Steam over 65 mil users +30% in 12mo.

[elvn]

Steam over 65 mil users +30% in 12mo.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/30/5045830/steam-65-million-active-accounts-6-million-concurrent-users

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/30/valve-steam-65-million-users/

Valve has announced that Steam now has over 65 million users playing its over 3,000 games, the company announced this afternoon. That's a 30 percent increase (15 million accounts) over the last 12 months -- putting the service's userbase well above that of Microsoft's Xbox Live (which has 48 million, according to MS). Not quite the 110 million that belong to Sony's PlayStation Network, but not too shabby.
...
Steam is now 10 years old. Valve used its 10th anniversary as a cue to sail into uncharted waters, announcing a new operating system, game controller, and range of gaming PCs in the same year its two major console competitors are releasing new machines. In contrast to Steam's figures, Microsoft's Xbox Live has 48 million accounts — around half of whom reportedly paid extra for a gold subscription to play online in 2010 — and Sony's PlayStation Network claims 110 million.
...
these new figures do suggest that Steam doesn't have to worry about being eclipsed: its users on their own are numerous enough to make the service a worthy competitor.

The XBL figures may also have been inflated, as anyone with a GFWL account also has an Xbox Live account by default.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/12/4826190/linux-only-needs-one-killer-game-to-explode-says-battlefield-director

It would only take one "killer" game for the Linux platform to explode its way into mainstream gaming, DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson told Polygon, revealing that the development studio would "strongly" like to get into Linux.

 

[Mozex]

Steam has really embraced F2P games in the last year or two. I'm guessing that's the biggest reason for the jump.

 

[elvn]

Oculus Rift creator: Xbox One and PS4 are far too limited for what we're planning

 

[Vildayyan2003]

It would I'll ly take one killer game title for Linux to explode into mainstream gaming?? What a joke.

 

[LeviathanZERO]

Why is the same thread in PC gaming and General? And this one was bumped? You guys blind?

 

[Kog12]

" The XBL figures may also have been inflated, as anyone with a GFWL account also has an Xbox Live account by default. "

and some people have 10+ steam accounts

Just sayin'

 

[elvn]

There are many entire sub forums on hardforum that I never visit.
I figured some people who view general gaming , which would sometimes have threads and comparisons in regard to consoles/living room gaming systems and pc gaming, would not necessarily ever look in the pc gaming sub forum. Someone who mainly frequents the pc gaming sub forum might not look at the general gaming forum much either. I thought it would be best to inform both forums. It's not optimal, but that was my thinking. Here is the link to the general gaming post of the same name.

Steam is becoming living room gaming and pc-desk gaming, and possibly VR-gaming. Oculus rift and VR info similarly could be valid information for several forums.

I never said it would take one title, an article and part of a quote I linked from the dice dev said that. More than that, the other half of the quote said " - DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson told Polygon, revealing that the development studio would "strongly" like to get into Linux". Whether or not you agree with his reasoning, it shows that a major dev has an interest in a larger linux gaming user base. ""We strongly want to get into Linux for a reason," Gustavsson said. "It took Halo for the first Xbox to kick off and go crazy — usually, it takes one killer app or game and then people are more than willing [to adopt it] — it is not hard to get your hands on Linux, for example, it only takes one game that motivates you to go there.""

You can't compare the linux gaming arena as it has been with what the seeds sewn now by valve (along with secretive developer deals + even oculus rift/VR) might create. The steamBox/steamOS has the potential to open that audience up from the current linux tinkerer niche (and nuanced windows user base) to an audience of simple OS/kiosk interface users backed by the steam service (plus the desktop PC and DiY pc builder crowds that try the linux-based steamOS). That is a large distinction in demographics, usability, and numbers.

Steam will also still be on windows OS pc, obviously.

 

[Q-BZ]

Clearly PC gaming is dead.