Valve May Add Film and TV Series To Steam

[Frostnatt]

I could see this working outside the US as Netflix is generally shit unless you use an American account and bypass geolocking.

I hope they use seperrate store pages though.

I would assume they still be forced into some kind of region locking on this since especially the movie business is notoriously horrible at adapting to an open net. Netflix is a perfect example. It's not even that american Netflix is the best all the time. There are several of relatively new and big movies that are available in Europe but not i the USA.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I could see this working outside the US as Netflix is generally shit unless you use an American account and bypass geolocking.

I hope they use seperrate store pages though.

I would assume they still need some kind of region locking on this since especially the movie business is notoriously horrible at adapt to a open net. Netflix is a perfect example. It's not even that american Netflix is the best all the time. There are several of relatively new and big movies that are available in Europe but not i the USA.

That's the rub, hopefully Steam's larger userbase compared to Netflix's will give them more clout with dealing with the morons distributors.

 

[Covarr]

Dangerously close to being the new Microsoft now. Think back to MicroSoft's E3 conference. Replace the word "MicroSoft" with Valve and "Xbox One" with Steambox. Well, at least MicroSoft removed the DRM.

I'm gonna give you one key difference: MS was trying to replace an old platform (Xbox 360) with a new one (Xbox One), and their new platform seemingly tried to make games a second-class citizen. VALV[sup]E[/sup] is expanding on an existing platform which already has a huge selection of games, and the addition of movies and TV is not likely to be an attempt to supplant their existing business the way it was with MS, but an attempt to expand. One is like demolishing a house to build a different one, the other is expanding an existing house.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Lightknight]

It's about darn time. I'd love to have my games and movies and TV in a similar place. In my early steam days I even searched for movies but to no avail.

Ultimately, I want a day where I'm just paying one company for my content and not four or five different services.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Because we sure didn't already have a service [https://itunes.apple.com] that you can use to buy movies and TV shows and download them over the Internet. Or two [http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Video/b/?node=2858778011]. Or three [https://play.google.com/store/movies]. No sir. And there's no way this could lead to further fragmentation of the market with more exclusivity deals that lock people out of content based on which service they prefer to use. Nope.

That's the rub, hopefully Steam's larger userbase compared to Netflix's will give them more clout with dealing with the morons distributors.

I wouldn't hold my breath. They couldn't get game publishers to avoid region-locking and third-party DRM. Most likely because they didn't even try. Nor could the combined might of Apple and Google persuade movie and TV distributors to go DRM-free.

 

[cypher-raige]

I'm surprised they haven't started selling music yet. Since they have a music player built into the client.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

This can only be a good thing right?, I mean it's Steam it can't possibly do anything wrong or get any flak for it?.

Who am I kidding it;s never going to be properly criticized let alone have any ill spoken of it.

 

[Nowhere Man]

So does this mean we're going to be stuck with even more DRM for movies and music? And just what I always wanted, to look at my friends list and see "SoandSo In-Music Katy Perry: Bla bla bla" or go through my activity feed and see "SoandSo Achieved Transformers 6: We Have Your Money [Make it through the entire movie]. /s SMH

No one asked for this Valve. Keep it simple for fucks sake.

Also to those thinking you'll get deep discounted sales on music movies and TV series, think again. We're talking about the MPAA, RIAA and TV Industry here. I don't see prices going any lower then what you'll be able to find on Amazon Prime or iTunes.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Sorry Double Post. Stupid Captcha

 

[Sanunes]

I really have a hard time really seeing this happening unless they localize a lot more, for different countries have different rules and regulations regarding content like that and that is why Netflix is bad in some countries and I just can't see it working.

Besides they wouldn't just be going against Netflix either, they would also be going against Apple and Hulu and all three of them have in my opinion a better end user interface then Steam.

 

[Vigormortis]

snip

Adam, are you okay? Did you hit your head or something? Do you know where you are?

...Because if you did you'd know to expect that kind of hyperbolic, irrational, and ultimately cynical response.

I feel like this is going to lead to them having Indiana jones: raiders of the lost arc and temple of doom, but not last crusade for some inexplicable reason

I see what you did there.

Well played.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I respectfully disagree. Adding TV shows and movies WILL compete with games on the existing storefront page and make browsing steam even more unbearable than it has currently become.

Unless they create an entirely different page for other media. Which is the only way to do it properly. If I know this, they know it too.

