Signs point to Steam offering TV shows, movies and music next

Steam Media
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Valve has previously said it wants to expand its virtual Steam store to include movies, TV and music. Now the company has taken its first step towards offering up more entertainment mediums.

Steam Database spotted some newly added app updates in the latest beta release of Steam. A few of the new application-type IDs include films, TV series, videos, plugins and music.

There isn't actually any content for these new types of apps yet. But the fact that they've been added could mean Valve has started moving towards distributing this kind of content.

In February, Valve stealthy updated SteamOS with a new music player. However, the feature was very limited in that it only let users playback tunes already in their local library.

Into the breach

Valve has been moving towards becoming a part of the living room since it introduced Big Picture mode in September 2012. Now with its current plans to release Steam Machines in 2015, Valve still has a long way to develop a complete ecosystem.

When the SteamOS boxes finally come out they will be competing with both consoles and set-top boxes like the Roku 3 and Apple TV.

So far there is only a very limited set of media options on Steam including Indie Game: The Movie and another documentary titled Free to Play. Steam will need a much more expansive media library to match the likes of Apple iTunes Store and Google Play.

  • Watch out Xbox One and PS4, Valve is out to take your lunch money
Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech buying guides while also dipping his hand in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of work, Kevin is major movie buff of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.