Steam

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Steam
Logo-Steam.jpg
Steam (service).png
The Steam client in October 2019, showing the store
Developer(s) Valve
Initial release September 12, 2003; 20 years ago (2003-09-12)
Platform
Available in English, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (European and Brazilian), Russian, Romanian, Spanish (European and Latin American), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Type
License Proprietary software
Website store.steampowered.com

Steam is a video game digital distribution service and storefront by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 as a way for Valve to provide automatic updates for their games, and expanded to distributing and offering third-party game publishers' titles in late 2005. Steam offers various features, like digital rights management (DRM), game server matchmaking and anti-cheat measures, and social networking and game streaming services. It provides the user with automatic game updating, saved game cloud synchronization, and community features such as friends messaging, in-game chat and a community market.

Valve released a freely available application programming interface (API) called Steamworks in 2008, which developers can use to integrate Steam's functions into their products, including in-game achievements, microtransactions, and user-created content support. Initially developed for Microsoft Windows operating systems, Steam was released for macOS in 2010 and Linux in 2012. Mobile apps to access online Steam features were first released for iOS and Android in 2012. The platform also offers other digital content and Valve gaming hardware, including productivity software, game soundtracks, videos and VR headset Valve Index.

The service is the largest digital distribution platform for PC gaming, estimated around 75% of the market share in 2013 according to IHS Screen Digest.[1] By 2017, users purchasing games through Steam totaled approximately Template:USD4.3 billion, representing at least 18% of global PC game sales according to Steam Spy.[2] By 2021, the service had over 34,000 games with over 132 million monthly active users.[3] The success of Steam has led to the development of the Steam Machine line of gaming PCs in 2015, which includes the SteamOS operating system and Steam Controller, Steam Link devices for local game streaming, and the handheld Steam Deck tailored for running Steam games in 2022.

History

Template:Video game timeline

Valve had entered into a publishing contract with Sierra Studios in 1997 ahead of the 1998 release of Half-Life. The contract had given some intellectual property (IP) rights to Sierra in addition to publishing control. Valve published additional games through Sierra, including expansions for Half-Life and Counter-Strike. Around 1999, as Valve started work on Half-Life 2 and the new Source engine, they became concerned about their contract with Sierra related to the IP rights, and the two companies negotiated a new contract by 2001. The new contract eliminated Sierra's IP rights and gave Valve rights to digital distribution of its games.[4]

Valve was looking for a way to better update its published games as providing downloadable patches for multiplayer games resulted in most of the online user base disconnecting for several days until players had installed the patch. Valve decided to create a platform that would update games automatically and implement stronger anti-piracy and anti-cheat measures. Through user polls at the time of its announcement in 2002, Valve also recognized that at least 75% of their users had access to high-speed Internet connections, which would continue to grow with planned broadband expansion in the following years, and recognized that they could deliver game content faster to players than through retail channels.[5] Valve approached several companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo!, and RealNetworks to build a client with these features, but were declined.[6]

Steam's development began in 2002, with working names for the platform being "Grid" and "Gazelle".[7][8] It was publicly announced at the Game Developers Conference event on March 22, 2002, and released for beta testing the same day.[9][10] To demonstrate the ease of integrating Steam with a game, Relic Entertainment created a special version of its game Impossible Creatures.[11] Valve partnered with several companies, including AT&T, Acer, and GameSpy.Template:How The first mod released on the system was Day of Defeat.[12] In 2002, Valve's President Gabe Newell said he was offering mod teams a game engine license and distribution over Steam for Template:US$.[12]

Prior to the announcement of Steam, Valve found that Sierra had been distributing their games in PC cafes which they claimed was against the terms of the contract, and took Sierra and their owners, Vivendi Games, to court in 2002. Sierra countersued, asserting that with the announcement of Steam, Valve had been working to undermine the contract to offer a digital storefront for their games, directly competing with Sierra. The case was initially ruled in Valve's favor, allowing them to leave the contract due to the breach and seek other publishing partners for retail copies of its games while continuing their work on Steam.[4] One such company had been Microsoft, but Ed Fries stated that they turned down the offer due to Valve's intent to continue to sell their games over Steam.[13]

