Valve emits Steam Cloud syncing service Nov. 6
Announced in May, Valve's Steam Cloud service will be up-and-running in time for the arrival of the Left 4 Dead demo – at least for those who've pre-ordered the game – on Thursday, Nov. 6. Steam Cloud will store player's settings for individual games server-side, so that they can start playing with their preferences (keyboard, mouse, etc.) intact from any PC with the Steam client installed.
Left 4 Dead will be the first game to ship with Steam Cloud support built-in; Valve plans to patch older titles to play nice with the service, and is sharing its code with Steam publisher and developer partners at no cost. The service is similar in some ways to Apple's MobileMe "cloud" based email, contacts, and calendar syncing ... hopefully, Valve's creation will actually work as advertised.
Left 4 Dead will be the first game to ship with Steam Cloud support built-in; Valve plans to patch older titles to play nice with the service, and is sharing its code with Steam publisher and developer partners at no cost. The service is similar in some ways to Apple's MobileMe "cloud" based email, contacts, and calendar syncing ... hopefully, Valve's creation will actually work as advertised.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
holyice7 @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:34PM
This would have been awesome when I switched computers last month.
Well, at least it's one less thing to have to do when THIS one dies. Awesome.
Gehodra @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:39PM
That was pretty cruel. The first thing I saw was the picture of Cloud. I was like "What about Cloud?!" Then I saw the Steam part and was like... "F***".
Ihavepants @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:44PM
Go away.
Gehodra @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:57PM
Not an FF7 fan?
NukeAssault @ Nov 4th 2008 12:18AM
To be honest i though it was FF related as well till i read it. =D
Inappropriate Responder @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:41PM
On Sunday, Anderson threw a costly interception that was returned for a touchdown in the final minutes of a 37-27 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The pick prompted Browns fans to begin chants of "Brady! Brady!" for Quinn, the former Notre Dame star who has thrown just eight passes in two seasons.
Ihavepants @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:44PM
You can stay.
Graham Wellington (formerly tyrone washington, or marsha goldberg) @ Nov 4th 2008 1:43AM
befitting name you have there.
Limezor @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:49PM
Valve is one game company that you can count on for making quality products and improving them as they go along.
S4M SH3R @ Nov 17th 2008 7:35PM
Hey, your comment here was just featured in this week's episode of ButtonMashers from Gamezombie.tv. Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7ylI_a3UYw
Our first episode got over 111,000 views, and we're looking to keep raising the bar!
-S4m
Joe Dombrowski @ Nov 4th 2008 12:22AM
My keyboard controls are default for most Steam games...Valve has a way with great control schemes.
What I'd really like to see is a service that can sync saved games between computers
Einhanderkiller @ Nov 4th 2008 12:27AM
The only thing I change is the text chat from 't' to 'Enter' since I play a lot of StarCraft and WarCraft III.
Steam Cloud is going to sync saved games eventually. That feature just wasn't ready in time for launch.
Haggard @ Nov 4th 2008 2:57AM
Ah, I was about to say that I thought that was what Steam Cloud was doing.. and that it was missing from the article.
rokobungi @ Nov 4th 2008 12:28AM
I thought: FF7 on Steam? well for $5.99 I'll bite
then I saw it was something completely different.
Reece @ Nov 4th 2008 12:36AM
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=u0WOIwlXE9g
Lolz
Ottozer0 @ Nov 4th 2008 12:41AM
Dam You Stiq....Joy..NO joy....Ok I'll say it Joystiq...Must you toture a FF7 Fan... who has deep memories of FF7 ON PC (Not PSX) with Sharp Graphics..... BTW what the Hell is Stoping SquareSoft-Enix from doing this with Valve.. FF7 & FF8.
Probly Lazyness or Pride.
Jeff @ Nov 4th 2008 1:45AM
Valve has went and created by far the greatest DRM platform. Imagine that...allows you to play on ANY computer as long as the Steam client is installed...it allows you to DOWNLOAD THE GAME if that computer doesn't have it. I wish EA and friends would learn a thing or two about how successful and well accepted the Steam client is.
Valve games have been the only games I've bought...the rest were pirated because of their overly restrictive DRMs.
Vanillacide @ Nov 4th 2008 4:54AM
Which is why I am happy to buy downloads from Steam but won't use the other services: Direct2Drive, EA's own, etc.
Now, if only the European publishers (Atari/Infogrames and Ubisoft) would let their European customers buy their catalogues of Steam, as per their American customers, then I would be buying Beyond Good & Evil and the like.
Chase @ Nov 4th 2008 6:37AM
Amen.
DoctaDJones @ Nov 4th 2008 9:04AM
Before I bought my XBox 360 I assumed this was how XBox Live Gold worked with downloaded Arcade games and Saved preferences (and the reason for the $50 a year.)
Sadly I was very very wrong.
kci2 @ Nov 4th 2008 12:16PM
Actually, Ubisoft is on steam, with Beyond Good and Evil. I don't know if any of their other games are on steam, but that one is.
Haggard @ Nov 4th 2008 2:35PM
he said 'make their games available to European customers'
3/10 for reading, try harder next time
Graham Wellington (formerly tyrone washington, or marsha goldberg) @ Nov 4th 2008 1:46AM
see and i thought when i saw that picture that valve might have purchased the rights to ff7 and were making a pc and 360 only sequel.
H Choi @ Nov 4th 2008 2:33AM
Damn you Joystiq with your misleading photoshoped pics. For a second I thought it was an announcement that steam would be distributing square enix games. I really wouldnt care anyway since i dont play pc games, but still, it would have been big news.
drun @ Nov 4th 2008 4:06AM
It took me 2 seconds to understand the picture, then I was rolling on the floor.
Ihavepants @ Nov 4th 2008 5:24AM
Do you have epilepsy?
ratm @ Nov 4th 2008 5:10AM
I always play using the default settings so this doesn't mean much to me. If only they'd do the same thing with save games, that would be awesome.
JAY JAY @ Nov 4th 2008 8:07AM
Valve is awesome. Period.
Superstar90 @ Nov 4th 2008 8:28AM
In order to avoid further confusion, I suggest switching Cloud (FF7) with the Cloud smiley guys from Mario.
LilWiz @ Nov 4th 2008 8:43AM
Valve is going to distribute Mario Games? WooooHooo !!
vdeogmer @ Nov 4th 2008 1:43PM
What's with all the ff7 fanboys?