Steam to carry non-gaming software from September
Thursday, August 09, 2012 3:26 PM
Team Fortress 2, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead 2, DOTA 2. Valve certainly hasn't been slacking since the last instalment of its ridiculously sought-after Half-Life franchise.
A lot of time has passed since Half-Life 2 and, particularly in the five years since the release of Episode 2, Valve's other baby Steam has grown into the de facto platform of choice for games distribution online.
And while every gamer continues to yearn for the mythical Half-Life 3, Valve continues to find other things with which to occupy itself.
Lately, it's been opening up Steam so that it will be able to distribute non-game related software. Which is great and all. Few things are sweeter than browsing your library of games on Steam then checking your friends list and the latest ridiculous discounts while the latest patches are installed. It'll be fantastic to be able to move our whole lives onto the platform from September 5th.
But, as with any Valve-related announcement of the last five years, it's tempered by the fact that the shiny new toy in question is not Half-Life 3. But best not to dwell too much on things out of our control. So anyway, back to Steam!
Into the age of Steam
No applications have yet been announced, but Valve did say on the service's news page that software titles would cover everything from "creativity" to "productivity".
"Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you," the release read.
Valve's Mark Richardson added: "The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games. They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests."
This latest move could put Steam in further competition with the likes of Apple's App Store and the new Windows 8 Marketplace, both of which offer a range of games for purchase alongside their mobile, tablet and desktop apps.