Steam Big Picture released

Nick Mertes 3 Dec, 2012 at 11:40pm ET Article published in Gaming

It looks like Steam’s Big Picture mode has left the comfy confines of beta status to roam free on a television near you.

Big Picture mode is designed to make navigating Steam more user friendly on televisions, and includes a number of features to make this possible. For starters, the entire interface can be driven by either the traditional mouse/keyboard combination or a game controller. The integrated browser, which claims to be the world’s first “First Person Browser”, allows browser tabs, bookmarks, and web pages to all be easily navigated using either a keyboard or a game controller. To go along with the new browser, Daisywheel is a rather interesting input method that uses a combination of a controller’s analog sticks and buttons to select and ‘press’ groups of letters.

Steam has also created a list of games containing full controller support and a larger list with partial controller support (keyboard and/or mouse might be required at some point) making it easier to locate, purchase, and install games that work well in a non-traditional PC gaming environment.

The list of system requirements to run Big Picture Mode are pretty light (games will likely require better hardware):

Windows Vista, OS X 10.7 or newer
3GHz Pentium 4 or dual core CPU
256MB DirectX 9 GPU
1GB disk space
Internet connection
Controller or keyboard/mouse

Of course, what would a major Steam announcement be without an accompanying Steam sale? The Big Picture Celebration Sale lasts through December 10 at 10:00am PST, and unsurprisingly it features a healthy dose of controller-friendly games.

Rumors have been flying for some time now that Valve intends to release a product called the “Steam Box” sometime in the future. While details on an operating system vary with each day’s rumor mill rumblings (anything from Windows to a custom Linux build), the constants tend to indicate a full PC capable of playing games at television resolutions. Whether or not these rumors end up leading to a real product remains to be seen. Until then, Big Picture Mode appears to go a long way towards bringing PC gaming to the mainstream living room.

Comments

4 Dec 2012 ~ 5:33am Theironhand I'd have to say I'm really impressed by it. It runs so smooth without any problems and the web browser is just amazing. I have not tried it out on a TV yet, but I'll be sure to post something if I do.
4 Dec 2012 ~ 9:20am midga I've had my computer on my tv for well over a year now. I've actually stopped using my consoles, even though I much prefer controller-based input, because of the utility and versatility of a computer combined with the fairly large number of games that will work with a controller on PC. So, yeah, I'm pretty much target market for this I think (though it's quite possible I'm wrong).

That said, I don't like it much. It's probably because I like the fast browsing you can do with a computer (it takes a while to scroll through stuff in Big Picture), and the fact that the chat isn't an overlay window or anything; it's a separate part. That is, I can't be chatting and using the browser without switching back and forth (if they've changed this, I apologize. I haven't tried chatting in it since beta). I'd also like it much better if it ran windowed (and if it can, well then I couldn't figure it out putting basically no effort into looking). It also seems to be a bit resource hungry, but that might have been Skype.

What I do like about it, though, is the game launcher. It 1) allows you to fairly easily download/install more than one game at a time (always been a bit of a sour point with Steam) and 2) looks pretty damn good. The text input is also a rather decent way to go about it with a controller. Props to whoever designed that.
4 Dec 2012 ~ 9:43am mertesn At first, your windowed argument didn't make sense to me. The interface is designed to run on a TV where a windowed mode just doesn't make sense. Then it occurred to me that this interface could just as easily be used as a decluttered PC interface (which could be quite useful).

Maybe Valve will allow a windowed Big Picture interface in the future.
4 Dec 2012 ~ 9:52am midga @mertesn Right. I'm on a tv, and if all I was doing was gaming, then it'd be perfect full-screen. I'd like to be able to see my Skype without switching out, though.

I'm also going to have to test this out later, but I think you still have to use a keyboard and mouse when you invite people to a game through the Steam overlay. I can't remember if I tried that through Big Picture last night, or if I only did it after switching back to normal Steam. It bothers the crap out of me when I'm playing BL2, though.
5 Dec 2012 ~ 3:05pm Cliff_Forster I'm gonna need a long HDMI cable.....
5 Dec 2012 ~ 3:13pm CB
I'm gonna need a long HDMI cable.....
HDMI cables have gone way down in price over the last few years.
5 Dec 2012 ~ 4:08pm Cliff_Forster I want this as a cloud based service with a little box for delivery and a couple dedicated controllers like OnLive. I'm not going to make the investment necessary for a second PC, and I'm definitely not putting my PC right next to my home theater (my wife would finally kill me)..... I love this idea, I want access to certain games from the couch, but the logistics of it for today, just too clunky for my set up. I'm sure it will get there.
5 Dec 2012 ~ 9:39pm trooster89 Big picture plus a port to linux? vavle's gotta be working on a console.
5 Dec 2012 ~ 9:46pm Thrax "Big picture" <-- two words
"Linux" <-- one word

2+1 = 3

HALF LIFE THREE CONFIRMED