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Valve today announced the public release of Big Picture, the 10-foot user interface (UI) that makes it easier for PC gamers to plop on the couch and play their catalog of titles on their big screen HDTV. To celebrate the public launch, more than thirty "controller-friendly" games will be on sale from now until December 10, some of which will be marked down by as much a 75 percent.
"Access to the complete Steam store is included, as is the Steam Community. Big Picture is available worldwide in over twenty languages, including German, French, Russian, Korean, and Portuguese," Valve stated in a blog post.
Prior to today, Big Picture mode was available in beta form. You may remember we posted a guide on how to enable it. Now that the Big Picture UI is available to the public, all you need to do is fire up Steam as you normally would and click on "Big Picture" in the upper-right corner (you can't miss it). If you don't like it, just revert back to the normal interface.
Comments are closed on this article
Peanut Fox
December 05, 2012 at 4:33am
It looks nice, and all the function is there, but the layout is on the awful side. I was getting lost in the menus, and it's not inherently obvious that you can move vertically or horizontally through the pages. They need something to better indication that and also which page you'r on. Other than that it ran smooth and was easy to read.
jaygregz
December 03, 2012 at 8:58pm
I tried it and I must say this...
XBMC > STEAM
I've been launching games from steam using a controller for a long time now. I prefer XBMC.
holeydood3
December 03, 2012 at 4:04pm
I'm actually fairly disappointed so far. First time I opened it, it crashed steam. Second time, I make it to the settings, set my TV as default, and then the entire thing is just blank, so I have to alt+F4 out of it. Third time, it starts correctly, puts itself on the TV, but when I close it, it then switches up the order of my monitors. I know they can't test all of the configurations available, so I'm not too worried by this, but you'd think with their large beta that some of these simpler issues would have been discovered/fixed by now.
QuadraQ
December 03, 2012 at 2:26pm
Interesting. I already have a "secondary" PC on my desk in a smallish case (using micro ATX motherboard, so not THAT small), that's for multiplayer PC games, and it's hooked up to my TV. I'm thinking now it's time to upgrade that sucker so I can make it into a high tech pseudo console using this new feature of Steam. Valve rocks!
Biceps
December 05, 2012 at 12:01am
HAHA. Oh dear God, PLEASE use a controller when you are playing CSGO against me!
Warrior247
December 03, 2012 at 12:53pm
If you have Xbox Live, PSN, or the Nintendo network, then this is nothing new or better.
HeartBurnKid
December 04, 2012 at 1:19pm
Except for being able to play at native 1080p (or even 1440p, if you're one of the lucky few to have a 1440p TV), being able to buy games at those wonderful Steam sale prices, being able to mod your games, being able to play the best indie games out there, being able to use a mouse and keyboard if you so desire, not having to pay for multiplayer, not having to deal with proprietary hard drives, not having to deal with "friend codes"... yeah, except for all that, and some more things that I probably missed, this is exactly the same as the consoles.
lordfirefox
December 04, 2012 at 9:07am
This is better because it supports actual HD resolutions higher than 1080p which your PSN, Live and Nintendork Network don't. Have fun with your outdated console hardware that can't even run the original Crysis and never will.
Also have fun with those disks that get lost, scratched, stolen. Us Steam users will stick with our digital catalog that's useable on EVERY PC we own present and future.
steven4570
December 03, 2012 at 2:04pm
well fine then, go play with your out of date garbage and leave this website, or is trolling a hobby of yours?
Warrior247
December 03, 2012 at 8:26pm
Gaming, is a hobby of mine dip$h!t. This thing was designed to from the onset to mimic the "console"! Valve gave this thing console like features, made it gamepad friendly and is OBVIOUSLY trying to entice "console" gamers. They want the masses, not the asses. They could care less about a PC fanboy.
steven4570
December 03, 2012 at 8:32pm
and no one on this site cares about your opinion of gaming on the PC and how much you think consoles are better...you troll every article that has anything to do with gaming on the PC.
steven4570
December 03, 2012 at 8:41pm
no i care about idiot trolls like yourself, they all must die.
Warrior247
December 04, 2012 at 2:10am
You're right, that's why you need to be put right out of your misery.
Biceps
December 05, 2012 at 12:17am
Lol you two are hilarious. Look, Warrior is right that Steam is trying to emulate - and let me be clear - the console EXPERIENCE with Big Picture to some extent. However, I disagree the result is the same as what you get from a console.
What IS the same? You get to sit on your couch with your buddies and a controller and play games on your giant TV, in 1080p (or more if you have a 1440p as someone pointed out above). As far as I can tell, that is the only thing that is the same, and it is what Valve was aiming for, as an add-on to what they already offer.
What ISN'T the same? Hmmmm. The game library, mods, the all-online games library so you don't have to go to shitty-ass GameStop, and all the other wonderful stuff that comes with PC gaming.
Warrior, I own a console, but if you exclusively play on a console and think you are a 'hardcore' gamer, you are fooling yourself - badly. As a console gamer, everything is spoon-fed to you, and most of it sucks; you have like 6 fucking buttons, dude, how hardcore can it be? More importantly, can you tell me what frame-rate you get at 1080p with your xbox? 23fps, maybe 35fps on an older game? It sure as hell isn't anywhere what I get with my rig, with a videocard that has more processing power than a whole fucking shelf of xboxes.
jimmthang
December 03, 2012 at 12:41pm
If you have an HDTV hooked up to your gaming rig, you NEED to get in this!
