Big Picture Mode brings Steam to tellys

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 28 February, 2011

Controller support and TV navigation, too.

Steam is about to hit living room tellys, Valve has announced.

Big Picture Mode enables Valve's digital download service to beam directly onto any TV or computer display in the home via a PC or Mac.

It'll also offer controller support and navigation designed for television interaction.

"Big picture mode will enable gamers to enjoy Steam and their library of Steam games on more screens throughout the house," Valve said. Further details are expected during the Game Developers Conference this week.

"Our partners and customers have asked us to make Steam available in more places," marketing boss Doug Lombardi offered. "With the introduction of Steam on the Mac, and soon in Portal 2 on the PS3, we've done just that."

Steam enjoys a whopping 30 million active subscribers. The PlayStation 3 version of upcoming mind-bending first-person puzzler Portal 2 features Steamworks integration and cross-platform play with the PC and Mac versions. World domination is expected by 2020. The launch of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will then follow.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • markyHD #1 1 year ago

    I'm hoping they can bring steam to my kitchen as well soon. I'm sick to death of all this grilled shit :(

  • BabyJesus #2 1 year ago

    I was going to make a joke, but I have to just bow instead to markyHD.

    Good show.

  • twh104 #3 1 year ago

    I suppose nobody told them about DVI-HDMI cables, 1366x768 resolution and "AV3"

  • persus-9 #4 1 year ago

    Sounds good to me. They should open up and expand the functionality of the in-built web browser and mediaplayer at the same time to make it a complete little media, web and gaming platform. Even if they don't I'll have to give some very serious thought to buying a nice long HDMI cable since my PC is going to be in the same room as my TV for the foreseeable future anyway.
    Edited by persus-9 at 28/02/11 @ 21:20

  • photoboy #5 1 year ago

    Basically OnLive with your own computer creating the video stream and none of the unreasonably high prices of OnLive. I hope this can be extended to things like netbooks and smart phones, imagine being able to play something like Crysis on the Xperia Play!

  • Widge #6 1 year ago

    So wait, this is like a local Onlive kind of thing? You beam the pictures from PC downstairs to your TV... somehow?

  • persus-9 #7 1 year ago

    @Widge: That would be very sweet if they were actually going to push wireless HDMI at the same time but I suspect this is just going to be a new interface designed for TV which will support joypad control. Although I'll admit that whole "throughout the house" comment does sound promising.
    Edited by persus-9 at 28/02/11 @ 21:40

  • carrotcake #8 1 year ago

    These guys are seriously wealthy. Gabe Newell pretty much said in an interview that Steam pulls them crazy money.

    @parsnip Portal 2 on PS3 can cross communicate with Steam players on PC, it can funnel regular game updates down without going through PSN approval, it has SteamCloud which is server side saving so you can retrieve your save and continue on a different console or computer or incase of data loss. Pretty much getting the Steam experience on your console.
    Edited by carrotcake at 28/02/11 @ 22:08

  • septimus #9 1 year ago

    Sounds good. Looks as though I need to upgrade the card in my htpc.

  • Mister-Wario #10 1 year ago

    carrotcake: except without things like TF2 updates or Move support, presumably.

  • MattyD #11 1 year ago

    So this will be like On Live? No thanks. My 5870 has HDMI after all, I could hook it up to my living room TV right now if I wanted.

  • chrisola #12 1 year ago

    console Counter Strike -- world domination right there!

  • Widge #13 1 year ago

    Well I'll be waiting on some Digital Foundry insight into this one. Get some wireless / homeplugs / wired analysis on picture/latency.

  • StooMonster #14 1 year ago

    Wonder if Valve are going to be launching their own hardware for this?

  • frycrayola #15 1 year ago

    The interesting thing here is full controller support for the Steam interface. Just as I use a remote control rather than the media keyboard when accessing the PVR software on the PC under my telly, I'd prefer a wireless controller. Keyboards are wonderful things for computers, but not for entertainment setups.

    Of course, that's all rendered moot when you end up needing the damn things to play anyway, but it's a lovely thought, no?

  • Quixz #16 1 year ago

    This sounds good and all, but where is HL2 episode 3..

  • Ryboy #17 1 year ago

    "World domination is expected by 2020. The launch of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will then follow."

    Fucking LOL.

  • arcam #18 1 year ago

    beam directly onto any TV or computer

    Beaming? I haven't seen any hint that it'll do anything like that anywhere else, nor do you provide any quotes to support it.

    Haven't exactly researched it, but to me it sounds more like a 10-foot interface for Steam and controller support for the program.

  • frunk #19 1 year ago

    Hmmmm... got me thinking... no real tech info here but bear with me...

    What they need is a network enabled, 1080p, Steam-freindly device that sits under the telly which can interface to wireless controllers and a "wireless air-mouse"...

    Could that device be a PS3?