Valve announces SteamOS

Someone is making a big move. Valve just announced today the SteamOS, a linux-based operating system that can run on any living room hardware. 

The big countdown from Valve ended and this is what we got. This operating system is just one of the big announcements planned, and shows their attempt to hit the living room space that's already crowded by console gaming. Aside from the Family Sharing feature and the usual videos and music media services, the biggest feature of this operating system is the ability to stream your games from your PC straight to your home network and  TV. Valve states this is as a "Cooperating System".

Steam is not a one-way content broadcast channel, it’s a collaborative many-to-many entertainment platform, in which each participant is a multiplier of the experience for everyone else. With SteamOS, “openness” means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they’ve been able to. Content creators can connect directly to their customers. Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want. Gamers are empowered to join in the creation of the games they love. SteamOS will continue to evolve, but will remain an environment designed to foster these kinds of innovation.

Steam also announced that a huge amount of games will support the SteamOS natively in 2014, more info is said to come in a few weeks. The usual features like Steam Workshop, in-game chat, game groups, clouds storage will continue in the SteamOS, and it will be free to download when it's ready. Information is still vague at the moment, but I don't believe this OS is meant to go head-to-head against other systems like Windows.

We'll just have to see at this point. This is just one of the three planned announcements coming from Valve and the timer for the second has already started. The second announcement will be revealed in 41 hours at the time of writing this.

With the release of the Big Picture feature for Steam a year ago, it's clear that Valve has their eyes on your living room. With this reveal, it seems like they are ready to make a move, expand, and enter an already crowded space.

[Source: Steam ]