Between 80,000 and 300,000 players participated in the beta test before Steam's official release on September 12, 2003.[7][12][14][15] The client and website suffered outages and bugs at launch.[16] At the time, Steam's primary function was streamlining the patch process common in online computer games, and was an optional component for all other games. In 2004, the World Opponent Network was shut down and replaced by Steam, with any online features of games that required it ceasing to work unless they converted over to Steam.[17]

In November 2004, Half-Life 2 was the first game to be offered digitally on Steam and require installation of the Steam client to play for retail copies. During this time users faced problems attempting to play the game.[7][18][19] The requirement of Steam was met with concerns about software ownership, software requirements, and problems with overloaded servers demonstrated previously by the Counter-Strike rollout.[20]

In 2005, third-party developers were contracted to release games on Steam, such as Rag Doll Kung Fu and Darwinia.[21][22] Valve announced that Steam had become profitable because of some highly successful Valve games.[21]{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=[when?] }} Although digital distribution could not yet match retail volume, profit margins for Valve and developers were far larger on Steam.[23] Publishers, such as id Software,[24] Eidos Interactive,[25] and Capcom,[26] began distributing their games on Steam in 2007. By May of that year, 13 million accounts had been created on the service, and 150 games were for sale on the platform.[27][28] In 2008, more publishers like Ubisoft, THQ, Sega, Take-Two Interactive, Activision, Electronic Arts had partnered with the service, but some games were unavailable or overpriced relative to market outside North America.[29][30]

In May 2007, ATI included Steam in the ATI Catalyst GPU driver as well as offering a free Steam copy of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch to ATI Radeon owners.[31] In January 2008, Nvidia promoted Steam in the Nvidia GPU driver, as well as offering a free Steam copy of Portal: The First Slice to Nvidia hardware owners.[32] Traditional retail versions of games required mandatory installation of Steam, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from Activision in 2009,[33] Fallout: New Vegas from Bethesda Softworks in 2010[34] and Dragon Age II from Electronic Arts in 2011.[35]


