VALVE UNVEILS STEAM AT 2002 GAME DEVELOPER’S CONFERENCE
Broadband Business Platform Opens New Channel for Software Developers, Publishers and Service Providers
San Jose, CA (March 21, 2002) - Valve, L.L.C. today announced Steam, a broadband business platform for direct software delivery and content management, at the 2002 Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) in San Jose, CA.
Using Steam-enabled applications, consumers with a broadband connection can purchase and start their applications faster than if they install them from a CD. Users can access their applications from any PC simply by logging into their Steam accounts. Steam’s replication and configuration management tools will eliminate the hassles of dealing with patches and updates. And by eliminating the overhead of physical goods distribution, developers will be able to leverage the efficiency of broadband to improve customer service and increase operating margins.
At its core, Steam is a distributed file system and shared set of technology components that can be implemented into any software application. With Steam, developers are given integrated tools for direct content publishing, flexible billing, ensured version control, anti-piracy, and more.
In one of the largest ever studies of computer gamers, Valve polled more than 1 million of its active online consumers. The results showed over 75% of this group have moved from dial-up to broadband. (See: http://valve.speakeasy.net/survey/)
“With an average of 3.4 billion player minutes per month, Valve’s entertainment properties are larger than Friends, the #1 TV show,” said Gabe Newell, managing director, Valve, L.L.C., in his GDC Business and Legal keynote presentation. “With the rapid proliferation of broadband connectivity throughout the world, and as gaming, and all software, developers continue to extend their products’ functionality via the Internet, it became very apparent that a platform for delivering new services and offerings is needed.”
In addition to delivering its games on this new platform, Valve is currently working with other software developers, device manufacturers, and service providers to migrate their wares, drivers, and service to Steam.
“The performance and improvements to operating efficiency are tremendously exciting,” said Alex Garden, CEO of Relic Entertainment. “This is the right way to go about taking advantage of broadband for next generation applications.”
Alex Garden also demonstrated a test version of Relic’s upcoming PC title, Impossible Creatures, running on top of Steam at GDC.
"One of the keys to an excellent gaming experience is ensuring that the most up-to-date hardware drivers are installed on the user's system. New drivers can offer more performance and access to new features and functionality," said Dave Rolston, Vice President of Engineering, ATI Technologies Inc. "We will use the tools Steam gives us to create an automatic driver update and configuration management facility to deliver the most current and complete graphics drivers directly to the user, and ultimately add to an immersive and outstanding gaming experience."
Steam is designed to support a wide variety of models for hosting, billing, and support. Allowing for any number of partnerships and implementation, Steam was built as a modular platform.
“Broadband is the natural successor to optical media for delivering a wide variety of applications,” said Nick Petti, Vice President of AT&T Business Services. “AT&T is excited about being a part of this evolution as a provider of multiple services to content developers and publishers.”
Currently, there are over 75,000 Steam beta testers. This beta, which is being hosted by a growing number of global service providers such as Speakeasy.net and Gamespy.com, will be scaled to over 1 million consumers later this spring.
"Since Valve approached us nearly a year ago, Speakeasy has been very excited about the new opportunities Steam presents," said Michael Apgar, Speakeasy's CEO. "Speakeasy has become the leader in the broadband market for gaming and interactive services by providing a variety of custom service packages, tailored for every type of consumer. Steam will allow us to take that successful approach further by enabling us to deliver exclusive content on demand to anyone with a broadband connection; thereby expanding our market reach exponentially."
The Steam SDK is available now and includes an integrated set of communications tools as well as Valve’s Graphic User Interface (V-GUI). Together, these provide built-in support for a variety of services such as instant messaging, configuration, and server browsing.
For more information, visit www.Steampowered.com.
Founded in 1996, Valve develops entertainment software titles such as Half-Life, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike. Half-Life, Valve’s debut title, was first released in November 1998 and has won over 50 Game of the Year Awards, was named “Best Game of Ever” by PC Gamer, and has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. More information about Valve is available through the company’s Web site at www.valvesoftware.com.
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