 

[Vrach]

The infrastructure is there. The software is there. It's all there. All they have to do is manage the licensing and libraries for digital content other than video games. They just have to hire a couple of people who would focus on that. It's not fuckin' rocket science. It doesn't take away from the gaming aspect of Steam. Don't like it - don't use it. And if it turns out to be a bad idea, it's even easier to get rid of it.

I'm all for it. However, bandwidth IS a thing to be possibly concerned about, streaming content like this takes a lot of it and keeping it all together in one package is no small matter.

 

[j4c0b1]

They'll have to upgrade their servers if they want to compete with the other streaming services, download speed is pretty poor for steam at around 2/mbs, and I hear in the US and australia it can be even worse.

 

[octafish]

As an Australian I expect to be locked out of this unless I illegally bypass geoblocking...Sigh..

I have made backups of my 400 or so DVDs and Bluray Discs. They are on the machine in my living room, I am still waiting for a fully functioning media player to be available in Big Picture Mode and controlled by my game pad with sulport for streaming from a media server or playback from the local machine. If Valve wants the living room they need this before they introduce TV and Film streaming. TV tuner support would be nice too. If I could dump WMC or XMBC for Big Picture entirely I would be very happy.

 

[weirdee]

Did I have to pay several hundred bucks for unnecessary hardware that only does the things Steam tells it to? Nope. And that's why I'm okay with this development.

BTW, the most clogging I foresee on the storefront is like, a new "multimedia" button next to the "software" button.

 

[fieryshadowcard]

There is a major difference between Valve's potential plans for Steam and Microsoft's initial XBone pitch on this.

Steam: A digital video game publisher that has always been about pushing games and now has some additional convenient multimedia features.

Xbone's initial pitch: A new console. Of what, you ask? Television, television, television, television, Big Brother Kinect, oh and here's some games.

The former's a potential prospect connected to a distribution platform that has already been proven to do what its consumers expect it to do.

The latter was a new piece of unproven hardware promoting just about everything but what the consumer wanted.

I'll reserve judgment, but Steam branching out is hardly the end of times from where I'm standing.

 

[Flammablezeus]

Why does Steam want to go up against the likes of netflix? They can only loose...

Even worse yet... if they keep muddying the water (wich they have been agressively doing so with all the shovelware they keep cramming into steam every day) people just might throw their hands into the air and go to other places.


I heard origin is shaping up more and more... *shudders* not yet EA... not yet.

Netflix isn't even an option in many countries if you don't use a VPN.

 

[Karadalis]

Why does Steam want to go up against the likes of netflix? They can only loose...

Even worse yet... if they keep muddying the water (wich they have been agressively doing so with all the shovelware they keep cramming into steam every day) people just might throw their hands into the air and go to other places.


I heard origin is shaping up more and more... *shudders* not yet EA... not yet.

Netflix isn't even an option in many countries if you don't use a VPN.

Yeah but those countries have many different options available.

Germany has myvideo for example wich usually grabs what FOTM multi season series makes it across the ocean.

And heres the problem:

Movies and Series alike most often come with exclusive publishing deals for different countries. You can bet that France, England, Germany and Spain all have different publishers for breaking bad for example (TV media groups, internet services etc. usually 2), with exclusive deals to atleast for a time being the only people to be able to even air those bloody series/movies.

As for actuall movies: Why should the powerhouses of the industry actually give Steam a publishing license when they have been distributing their products directly to the consumer via DvD releases and such, cutting out the middleman? Allowing Steam to sell the newest "The hobbit" for example would cut into their own sales numbers wich they dont have to share the profit with steam.

So either now Steam will have a severely gutted library, will fill its movie and series library with stuff that either everyone allready has or no one wants to see anyways, or it will try to build a monopolistic structure of having the most exclusives and giving people less choice where to look for new series, driving even more people to piracy.

This isnt the games industry we are dealing with here... compared to the movie industry the games industry is a roadrunner of flexibility and we all know how slow they actually are to evolve according to the markets demands.

And if you think movies and series will just be another "button" with absolutely no frontpage advertisement youre sorely mistaken.

Why would you have such a huge feature and hide it behind a tiny button? Ofcourse you gonna advertise the shiznit out of it on your storefront... making the whole steam storefrond even more of a cluttered mess then it allready is... Steam is a mess currently ever since they added the "we dont give a shit" floodgates and becomes less and less enjoyable to use compared to its competition like GoG or even blasted Origin or heck.. even Gamestop

 

[FogHornG36]

OH MY GOD! STEAM IS WORSE THE HITLER!

I will be happy if i can get music on steam, would be nice to get music somewhere i can trust.