The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Monad]

Well, if there were a market in waste management then we might see garbage men paid more I'm not sure. I do agree with your point about manual labor, but the question comes down to market value and skills involved in different types of jobs.

 

[Monad]

How are you gauging what's important to society, anyways?

 

[Infinitron]

Garbage collectors are known to be paid relatively well compared to how replaceable they are. The shit tier jobs of the modern West are usually either service drudgery ("Would you like fries with that?") or dominated by foreigners (eg, Mexican farm workers in the US). These days, if you're a white guy doing manual labor then you're quite possibly better off than many.

 

[Ninjerk]

What started this debate, and is momentarily derailing this thread, is how a company that arguably pays very well and has excellent worker benefits like Valve, is seen as a bad workplace. People often have no clue about the workplace in general out of their zone of comfort. If i tried complaining to one of my workers how stressful my job is, he would laugh in my face or possibly deck me right there, because hes probably under 40, has 3 kids and gets payed 500 euros a month to build a building while i sit at a desk designing plans.

You don't have to compare a job to the worst possible job in the world (hypothetically speaking) to consider it to have a bad workplace. This works the same with any comparison on a very basic level. If my girlfriend is an emasculating, emotionally abusive bitch, she doesn't have to also murder me to be a bad girlfriend.

 

[Metro]

I'm pretty sure 'sanitation engineers' are paid more than cops in most cities.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

How are you gauging what's important to society, anyways?

I don't have a precise gauge, but I'm fairly certain building houses and managing waste is more important than game development

 

[Ninjerk]

I'm pretty sure 'sanitation engineers' are paid more than cops in most cities.

Are they paid more for manual labor?

 

[Monad]

How are you gauging what's important to society, anyways?

I don't have a precise gauge, but I'm fairly certain building houses and managing waste is more important than game development

Not necessarily. What is more important, beethoven's symphonies or building a house? General relativity or picking up garbage?

 

[Hoaxmetal]

What is RPG?

 

[Ninjerk]

What is art?

 

[Spectacle]

How are you gauging what's important to society, anyways?

I don't have a precise gauge, but I'm fairly certain building houses and managing waste is more important than game development

There are already plenty of houses, but games get boring quickly, I need a steady supply of new ones! Let the poor who can't afford a house live on the streets, while they're there they can also manage the waste I toss out of the window.



(Seriously, importance has never been what sets the wages for a job in a market system, supply and demand is. "Important" jobs will have a relatively high "demand floor", but as long as the supply of workers willing to do the job is higher, wages can still be shit.)

 

[Morgoth]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/..._further_encroaching_on_console_territory.php

GabeTV incoming.

 

[Caim]

Why do all these people think there is a market for watching TV via your console?

Seriously, can someone explain this to me? I do not understand this.

 

[Ninjerk]

There might be.

 

[Morgoth]

http://kotaku.com/gabe-newell-posts-on-reddit-gaming-gets-ignored-1502162961

Gaben providing evidence that he wanders the Reddit lands too.

Gaben is everywhere.

 

[Morgoth]

http://steamdb.info/blog/42/

The Steam Controller
The retail controller will no longer have a touchscreen. It'll have a DPAD and ABXY buttons for backwards compatiblity

 

[Black_Willow]

http://kotaku.com/gabe-newell-posts-on-reddit-gaming-gets-ignored-1502162961

Gaben providing evidence that he wanders the Reddit lands too.

Gaben is everywhere.

Three bottles on the desk. HL3 confirmed.

 

[tuluse]

http://steamdb.info/blog/42/

The Steam Controller
The retail controller will no longer have a touchscreen. It'll have a DPAD and ABXY buttons for backwards compatiblity

Doesn't this ruin the whole concept of their controller and make it just like a shitty logitech?

 

[Cowboy Moment]

http://steamdb.info/blog/42/

The Steam Controller
The retail controller will no longer have a touchscreen. It'll have a DPAD and ABXY buttons for backwards compatiblity

Doesn't this ruin the whole concept of their controller and make it just like a shitty logitech?

