Early Look at Steam Overlay on Playstation

Today Valve and Sony released details on how the union of PS3 and Steam will go down when Portal 2 releases next week. And to go along with that Press X or Die have a bunch of screens of the overlay in action.

[Philaroni]

This is what the in game XMB should be replaced with. I really hope Sony and Valve take Steam to the next level on PS3. I feel this is much to important to help bridge that gap between PC and System owners. Its nothing but good for everyone.

[a_bro]

i think, and i hope that sony will learn from their mistakes when it comes to social networking on consoles, and implement it on the PS4 if it ever comes out.

maybe seeing steam running on PS3 will inspire them.

[Philaroni]

Not so much mistakes, Unlike MS who has a huge network backing and was already doing it on the PC and Xbox one. Sony had to start fresh and is a new thing for the company. They come a long way I feel since the PS3 first came out.

They are not moving fast enough to catch XBL they still have a few issues to work out and features to add but that will come in time. It is also up to the users to keep pushing Sony.

[colonel179]

I loved the XMB on the PSP, but on the PS3 it doesn't make sense; but as Philaroni said, they had a fresh start. I am looking forward to what they do on the PS3 with the OS and integration with Playstation Network ( I actually think they should change the name to Sony Online Network or something like that since it is being used o other sony devices)

[Philaroni]

I do like the XMB on the PS3 just unlike the 360's UI the XBM does a poor job of giving information to the user. It also is very hard to make themes that work well for it since you cant see much of anything unless it is a very dark them or you turn the brightness way down. I do like it, just, the market has changed and so have the needs of there users. The UI needs to be updated to meet those needs.

[captain-obvious]

as a gamer that owns both a PS3 and a PC (with a steam account)

THIS IS GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

[metsgaming]

XMB is fine, its simple and easy to use. It should stay the way it is you dont want to make it complicated like the xbox dash. I would support having people choose for themselves but i doubt they would do that so keep it.

[saladthieves]

Some people might beg to differ. The XMB is okay, but Microsoft's dashboard is user-friendlier. Also, one thing that needs to be changed in the PS3's XMB is the speed during a game.

Scenario: If I want to compare achievements with a friend it is not a hassle, just go to the friend, then chose compare achievements. I can look at each achievements and at ANY TIME, I can hit the guide button to exit EVERYTHING AT ONCE.

On the PS3, it's not quite the same. Each column of tasks has to reload. You choose a friend, and you have to sync first, which can sometimes take quite some time. After it syncs, it then loads the games one by one, select each game to view individual trophies. You can't exit to the screen with a single push of a button. You have to exit a couple of menus first. The whole thing is slower compared to the dashboard.

Some things should be changed for the XMB. First, it should be trimmed down during in game to avoid the load times. However I do love the fact that I can access many elements without the need of exiting the game.

[MGRogue2017]

Looks perfectly fine.

I can't see anything wrong with this at all, very nice.

[colonel179]

I thought they were going to add an icon on the XMB...

[Philaroni]

I think they will, looking at how major of a feature this is I'd expect more news at E3 about it. Just give it time.

[MGRogue2017]

This is the in-game mini dashboard of Steam.

There's definately going to be an "icon"/ full application for it on the PS3's XMB, for sure.

[xCaptainAmazing]

Text chat is lame and insulting if that's all it includes between PC/Mac and PS3 owners. Otherwise I think it looks fantastic.

[a_bro]

well, this is the first implementation of steam on PSN. give it time and it will evolve.

just be happy that its very functional and friendly. this is the way i expected it to be in the first place and Valve did a tremendous job here. my expectations have been exceeded seeing this.

[xCaptainAmazing]

It has far exceeded my expectations and looks fantastic, but honestly, if you can't voice chat with your PC friend what's the point... I'm sure you can in game. You must be able to.

Being limited to text chat through the actual Steam interface is fine, as long as cross-platform headset communication is enabled while literally playing.

[STONEY4]

Text chat is perfectly fine from the PC users side, I don't know a PC game that doesn't support it since it only takes a couple seconds to type out something urgent through a keyboard. More than half the conversations in PC multiplayer games are text. It's very easy to communicate with the headset-users through text.

Now from the PS3 side... headset support is necessary, and I'm pretty sure it'll be supported. Really, text chatting is pointless on consoles, takes about a minute for each sentence.

And the Steamworks features on PS3 are looking really damn great. I'm sure it will continue to change, and I don't think Valve designed this for just one game. Trust me, Steam is a far better community platform than either PSN or XBL, by miles, even with only the few Steamworks features. For you guys, I hope it evolves to the level of Steam on PC, because really, it's spectacular.

[deanbmmv]

From what I understand: yes you can voice chat. Just in this case text chat was much easier since he has no headset.

