Steam, the gaming giant company, is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Steam innovated in the gaming world by deploying games over the internet rather than with CDs. This also fostered the possibility of modifications and downloadable content, the key that made the gaming industry so large. The Verge reports:
When it launched 20 years ago today on September 12th, 2003, it seemed like Valve was trying to take away our multiplayer server browsers and our DVDs. 2004’s Half-Life 2, which required Steam to play even if you bought a physical disc, made Steam look like a glorified piece of DRM.
And why pay Valve, many game publishers asked themselves, when they could build or buy their own digital distribution platforms like EA’s Origin or Ubisoft’s UPlay instead?
More than just a platform, Steam also published many of its own games, such as Counter Strike and Half Life. These games too have revolutionized graphic design and multiplayer features. PC Gamer continues:
Back then, Steam was mainly a tool for Counter-Strike updating and matchmaking, but when Half-Life 2 came out in 2004, it had to be tied to a Steam account, and that really marked the beginning of the Steam store as we know it now. It also made people pretty mad: The idea that we needed online accounts to access games other than EverQuest was the scary gaming trend of the 2000s. 20 years later, people get mad when a game isn’t available on Steam, so Valve did pretty well for itself.
Steam introduced a lot of conveniences, too, like auto-updating and matchmaking features, and ultimately led the gaming industry’s transition from discs to downloads whether grumpy old physical media-loving PC gamers liked it or not. It took years for consoles to catch up, hence why we use “downloadable content” to refer to small downloadable expansions even when downloading entire games was already the norm on PC when the term was invented.
Gaming is a huge industry, generating close to $400 billion worldwide each year. With their international reach, games have become cultural touchstone for younger generations across the world.
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