Steam Update Will Save Users' Games

[Junaid Alam]

Steam Update Will Save Users' Games

Steam users will no longer need to worry about their saved games being wiped away with their hard drives.

Valve has announced a new free service, called Steam Cloud, that will keep its users' saved games and configurations stored online.

The service is starting off with support for in-house games, such as the Half-Life series and upcoming Left 4 Dead game, as well as CounterStrike (key mappings).

The saved data, initially stored to hard drive if a player is offline, will be added to the network the next time she or he is online again.

Valve is also weighing whether to store replay and kill-cam videos from online games like Team Fortress 2.

Steam Cloud, which will also be made available for free to other developers, is set for release "in the near future."

Source: Shacknews.com [http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52906]

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[Pickled Whispers]

"...in the near future".

I guess that means sometime around 2010.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Gabe Newel must be part tree or something.

To him the near future is anything in the next five years.

 

[Blayze]

Perhaps he bleeds ambrosia, and all of Valve are taking it. That's probably why they take so long to do anything. Time must have less meaning when you're immortal.

 

[stompy]

Hey, but this is still a great think, eh? It'll be worth the wait. Hopefully...

 

[x434343]

I like it. It'll save me any grief if my game gets stolen by some fucker. My stuffs are saved.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

"...in the near future".

I guess that means sometime around 2010.

I say just half-ass it, release it now, and then let everyone report the bugs, work is practically done for them.

Isn't that how steam came to be anyway? They launched it, it does horrible, they fix it, and now it's the best thing ever.

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

Steam's hardly the best thing ever... it just does what it was supposed to from the start. They definitely didn't half-ass it though, you can't polish a turd: they had a gem with a lot of flaws round the edges when it was launched. Valve has never half-assed a game or technology, they know how to take their time and use it wisely.

I think they've all been drinking Grolsch.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Steam's hardly the best thing ever... it just does what it was supposed to from the start. They definitely didn't half-ass it though, you can't polish a turd: they had a gem with a lot of flaws round the edges when it was launched. Valve has never half-assed a game or technology, they know how to take their time and use it wisely.

I think they've all been drinking Grolsch.

Best thing ever is a strong phrase but you get the idea so I don't feel the need to edit - but I remember how bad it was from the start, it wasn't awful or anything, but with all those bugs some days were good, and some were bad. Now it's pretty much flawless (but that's my side of the story) for me. I'll definitely be looking forward to this, now I can clear save games off my flash drives, I'll keep a backup on my external though.

 

[Melaisis]

Actually, when it comes to Steam features, Valve are exceedingly productive and efficient. Its only when it comes to actually designing games that they take centuries. The Steam programmers are some of the best around, and their little project is a standing testament to such power. I'd expect Cloud by July, TBH.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

As of July 14, 2006, the Half-Life franchise has sold 16 million units

Size on Disk of Save Folder :170 MB (179,257,344 bytes)

Space required on disk : 2,720,000 Gig...

 

[Melaisis]

As of July 14, 2006, the Half-Life franchise has sold 16 million units

Size on Disk of Save Folder :170 MB (179,257,344 bytes)

Space required on disk : 2,720,000 Gig...

However, as the Episode Two stats have shown us: Not everybody completes the game, or even attempts to play it. Realistically, I think we're looking at about half that number. Plus, what if people never use Steam anymore, despite already completing HL and the like? The plan says to synchronise with Steam every time you log-on, so I guess if no one ever goes on it any more, then their data is never stored by Cloud.