[Oner]

I would expect XGame Chat to drop soon on the PSN using Steam as the handler possibly? Xrosses Fingers ;P

[DarkBlood]

would be cool if you could play your steam games on your ps3 providing the ps3 has the requirements to handle it, like thinking as a computer but im just dreaming an unrealistic dream right now lol

[ChozenWoan]

All in due time. But on the up side you can play your PS3 Steam enabled games on your PC version of steam so it's a step into the right direction.

[mushroomwig]

I'm seriously impressed, if you had said to me 3-4 years ago that Valve would be working with Sony and implmenting their services on the Playstation 3 I would of just laughed...considering all the negitive things Gabe has said in the past.

Here's to moving on. :]

[AyeGee]

Damn right! This is going to be one interesting future for gaming.. can't wait for E3 :]

[e-p-ayeaH]

Im hoping that PS3 steam is starting to be a common thing in many other games as well because Portal 2 isnt not going to be that kinda game a guy wants to play it just for co-op for months.(that would Left 4 Dead,Team Fortress and Half-Life but not Portal)

[a_bro]

true, not everyone would like portal. but if Valve did this, there must be a reason behind it, and that reason is more Valve games will appear on PS3 sooner or later.

maybe even down the line, we will see other 3rd party titles that would incorporate this.

[IHateYouFanboys]

hmm im not that impressed to be honest, because its not integrated into the OS.

so now youve got 1 friends list to acces with the in-game XMB, and another with the in-game Steam menu. then theres chat (text, lol) on the xmb and on the steam menu. then theres the xmb trophies, and also the steam achievements. essentially theyre just doubling up everything. whats the point?

Steamworks really shouldve been part of an OS update, integrating it into the system.

the menus all look impressive, and the idea is there - but the functionality of the implementation is lacking.

[deanbmmv]

It's quite a thing to ask of Sony, to go from letting you put your own game network into the game, to wanting to tie it into the very OS of the console. Sony were open enough to allow Valve to test this out with Portal but Sony are the guys who removed OtherOS, I doubt they'll let such an obvious trojan horse in right through the front door.

[IHateYouFanboys]

why? theyre not selling games throught SteamWorks, so sony lose nothing.

facebook is (ever so slightly) integrated into the PSN, why cant SteamWorks be?

and actually, the way that SteamWorks is NOW is more of a trojan horse than if Sony worked with Valve to integrate it into the OS. think about it:

as it is, Valve can make any changes they want to SteamWorks on the PS3 and sony cant do anything about it. they could patch Portal 2 to let users buy DLC through SteamWorks, bypassing the PS Store (and therefore sony) all together.

however if Sony worked with them to integrate it into the OS, they could only update SteamWorks through a System Update, which only sony are capable of releasing. this would mean that any and all changes to SteamWorks would have to be approved by sony, meaning no sneaky selling of DLC etc.

[Oner]

Who's to say it won't? Remember Netflix started on a disc and then became integrated. That's one thing the PS3 & Sony has shown us...that it offers MORE than it's competition as time goes on.

[mushroomwig]

One step at a time, Rome wasn't built in a day.

[AyeGee]

Correction.. Steam achievements are directly related to trophies, provided you link your PS3 account to your Steam account.

Also, it doesn't work the other way around.. only on your PS3 version will you unlock achievements for the Steam version on PC.

[interrergator]

so do you have to have portal 2 to have steam?

[xCaptainAmazing]

Yes, and it's not really Steam, it's a subset of steam that only runs in the game.

[xCaptainAmazing]

is fire everyone who works on firmware, and let Valve implement Steam UI for PS3. The only exception being that the PlayStation Store remains intact and the digital Steam store is not allowed for obvious branding reasons. End.

...or better yet, just hire people who know what the hell they're doing and deliver us a better in-game XMB and cross-game voice chat lobbies, while also making regular UI improvements/refinements.

[AyeGee]

I agree.. but remember, all that costs money. And the PSN is free :P

[JonnyBigBoss]

Trey for life!

[Oldman100]

It looks like the cloud feature isn't cross compatible. You wont be able to use your ps3 save with your pc version or vice versa.

"Note:

Game saves and progress from a PlayStation®3 are incompatible with other platforms (i.e. Windows or Mac). Steam Cloud data from a PlayStation®3 can only be used with another PlayStation®3 logged in to the same PSN ID."

https://support.steampowere...

[Shani]

I am loving this integration of Steam on PS3.

[NYC_Gamer]

i think this is just the start of what Valve does on the PS3.

[MeNoRasta]

Is this basically games on demand on the xbox for ps3?

[linko18-1990]

so does this mean that. Cross game voice chat will be implemented soon on to the ps3? cuz if u look at the screen its says Chatting next to a name.