15 years of Steam: how the digital store has shaped the gaming landscape

Philipp Rüegg

20.9.2018

Translation: machine translated

Steam is synonymous with PC gaming. The service has 125 million users and has significantly shaped the gaming landscape. For better or for worse...

On 12 September 2003, Steam 1.0 was released and the client was used to test "Counter-Strike 1.4". Playing together over the internet was a little more complicated back then than it is today. This is why the game studio Valve developed a new way to manage online games for its own multiplayer titles "Counter-Strike" and "Team Fortress".

The American studio felt the first headwind when it cancelled support for WON, the existing multiplayer client, and thus made Steam mandatory for Valve games. However, an even bigger outcry went through the gaming community when the eagerly awaited "Half-Life 2" was released a year later and also required Steam registration. But even this could not slow down the rise. The authorisation of third-party developers in 2005 finally cemented Steam's existence and the digital games shop has been indispensable ever since.

From add-on programme to all-rounder

That was 15 and 14 years ago, respectively, and marked the beginning of a development that would change the gaming world forever. Steam now has over 125 million users, with up to 15 million online at the same time at peak times. Thanks to a loophole, it has even been estimated how many games Valve has already sold in total: 1,700,000,000. In words: one billion seven hundred million.

There's a lot of money flowing in. The selection of 23,000 games is also impressive. And the number continues to explode. In 2017 alone, almost 8,000 games were published on Steam.

Another record was recently set by "PUBG". It is the first game in which there were never fewer than 1 million players online at the same time for an entire year. "PUBG" also holds the Steam record for the most concurrently active players: 3.2 million. These figures give an idea of the impact Steam has on the industry.

New marketing location

Before Steam, marketing opportunities for game developers were relatively limited. If you didn't have money for advertising, you had to rely on word of mouth or hope for a mention in a games magazine (the kind made of real paper). In 2005, Steam opened its doors to non-Valve games for the first time. The first entry was "Rag Doll Kung Fu".

Marketing games in purely digital form was still a novelty at the time. But more and more manufacturers were entering the platform. The number of players also grew continuously, even though digital goods could not be exchanged like physical games. Once the activation code had been redeemed, the game was tied to the account.

The Steam main page is an attractive advertising platform that has also been increasingly occupied by indie games. To cope with the constantly growing number of new entries, Valve introduced Steam Greenlight in 2012. Greenlight is a term from the film and games industry that describes when a product is released for production. From then on, users took over this task on Steam. This allowed game publishers to release their titles much faster on Steam and a publisher was no longer absolutely necessary. In 2017, Greenlight was finally replaced by Steam Direct. Manufacturers now only have to fill out a few forms and pay a small registration fee, which primarily serves to prevent dubious submissions.

So many games are now published on Steam every day that it has become more difficult for developers to be discovered at all. A problem that is still much more serious in the mobile sector.

Cloud save

I can still remember far too well how I had to back up the ever-growing My Documents folder every time I reinstalled Windows so that I didn't lose all my saves. Even with that, it happened again and again that certain backups no longer worked after the reinstallation. Steam has put an end to this. Steam introduced the cloud save function in 2008. Initially, it was only possible to save the key mapping. Later, the synchronisation of game saves was added. A priceless function that is now indispensable and has fortunately also found its way onto consoles. Even Nintendo joined the club ten years late.

Mods

While mods have always been part of the PC gaming scene, the introduction of Steam Workshop has made them much more accessible. This allows user-generated content to be installed directly via Steam without having to manually download files and move them to the correct folders. In 2015, Valve enabled the option to charge money for mods. The first attempt was vehemently criticised by players, so Valve had to withdraw. In the same year, the service was reactivated in a modified form and the outcry was quiet enough for Valve to stick with it. Since then, modders have been able to monetise their work on Steam.

Sales

Games at a bargain price? Before Steam, you could only find them at flea markets or in online swap meets. Steam has been running regular sales for around ten years now. The most famous is the Steam Summer Sale, which repeatedly tempts players to buy countless games that end up rotting away in the library (guilty). For indie developers in particular, a prominent placement during the bargain week can mean that they sell more copies in a few days than in months.

There are now several such sales throughout the year. They have become real events, except that you don't have to worry about being trampled under the feet of shoppers eager to buy like on Black Friday. With the increasing digitalisation of games sales, the competition has also started to introduce discount campaigns. Probably also because they have realised how lucrative Steam sales are. You can now also get bargains on Playstation or Xbox.

Early Access

One of the most influential changes came from the introduction of Early Access.
In 2013, Valve introduced the option for developers to offer unfinished games in the store. This gave them a new way to finance, test and improve their games thanks to user feedback. The feature has been so successful that console manufacturers have now also followed the principle.

Numerous games have only managed to be successful thanks to this method. Especially when there is no publisher willing to support the game, Early Access is the only way forward for many developers.

Backwards compatibility and archiving

Steam is not only a digital shopping centre, it is also an archive. You can even buy old text adventures from the 1980s on Steam. This eliminates the need to rummage through flea markets or auction houses. Steam is a bit like a museum in this respect.

Another advantage is that you can also game all the classics with the latest version of Windows. At least most of them. CD Project Red's shop GoG provides better support here. There you will also find countless old gems that can also be played on current systems. Without the success of Steam, however, GoG might not even exist.

PC gaming united

Steam has ensured that there is one place where almost all PC games can be found. You can argue about this monopoly position, but it is certainly practical. With Steam, PC gamers also found a common home. While console gamers automatically gained an affiliation by choosing their platform, PC gamers were also able to unite behind a common flag. The Community forums, which were introduced in 2007, are among the most active game forums on the Internet. You can find a direct connection to any game.

And while games used to have to be installed from DVD, often with a separate launcher, once you activate the code, your game is always available in the Steam library (at least the licence, if you read the Eula carefully). Downloading patches from Gamershell or wherever and hoping it's the right version is also a thing of the past.

Copycats

Steam's monopoly position doesn't suit everyone, of course. Just like Google and Apple do with their mobile stores, Steam also takes 30 per cent of every game sold. Manufacturers get round this by launching their own digital shops. Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard/Activision, Epic: major manufacturers whose games have enough traction can bypass Steam. Even if they cannot yet keep up with the market leader in terms of functionality, operation or selection, their AAA games ensure that there is no way around them. And after all, competition is good for us customers.

First demonised, then loved and now demonised again

Steam has triggered some emotional swings among gamers over the last 15 years. Initially, the service was cursed because it was forced upon us. Then the tide slowly turned and we learnt to appreciate Steam as the hub for PC gaming. In recent years, Valve's supremacy has become more and more noticeable. "Good Guy Valve" is also just a company that is interested in maximising profits, and so the funny memes about CEO Gabe Newell have taken on a pale aftertaste. By installing and using Steam, we willingly provide Valve with valuable information about our user behaviour. The exchange right introduced in 2015 had to be fought for hard, something that is taken for granted in the offline sector. Early Access is used as an excuse to take money out of unsuspecting players' pockets with unfinished prototypes, with no intention of ever finishing the product.

Valve has become the Google of the gaming industry. The studio responsible for several game milestones has become an industry giant that seems to care more about money than creativity.

Philipp Rüegg

Senior Editor

Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

Being the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur. more

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