
Steam Expands Beyond Games - mxfh
http://store.steampowered.com/news/8584/
======
ChrisNorstrom
Well surprise surprise.

[http://www.chrisnorstrom.com/2011/03/re-envisioning-steam-
pa...](http://www.chrisnorstrom.com/2011/03/re-envisioning-steam-part-1-an-
all-in-one-digital-marketplace/)

Naa. I think it was a pretty obvious move. Although my prediction was that
they would tackle film and music before software. They obviously tried but
after seeing what a pain in the ass it is to work with hollywood / music
industry gave up for now. They renamed "My Games" into "Library" with Games,
Media, & Tools subtabs and after giving up on the whole media bit just have
"Library" now.

Software is a more logical step considering they're already set up to deliver
software (games).

~~~
wlesieutre
But not all software is created equal: the single-machine sign on limit is OK
for games because you'd never try to play two games at once on different
computers. But hell if I'm going to buy a copy of TextExpander for my laptop
if quits (and needs a password to relaunch) every time I run a game on my
desktop.

I'd love to have an alternative to the App Store that doesn't mandate
sandboxing and have Apple's mysterious restrictions, but Steam's DRM system is
too limiting for me to be comfortable buying "real software" from it.

~~~
lloeki
> _I'd love to have an alternative to the App Store that doesn't mandate
> sandboxing and have Apple's mysterious restrictions_

Like <http://appbodega.com> ?

~~~
wlesieutre
Exactly like that! But with the toolbar at the top and less of the kitschy
storefront skeumorphism. But interface wise, it's still nicer than anything I
foresee coming from Valve in the next decade or so.

Bodega really nailed the updates system. It found all of my non-app-store
software that was out of date, and handled the updating with one click and a
password. It's having trouble with Calibre, but Adium, Transmission, Pixen,
BetterTouchTool, and others all worked fine.

Thanks for pointing this out! The only areas I see Steam having an advantage
are preexisting users, and the ability to sell cross platform
(Mac+Windows+Linux) software.

------
drawkbox
Very smart move. Windows store will be locked to the OS and Microsoft
ecosystem. Mac App Store / iTunes is locked to OSX/iOS. Valve will be cross
platform and Linux and more independent. For pricing competition and developer
support this is a good competitive future. It is the cross platform angle that
Microsoft and Apple can't and won't match.

------
vannevar
Maybe Steam-for-Linux is really a stalking horse for Steam-for-Android, and
Steam-for-Android has a lot more leverage if you don't have to get your apps
somewhere else but can just get them through the same channel you're already
getting your games through.

~~~
jonursenbach
Steam for Android would certainly solve the current discovery problem that
exists in finding quality apps.

~~~
goostavos
This is the biggest issue I have with the playstore. Outside of the top 100,
which are really mostly rather crap apps in my opinion, there seems to be no
logical categorization. It's a huge pain to separate the wheat from the chaff.

------
sbarre
If they start stocking Mac software, I will be very grateful. An alternative
(especially one as established as Steam) to the Mac App Store is sorely needed
on OS X..

~~~
shinratdr
I can't think of a single OS X user that would even begin to consider using
Steam as an app store or launcher for anything but games.

~~~
duaneb
ME! Christ, I hate the app store. They don't need to do much to improve on it.
Also, part of the reason that you can't imagine it is because Steam is
currently a games network. Who knows how people might perceive steam in a
year? Also, they may make money simply by offering the excellent software that
isn't sandboxed: Alfred, Sourcetree, etc.

Plus, I will never release on the app store unless I don't plan on making any
money on it. It's simply developer-unfriendly: no trials, no paid upgrades -
it's as if Apple is trying to kill off using the Mac to make a living of
selling software and force developers into subscription/freemium models.

~~~
shinratdr
That's a pretty fair decree of the App Store.

Doesn't mean even slightly that Steam is a better alternative. It's a horrible
launcher and a terrible Mac OS X app. It's a great service and games store and
I use it all the time, but as an OS X app it's awful.

