How the Counter-Strike launcher turned into the largest store: Steam changes over the years

How the Counter-Strike launcher turned into the largest store: Steam changes over the years A few days ago, Steam celebrated its 19th anniversary - and although the platform is now the face of PC gaming on the PC, it took Valve a long time to achieve such success. The digital storefront has changed a lot over the years, going from a portal for Counter-Strike 1.6 to a massive platform where you can buy games, watch live streams, sell video game items, trading cards, and $400 shooter knives. So it's time to go back to the roots to look at exactly how Steam has changed to become so popular around the world.

2003: Beginning

On September 12, 2003, Valve introduced the Steam platform to the world, which allowed the development team to simplify the process of releasing and installing patches for games like Counter-Strike, plus it allowed to fight cheaters and provide audiences with easier access to new content created by the company's developers. True, the release did not go as smoothly as we would like - many gamers perceived Steam as a threat to computer games, since the application required a constant connection to the Internet. Now it seems strange, but then only 20% of US residents had access to broadband Internet. At the same time, Steam authentication servers could hardly cope with the requests of gamers, regularly blocking their ability to run purchased video games. Add here the slow loading speed of content, a rather inconvenient interface and an endless stream of patches - as a result, the platform caused only rejection among most gamers. Yes, and from the Steam screenshot of that time, you can understand that Valve focused exclusively on its games, which also could not be bought on the site, and there was no digital storefront in the platform application itself. Then it was more of a hub for connecting gamers, rather than a digital store for making money selling video games.

2004: Everyone installs Steam for Half-Life 2

The release of Half-Life 2 is probably the very reason why the Steam platform has become what it is today. The thing is that Valve came up with a very simple and working mechanic (which is now used everywhere) - in order to play the world-famous shooter Half-Life 2, the gamer needed to register on Steam, even if the user bought the game in a box in the store. This was a fundamental transition from the old digital property ownership model (CDs and video game keys) to the new one, in which ownership of licensed content was tied to an online account.

2005: Shop appears

Only in 2005, the first non-Valve games appeared on the Steam platform - we are talking about Ragdoll Kung Fu and Darwinia. The news is actually quite impressive, because it was then that the company's digital platform ceased to be just a Valve game downloader and server browser, turning into a full-fledged digital video game store.

2006: The Library Grows

Just a year later, Steam begins to take on its classic form - a new concept of digital sales is being formed, about which those very memes about gamers' wallets will appear decades later. Free demo versions of video games, as well as HD videos with gameplay, appear in the catalog of the digital platform. And by the end of 2006, almost 100 games were available for purchase on Steam.

2007: Showcase appears

The normal implementation of the search function, the integration of Metacritic ratings and filters like "Best selling" or "New releases" make Steam a more convenient platform for the audience. In addition, a Steam Community section is being launched in the Steam client, which includes many important features such as tracking statistics, a list of friends, communities, and even a chat function. Thanks to these features, already in 2007, no one had any doubts about who was in the lead in the PC gaming market - Valve with Steam had already become the center of the gaming universe.

2008: Quality of life improvements

Steam developers decided to implement video game categories by genre, as well as pay more attention to the list of new releases, which made it much easier for gamers to keep track of the ever-expanding catalog of the site. By the end of 2008, there were more than 1,000 video games on Steam, a Spotlight feature, an image slideshow, and a large banner ad on the main menu. Due to this, publishers could attract the attention of the 20 millionth Steam audience to their video game. Back in the same year, the company introduced Steam Cloud - the cloud save feature allowed you to play the same game on different computers, while receiving saves, settings and keymaps directly from the cloud.

2009: Foundation for the backlog

Steam is adding "Under $5" and "Under $10" video game categories. This is the foundation of the platform, which soon gained a reputation as a place with a lot of discounts that lead gamers to impulse purchases and the accumulation of the so-called video game backlog - those projects that you most likely will never play.

2010: Strong growth

Discounts on the site are now presented as a percentage, which greatly simplifies the search for profitable offers for gamers. There's also a Steam Stats activity graph that reminds audiences of how popular the site is getting. In addition, Mac games are making their first appearance on Steam, marking Valve's first move into PC platforms outside of Windows. And at that time, about 3,000 video games were already being sold on Steam.

2011: Steam Workshop introduced

A recommendation bar appears in the app's main menu to make it easier for gamers who want more new games in the style of the ones they already love to find games. In addition, in response to increasing cases of account fraud, Valve developers are implementing Steam Guard technology - this is the usual two-factor authentication (first by email, and then through the Steam mobile application). But most of all, the developers of custom modifications were delighted that year - the long-awaited section of the Steam Workshop appeared, which allowed distributing mods directly on Steam.

