News - Valve confirms Steam to offer productivity software

[HEXUS]

Added "In an ongoing fashion" from 5th September.

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[Bagnaj97]

First porting Steam to Linux, now this. Rumours of a "Steam Box".

What are they up to...

[dangel]

First porting Steam to Linux, now this. Rumours of a "Steam Box".

What are they up to...

Making money.

And this is why Gabe is anti Win8 - it's direct competition.

[kopite]

First porting Steam to Linux, now this. Rumours of a "Steam Box".

What are they up to...

Anything but making episode 3

[Harrybizzle]

Hopefully big expensive pieces of software will be in Steam Sales.

Photoshop for £3.75 please.

[directhex]

Making money.

And this is why Gabe is anti Win8 - it's direct competition.

As long as the Windows 8 app store (and Mac app store) only permit toy apps, and not real apps, this could be of actual interest to developers.

[GaryRW]

one feature I can't believe MS didn't incorporate in Win8 was a unified updating system for 3rd party apps, whether directly incorporated in windows update or using similar tech but just packaged differently for the end user (to avoid MS looking like they're responsible for 3rd party security blunders...)

Obviously this is what Steam already offers though admittedly only when Steam is fired up (i think!). If they changed that to check routinely for security updates, I can see the advantage of installing things like java, flash etc... all through a central point like steam. Free stuff is probably not at the top of their list, though it could potentially drive a lot more traffic their way and increase people's overall use of steam.

[dangel]

As long as the Windows 8 app store (and Mac app store) only permit toy apps, and not real apps, this could be of actual interest to developers.

I think Valve has a lot of work to do before I'd want to use them for Apps too - their UI is buggy as heck and I'm not sure they cover things like multi user environments etc. Valve might end up selling "toy apps" - ironic given that's what games are

one feature I can't believe MS didn't incorporate in Win8 was a unified updating system for 3rd party apps, whether directly incorporated in windows update or using similar tech but just packaged differently for the end user (to avoid MS looking like they're responsible for 3rd party security blunders...)

Correct me if i'm wrong but I think this is the case - my Windows Store offers me updates for apps.

[Harrybizzle]

I think the Steam client needs some work too, especially if they're going after a broader audience like this. It's far too slow to get started and can be unresponsive at times.

[dangel]

Heh, you want to use "uber app 4.1" and Steam's offline mode fails

I have much love for Steam as a game's platform but that's just what it is currently - they have much work to do (even on the games side) to improve things.

[GaryRW]

Correct me if i'm wrong but I think this is the case - my Windows Store offers me updates for apps.

I thought I had read somewhere that the store would only allow metro apps and only those suitable for both full fat Win8 and win8 RT, and so wouldn't cover flash, java etc

It's entirely possible I'm wrong though - I'll admit I've not been interested enough in what I have seen about Win8 to pay really close attention. If win8 did end up offering utility/standard stuff like flash, java though the store with auto, centralised update, that would be a fairly big selling point for me. Maybe I need to pay closer attention!

[dangel]

I thought I had read somewhere that the store would only allow metro apps and only those suitable for both full fat Win8 and win8 RT, and so wouldn't cover flash, java etc

It's entirely possible I'm wrong though - I'll admit I've not been interested enough in what I have seen about Win8 to pay really close attention. If win8 did end up offering utility/standard stuff like flash, java though the store with auto, centralised update, that would be a fairly big selling point for me. Maybe I need to pay closer attention!

At the moment it only sells Metro apps (and updates those)..

but..

It also sells Office 2010 but in a roundabout sort of way - it directs you to a website to purchase it. Whether that's an indication of future intent or not is open to interpretation.

Of course MS has long had Windows Update and many times it's been discussed whether this could be used for third party apps but I think it's probably a big can of worms for them and that's why they've shied away from it in the past. Given the 'new' MS has changed so radically who knows what will happen now though (!) I'm not entirely sure if I want all my apps updating themselves though - there are situations where that's counter productive..

[directhex]

I thought I had read somewhere that the store would only allow metro apps and only those suitable for both full fat Win8 and win8 RT, and so wouldn't cover flash, java etc

Correct. Hence "toy apps"

Apps for the Win8 app store must:

• Be WinRT only (i.e. no existing apps work, just new ones using the subset of Windows APIs in WinRT)
• Be Metro UI only
• Run fullscreen, with support for taking up 2/3 or 1/3 of the screen instead
• Be fully sandboxed, i.e. have no access to hardware. Chance of a partition tool or defragger being sold on Win8 store: 0
• Fully start within 2 seconds or be rejected from the store
• Do Tablet-style multitasking, i.e. if the app gets killed, restart where you left off and pretend it was still running all along

[Kumagoro]

Off topic but some what related, I have always wondered why stream hasn't got into music and film sales.

Add another tab for music and away you go. You could even have it control and play the music in game.

Now someone will come along and tell me you can already do that.