It requires you to have "enable access for assistive devices" on just to
render its interface. Valve knows absolutely nothing about the platform except
what it needs to to make basic ports.

Mark my words, they will not become a viable distribution system in OS X
without completely and radically overhauling Steam from the ground up. Just
"adding apps" isn't going to do anything.

~~~
c0n5pir4cy
You only have to "Enable access for assistive devices" for the in-game
interface, because it requires directly controlling the hardware. In Windows
this is done by dll injection, of which even a similar process isn't possible
in any *NIX operating systems.

~~~
thristian
Linux's LD_PRELOAD system lets you replace some executable's dynamically-
loaded symbols with your own implementations, and the OS X "dyld" manpage
mentions "DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES" which seems to be similar. Is that close
enough to "DLL injection"?

------
joshma
Did I read this right? Did Steam just announce that it was becoming a cross-
platform application store? Easy installing / automatic updating sounds nice,
given my past experience with Steam games, while a personal Steam cloud sounds
very much like an iCloud/Dropbox/Google Drive competitor.

I'm a bit apprehensive about having to decide between Yet Another Storage
Provider, but I'm (naively?) hopeful that the open-minded folks at Steam will
consider something like Dropbox / Google Drive integration. Valve seems like
an incredibly appropriate company to do so.

I hate to play the extrapolation game, but this could potentially encourage
cross-platform apps, much like Valve is doing for gaming on Mac/Linux,
especially if Valve releases dev tools to help support the process. (Hopefully
it doesn't turn into a GTK/Swing nightmare.)

All in all, interesting times should be ahead. It'll be interesting to see how
a "gaming" company like Valve adapts to a new field.

~~~
milesskorpen
I'm not sure where you're getting the Dropbox competitor bit.

Steam has had a storage system for _game content_ for a while—this would let
you transfer save game files between computers, for example. I didn't see
anything in the story which suggests this would be extended to general purpose
content.

~~~
joshma
Well the press release says right there: "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."

I'm assuming my work is more than my save game files. :)

~~~
milesskorpen
I was assuming this was like iOS' cloud system—saving a document to the cloud,
but not accessing a real Dropbox equivalent.

~~~
joshma
It might not end up being "equivalent" to Dropbox, but that would still
compete with Dropbox in terms of backing up and syncing files.

------
thejerz
Here is a listing of the categories that might be offered..

[http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/15/3161651/valve-steam-
softwa...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/15/3161651/valve-steam-software)

------
smbwrs
I was complaining a couple weeks ago about how someone needed to open an
alternative to the Mac App Store for legit apps that don't work with
sandboxing, desire demos or paid upgrades, etc. Never thought of Steam as a
possibility, even though I use it weekly for gaming. I have high hopes; if
anyone can pull it off, it's Valve.

------
DanBlake
Just a hunch and I am sure many will decry it as impossible, but I bet that
microsoft buys valve in the next 2 years. It will be billed as a "hands off"
type of acquisition (similar to skype) where they will simply more deeply
integrate steam into other platforms like xbox and surface and keep them
independent.

It just makes too much sense for microsoft to buy steam, regardless of the
price. I know the steam fans would completely hate it, but it really feels
like it is going to happen. Microsoft is dieing to have its own successful app
store with a niche to have a advantage on the ios store and gaming/steam is
exactly the type of 'we have this, they dont' which could completely make MS
phones relevant again.

~~~
ChrisNorstrom
You don't know much about Steam or Gabe Newell then. They would NEVER sell the
company. Gabe's mentioned before he's gotten big offers and rejected every
single one. Valve has the highest employee retention rate and satisfaction
rate in the industry. There's no managers, no titles, everyone's happy. Only a
fool would sell a company like that. And Gabe's not a fool.

Don't let the silicon valley mindset warp your perception of what a company
is. There isn't always an IPO or exit at the end of every company's rainbow.
Sometimes, just sometimes, profitable private companies stay profitable
private companies.

