Valve has announced that its global game distribution service Steam, now has more than 65 million active users, surpassing Microsoft’s Xbox Live game networking service ( 48 million). However, Sony’s PSN still is the clear winner with 110 million active users.
Steam also revealed that there are over 6 million daily users on its current network. Dota 2, a free to play action RPG by Valve, is the most popular game on Seam, with 500,000 daily peak concurrent active users.
SteamOS was announced recently, due to be launched soon, Steam Machines will only be meant for gamers who want a simple way to play their favourite Steam games on their HDTVs in the living room. Apart from the different hardware from different manufacturers, Valve will also be making its own prototype Steam Machine for the purposes of beta testing and aiding development.
Valve will be distributing 300 of these Steam Machines for free in 2013 to veteran Steam community members and random Steam users. Not only will users be able to build their own Machines running SteamOS but they’ll also be able to install any OS on the Machines, hack the Machines, change the hardware and mod the Machines, according to individual requirements.
Valve also unveiled a steam controller, the new input device appears similar to a console controller but has a much different method of operation that involves the use of two touchpads and a touchscreen. According to Valve, the controller has been designed to replicate the precision and operation afforded by a keyboard mouse combination, still the preferred choice of input for most PC gamers.