“We’d like your money for everything digital, please.”
GabeTV is surely only a matter of days away, as professional Steam-watchers SteamDB have spotted references to film and television in the latest beta client. Okay, that might be overstating things a little, but when talking about SteamOS Valve have made no secret of their desire to stream other types of digital media.
The references in question are in the code for “app types.” Before this latest beta client they included things like DLC, demo, driver and so on. Now, that list includes film, video, tvseries and music. Plugin is there, too.
Valve added some new app types in a recent Steam Beta update: film, TV series, video, plugin and music. #hype pic.twitter.com/P2OLtmB7Sk
— Steam Database (@SteamDB) August 10, 2014
This is just extra code inside a beta version of a client, so any suggestion as to what it may mean is speculation at this point. Valve operates on Valve time, so I doubt we’ll all be watching the latest episodes of True Blood through Steam in a hurry. However, it does indicate continued moves toward a period where Steam is not just a platform for games, but for almost all other digital media as well.
Documentaries like Indie Game: The Movie and Valve’s own Free to Play have already been made available through Steam, and enough games have accompanying soundtracks to justify the use of a separate ‘music’ label.
