What does the future look like for the gaming industry? According to Valve CEO and founder Gabe Newell, Linux is gaming’s best bet at a bright future. The open-source operating environment would make game development much more time-efficient and far less frustrating for both developers and gamers alike.
IMG: via Linux
Currently, companies dominate the market; but Gabe Newell envisions a day when individuals are able to provide most of the goods and services in the industry. Proprietary systems create delays and other problems with releases; open-source environments like Linux remove that friction.
Valve is hard at work on its own open-source gaming box, the SteamOS, which will allow Steam users to access and play all their video games in whichever environment suits them best—from the computer, on the TV, or even on mobile phones or tablets. In other words, consumers can purchase games and not have them tied to any one system.
“As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself,” Valve’s official SteamOS page reads. “SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen. It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines.”
To learn more about Gabe Newell and Valve’s beginnings, be sure to check out our profile.
