Steam Broke 25 Million Active Users In 2009

[Generalisimo]

[SIZE="4"]Valve: Steam Broke 25 Million Active Users In 2009[/size]
by Kris Graft
January 29, 2010

Valve Software's Steam is closing in on its sixth year of existence, and it continues its impressive proliferation into an increasingly digital-minded market.

The developer, also behind Half-Life and Counter-Strike, said Friday that Steam boasted over 25 million active accounts at the end of 2009, up 25 percent from 2008. Ten million of those users have created user profiles as part of Steam's community features, Valve said.

Steam originally launched in 2003, beginning as a way to deliver patches for Valve's games. That evolved continually into what the service is today -- a digital distribution ecosystem for PC that combines a storefront, community features, and gaming.

Valve also said software unit sales on Steam increased by over 205 percent during 2009, "marking the fifth straight year the platform has realized over 100% year-over-year growth in unit sales." The company did not reveal any specific unit sales figures, although Gamasutra has reached out for comment.

Steam's growth comes as digital distribution and other forms of online delivery are gaining increasing interest from major game publishers, whose revenues remain largely physical retail-driven. But even brick-and-mortar retailers, namely GameStop, are beginning to acknowledge digital trends with new initiatives focused on the online business.

The number of concurrent users broke the 2.5 million mark in December, the company added. Users have access on Steam to over 1,000 games from more than 100 developers, a roster that includes major mainstream publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision, as well as one-man indie game developers.

Valve said its free Steamworks suite of publishing and development tools experienced strong adoption from game makers in 2009. Recent triple-A titles incorporating Steamworks included Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Warhammer 40:000 Dawn of War II and Empire: Total War, with numerous smaller developers also employing the system. Valve unveiled Steamworks in early 2008.

Valve president Gabe Newell said in a statement, "Steam turned five years old in March 2009. With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years -- such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks -- we've seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform. As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day."

Link:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27011/Valve_Steam_Broke_25_Million_Active_Users_In_2009.php

All I can say is:

[vonRocko]

Further proof of a "sucker being born every minute" .

[Generalisimo]

Further proof of a "sucker being born every minute" .

Being myself a Steam customer, I supose I should take that as a compliment?...

[Anguille]

I don't mind people being steam members...i just don't want to be forced to install that software on my machine. Also, i don't see the purpose of selling a game on a dvd if you have to download everything anyway

[Pocus]

In all honesty, I believe Steam is less and less intrusive to players now. Generalisimo will confirm, but you should be able to duplicate a copy of a game and mod it now, this was not possible some time ago.

[Greybriar]

Steam Broke 25 Million Active Users In 2009

Some more free publicity for Steam.

No DRM for me TYVM.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Lafrite]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/187854/ubisofts_antipiracy_solution_authenticate_online_every_time.html

Sadly, at this pace, Steam will be a day the most customer friendly solution

I have installed Steam again in the Christmas period (bargain period), the client seemed me less intrusive as before.

[Generalisimo]

Some more free publicity for Steam.

No DRM for me TYVM.

I have around 20 games in Steam right now... recently I bought the entire X-com series for just $2 ... really, there are a lot of myths around Steam.

[Generalisimo]

In all honesty, I believe Steam is less and less intrusive to players now. Generalisimo will confirm, but you should be able to duplicate a copy of a game and mod it now, this was not possible some time ago.

Exactly...

A simple example... recently I bought EU3:Complete for Christmas. I have downloaded the game on my desktop computer and played with it a bit.
Then decided that I should take the game with me when I go out with my notebook... so, I have to download the game again?... no.
I burnt the game on a DVD, installed the Steam client on my notebook, copied the game into the notebook, activated the game and then I disconnected Steam (forever... or until I want to install another game :neener .
As simple as that... now I can play EU3 on my notebook everytime I want...

AFAIK, Steam games do not have any other DRM extra than the ones provided by the developers of the game.
For example, sometime ago I liked the screenshots I saw about Dawn of Discovery... until I read the DRM system Ubisoft was using with the game from a company named Tages:
-Install limit of 3 times. One unique key is generated everytime you install the game. You need a new one everytime you change something on your PC.
-It does not support revocation of already used licenses.
-Invasive root-level monitoring software included.
-Consumes CPU resources even when game is uninstalled (the Tages "silent process" remains on your system).
-You must activate the game with Tages software to be able to play it.


I do not need to say that I reconsidered my idea about buying the game...

Finally, with all the hassle that all this caused, they decided to remove the copy protection on the patch 1.1... but it was waaaaaay too late already, people was already scared enough.

Really, for someone like me that lives in the far end of the world, Gamersgate and/or Steam are the only way posible to get the new games.
If you are interested, I can comment some "funny" histories that I had with the customs offices in Argentina... and then you will realize why I do not want to even talk with that people ever again.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Generalisimo]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/187854/ubisofts_antipiracy_solution_authenticate_online_every_time.html

Sadly, at this pace, Steam will be a day the most customer friendly solution

I have installed Steam again in the Christmas period (bargain period), the client seemed me less intrusive as before.

Is the return of Ubisoft intrusive software... they tried and failed... and now they come back for more.
In the end, for "popular games" like AC2, they know people will buy them anyway, so, why not do it???

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Generalisimo]

Generalisimo:

Can you buy games on Steam and then acquire upgrades to those games ANYWHERE else or do you have to wait for a STEAM version of the upgrade to be made available?

