I’m not sure Steam can get much better. In fact, if I had to choose one thing that I’d like to see improved with the service, I’d be hard pressed to think of anything aside from the fantastical like “make everything cheaper” or “speed up downloads”.
Hold on, that second one isn’t a pipe dream – Valve are actually going to make that happen.
In an open letter, published on the Steam website, Valve have laid out their plans for updating Steam. Basically, it comes down to three things:
Speeding up downloads at all times.
Increasing capacity so that they are better able to cope with spikes in use of the service, for example, when big games are released and everyone tries to download and play them at once.
Making it easier for publishers to get their content onto the service.
All things which will make the Steam store even more convenient to use and hopefully lead other download services – like the PSN, XBLA and EA’s new Origin service – to bolster their own bandwidth.
Oh, and Valve also throw out a little casual mention that DotA 2 will utilise the new distribution methods. So that’s as good as confirmation that DotA 2 is on the way very soon then. Hurrah![/p]
Source
TL;DR Valve are set to overhaul their content download system to enable faster downloading for all users and add more capacity so that the system can withstand spikes in downloading when a major game is released. No more Steam errors when trying to download a game!
Good news for everyone, especially when there are some high profile games coming later this year.
Hold on, that second one isn’t a pipe dream – Valve are actually going to make that happen.
In an open letter, published on the Steam website, Valve have laid out their plans for updating Steam. Basically, it comes down to three things:
Speeding up downloads at all times.
Increasing capacity so that they are better able to cope with spikes in use of the service, for example, when big games are released and everyone tries to download and play them at once.
Making it easier for publishers to get their content onto the service.
All things which will make the Steam store even more convenient to use and hopefully lead other download services – like the PSN, XBLA and EA’s new Origin service – to bolster their own bandwidth.
Oh, and Valve also throw out a little casual mention that DotA 2 will utilise the new distribution methods. So that’s as good as confirmation that DotA 2 is on the way very soon then. Hurrah![/p]
Source
TL;DR Valve are set to overhaul their content download system to enable faster downloading for all users and add more capacity so that the system can withstand spikes in downloading when a major game is released. No more Steam errors when trying to download a game!
Good news for everyone, especially when there are some high profile games coming later this year.