Steam (digital distribution platform)

By its own account, Steam's story began in 1999 with the success of Team Fortress Classic (TFC) and Counter-Strike (CS). Prior to the release of these games, the most popular multiplayer titles each reached up to 3000 concurrent active players. The player numbers of TFC and CS grew beyond this limit and stayed above it for many years. As a result, Valve began to rethink the traditional management of online games. To do this, they created a two-part list of changes that were needed immediately, as well as changes that would be needed in the long run as player traffic continued to grow. This list included automatic updates, improved anti-cheat measures, playability of custom games from any computer, and in-game communication.

While working on this system, the developers came up with the idea of also selling games via such a platform. Implementing it themselves seemed too costly, which is why Valve approached various companies such as Amazon, Yahoo and Cisco Systems and proposed the concept, but was put off until an unknown date in the future. Since Valve needed the system in the short term, the company ended up implementing the idea themselves.

On September 12, 2003, version 1.0 of the Steam client was released and used for testing Counter Strike 1.4. At that time, the use was mandatory only for testers, otherwise voluntary. After the release of CS 1.5, Steam users were given the option to play with WON users on the same servers. Some time later, Steam 2.0 was released along with CS 1.6 beta. Steam 2.0 featured a redesigned user interface and the integration of the instant messenger Tracker as Friends. In July 2004, Valve announced the closure of WON, making Steam mandatory for Valve's online games. This angered many gamers, who subsequently created WON2 as a replacement. In November 2004, Half-Life 2 was released, the first game to require the Steam client.

After the release of Half-Life 2 (HL2), legal disputes arose between Valve and publisher Vivendi. Vivendi claimed that the distribution of HL2 via Steam violated the publisher contracts. Vivendi lost in court, and the company was banned from continuing to license Valve's games to internet cafes. As a result, the companies parted ways, and Valve chose Electronic Arts as its new retail publisher.

The transition to Steam 3.0 began in August 2006, followed by the first Steam Community beta in August 2007, which was released the following September.

In early 2008, Valve opened up the Steam platform by releasing Steamworks. With this package, developers and publishers can use the functionalities of Steam (or parts of it) for free. In doing so, Valve mainly promotes the statistics and DRM functions. The reason given for this step is a hoped-for strengthening of the computer games market and a wider distribution of Steam. In mid-February, the independent music game Audiosurf was released, the first product to use Steamworks. It is distributed via Steam and uses Steamworks to integrate the Steam Community and to award Achievements. However, the use of DRM functionality is not mandatory and is not used by a small number of games.

The release of Bethesda's new open-world RPG in the Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim, on November 11, 2011, gave Steam a new record of 280,000 concurrent players of a single game.

On June 14, 2015, Valve reached a new record with the Steam platform and recorded over ten million simultaneously active users for the first time. However, active users here do not represent playing users, but users who have started the Steam client on the PC.

As of January 1, 2019, Steam client support for older versions of Windows (XP and Vista) and OS X (older than version 10.11) operating systems has been discontinued. As a reason, Valve pointed to the embedded version of Google Chrome, on which much of the newer Steam features are built, but which can no longer run on earlier operating system versions. Also, future Steam updates will require security features and other functionality not present in older versions of the systems. Back in 2018, new features like the revamped chat were reserved for newer systems.

Steam enables the purchase of software licenses via the Internet, thus follows the sales form of digital distribution. This includes the required financial transaction, downloading the program data, unlocking/decrypting the program data and installing the software. Updates for programs purchased through Steam and for Steam itself are automatically downloaded and installed. It is also possible to purchase games as a gift for another Steam account.

The platform has sophisticated possibilities for territorial control. The origin of the user is determined via the IP address, the credit card or the PayPal registration. Based on this data, the Steam shop is adjusted: Games that are not for sale are hidden or switched to cut versions instead; prices can also be adjusted to local conditions. These measures are used for licensing, youth protection and market reasons.

The download and installation of the Steam client as well as a registration with Valve are necessary for use. When a game is purchased, its license is stored in the customer's user account and is linked to this account from then on. Payment can be made by credit card, PayPal and Paysafecard. Following the purchase, the game can be downloaded via the client. The number of downloads and the number of computer systems to which downloads can be made is not limited, but depends only on the authorized access via user ID and password of the purchaser. However, an account may only be used once at a time, so that only one computer can be downloaded or played on at a time.

After uninstalling a game, its license remains in the user account and the title in question can be downloaded again at will.

Since Valve classifies the purchase of a game as a non-transferable subscription for the use of a game and not as a game purchase, purchased games are not transferable or resalable. Because of this, Valve also refuses to activate serial numbers of used Valve games purchased in Steam. Another consequence of this is that Valve reserves the right to block the user access to the games and the Steam account at any time if a breach of the terms of use is identified.

Sharing a personalized Steam account is also prohibited.

Customers will also lose access to their previously purchased games and account if they do not accept terms of service unilaterally changed by Valve, as happened in August 2012, for example.

Since 2015, it has been possible to remove purchased games or get a refund.

Valve's best-known games can still be purchased via conventional retailers on data carriers in parallel to Steam. However, this only bypasses the direct purchase via Steam and the download of the game files. For the game itself, the Steam client and a user account are still required. A serial number is included with the data carrier, which must be registered with Steam in order to decrypt the game files after installation and start the game. Games registered by serial number are treated by Steam in the same way as games purchased online. Also, most third-party games that can be obtained through Steam are usually available through retail stores. However, their serial numbers usually cannot be registered in Steam.

Games that would be duplicated by buying packages can be given away as so-called gifts via Steam; their resale was forbidden for a long time, but since September 6, 2011, it has been permitted via the Steam Trading system and controlled by Valve. Furthermore, the owner of certain games receives Guest Passes (visitor passes), with which other users can test them as a full version for a limited time.

For various organizations (including Internet cafes, schools, libraries) Valve offers a program that provides access to some of the Steam games, management software and other specific benefits.