News - Apple the biggest threat to Steam Box success says Gabe Newell

[Bluudz]

I know it's a tiny bit off topic.. but as soon as apple get a wiff of someone elses idea they are straight into that race and trying to stop that company from getting there no matter the costs. We have seen apple take over a lot of things.. and this isnt just because their ideas are amazing, no.. it's becuase they STOP other companies releasing anything similar by patenting everything... and they are becoming a serious problem as they are slowing down the progres in the computing industry by doing so. I hope they dont screw up steam like they have done with every other company.

[tedz10f]

I think that he is right in thinking that apple is amain contender

[Chadders87]

As bluudz says, I wonder how long before they patent "A microchip designed to process graphical data" or "Something that goes into a pc that may or may not be bigger than anything / something, with or without any particular use in mind".

I used to hate microsoft for controling the market but at least they encouraged innovation rather than stifling it!

[b0redom]

I agree it is extracting the urine so to speak, but really the fault is not with Apple. They are exploiting a stupid patent system. It's the same as with corporate tax avoidance. Fix the system.

[MercutioUK]

I find Steam is it's own enemy at times. For instance, I buy 2 games on Steam, one is Lego Harry Potter and the other is Modern Warfare. I can only play one at a time, which in my opinion is completely pointless, the Lego game is for my daughter, if I physically bought the disc it would be installed on her computer while I would be playing Modern Warfare on mine.

I can completely understand the argument about playing the same game at the same time, obviously its reasonable that you cannot play the same game if you have only bought one copy but you should be allowed to play different games under the same account name, I am pretty sure that Steam could detect it is running on the same subnet for instance

Actually, if they want to take on the living room space there's a certain amount of "different accounts" etc that comes into play. It would be a massive plus to have a "purchasing account" with various "player profiles" under it with steam and, as mentioned, access to different games on the same account, at the same time.