Most of them were unaware of it, but the lives of gamers changed profoundly on September 12, 2003. An online service called Steam had just appeared, and in 20 years, it had established itself in the daily life of millions of players.
Valve, which was then (and still is) a video game creation studio, unveiled Steam in 2002, during the GDC (Game Developers Conference). But the opening of the service itself took place on September 12 of the following year. At the time, it wasn’t yet a question of selling games: Steam was used to distribute patches and updates for the publisher’s online games.
A tool that has become essential
It was not until March 2004 that the first game was sold on Steam: it was Counter-Strike: Condition Zeroa title… Valve, obviously. Half-Life 2 follows a few months later, while third-party games also begin to appear. In 2007, it was another big moment for the store backed by online services (friends lists, rankings, etc.): the first Steam sales! It has since become a tradition, players impatiently await this moment – now quarterly – to replenish their backlog.
Steam has not always been this transparent software that runs in the background: the first years were difficult for users, the application was heavy and not very ergonomic. From a technical point of view, things have improved even if everything is not yet perfect 20 years later, you just have to look at the macOS version which is still rickety (at the same time, who plays on Mac?) .
If Valve remains a video game developer, its activity revolves more around Steam today. “ Since the beginning, our goal with Steam has been to make it easier for game developers to find their audience, and for gamers to find the games they love », declares the studio to the site Rock Paper Shotgun. It succeeded ! Despite competition, particularly from the Epic Games Store, Steam remains the preferred choice of developers and players.