Valve Is Removing Steam Video Section; Retiring Non-Gaming Content

Megalith

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Valve’s plan for selling hit Hollywood blockbusters on a digital distribution platform meant for games didn’t turn out so well, it seems: the company has announced it is scrapping Steam’s movie catalog so it can focus primarily on gaming. The good news is that gamers won’t lose any of their previously purchased titles.

"In reviewing what Steam users actually watch, it became clear we should focus our effort on offering content that is either directly related to gaming or, is accessory content for games or software sold on Steam," Valve wrote in a blog post. "As part of this refocus, we have retired the Video section of the Steam Store menu with an expectation that video content is discovered via the associated game or software store page, or through search, user tags, recommendations, etc."
 
Honestly, I'm sure their service for this was fine, but I never really saw the appeal.

Same here and also the fact that people just don't look for movies on Steam. I personally found the movies are cluttering my searches. Still waiting for indie filter too.
 
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Personally I am happy with this move. I am not at all opposed to a Steam like service for movies though. Buy once with downloads. That way we can get proper HD and UHD movies digitally, not lower resolution streaming. Buy once, choose what size to download. Have a 1080 TV only? Fine, save space and download a Blu Ray quality movie. Upgrade to a 4K TV? Great, you already own the license for the other resolutions. Add a gifting option like Steam has. Yes it will be more niche overall but I can easily see movie fans opting for this over streaming.

Just keep it separate from the gaming service.
 
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Personally I am happy with this move. I am not at all opposed to a Steam like service for movies though. Buy once with downloads. That way we can get proper HD and UHD movies digitally, not lower resolution streaming. Buy once, choose what size to download. Have a 1080 TV only? Fine, save space and download a Blu Ray quality movie. Upgrade to a 4K TV? Great, you already own the license for the other resolutions. Add a gifting option like Steam has. Yes it will be more niche overall but I can easily see movie fans opting for this over streaming.

Just keep it separate from the gaming service.

Agreed. I feel like they only dabbled in it instead of making a concentrated effort. Had they provided a digital solution that provided quality equivalent to physical media, and provided access through a variety of platforms, it could have been a hit. But a streaming service with limited features and content wouldn't interest anyone in this market with countless number of streaming services (and growing).
 
I feel their move was like if Netflix decided to be in the game business. People go there for TV/Movies, and people go to Steam for games. Nobody has enough pull to have an all in one service anymore.
 
I did not even know Steam had a video streaming service! They must have done a really shitty job at advertising it. It is no wonder it did not gain much popularity and now gets the axe.
 
They promoted it for like a week when it debuted and then basically left it to rot. Not exactly sure what their goal there was but I think it was just an attempt to jump in on the streaming video service market when it was hot.
 
I did not even know Steam had a video streaming service! They must have done a really shitty job at advertising it. It is no wonder it did not gain much popularity and now gets the axe.

Read this to my wife (as I was unaware of it as well), and it was her same reaction "they have a video service?"
 
Read this to my wife (as I was unaware of it as well), and it was her same reaction "they have a video service?"
Hardly anyone I know that use Steam knew about it. I've been using it for about 2 years now to buy movies and series when there was sales, so kind of sad they are removing it now.. Sad they never made an effort to promote it, as I'm guessing maybe 5% of steam user base knew about it as it's so well hidden and they don't advertise any of it.
 
Hardly anyone I know that use Steam knew about it. I've been using it for about 2 years now to buy movies and series when there was sales, so kind of sad they are removing it now.. Sad they never made an effort to promote it, as I'm guessing maybe 5% of steam user base knew about it as it's so well hidden and they don't advertise any of it.

I wish I had known, already use a couple steam links to game in living room or bedroom, having the ability to play movies across the same client would have been a nice convenience.
 
They promoted it for like a week when it debuted and then basically left it to rot. Not exactly sure what their goal there was but I think it was just an attempt to jump in on the streaming video service market when it was hot.

Sounds like it was one person's (or a tiny team) project goals for the year. Once it was launched, they checked the box "complete" on their list and quit giving any fucks. I know I have worked on many bizarre little side projects that amounted to nothing... but we met our yearly project goals.
 
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