In other words assuming AGEod games were to be made available on STEAM. Would the purchaser be able to come to the AGEod site and acquire the latest patch as soon as it came out and patch his STEAM installation of the same game or would he be stuck waiting for STEAM to make a compatible upgrade available?

I think it really depends on the game.

I commented this before in another thread... when I bought Tropico 3, it was quite buggy and I couldn't even play for more than 10 minutes. Nothing related to Steam, the game was just buggy with some infraestructures.
So, I went to their official site and downloaded the last patch 1.01 that wasn't yet available through Steam (the client downloads automatically the patches for you).
Tried again but the game keep failing, so I removed the patch (using the Steam client to check and correct my installation) and waited for a soluton from Kalypso Software and/or Steam...
Just like I installed the patch, I could have installed a mod or whatever.

But, there are some games that DO make special changes for the Steam version of the game... so, they need "special patches" different than the ones available to the public.

Would that be the case for ROP or VGN? (suposing they are available through Steam).... I really do not know.

Like I said before, we already have BOA available on Steam... we can buy that and try the new patches on it to see what happens...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/2930/

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Generalisimo]

Generalisimo:

Basically, from where you are located and the sometimes relative inability to acquire games easily, I can understand why you would think that STEAM is the "berries".

From where I'm located, other then the possible price discounting advantages, STEAM appears to me to be just another meddling middleman interferring with what I already consider easy access to games and accompanying upgrades.

Obviously, we will never totally agree on this because of our different viewpoints, but if it would help AGEod to sell more games then AGEod should go for it as an ADDITIONAL sales stream (but NOT the ONLY sales stream however).

No, don't get me wrong... we fully agree on that.
If I lived in Miami, I would probably go to my near EB shop and buy my games there...
In that case, I would probably use Steam for the exceptional discounts that they offer only... and not more than that...
Anyway, maybe I could even get some of those games on bargain bins on some shops too... so maybe not even for that

But considering where I live right now, I MUST use Steam or Gamersgate (yes, MUST ). There is no other posible solution for me ... and that's something I just can't ignore.
That's why Steam in my current situation is the "berries", just like you said.

The truth is that Steam/Gamersgate is opening the market to all the world, because as you may have suposed, I am not the only one with a case like this.
But that doesn't end there... I also know a lot of european people from the Paradox forum that usually buy most of the "sale discounts" (60%, 70%, etc) that Steam offers almost every week.
So, as an additional sales stream will work great for a small company like AGEOD, just like you have said.

[Franciscus]

This is really a no-brainer. I also use Steam, occasionally - it's cheap, convenient, hassle-free. And yes, we can make back-up copies.
There are other 2 main myths regarding Steam:

- In a few years they will close and I will not be able to play anymore my favorite gamers. Of course it's possible. Much more probably either it's us that lost interest in the games, our PC0s broke or we are dead
- I am installing a nasty malware in my beloved PC. You probably have them already and do not know it. Windows can sometimes be so described... . Steam does not do anything that you are not fully informed, and with an high level of security - much higher, in fact, than what you probably have right now reading this while surfing the net.

Digital download of games is the future. And it's a necessity, not only in Argentina, for some games. Steam is just another means of getting what you want. Life is too short to worry that much.

[Generalisimo]

Today this news was posted on the Facebook page of Steam...

February 23, 2010 -- Valve announces a new version of Steam which is immediately available in public beta.

In the last 12 months, Steam has grown 200%. There are now 25 million users, 1000+ games, 12 billion player minutes per month, and 75 billion Steam client minutes per mo ...nth. To accommodate this growth, a new Steam client has been created.

This opt-in beta is available immediately to all Steam users. If users already have Steam installed on their computer, they can take part in the beta by clicking this link and then selecting "UI Update" under Beta Participation. If they don't have Steam installed, they can download it here. To preview the new Steam client without taking part in the beta, a complete rundown of the new features is available here.

Increasingly, the most effective way of reaching new gamers is through the existing players of a game. With the new Steam release, gamers will now be able to see which games their friends have purchased directly within the Steam storefront. 25 million gamers create a highly effective and knowledgeable source of purchase suggestions.

News outlets now have the ability to reach the Steam community through the new client's News aggregator functionality. Those organizations interested can contact Doug Lombardi at lombardi@valvesoftware.com.

With users purchasing more and more games through Steam, new methods of library management were needed. The new client introduces library customization tools to help gamers sort, group, and find games in libraries which for some hardcore players contain hundreds of titles. In addition to having lots of games, gamers needed methods of tracking all of their achievements in a standardized cross-game fashion, which is now possible with the new release.

"We made hundreds of changes to the Steam client as a result of customer feedback on the interface, performance, and functionality," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development at Valve. "For example, we swapped out the Internet Explorer rendering engine with WebKit, which gives us a bunch of size, stability and performance benefits. This release of Steam leaves us well prepared for another year of strong growth."

About Steam
The leading online platform for PC games and digital entertainment, Steam delivers new releases and online services to over 25 million PC users around the world. For more information, please visit steamgames.com.

About Valve
Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. For more information, please visit valvesoftware.com.

[Greybriar]

It amazes me that a competitor is promoted so much on these forums.

[Generalisimo]

It amazes me that a competitor is promoted so much on these forums.

Competitor?... promoted?...
Sorry, but I do not quite follow you...