~~~
DanBlake
Its not just gabe's thoughts that matter- Many startup founders forget that as
you have people who work for you. He has a responsibility to the people
working for him- If he gets a offer for some ludicrous amount, does he not owe
it to his staff to do whats best for them? Im sure most of the staff would be
happier with a few million bucks than not.

And what if MS says "We want to buy you, we promise we wont touch you and will
sign these docs to ensure you can keep doing things your way" - At that point,
its not about morals, its about the fact that not doing something like that
isnt fair to those people in the companies who are not yet millionaires, like
Newell already is.

In short, if Newell could guarantee that the company would have no changes
moving forward and could also get significant wind falls for all his staff,
then yes- I expect him to sell. Anything less would be not prudent.

* Nobody knows if MS would be willing to pay as much as would be required to have a outcome like above. I just think that Valve is in the #1 or #2 spot for "Companies we want to buy" at redmond.

~~~
uvTwitch
pretty sure that what's best for his staff is to not poison the well

------
milesskorpen
Great. I'm looking forward to being able to purchase utilities which I can run
no matter what OS I'm booting into. It is constantly frustrating to need to
separate copies/licenses on core software, like 1Password, etc.

------
kunil
>Access to this site was blocked by system administrator

>The page you are trying to browse to is categorized as "Games"

>If you believe you are getting this message by mistake, try contacting your
administrator or Helpdesk.

Should I contact my administrator?

------
laserDinosaur
"The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing
games"

That's an odd sentence. Is he saying 40 million gamers said they want more
than games in their games platform? Or was it just a portion of the 40
million? If so, why not say that number. THE 40 million gamers are interesting
in more than playing games? THE 40 million said this? I feel like I stumbled
into the smoke and mirrors PR world of EA or Sony, not Valve.

~~~
Foy
All 40 million gamers do things on occasion that are not video games... If, as
a gamer, you already frequent Steam for your games and they also happen to
sell non-games that you want.... why not buy from Steam?

~~~
danielweber
I hope they sell a relational database and call it Cornerstone.

~~~
mintplant
What? Why?

~~~
tapoxi
He's referring to Infocom's (the Zork/text adventure people) big bet on
getting into the non-game space. Infocom spent all this money developing a
natural language relational database - Cornerstone - that sunk the company.

------
nwmcsween
I lost respect for valve after they slam windows 8 as garbage without merit
and now we see it's because microsoft's app store is a competitor.

~~~
tarice
Gabe/Valve are also competing against the Apple/Mac OSX App Store, but they
aren't speaking out against them.

I sincerely think that Valve has legitimate reasons for deriding Windows 8,
particularly since their criticism seems to resonate with many early Win8
adapters.

------
sp332
_the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your
files may travel with you._

Anyone know how to export files from Steam Cloud?

~~~
Foy
Until now I don't think it's been terribly important. Mostly it's just game
save / config files.

Although I suspect that all the steam cloud files are present locally and only
put on the steam cloud as backup.

~~~
tyleregeto
I recently switched out my primary hard drive; I was able to backup and
transfer all my save data by copying save files from my user folder, eg:
C:/Users/myname

~~~
Foy
Valve does the "cloud" right. Everything is local but on the cloud as backup
if needed.

------
kposehn
This is exciting.

Seems like what Gabe is doing is what Google wanted to do with Chrome
OS...without the OS.

I could definitely see Valve becoming a competitor in this sense with a cross-
platform app + document experience that works smoothly on most desktop
devices. The question is whether they can expand this sort of system onto
tablets and phones.

------
quarterto
Is it me, or is Valve gearing up to launch its own Linux distro? With Steam as
primary content distribution and app catalogue and a bit of thought and focus-
groupery poured in to the UI/UX the same way they design their games, they
could own the desktop space in half a decade.

------
cfn
That sounds like good news but the selection process is a bit strange. If I
understand correctly, my app needs to be voted into their store by the
community but how is the community going to evaluate it before it is in the
store?

Does anyone know what are their current fees?

------
klipt
I once forgot both my Steam password and the associated secret question and
had no way to restore it (even though it was linked to my email account).
Luckily that account contained nothing particularly valuable...

