In the fall of 2015, more than 10,000 games were distributed using Steam from software that was subject to various discounts or sales. On Steam, the number of active member accounts exceeded 125 million. At the beginning of 2018, 18 million users could be on the online service at the same time.
In 2016, an award was approved in the Steam Awards for games, the winners of which are selected by voting . Users of digital distribution services participate in it.
The service acted as a replacement for the WON system, which was previously a highly specialized resource that was not involved in digital distribution. Steam began functioning in 1999, when Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic became popular. These multiplayer games became wildly famous even before their final versions were released. At first, the number of active users rarely rose above 2-3 thousand. After just a couple of years, this number has increased several times. Valve has been forced to reconsider the usual methods that are traditionally used to organize online games. It was necessary to provide for a further increase in the number of players in order to timely solve problems with the supply of software. This moment concerned mainly the possibility of automatic updating, improving the operation of the anti-cheat system.
When work was being done on this system, the idea arose to use the platform, including for selling games. But to implement it turned out to be a somewhat more expensive project than originally planned. The search for the possibility of cooperation with well-known companies began, but no matter who the developers sent such a proposal to, they did not receive anything concrete in response. At the same time, the need for the system was already obvious - the company took up the implementation of this idea itself.
For the first time, the Steam service was introduced in March 2002 at the Game Developers Conference event. Version 1.0 was made available during the beta testing of Counter-Strike 1.4. For CS 1.4 beta testers, the Steam installation was mandatory, but it acted only as an additional component of the final version.
/p>Steam was first introduced in March 2002 at the Game Developers Conference. Version 1.0 was made available during the beta testing of Counter-Strike 1.4. For CS 1.4 beta testers, the Steam installation was mandatory, but it acted only as an additional component of the final version.
/p>Steam was first introduced in March 2002 at the Game Developers Conference. Version 1.0 was made available during the beta testing of Counter-Strike 1.4. For CS 1.4 beta testers, the Steam installation was mandatory, but it acted only as an additional component of the final version.
Steam – is an online service launched by Valve that distributes games and computer software. His task – ensure copyright protection, also the service acts as a platform for streaming games for a large number of users, some players use it as a social network. Steam – a software client that provides installation and updating of software, saving games in the cloud, exchanging text and voice messages.