Steam Cloud to Launch with Left 4 Dead, Takes Your Saves Online
Steam Cloud to Launch with Left 4 Dead, Takes Your Saves Online
Posted 11/03/2008 at 4:29pm
| by Alex Castle
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Image Source: Valve
A press release from Valve has heralded the imminent arrival of the Steam Cloud; the ability to access your Steam savefiles and controller configs from any computer. Left 4 Dead will be the first title to have the Cloud functionality, and Valve has said they'll be retrofitting their back catalog with the feature.
According to Valve, the Steam Cloud will "just work." By this they mean that gamers won't have to do anything to get their saves and options into the Cloud; it will all happen automatically. Similarly, when a user logs onto their account on a new computer their data will be downloaded for them by default.
Valve president Gabe Newell explained the philosophy behind the Steam cloud, saying "For some time now, Steam has allowed gamers to log on from any computer in the world and access their applications ... Steam Cloud is a natural extension of the portability Steam affords gamers and developers, and we intend to expand its feature set as it is used in Left 4 Dead and other games coming to Steam."
Left 4 Dead launches on 18th, with the demo (which includes Steam Cloud) coming later this week. Are you psyched? Let us know after the jump.
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AntiHero
November 04, 2008 at 12:56pm
Sounds productive, however...what about Offline mode? If the internet goes out (or you're not in the midst of a wireless signal for us laptop users), and you play a single player game like Half Life for example...will it check for the new save files, and upload them? Or will offline mode be unavailable?
s3th
November 03, 2008 at 5:45pm
Sounds good, Im not going to lie theirs alot of things about Steam that I really dont like. This actually sounds like a pretty decent update, but when you go to a new computer and log into steam it has to download the content for the game to work. WIll that still be necessary?
horzo
November 03, 2008 at 10:03pm
Er, yeah. Downloading the game data to your local machine is kind of a necessity. Except possibly for increadibly simple games. Flash-based Peggle anyone?
Captain
November 03, 2008 at 5:31pm
valve has confirmed there is no game save feature in the initial version of steam cloud, but probably be added later on.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171088
Gailim
November 03, 2008 at 5:26pm
this is great, steam continues to get better and better. this is the change weve been waiting for STEAM/VALVE '08!!!
ah, ummm maybe that was a bit too enthusiastic?
maniacm0nk3y
November 03, 2008 at 5:02pm
I love this. Now I don't have to reset disply cal and all that. save files, too, that's the best part. now no going through the game for the umpteenth time.
sirphunkee
November 03, 2008 at 4:55pm
So steam sets the standard and raises the bar. Again. Man I wish Valve had already gone public.
This is an awesome concept, it's just like the functionality in their cyber cafe software...saves and settings are retained and loaded no matter which PC in the gaming center you log into. Having the same thing available via the cloud now is just a no-brainer
jcollins
November 03, 2008 at 8:35pm
Be happy they didn't go public. If they had to totally concentrate on a buck to make the shareholders happy vs. the good games, you'd have EA...
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