Ladies and gentlemen, the future of gaming is almost upon us. Yesterday, Valve Software introduced “Steam Cloud,” a set of innovations for its Steam digital-distribution platform that will bring users one step closer to true cloud gaming. Step one? Think Gmail, only for your personal game data.
While true cloud gaming (wherein games are fully hosted and rendered remotely, then streamed to any nearby PC) is still a ways off, Valve’s cloud promises a vaporous glimpse at that kind of mobility. Next-Gen reports that Steam Cloud will remotely back up save games, key bindings and other user configurations — which in tandem with Steam’s existing ability to remotely access any purchased title, means that gamers can play their Steam titles at any capable PC:
But perhaps the most compelling new feature, as far as convenience is concerned, will be the upcoming ability for users to access not only their Steam games from any PC (which they can do already), but also game-generated data such as saves and configurations, which will be stored transparently in Steam’s back-end.
There will be no storage limit, and the entire process will occur transparently whenever the Steam account is connected to the internet.
And that’s just step one. Maximum PC reports that Valve plans to integrate other types of data as well…
The next step is enabling the system to save other types of game-data remotely, including deathcam screenshots in TF2 and game demo recordings of your online matches. Other possible updates may include user-created annotations in-game (similar to the commentary tracks in Portal and Half-Life 2) that gamers can use to share gameplay strategies.
…and even provide services for your existing PC that up till now required a bit of computer savvy, like automatic driver updates, and an (as far as we know) unprecedented system requirements checker that will not only evaluate your PC’s potential to run particular titles, but might actually recommend parts to alleviate performance bottlenecks. According to Shacknews:
The program will analyze your hardware and compare it to multiple games, estimating your performance and recommending upgrades.
“Official” communities, calendar functions and localized pricing (Next-Gen) are also in the works.
According to several sources, Valve plans to introduce the service in existing Half-Life and Counter-Strike titles, and co-op zombie FPS Left 4 Dead will be the first to remotely save your progress. Steamworks developers will have full access to all these features for their own games.
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