Valve's Big Picture Feature For Steam Now Live
The Big Picture mode is now available to all Steam users along with thirty discounted controller-friendly titles.
On Monday Valve Software said that the public release of Big Picture, the new HDTV-ready mode for Steam, is now live.
According to Valve, this new mode is not only designed to be accessed on your big screen TV seated in the living room, but offer support for many popular gamepads in addition to the classic mouse and keyboard setup. To celebrate its launch, Valve is now offering thirty controller-friendly games at up to 75-percent off their original price until December 10.
"Steam gamers may easily experience Big Picture on their televisions by connecting their PC or Mac, typically with a single HDMI cable," Valve said. "Big Picture also includes a new web browser designed for televisions and game controllers. It is accessible from anywhere within the Big Picture UI, and even while playing Steam games on a TV. It supports Big Picture's new method of typing with a gamepad, which is useful for entering URLs, filling out forms, chatting, and other functions."
Big Picture is seemingly Valve's way of "consolizing" the popular PC platform. Consuming the entire screen, Big Picture is broken down into three sections: Store, Library and Community. At the bottom-left corner of the start screen, the service also provides a "Web" button which loads up the built-in web browser. There are also buttons for accessing the user's account, and to log back out onto the main desktop (without actually exiting Steam).
"Access to the complete Steam store is included, as is the Steam Community. Big Picture is available worldwide in over twenty languages, including German, French, Russian, Korean, and Portuguese," Valve said. "Gamers' existing games are all available in Big Picture. In addition to having the complete library of Steam games, each user's cloud files, Steam Workshop content, account information and preferences will be accessible automatically in the new mode."
Controller-friendly titles now on sale include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ($7.49), Left 4 Dead 2 and Left 4 Dead GOTY ($4.99 each), Portal 2 ($4.99), Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine ($7.49) and more. Family-friendly games include Sonic Generations ($7.49), LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga ($9.99), LEGO Harry Potter Years 5 – 7 ($6.79) and loads more. A total of 41 titles are listed in Valve's library with full controller support whereas 386 titles only offer partial controller support.
Valve's Big Picture looks to be its first step into creating the rumored console-like Steam Box. Yet instead the company's hardware division is currently working on prototype controllers that will make an appearance next year. Still, you can't help but think the new interface seems to point to a possible console-like direction, whether it's first-party or a small hardware box with a built-in 500 GB drive manufactured by a popular PC maker.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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alidan Warhammer 40,000 Space MarineReply
wanted that for a while...
but just read the requirement...
20gb and 10gb free after install... what the hell? -
dfusco You may want to hold off on the update. My account just updated now most of my games are missing from my library :(Reply -
Best part of the update for me is that I now can install my most played games now on my SSD drive, or other drives instead of just your local steam folder.Reply
if you want to do that, you need to uninstall game, then on re-install you get a prompt of which hard-drive you want steam to install it on! -
alidan SkeeterpeetersBest part of the update for me is that I now can install my most played games now on my SSD drive, or other drives instead of just your local steam folder.if you want to do that, you need to uninstall game, then on re-install you get a prompt of which hard-drive you want steam to install it on!Reply
awesome, would have been nice a while ago... but i learned to symbolic link, nice to have an in program option though.
skeeterpeeteronly takes 10GB to install it. I just looked for you.
i really hate the way games are advertised for space on there now. borderlands 2, 20gb, installs at i beleive less than 6gb.
its annoying how they say one thing but are another...
on that note thanks, ill probably end up getting it this sale. -
dameon51 skeeterpeeteronly takes 10GB to install it. I just looked for you.These days, that's a drop in the bucket.Reply -
A Bad Day If 20 GB is too much, either you need to do a bit of cleaning on your hard drive, or now's a good time to upgrade from that 32 GB hard drive.Reply -
myromance123 SkeeterpeetersBest part of the update for me is that I now can install my most played games now on my SSD drive, or other drives instead of just your local steam folder.if you want to do that, you need to uninstall game, then on re-install you get a prompt of which hard-drive you want steam to install it on!Reply
I'm so excited reading your comment! I just ran out of space on my main drive. Already gave Big Picture a go back when Steam for Linux came out, so your comment was the real big news for me :) -
yup i like this update because my PC is always hooked up to my 3D HDTV , basicly i use an LG 32inch 3D HDTV conected via HDMI to my AMD HD6850 with the TriDef 3D drivers as my 3d gaming monitor, and to behonest its fookn brill little setup for how little it all cost :D love'n my NEW 3d world, thanks TriDef and amd :DReply
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ben850 SkeeterpeetersBest part of the update for me is that I now can install my most played games now on my SSD drive, or other drives instead of just your local steam folder.if you want to do that, you need to uninstall game, then on re-install you get a prompt of which hard-drive you want steam to install it on!Reply
Adding to this: You must goto the "Downloads + Cloud" tab in the Steam settings and add other folders/drives before having the option to choose them for install.