Valve: No "Exclusive Killer" Games For SteamOS

Valve may be pushing its SteamOS platform for gaming-centric Steam machines, but the company won't be trying to "artificially" drive sales by making upcoming titles like much-anticipated Half-Life 3 exclusives. "That would go against our whole philosophy, to launch something that's exclusive to SteamOS or Steam Machines" Valve's Anna Sweet confirmed to IGN when questioned about the possibility of future games being limited to the customized PCs. "Whenever we talk to third-party partners, we encourage them to put their games in as many places as possible, including not on our platforms."

According to Valve, that's just common sense. "[Valve] think that customers are everywhere, and [third-party partners] want to put their games wherever customers are" the company's Greg Comer argues, pointing out that the whole point of Steam – and, by extension, SteamOS – is that it cuts the barriers to jumping between platforms.

"We're hoping to unify, to get Steam to be as platform- and context-agnostic as possible" Comer highlighted. "You shouldn't have to shed that every generation, or even slightly shed it."

The big reveal of SteamOS earlier this year was met with some consternation among PC gamers, with concerns that it could mark a shift to a more console-like exclusivity model for new titles. The company followed the announcement with three-hundred prototype Steam Machine consoles to be distributed among developers, again prompting speculation that it might hold the PC gaming market to an effective ransom given its strong position in the industry.

That, Valve is now insisting, is not how things will pan out. The company did concede that smaller studios might opt to focus their efforts solely on SteamOS as a matter of prioritizing, but promises that its own titles will still be released generally.