In 2023, it seems like Valve’s digital distribution service Steam has been around forever, but no. In addition, it celebrates its 20th anniversary today, September 12th.
Image source: Valve
Before the release on September 12, 2003, 80 to 300,000 people participated in the Steam beta test and in January 2023 the service was used simultaneously 33 million players – That’s more than the population of Venezuela.
For many people today, steam is like the air we breathe. But at the beginning of its journey, the service faced the same rejection: Steam was required to access Half-Life 2, even those purchased on disk.
Steam in 2003
At launch, Steam was positioned as a more convenient way to provide patches for games like Counter-Strike and didn’t even have a store, but over time it evolved into what we know today.
“Since the beginning of Steam, our goal has been to make it easier for developers to find and grow their audience, and to make it easier for players to find the games they love and receive updates.”Valve told the portal Rock and paper shotgun.
Steam in 2023
Valve added that while the goals for Steam were clear from the start, the company had to do this over the course of 20 years “try out lots of ideas”to achieve goals. Feedback from gamers and developers played an important role.
Valve won’t stop here: “We’re not looking at this anniversary as a ‘yay, we did it!’ but rather a ‘yay, everyone at Steam contributed to making this something great, let’s keep it going!'”
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