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Steam Isn’t Just For Games Anymore

Valve and their Steam service have become synonymous with digital distribution. There are other players who are trying to break into the downloadable PC game market, but nobody has been able to take o...
Steam Isn’t Just For Games Anymore
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  • Valve and their Steam service have become synonymous with digital distribution. There are other players who are trying to break into the downloadable PC game market, but nobody has been able to take on Steam just yet. With Steam’s next move, it will take those competitors even longer to catch up.

    Valve announced today that Steam is going to begin selling non-game software. By that, they mean that Steam will soon be a place where you can pick up software like Adobe’s Creative Suite. No software titles have been announced yet, but I can dream that Adobe will be at launch.

    Here’s what Valve had to say on the matter:

    The Software titles coming to Steam range 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.

    More Software titles will be added in an ongoing fashion following the September 5th launch, and developers will be welcome to submit Software titles via Steam Greenlight.

    “The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games,” said Mark Richardson at Valve. “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.”

    The addition of Steam Greenlight is especially interesting. The system was initially put into place so that indie game developers could have their games placed on Steam without having to go through Steam’s regular approval process. Regular software developers will be able to place their apps on Steam Greenlight for the world to see and approve.

    It will be interesting to see how Steam changes in the following months after this announcement. There’s no doubt that Steam is still going to be primarily used for games, but software might change things up. The idea of a Steam software sale is enough to get me excited. Seventy-five percent off Adobe Creative Suite 6? Yes please!

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