~~~
Fargren
Newer versions of Steam don't require a security question for resetting your
password; they instead send a confirmation code to your email address.

------
teamonkey
They'll probably start with basic cross-platform office software (e.g.
OpenOffice) and tools that would be useful to game modders (graphics, sound
and 3D packages).

~~~
graylights
My prediction for a starter app is a basic teleconference app. Steam already
offers API for friends lists and authentication.

~~~
teamonkey
Maybe Teamspeak, since that's the system of choice for Steam users.

~~~
pizza
I thought Mumble was much more popular? Either way, a Steam-based/integrated
voice chat app (i.e. much better than their current voice chat options) would
be one of the best Steam features.

------
Kerrick
They already have done this, though. They have had PC Gamer Magazine and a
making-of Portal interactive on the Steam Store for months.

------
wtracy
In my mind, this piles on the reasons why Steam should really be spun off as a
separate business from the game-making mothership.

------
springishere
I hope they start in with movies as well. That would be truly amazing. Big
step in the right direction for Steam.

------
nthitz
Valve is trying to take on Microsoft head on? I hope this doesn't end up as
vaporware (pun intended)

~~~
Foy
Don't forget the only thing that would really change is that there would be
non-games on the Steam store.

The entire "product" already exists, they just need to bring non-game titles
to Steam. (and from the sound of that announcement it seems they already have
something lines up)

------
detay
Before they do anything, I hope they'd get rid of the BLACK theme. Anytime I
access steam, my eyes burn.

~~~
uvTwitch
your eyes burn? from all the.... brightness..?

------
jebblue
The page is mostly black and hurts my eyes trying to read it, was there
anything interesting on it?

------
cheez
Steam-for-Linux in the hizzouse.

------
recoiledsnake
Extremely interesting.

1) Why so late? If this had come out a couple of years ago, they could've
cemented themselves in Windows 7.

2) AFAIK the real reason for Microsoft not making an app store for native apps
is that they can install spyware, browser toolbars, change browser home page,
change default search provider, eat up battery, install always running
services and what not because they're not sandboxed.

How will the Steam store deal with the inevitable barrage of such user hostile
apps? Will the approval process be highly exclusionary or inclusionary? Where
are the app store terms? What's the cut? 30%?

I think dealing with adware, spyware, malware and grayware is going to be a
challenge. If they're pretty exclusionary, expect devs to get pissed off.

3) Sadly Steam Store won't be allowed to include WinRT apps but Microsoft
allows _links_ to desktop apps on their app store.

If they solve the malware problem, I think they'll have a huge market and help
devs immensely.

Anyone know or remember Intel AppUp Center? It completely failed to take off.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_AppUp>

~~~
pyre

       If they're pretty exclusionary, expect devs to
       get pissed off.
    

I don't see any reason to. They are a 3rd-party distribution channel. This
isn't Google's AppStore on Android (or Apple's on iOS or Microsoft's on WP7).
Sure it might piss of _some_ people, but any decision will piss off some
number of people.

------
barista
Asking genuinely... What benefit does yet another marketplace have to offer?

I can see that by being a cross platform marketplace, If I buy something from
them on my iPad, I can also use that same software on my PC (assuming both the
platforms allow this) But the big question is will they?

~~~
Simucal
One thing to consider is that the Windows app store will be Metro (not sure
what to call it now) only. So Steam might be a pretty attractive option for
filling the niche of distributing traditional desktop applications.

Being able to keep all my Windows desktop applications updated easily through
Steam would be a lot better than having them all try and do it themselves.

------
franzus
Great. I hope they will sell Mac apps too so I can have an alternate
distribution channel for my apps.

