Steam Reaches 15 Million Accounts

Nizzem

L2: Junior Member
Nov 29, 2007
57
0
Steam Reaches 15 Million Accounts
February 7, 2008, 8:55 am - Eric Twelker

Leading Platform for PC Games Building Phenomenal Annual Growth

February 7, 2008 - Valve® today announced that Steam®, a leading platform for PC games and digital entertainment, has surpassed 15 million accounts and realized year-over-year sales growth of 158% through the holiday season. The year also marked the debut of the Steam Community and launch of several best-selling and critically-acclaimed titles such as Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, and The Orange Box. Throughout 2008 more Community features will be introduced to support existing games as well as new titles such as Valve's Left 4 Dead.

Also new for Steam in 2008 is Steamworks, giving game developers access to game features and services available on Steam ranging from product key authentication and copy protection to auto-updating, social networking and matchmaking. Most importantly, the game features and services available in Steamworks are free of charge and can be used for both electronic and tangible versions of games.

"PC gaming is thriving, and has evolved into an era of constant connectivity," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "That connectivity gives us the ability to have a much better relationship with customers, not just for delivering our games, but across all aspects of our business - including the design, development, and support of our games. Features like Guest Passes, Free Weekends, Gifting, and the Steam Community have been very well received both by customers and the developers who are using Steam. We are accelerating our release of new functionality in the next year as well as finding new ways to work with our partners such as the release of Steamworks, which allows them to bring the many benefits of Steam to their packaged products."

:thumbup:

Way to go steam :)
 

Armadillo of Doom

Group Founder, Lover of Pie
aa
Oct 25, 2007
949
1,228
I have but this to say; dam.
 

Dox

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Oct 26, 2007
588
62
The more the merrier! Join the mothercult of gaming today!
 

ryodoan

Resident Bum
Nov 2, 2007
409
117
I really like the Steam system. I like how when set up a new install of windows I can just install steam before I go to bed, tell it to download all my games, then the next day after work all my games are installed and ready to be played.

One thing I had not thought about until I think Penny Arcade mentioned it is that Steam is an example of DRM done right. Yes, it forces you to buy a game and prevents you from allowing multiple people to play online from the same account. BUT, it also ensures that all your games are constantly up to date, it still allows you to install the game on as many computers as you want, and if you have friends over you can still play against each other over the LAN using the same steam account.

Steam still has some buggy issues, and I am still a little leery about having all my games in purely software form, but it is still much better than the Windows XP form of DRM (Serial Key activation, then after the first activation you gotta call them up every time you reformat) or the other forms of control that other content uses such as the DRM on music that restricts your music to only one device or only one computer.

At the end of the day I find more that I like about steam, than things I don't like.
 

l3eeron

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jan 4, 2008
593
88
I grumble about steam all the time... It was a hard transition from the WONID system. Now that I have embraced and learned the whole steam app, its not so bad. But still, there are times when I hate it and I feel like this...

steam.gif


all in all, its has alot of pros and minimal cons. Im glad to be on steam now days :)
 

drp

aa
Oct 25, 2007
2,273
2,628
I grumble about steam all the time... It was a hard transition from the WONID system. Now that I have embraced and learned the whole steam app, its not so bad. But still, there are times when I hate it and I feel like this...

steam.gif


all in all, its has alot of pros and minimal cons. Im glad to be on steam now days :)

:laugh::lol:
 
Oct 25, 2007
219
690
When I got Halflife2 and was forced to install STEAM, I was kind of pissed.

However, now I quite like it. I bought two games directly from STEAM, and these are games were cheap and I never have to worry about where the CD/DVD are. Also the built in chat client is nice.

I am a now a STEAM convert.
 

MacNetron

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 12, 2007
203
47
Steam made me buy more games than I did the previous years.
I do have a habit though to buy "Packs" on Steam. Bought the "ID Pack" and "Source Pack" for instance. Saved me loads of money.
And games are a bit cheaper:
Steam: Orange Box $49,95 (excl. tax)
NL: Orange Box €49,99 (about $73, incl. tax, but tax will not be $23 :) )
 

MacNetron

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 12, 2007
203
47
I just pre-ordered Audiosurf. Price $8,95 and VAT $1,70, so about 19% tax.
In the calculation above with the same rate, at Steam the Orange Box will probably cost about $59,44. That is way cheaper than the Dutch store price of $73.
So the money I saved on buying the Orange Box on Steam, I used to buy an other game.