Did I read this right? Did Steam just announce that it was becoming a cross-platform application store? Easy installing / automatic updating sounds nice, given my past experience with Steam games, while a personal Steam cloud sounds very much like an iCloud/Dropbox/Google Drive competitor.
I'm a bit apprehensive about having to decide between Yet Another Storage Provider, but I'm (naively?) hopeful that the open-minded folks at Steam will consider something like Dropbox / Google Drive integration. Valve seems like an incredibly appropriate company to do so.
I hate to play the extrapolation game, but this could potentially encourage cross-platform apps, much like Valve is doing for gaming on Mac/Linux, especially if Valve releases dev tools to help support the process. (Hopefully it doesn't turn into a GTK/Swing nightmare.)
All in all, interesting times should be ahead. It'll be interesting to see how a "gaming" company like Valve adapts to a new field.
I'm not sure where you're getting the Dropbox competitor bit.
Steam has had a storage system for game content for a while—this would let you transfer save game files between computers, for example. I didn't see anything in the story which suggests this would be extended to general purpose content.
Well the press release says right there: "Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with."
I'm assuming my work is more than my save game files. :)
I'm a bit apprehensive about having to decide between Yet Another Storage Provider, but I'm (naively?) hopeful that the open-minded folks at Steam will consider something like Dropbox / Google Drive integration. Valve seems like an incredibly appropriate company to do so.
I hate to play the extrapolation game, but this could potentially encourage cross-platform apps, much like Valve is doing for gaming on Mac/Linux, especially if Valve releases dev tools to help support the process. (Hopefully it doesn't turn into a GTK/Swing nightmare.)
All in all, interesting times should be ahead. It'll be interesting to see how a "gaming" company like Valve adapts to a new field.