Steam bringing PC games to living room with "Big Picture Mode"

March 1st, 2011

 

Following last year's "TV friendly PC gaming" debate, one of the biggest players in PC games this week announced a new initiative to bring PC games to the living room.

Valve, creator of best-selling Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike and maker of Steam yesterday announced plans for a new "big picture mode," which will offer controller support and menus designed for television viewing. "Big picture mode will enable gamers to enjoy Steam and their library of Steam games on more screens throughout the house," the company said in a statement. 

It's unclear how and when the initiative will launch. But it basically means you'll be able to play Steam games while leaning in front of a monitor or leaning back on a sofa. Not only that, it means PC games are coming to a living room near you. 

Read more: PC gaming headlines

 

Comments

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sweet, now I need to get a better tv XD

@.@

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Posted Tuesday, March 1st, 2011    Quote This Post
FuzzyChaos
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nice :)

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Posted Tuesday, March 1st, 2011    Quote This Post
lianinho
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Read this on steam this morning, too bad I cant hook up my laptop to my HDTV :P

3
Posted Tuesday, March 1st, 2011    Quote This Post
dodolidot
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Oh wow. This looks promising. I definitely look forward to it.

New forums... Soon™

4
Posted Tuesday, March 1st, 2011    Quote This Post
definewikipedia
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sounds good to me. i like to kick back once and awhile with a controller and get away from my mouse and keyboard.

5
Posted Tuesday, March 1st, 2011    Quote This Post
reyouke
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I'm pretty excited about this as long as I won't have to buy more hardware. I like using my laptop on my big screen but then a lot of the text becomes very disproportionate for certain games.

6
Posted Tuesday, March 1st, 2011    Quote This Post
Apples_mmmmmmmm
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Nice

7
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
zeMusketeer
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Amazing!!! More PC gamers whee : D

Anything worth having is worth working hard for.

8
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
Sever1ty
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Awesome

The Rolo

9
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
Rol260
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I probably won't use this, but it seems like a nice feature.

If actions speak louder than words, why is the pen mightier than the sword?

10
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
Kickimanjaro
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Ah I guess no one herd of the HDMI port that came out with the 5000 Series Graphics cards by ATI like a year and a half ago... This has been a thing for quite sometime. Everyone I know does this.

11
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
machinegunate
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PC games using your TV now that sounds like a plan. I most likely will not take advantage of the feature until I get a TV with the features already in it.

12
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
aliencat
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colllllllllllll

13
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
amir007
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This sounds like a great way to use PC over consoles on TV.

Set your profile picture as a Creepy Clown. Why? Progress is impossible without change.

14
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
Znuf
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machinegunate said: Ah I guess no one herd of the HDMI port that came out with the 5000 Series Graphics cards by ATI like a year and a half ago... This has been a thing for quite sometime. Everyone I know does this.


It's obviously not a new feature to use you tv for laptop/pc viewing. This article is referring to the new mode that steam itself is adding, which they'll be adjusting menus for so that you don't have to play on lower resolutions just to read text when you decide to play on your t.v.

15
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
Apples_mmmmmmmm
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I can't wait to see how it turns out.

dont make fun of the wayz i type.

16
Posted Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011    Quote This Post
Zarutsgamae
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go steam!

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17
Posted Thursday, March 3rd, 2011    Quote This Post
el_pitaya
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Sounds pretty cool, should be interesting to see.

18
Posted Thursday, March 3rd, 2011    Quote This Post
TaishiFox
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maybe it will interest me in buying more games that arent windows controller enabled on steam. If i cant use a controller so i can play on my 78" projection i dont bother playing it.

19
Posted Friday, March 4th, 2011    Quote This Post
deleted_de
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I better save some money xD

20
Posted Sunday, March 6th, 2011    Quote This Post
hanzlo89
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Sweet, but I don't really care since I hate using console controllers.
There's a reason why there haven't been any console/pc mixed online games yet - because a mice and keyboard have a huge advantage over a controller. I would think of it more as a downgrade.

As for hooking it up to a TV in the living room, it's not like you can't do that already.

Sentaul

21
Posted Sunday, March 6th, 2011    Quote This Post
phoenixxknix
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phoenixxknix said:There's a reason why there haven't been any console/pc mixed online games yet - because a mice and keyboard have a huge advantage over a controller. I would think of it more as a downgrade.


Portal 2's gonna try it. Good luck for them.

And on a side note, I love Valve.

22
Posted Sunday, March 6th, 2011    Quote This Post
w00terz4hooterz
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I thought valve was starting to run out of ideas until I saw this!

23
Posted Sunday, March 6th, 2011    Quote This Post
yuriy43
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Cool!

Living My Life Sideways(Drifting) \m/_(^_^)_\m/

24
Posted Monday, March 7th, 2011    Quote This Post
ilovehell03
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hmmm....sounds sweet :)

25
Posted Tuesday, March 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
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