Valve considering Steam for iOS, Android

[Emil]

A user on the Steam Powered forums who calls himself Political Gamer recently had a chance to check out Valve's headquarters as part of an interview. He took notes; here are his main points (although we'd like to point out that the whole story is definitely worth reading):

• They use very high end computers when a game is in development (i7, 6GB DDR3 Ram, 128GB SSD, Nvidia 580) but they still test on lower end comps
• Steam will get video recording "soon"
• Steam might come to iOS/Android
• Source Film Maker will be made public "soon"
• Meet the Medic is badass
• Portal 2: GOTY hands down

Here's a quote from the most interesting part of the story:

After waiting in the lobby for a few minutes it turned out Gabe was in the office and wanted to say hi. To my great delight he was playing DOTA 2 when we walked in and from what I can see the game already looks very promising. After a little "sneak peek" we sat down to talk about Steam and other goings on in Valve. During this chat he confirmed that Steam will get a video recorder very soon, also he said they were looking into the iOS/Android platform for possible expansions with Steam. He also said that the Source film maker is in the pipeline for a public release. After the chat was over he happily signed my copy of the Orange box and sent me on my way to Robin Walker.

We're particularly excited about the fourth point. Valve is the only company that appears to understand what gamers want, and the next frontier for the gaming industry is undoubtedly mobile.

Android looks much more likely than iOS, mainly because of Apple's many App Store restrictions. Regardless of what mobile platform Steam arrives on though, one dedicated app for all our mobile games would simply be awesome.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/42957-valve-considering-steam-for-ios-android.html

 

[vipor231]

hmm android is run by linux so im wondering now if steam is really coming to the linux os finally

 

[Guest]

The linux in android and the linux desktop are very different platforms though.

 

[ramonsterns]

Why not?

 

[Guest]

I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert but from what I understand Android uses just the linux kernel and not necessarily all the other libraries and such that make up a traditional linux desktop. This is also why you can't simply run any Android app on say Ubuntu. This link may help. http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/How-Much-Linux-Is-in-Android

 

[Guest]

That will be a sad day indeed ,if it occurs.
Can you imagine the wasted data use when you have to sign in to Steam every time you want to use your aps.Sure they will say there is an offline mode,what a laugh that is.I live in the country so I have 3g+ and I blew 500 megs of data on a supposedly off line mode of Civilization 5.

Steam does not recognize you versions of Angry Bird please sign in

Bam ,pay your phone provider for overage on your phone data plan

 

[ET3D]

I agree with Emil, a game delivery platform for phones would be nice. Sony will have its own, but that would be limited to certain phones.

 

[BlueNoser]

Steam = Extra money to your isp

 

[Lurker101]

Let's just see Steam for Linux already. Focus on Macs when they can right click.

 

[yRaz]

Lurker101 said:
Let's just see Steam for Linux already. Focus on Macs when they can right click.

Most mac owners don't run dual boots. Although, it'd be nice if I didn't have to dual boot.

anyway, I think this will be interesting to see as we can only speculate on what it would be like.

 

[Lurker101]

I know I'm a little bit ill today, but when did I mention dual booting?

 

[Guest]

It is very unlikely that steam will make it to iOS. The Appstore licensing and acceptable use prohibits application from downloading and installing outside of iTunes. Kongregate tried to have an iOS app that allowed iPad/pod/phone users to run their flash game. Apple forced them to stop. This is why you will never see Steam on iOS.

 

[MrAnderson]

I imagine the experience will be very limited on iOS.

The apple app probably will allow users access to steam services to get information and maybe even make purchases by jumping to website. But I doubt installing apps as Apple is sure to block this... unless they work with apple.

I imagine the Android version could have the best implementation. But who knows what kind of parity the different platforms will have.