Gabe talks about gaming's future and hints at Steambox details coming soon!

[zarx]

disolitude said:
I watched this whole video and half of it is interesting (the history of valve and console parts) while the other half I have to wonder if Gabe has lost his mind.

He talks about the fragmentation around mobile, living room and desktop computing because of "closed platform restrictions" and says how Steam big picture and Linux will bring it all together because they are open.

Has Gabe ever used the iOS or windows 8 software development SDK? I would say that he hasn't... Both SDKs are great in terms of cross platform support. Publishing a windows 8 desktop/tablet and Windows phone app is done simultaneously with 95% of the same code. Xbox One is will also most likely use this SDK and share app development...So there Microsoft should have the desktop, mobile and living room computing covered with absolutely no fragmentation and amazing development tools.

Now has Gabe used the Android SDK, a platform that is more or less "open"? I don't think he has because if he has, he would understand how much it sucks to have to develop for an open platform with no standardized hardware and software. Just ask ANY developer that has made quality iOS or windows 8 apps how they feel about Android and its "openness" and which is more fragmented to develop for.

Bottom line: You will get way more fragmentation on an open platform because there is no standardized requirements in terms of hardware and software.

Otherwise I am looking forward to seeing Gabes hardware solution to the PC crisis and the future of gaming.

He was talking about your content following wherever you go. He is saying that once you buy something you should be able to consume it on wharever you want. Hence why on steam you can buy a game once and play the Windows/Mac/Linux version, Portal 2 PS3 came with a PC version etc. Big picture and their efforts to bring PC to the living room is part of that. Naturally there are some UI and technological limitations but the idea is a noble one. Naturally closed platforms prevent thaat as they each have prepriatary store fronts, different certification proccesses etc that locks content into each ecosystem.

Whether that ideal will ever be achivable is another question entirely.