Steam Big Picture mode trailer lists features, watch it here

Want that beta now

Definitely be interested to try this out.

Um. That’s amazing.

Fantastic!

Yeah, decent console interface.

I want STEAM console NOW.

When does this become avalible for users?

“a web browser for the TV that doesnt suck”, lol

The site is up now: http://store.steampowered.com/bigpicture/

Much better than I thought!

After that they will absolutely launch a console and I guess it will have different machines.

something like with Xbox 360 Pro and Arcade versions I think, but the difference here will be in specs. One for the casual audience and another for some serious console gaming.

Sony, Ninty and MS are definitely scared. Dunno about MS or Ninty cause one have decent software infrastructure and another one have iP’s to survive, Sony on the other hand is in deep shit. Vita shows it.

“Sony on the other hand is in deep shit.”

I agree with this, alot.

Sony have been great at cranking out medium and upper quality 1st party exclusives with new to this gen IPs. The problem is that those games haven’t set the sales charts on fire.

With Vita, Sony showed that they don’t understand what the mass market wants. Or is willing to pay to get it. If PS4 isn’t cheap, Sony could have some real issues.

I think MS and Nintendo will be just fine.

If Valve or Apple jump head first into the living room battle, I think it cuts into MS more then it does Nintendo. All just anyones guess and purely speculation at this point tho.

Wow this does seem interesting. It will be so cool if Valve creates a console. I hope it happens.

@10

Maybe Sony will tap out and exit out the console and portable market completely and then maybe….. we can finally get some peace and quiet from you, from constantly bitching about their products all of the time. You’re obviously a PC gamer out of all of the hardware you own (if you even own anything else) and this article is cater to your hardware of choice. So I ask, was a critical for you to mention the other hardware in this thread?

I’m a big fan of steam so I love this, it will be great for gaming on a projector or large screen

I haven’t spent that much time on Xbox lately, though I need to, as I need to finish syndicate and max payne 3. Steam keeps me away with its sales…

FANTASTIC trailer.

I’m sold.

@13

So true, I’ve been playing sleeping dogs and binary domain on steam, can’t get enough on those games. Steam is becoming my choice for gaming at the moment, that is until the last of us comes out.

Forgive my ignorance, but to get this I assume all I need is a smart tv? Or am I missing something… Like a pc? Er… I really have no clue how this would work :-/

@16
I think you need a pc hooked up to your tv. I builded my own pc not to long ago and I have it hook up to my 51 inch Samsung smart tv. The smart TV has nothing to do with it, at least I don’t think it does.

@16 A smart-tv won’t enable you to play your Steam games and chat with your Steam friends. Also the web-browsing experience with this will be much better.

edit: All is this really is a new UI especially for TV and control pads. Of course you need a PC.

Yeah, it is a PC thing. My PC often finds itself conected to the TV in my living room. It just depends on what I am playing.

@18

Is it available yet?

I don’t get what the big deal is. I’ve been using my PC with a 40″ tv from my sofa for over 6 years now. I can, wirelessly, launch any media I choose or run anything on the PC I choose. I’m not restricted in any way by content only available by a specific content provider.

The daisy-wheel text input is cute – but it’s not Steam’s invention either.

It complements my consoles just fine too. This is clearly a move into the space console enjoy but I really don’t see why consoles should care. Look at the cost of entry, for example. They certainly don’t need to be scared. The content is different but aside from that there’s not a lot of overlap. Its like being told “Here’s a new TV channel” and people saying “LOL all those other TV channels are scared now!!”.

We’re not seeing innovation here, just a particular PC content provider doing that consoles and HTPCs have been doing for years. Marketed as something new.

This is really bemusing. I’m not hating on this, it just doesn’t seem to be doing anything other than slapping the Steam logo on some pretty common functionality.

@21

I agree, just like 18 stated it’s just an improvement to the UI that looks more user friendly to the consumer. I don’t mind the web browser in the ps3, but it’s a feature I can do without, because if I want to surf the web, I just use my PC. So yes it’s definitely is not anything new, it’s just an improvement.

I played Sleeping Dogs on my TV. It was such a nice experience rather than being cramped over my laptop and getting back-pains after several hours. With a controller of course. If this feature makes it easier to do it then I am happy as hell. My TV has a limit of 1080i although when I connect my laptop to it the highest resolution it can show is 1024×576. Also, had to run Sleeping Dogs in windowed mode although with that I was able to do 1280×720 which was much nicer.

I only live in one room at the moment so this won’t revolutionize my gaming, but I can definitely see how it would be great.

“world’s first person browser”

wtf!? PS3 Browser can do all that.

and I don’t get this Big Picture.
what exactly is it?
a browser like Google tv?
like Onlive?

what is this exactly?

@24 Please don’t compare the PS3 browser to something Steam can offer. The PC elite are likely to spontaneously self combust in indignation

Do a review of it Dave. Would be good for a few hits I’m sure.

I second what Kabby said. Dave you need to review this. Alot of people aren’t getting a clear picture of what it is.

In a nut shell xino it is a new UI for Steam. It makes the service bigger, more readable, and fully workable with a controler. So you can sit on your couch and play your PC games.

And it looks VERY good.