Why would I buy those on Steam over Amazon/iTunes/Netflix/Hulu/Spotify/Other Sites/Retail considering their selection will be better and generally will be at a good price? The movie/music industry will certainly not allow Steam to undercut competitors by more than $1-$2 outside of sales. If it's game specific stuff, I guess that's alright.[/QUOTE] They're definitely going to have a tough time managing all this if they end up doing it. They'll have to manage to the desktop format, they'll have to make a mobile app that isn't complete shit. They'll need to add in sharing features similar to what is being offered by the competition (they're not competitive with game sharing at all, the Playstation 4 has better family sharing features considering multiple consoles in the same household are able to play different games simultaneously) so I doubt they'll compete with Netflix/HBO Go in this respect. The only way I see them pulling this off is if they create some sort of platform supports other platforms... But at that point, why bother? The music integration can definitely be improved upon but why would I open a Netflix application on Steam when I can use my browser? It's the same problem I have with Metro on Windows 8. Why would I use Metro and limit what I can do when I can easily open up Netflix outside of Metro and continue doing everything I do now? They can not compete with these companies given the way Steam has ran in the past, unless they dramatically change, they'll lose.

[QUOTE=Ehmmett;45653944]You're fucking hilarious is that an original joke™?[/QUOTE] Watch me as I do a very funny original joke [I]There's already movies in steam! Indie Game The Movie![/I] Ha! nobody said THAT!

[QUOTE=Ehmmett;45653944]You're fucking hilarious is that an original joke™?[/QUOTE] Look at me I'm funny because I'm sarcastic LOOK AT ME

[QUOTE=Korova;45653805]I wish Steam would focus on refining the features they already have rather than adding more. I've been using Steam for ten years now and the community still goes down once an hour it seems like. The UI is ugly (Valve is a billion dollar company and they can't acquire one of the designers from Microsoft/Google/Apple? Come on), it's difficult to navigate and it relies on embedded web-browsers too much. Also the overlay crashes all the time.[/QUOTE] Steam has always been a bit ropey and janky and just doesn't feel great to use, I'd love if they could fix some of that

[QUOTE=Banhfunbags;45653990]It'd be cool to have Netflix and stuff on Steam so that the Steam consoles won't be complete crap.[/QUOTE] i don't judge how good a console is based on whether it has Netflix.

Plugin support? AWWW YEAH AWWW YEAH AWWW YEAH AWWW YEAH Imagine Steam Workshop integration, too!

Last.fm support please

[QUOTE=xqzyk;45654038]i don't judge how good a console is based on whether it has Netflix.[/QUOTE] Considering that it's supposed to be a multimedia platform, it would be pretty bad if it didn't have Netflix.

[QUOTE=ragin cajun;45653930]are you kidding me i love the ui. If you don't like it you can customize it easy[/QUOTE] you shouldn't have to customise it to make it look decent, the fact is steam relies off shitty gradients it looks like a web 2.0 interface is having a midlife crisis the new partial ui overhaul on the steam client isn't enough, its still gradients, and the fucking phone apps have not been updated to respect the current ui guidelines

[QUOTE=smurfy;45654034]Steam has always been a bit ropey and janky and just doesn't feel great to use, I'd love if they could fix some of that[/QUOTE]Third-party themes help with the "feel" of Steam a bit, but it's still pretty unacceptable. It doesn't feel modern or up-to-date at all. It should at least try to match the modernity of PS or XB software.

[QUOTE=AtomicSans;45654068]Third-party themes help with the "feel" of Steam a bit, but it's still pretty unacceptable. It doesn't feel modern or up-to-date at all. It should at least try to match the modernity of PS or XB software.[/QUOTE] Exactly. it still feels like I'm using a customized web-browser that only allows me to go to [url]http://steampowered.com/store[/url], [url]http://steamcommunity.com[/url] and [url]http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight[/url] Compare Steam to Origin, I want a native application that does everything that it's meant to do. That comes with performance increases, the ability to do things that are unachievable within a web-browser and it generally just feels nicer and more responsive. Seriously though, Steam needs to get competitive with Playstation's family sharing. Why should my family member living in the same house have to buy *insert game* again just so I can play Garry's Mod while he or she plays Portal? They're two different licenses being used by one household. Playstation allows different digital games to be played simultaneously on different devices. Why can't Steam do that?

[QUOTE=Korova;45653805]I wish Steam would focus on refining the features they already have rather than adding more. I've been using Steam for ten years now and the community still goes down once an hour it seems like. The UI is ugly (Valve is a billion dollar company and they can't acquire one of the designers from Microsoft/Google/Apple? Come on), it's difficult to navigate and it relies on embedded web-browsers too much. Also the overlay crashes all the time.[/QUOTE] It still has the bug where if you randomly click items in your games list quickly, it crashes.

I have a filling this isn't going to be as open with Australian STEAM users.

I bet the streaming server is going to have a 20 minute uptime daily.

[QUOTE=Korova;45653805]I wish Steam would focus on refining the features they already have rather than adding more. I've been using Steam for ten years now and the community still goes down once an hour it seems like. The UI is ugly (Valve is a billion dollar company and they can't acquire one of the designers from Microsoft/Google/Apple? Come on), it's difficult to navigate and it relies on embedded web-browsers too much. Also the overlay crashes all the time.[/QUOTE] This. Everything is basically just an embedded website. Everything takes a million years to load for me and the community goes down all the time. Also, the Steam Community is very poorly designed IMO. It needs to be reworked heavily. And has anyone noticed that ever since they redesigned the search it is incredibly inaccurate? Like, it used to list the people you searched up by mutual friends and groups. Now, if I look up a friend of mine, I see people a million miles away who have nothing in common with me. Not sure if that is an issue on my end or what, but it is hella annoying.

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;45654063]you shouldn't have to customise it to make it look decent, the fact is steam relies off shitty gradients it looks like a web 2.0 interface is having a midlife crisis the new partial ui overhaul on the steam client isn't enough, its still gradients, and the fucking phone apps have not been updated to respect the current ui guidelines[/QUOTE] Honestly, I think they should hire the Pixelvision guy. [t]http://i.imgur.com/exd9D.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/RsOYMsG.jpg[/t] It just looks so much better to me.

They should probably start fixing everything that's already in before adding even more services. Steam is a sluggish mess at the moment and it's in dire need of tweaking (or outright repairs in some areas). Like seriously it's valve's official platform and it runs their own official webpage and sometimes it can't even load it properly while any web browser totally can. I even had issues with the marketplace telling me I didn't activate cookies [I]on fucking steam.[/I] NO WAY I'm entrusting them with music or movies right now when they can't even handle the game selling part well.

[QUOTE=Korova;45654096]Exactly. it still feels like I'm using a customized web-browser that only allows me to go to [url]http://steampowered.com/store[/url], [url]http://steamcommunity.com[/url] and [url]http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight[/url] Compare Steam to Origin, I want a native application that does everything that it's meant to do. That comes with performance increases, the ability to do things that are unachievable within a web-browser and it generally just feels nicer and more responsive. Seriously though, Steam needs to get competitive with Playstation's family sharing. Why should my family member living in the same house have to buy *insert game* again just so I can play Garry's Mod while he or she plays Portal? They're two different licenses being used by one household. Playstation allows different digital games to be played simultaneously on different devices. Why can't Steam do that?[/QUOTE] In-account profiles would be pretty neat. You use all the same license and stuff but all the saves and preferences could be instanced. Well, that's kind of how Steam sharing works but instead of account-wide restrictions it should be based on individual games.