Steam is an online store for computer games. Valve Corporations, the company behind the platform, calls it a content delivery platform itself. Steam is today one of the world’s largest online platforms for games, and can be compared to the Netflix of computer games. If you mention Steam to a gamer today, they will definitely know what it is.
History
Steam was created and launched in 2003. The purpose was for Valve Corporations to have all their games and updates to them gathered in one place. Two years after its release, Valve made it mandatory for players to install Steam in order to start Half-life 2, one of their more popular games. Since Steam at this time had many bugs and crashed frequently, many gamers were unhappy. Steam declined in popularity. However, Valve continued to push its users.
In 2005, Valve signed its first agreements with other game manufacturers. This meant that other game makers were allowed to sell their games on Steam. Some of the more prominent game manufacturers that currently sell their games via Steam are Activision, EA, Sega and Ubisoft. Steam also gives smaller developers of so-called indie games the opportunity to sell their games.
At the same time, Steam’s popularity suddenly skyrocketed. During this coming time, the platform developed a lot. Valve fixed many bugs and introduced a large number of new features, including the Steam Community where you could chat with other users. The most important was probably “Early Access,” which meant that you could get access to games even before they were fully developed.
Soon competitors began to pop up. In 2011, EA started its platform Origin, which today is one of the major competitors. Despite this, Steam is still the most popular platform for online gaming. In 2013, 75% of all online game purchases were made through Steam.
How does Steam work?
To access Steam, you need to create an account and choose a username. The account itself is free. Some of the games available on the platform are also free, but most cost money. After creating an account, you can download Steam. The program is available for both Mac and PC. When you later want to play a game, you don’t need to download the game itself. Instead, you can launch the game via Steam that you have downloaded on your computer.
To buy a game, go to the Steam website and browse the game store. There you can find games according to different genres. When you find a game that seems interesting, you can read more about it and find out, for example, how it works, what other people think about it and see pictures from the game. If you choose to purchase the game, it will be added to your account. To then access the game, all that is required is that you are logged into your account. You can therefore log in to your account via another computer and play the game via it.
Via Steam’s website, you also have access to lots of other services. For example, there is Steam’s Community, where you can chat with other users. You can get help with games where you are stuck and can’t move forward, find friends to play with or just chat.