References

  1. ↑ Edwards, Cliff (November 4, 2013). "Valve Lines Up Console Partners in Challenge to Microsoft, Sony". https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-04/valve-lines-up-console-partners-in-challenge-to-microsoft-sony.html. 
  2. ↑ Bailey, Dustin (March 22, 2018). "With $4.3 billion in sales, 2017 was Steam's biggest year yet". https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-revenue-2017. 
  3. ↑ "Steamworks Development - Steam - 2021 Year in Review - Steam News" (in en). 2022-03-08. https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3133946090937137590. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Feldman, Curt (December 15, 2004). "Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/valve-vs-vivendi-universal-dogfight-heats-up-in-us-district-court/1100-6107712/. 
  5. ↑ Case, Loyd (March 22, 2002). "Valve Changes Online Gaming Rules". PC Magazine. https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,41291,00.asp. 
  6. ↑ Lee, James (April 30, 2008). "The Last of the Independents?". GamesIndustry.biz. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/the-last-of-the-independents-. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Luke Plunkett (September 12, 2013). "Steam Is 10 Today. Remember When It Sucked?". Kotaku. Gawker Media. http://kotaku.com/steam-is-10-today-remember-when-it-sucked-1297594444. 
  8. ↑ Rohan Pandy (May 24, 2007). "Steam Registers 13 million Active Accounts". http://www.gameguru.in/pc/2007/24/steam-registers-13-million-active-accounts/. 
  9. ↑ "GDC 2002: Valve unveils Steam". GameSpot.com. March 22, 2002. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gdc-2002-valve-unveils-steam/1100-2857298/. 
  10. ↑ "BETA TEST STEAM". March 22, 2002. http://steampowered.com/html/betasignup.html. 
  11. ↑ Walker, Trey. "GDC: Steam pushes software over Net". ZDNet. http://www.zdnet.com/news/gdc-steam-pushes-software-over-net/121632. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Au, Wagner James (April 16, 2002). "Triumph of the mod". Salon. https://www.salon.com/2002/04/16/modding/. 
  13. ↑ Craddock, David (November 13, 2020). "Bet on Black: How Microsoft and Xbox Changed Pop Culture, Part 1 - Chapter 11: Mergers and Near-Acquisitions". Shacknews. https://www.shacknews.com/article/120300/bet-on-black-how-microsoft-and-xbox-changed-pop-culture-part-1?page=11. 
  14. ↑ Karl Bode (August 9, 2003). "Steam Powered – Broadband distribution system to go live". DSLReports. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/32475. 
  15. ↑ Sayer, Matt (July 28, 2016). "The 13-year evolution of Steam". https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-versions/. 
  16. ↑ Karl Bode (September 15, 2003). "Losing Steam – Broadband distribution's rocky road". DSLReports. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/32981. 
  17. ↑ Golze, Benjamin (July 15, 2004). "Valve to shut down WON servers". Gamespot. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/valve-to-shut-down-won-servers/1100-6102754/. 
  18. ↑ "BBC NEWS – Technology – Gamers get playing Half-Life 2". November 17, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4019095.stm. 
  19. ↑ "Half-Life 2 now preloading via Steam". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/half-life-2-now-preloading-via-steam/1100-6105848/. 
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Rich Stanton (August 21, 2012). "Full Steam Ahead: How Valve's Platform Just [Becomes Hotter"]. Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-21-full-steam-ahead. 
  22. ↑ "Strategy First to Deliver Multiple Titles On-Line via Steam" (Press release). December 8, 2005. http://www.strategyfirst.com/press/DisplayArticle.asp?sLanguageCode=EN&iArticleID=3250. 
  23. ↑ "Digital distribution: Keep the money and run?". The Hollywood Reporter. June 13, 2005. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000955338. "Valve won't talk about how many units it's sold through Steam, but Lombardi describes the venture as being 'extremely successful. Even though the lion's share of our sales is still at retail, the digital units are wildly more profitable for us.Template:'-" 
  24. ↑ Tom Bramwell (August 4, 2007). "id Games Added to Steam". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/id-games-added-to-steam. 
  25. ↑ Robert Purchese (March 16, 2007). "Eidos Embrace Steam Power". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/eidos-embraces-steam-power. 
  26. ↑ Tom Bramwell (June 12, 2007). "Capcom Sign Up to Steam". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/capcom-signs-up-to-steam. 
  27. ↑ "Steam Surpasses 13 Million Accounts". Valve. http://store.steampowered.com/news/1050/. 
  28. ↑ Tom Bramwell (May 24, 2007). "Steam logs 13 millionth user". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/steam-logs-13-millionth-user. 
  29. ↑ Simms, Criag (April 18, 2008). "Getting Steamed: digital distribution for games isn't there yet". http://www.cnet.com.au/getting-steamed-digital-distribution-for-games-isnt-there-yet-339288255.htm. 
  30. ↑ Walker, John (2008-12-19). "EA Arrives On Steam, But Only A Bit" (in en). Rock, Paper, Shotgun. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ea-arrives-on-steam-but-only-a-bit. 
  31. ↑ Goldstein, Maarten (May 30, 2007). "Free Steam Games For ATI Radeon Owners" (in en). https://www.shacknews.com/article/47179/free-steam-games-for-ati. 
  32. ↑ Androvich, Mark (January 8, 2008). "Valve offers Portal: First Slice to NVIDIA customers". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/valve-offers-portal-first-slice-to-nvidia-customers. 
  33. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :1
  34. ↑ "Fallout: New Vegas to include Steamworks DRM" (in en). 2010-06-09. https://www.vg247.com/fallout-new-vegas-to-include-steamworks-drm. 
  35. ↑ "Dragon Age II to use Steam DRM, retail version to require occasional online verification" (in en). 2011-02-01. https://www.vg247.com/dragon-age-ii-to-use-steam-drm-retail-version-to-require-occasional-online-verification. 

Further reading


Template:Valve Template:Software digital distribution platforms

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