Valve"s Steam has grown from a distribution service to a full-on gaming platform, with plans continuing to bring it to the living room through its Steam Machines initiative for consoles. The Steam Machines program has apparently been delayed until next year, but as Valve eventually moves into this new space, its platform will need to evolve too.
Modern consoles offer not just gaming, but also access to a wide variety of entertainment services. It seems that this reality is not lost on Valve, as BGR reports. Twitter account @SteamDB noted that numerous new app types appear to be supported in the latest Steam beta update. Movies, TV shows, plugins and music are new additions that were not present in previous releases.
This isn"t the first time this has happened though - over a year ago, references to Spotify were found in Steam"s code. Valve also launched a Steam Music service in an invitation-only beta back in February.
It would certainly seem to make sense for Steam to add support for these additional services and features, given that they"re an integral part of the overall experience that users now expect with any console.