Steam’s Big Picture mode heads to your living room TV

Valve has announced that their Big Picture mode for Steam is heading toward a public beta launch “later today” – a comfortably vague timeframe that leaves us southern-hemisphere future-dwellers wondering.

The basic premise is that using the Big Picture mode, you can press a button in Steam, which will then magically transform itself into a big-screen television friendly version of itself.

Big Picture has been designed with a console style controller in mind, and navigation tailored to using such an input. Of course, you can still use a keyboard and mouse if you choose.

Along with all the exisiting Steam features, there will be a reticle-based-navigation web browser, and a tool for typing called “Daisywheel”. More features are promised to be added in, as is the way of things.

The PC beta will be going live soon, with a Mac OS beta “coming soon”. You can keep up to date over on the Steam Big Picture store page.

The Big Picture sounds like a really interesting concept, and might just be a shot in the arm for the couch-loving gamer, who desires the visual fidelity offered by a decent gaming PC, but is tired of being hunched over a desk.

Could this lend any credence to the much rumoured “Steambox” – a mythological Valve project to develop a dedicated console-type system that will ship with Steam?

With Valve’s recent hiring of Linux developers and the push to getting more games onto that platform, perhaps the company is focussing on the open-platform software side of the gaming market, adn the Steambox is a red herring.

Are you impressed with Steam Big Picture feature? Where do you think Valve is heading with this sort of innovation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and on the MyGaming forum.

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Tags: Big Picture, headline, Steam, Steambox, Valve