To coincide with the hotly anticipated Left4Dead demo launch on Thursday, Valve is unveiling a brand new Steam service for PC gaming fans. Steam Cloud is a system for storing player settings on the server end, so that when you shift from computer to computer, mouse configurations, keyboard settings and even savegames will stay with you.
Cloud computing is all the rage in the web 2.0 spectrum and it’s good to see game technology having a sniff at it, but we’re a little dubious about how much practical use this system is actually going to be.
How often do you actually up and shift to another computer to play your games? Probably not all that much, and only if you’ve just done a major upgrade and wiped the hard disc. And with so many different hardware configurations, are you likely to want the exact same mouse sensitivity when you’re playing on someone else’s machine?
It’s always a bad idea to underestimate Valve’s wider vision for the Steam service though. When Half-Life 2 was first launched, many gamers (particularly ones without a decent internet connection) were up in arms, cursing Valve and its ridiculous, invasive, impractical Steam digital distribution service. Now however, it’s a godsend and the leading technology of its kind; the iTunes of the games world.
And unsurprisingly, this just the first step for Steam Cloud. Valve also plans to include further game data synchronisation including screenshots and player-footage. Games for Windows LIVE certainly has a lot of catching up to do.
Left4Dead is the first game to make direct use of the service, but it is expected to be compatible with all other Valve Steam releases, and Valve has been providing other game makers with the tools to make their own titles compatible. Players who have pre-ordered Left4Dead will get early access to the demo from Thursday.
And if you’re wondering why Left4Dead is having a lot of fuss made about it, just check out the intro movie:
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