It wasn’t too long ago that Valve took the wraps off SteamOS and Steam Machines, an effort made by the company to enter the living room space which is currently dominated by the likes of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo with their home video game consoles. As it stands each of the platforms has a game that is exclusive to them, such as Halo, God of War, and Mario, but will Valve be doing the same with SteamOS and Steam Machines? Perhaps make the alleged Half-Life 3 an exclusive to the Steam Machines platform to encourage users to buy the device? The good news is that Valve has no intention to make their own titles exclusive for Steam Machines or SteamOS.
Speaking to IGN, designer Greg Coomer was quoted as saying, “You won’t see an exclusive killer app for SteamOS from us […] We’re not going to be doing that kind of thing.” Valve spokeswoman, Anna Sweet, confirmed this by saying, “That would go against our whole philosophy, to launch something that’s exclusive to SteamOS or Steam Machines.” In fact Valve does not want third-party games to be an exclusive to their platforms, with Sweet claiming that Valve occasionally encourages third-party developers to get their games out on as many platforms as possible. Is this a smart move by Valve? From a gamer’s point of view this is good news, but from a business standpoint, what do you guys think?
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