They mean the touchscreen that was supposed to be in the center. It still has the two trackpads for analog input.

 

[tuluse]

Ok, that makes more sense.

 

[Dexter]

They mean the touchscreen that was supposed to be in the center. It still has the two trackpads for analog input.

They showed this off (Apparently VR was a driver behind why they wanted to make a Controller and they are keeping it in mind while designing it):

Also they're bribing devs with free Steamboxes like they're Apple or something (Controller included):

What I'm most excited about is this (Codenamed "Vortex") though and hearing more about it: https://twitter.com/TheDavidHensley/status/423591891171426304

Spoiler

Apparently they let people register that they want to experience it and then at some point call them up personally via phone to come demo it.

SteamVR Beta: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-01-15-valve-launches-steam-vr-beta


I hope it doesn't take literally weeks for the talks to get uploaded...

More about GabeN and Heart of Racing whatever the hell that is:


http://www.valvetime.net/threads/updated-steam-surpasses-75-million-active-users.244228/

Valve has just confirmed the 75 million active user claim via an official press release. Overall, the Steam user base has expanded by a total of 15% in the final three months of 2013, with Valve citing the Autumn and Holiday sales as vital factors to the growth. So, no surprise there.

As shown in the pie chart below, the Steam publishing team provided information on Steam's holiday sales revenue, with North America (41%) and Europe (40%) accounting for the majority of sales. Again, no surprise there. What is surprising, however, is the rapid growth of the Russian and Brazilian territories, which have expanded by 128% and 75% over the past year, respectively.

The pie chart Valve released, showing sales figures by regions in 2013.

Additionally, Valve has announced that recordings of all the talks at SteamDevDays will be available in the coming weeks, so we'll be sure to post the videos here on our front page when they are released.

Original Post:
Steam has recently surpassed 75 million active users, according to a tweet by Dave Oshry, who is currently attending the SteamDevDays conference in Seattle. The figure, which was reportedly announced during the opening presentation of the conference, means Steam has grown substantially since October 30th 2013, when Valve announced the service had surpassed 65 million total active users, far ahead of the 48 million held by Xbox Live.

While we currently still lack an official announcement directly from Valve, this new figure takes Steam even closer to beating the 110 million total users currently boasted by the Playstation Network, although these are not necessarily all active accounts. We'll keep you up to date if we learn more about the seemingly unstoppable Steam train.

Oh yeah, they also want to have TV, movies, music on SteamOS "eventually": http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/15/val...ic-and-movies-through-steam-machines-steamos/ (likely to compete more with consoles)

Valves is looking to add music, movies, and TV to Steam OS further cementing its place in the consumer’s living room.

According to Anna Sweet, who is in charge of general business development, focusing on Steam distribution and Steamworks integration, the firm wants to “add music, movies, and TV to Steam OS before it gets released to consumers.”

Such properties would be released on Steam Machines.

Valve had previously said it would bring other forms of entertainment to SteamOS last year.

Day 1 summed up: http://steamdb.info/blog/42/
http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/steam-dev-days-highlights.2952/

Random:

Spoiler

Ugghh...

Yaaay, more Shovelware:

 

[Don Peste]

https://twitter.com/DaveOshry/status/423514948182884352
+
Newell’s hope is to give developers more power over Steam, eventually allowing them to control the store itself and, in turn, how they promote their games.

That sounds interesting.

 

[Baron Dupek]

No potato currency this time.
Not sure if blaming Steam or potato itself because no balls detected / suck in diplomacy.

 

[Destroid]

I wonder if they plan to make stuff cheaper or more expensive for Australians. Or perhaps just present in the local currency.

 

[Caim]

I wonder if they plan to make stuff cheaper or more expensive for Australians. Or perhaps just present in the local currency.

Amen to that. Some people still think 50 dorrah = 50 eurobucks = 50 jim pound sterling.