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Steam turns 20 today: “We’ve had to try a lot of different things over the years"“Feedback from devs and gamers is always a huge part” of platform’s success, say Valve
“Feedback from devs and gamers is always a huge part” of platform’s success, say Valve
Image credit:Valve
Image credit:Valve
Between 80,000 and 300,000 players participated in the Steam beta test before its official release on 12th September 2003. In January 2023, the service scored aconcurrent activity recordof 33 million users. That’s greater than the population of Venezuela. For many players, Steam is simply the air we breathe. Open rivals like the Epic Games Store have so far failed to make much of a dent, while alternatives like the wonderful Itch.io have carved out a niche that is essentially predicated on not competing directly. Steam’s rise has also been the transformation of Valve from a video game development studio into a sprawling retail empire. The company relied upon releases such as Counter-Strike and to a lesser extent, Half-Life 2 and the Orange Box, to drive early sign-ups, but the idea that Steam still needs Valve the developer the way Valve need Steam is a fading memory.
Image credit:Valve
It’s equally bizarre to think that Steam was once thought of principally as a more convenient way of handling downloadable patches for games such as Counter-Strike (the latest iteration of which,Counter-Strike: Global Offensiveis still Steam’s most-played game on a daily basis). The original Steam client didn’t even have a storefront. And it’s probably safe to say that Steam will always exist in a state of hectic evolution.
“Our goal with Steam from the very beginning was to make it easier for game developers to reach (or find and start building) their audience; and for players to find games they like (and to get updates on those games),” Valve told RPS over email this week, in a general response to a series of questions about the service’s life and times. “Part of that was based on our own needs as devs ourselves, but we were also hearing from groups of developers outside of Valve who really didn’t want or need to go the traditional publishing route; they just wanted a way to reach players.
“These have been our clear objectives from day 1, but we’ve had to try a lot of different things over the years to figure out how to get there. Feedback from devs and gamers is always a huge part of that.”
Valve added that “we don’t see this anniversary as ‘yay we did it!’ but more like ‘yay everyone on Steam has helped this grow into something cool, let’s keep doing it!'”
Some thoughts on all this from Alice0: “I hated Steam when it first launched. As frustrating as it was queueing to download patches from FilePlanet, at least that was a one-off. Steam was there every day, slowing my already-slow computer for little benefit. And one of the main supposed benefits, the Friends list, was soon broken for more years than I can remember. Still, I had little choice if I wanted to keep playingHalf-Lifemods. Thankfully, over time, Steam improved enough to fade into the background. It’s Steam. It’s just there. That’s where most my games are.”
What would the field of gaming be, without Steam? It is a Question, isn’t it. I’m interested to read your thoughts and memories. In the meantime, happy birthday Steam.