2012: The Year Everything Changed

In 2012, the Steam platform acquired two large-scale additions - one can safely be called the worst in the history of the video game market, and without the second, it is simply impossible to imagine the Valve platform as such. It's worth starting with the bad - in that year, Valve launched Steam Greenlight. This is a section that allowed users on Steam to vote on which indie projects should be allowed on the site, and which should not be considered. This system arose during the rise of Kickstarter and other crowdfunding services, when it was fashionable to appeal to the opinion of the audience. Exactly one year later, in 2013, Gabe Newell said that Steam Direct was a terrible decision, so the decision was made to abandon the system. However, not long after that, Valve launched Steam Direct, opening the doors on Steam to thousands of new video games of dubious quality. The good news was another major update in 2012, which to this day is one of the most influential events in the history of the video game market - the launch of the Steam Marketplace. This section allowed players to buy and sell in-game items for real money, which completely changed the consumption model. Cosmetic items from Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive literally flooded the playground - those gamers who six years earlier complained about paid DLCs now happily buy virtual helmets and skins for their weapons. You could even say that Valve created an NFT-like system before NFT was even invented. And in the same year, the growth of DLC on Steam reached the level that the developers added separate categories for this downloadable content to the list of new releases, even separate DLC and Demo tags appeared. And that same year, Valve released its first mobile app, Steam, which allowed you to chat, make purchases, and even remotely install video games on your PC.

2013: User feedback and early access

In 2013, Valve released many small additions. For example, in anticipation of the launch of SteamOS, the Steam client received support for Linux, the Big Picture mode appeared, which demonstrated the company's ambitions to take the place of game consoles in the gamer's living room. Also, Valve developers are working on video games that will be delivered in the early access format (the corresponding search category appears), and back in 2013 they are launching the Family Sharing function - now gamers can share their library. An important upgrade is the new user reviews section, which complements the existing Metacritic scores. And very soon, in six years, the concept of "Steam review bombing" will become something of a feedback from gamers. And Steam decided to expand user profiles - now there is a system with levels, partly designed to encourage gamers to publish reviews of games and trade trading cards on the site.

2014: Emergence of Discovery

The most important platform change came at the end of 2014 - Valve released the Discovery update, which gave gamers the interface design and layout that we know to this day. Personal recommendations appeared on the main page, there were offers from curators of sections and not only. Also in 2014, the "Recently updated" section appeared, which reflects an important change in the market - video games ceased to be a product and moved into the category of services. Linux got more attention and got its place in the navigation bar, plus there was a Steam In-Home Streaming feature (Google would invent the same feature and call it Stadia years later).

2015: Paid mods

In 2015, Valve and Bethesda jointly decided to launch the sale of paid mods on the Steam marketplace, but just a few days later, company employees officially announced that this was a big mistake. The idea goes to the trash, but in the same year, Valve adds a hardware section to its digital platform - links to the Steam Controller, Steam Link and Steam Machines appear. And although then the company did not manage to achieve any impressive success, years later it turns out that Valve did not refuse to develop hardware products in vain.

2016: Virtual reality

The most important update of 2016 can be called the addition of the category of games for virtual reality - Oculus Rift and HTC Vive then seemed like a breakthrough in the digital entertainment market. Valve is also actively working on finalizing the early access section, which at that time still seemed like an ambiguous idea.

2017: Steam Direct introduced

Although Steam abandoned Greenlight, a decision was made in 2017 that fundamentally changed the nature of Steam - the Steam Direct system was launched, which allowed anyone to submit their game to the digital store without community approval.

2018: Games for adults

Naturally, without proper moderation of content in Steam Direct, real chaos began. And if many years ago no one could have imagined that adult games with pornographic content would be sold on Steam, in September 2018 this is exactly what happened - the platform actually gave the green light to adult games, having formed only two rules for this content. In such projects, it was forbidden to demonstrate anything illegal and there should not be obvious trolling. The point is that in video games for adults you can not use the images of real people, but in everything else, Valve adheres to a hands-off policy.

2019–2022: Epic Games Store и Steam Deck

Valve's idea to focus on video game support for Linux (in case Microsoft suddenly gets too greedy) has clearly faded into the background, although the company continues to work on SteamOS, because, as it turns out, this is the operating system that Valve planned to use in Steam Deck. The portable gaming computer, created by the company's engineers, returned Valve to the hardware market, and literally everyone liked this novelty. However, the really important news happened outside of Steam - Epic Games introduced its digital video game store at the end of 2018 with a rather unpleasant policy for gamers regarding some releases. The management of the Epic Games Store paid certain dividends or offered a meager percentage of the "tax" in exchange for exclusivity - because of this, some projects did not come out on Steam for a year or even more. Moreover, the Epic Games Store offered publishers more favorable terms of cooperation even without additional bonuses - if Steam takes 30% of the publisher's profit, the Epic Games Store kept only 12%. This directly affected Steam - Gabe Newell said that everyone benefits from competition, so the company slightly reduced its share of the profits of publishers who earn more than $ 10 million a year.

Aim for the future

In the modern video game market, everything changes very quickly - metaverses, NFT cosmetic items, e-sports, streaming from any iron and other interesting innovations can change the picture of the world in the blink of an eye. At the same time, Steam is likely to remain the same island of inviolability and constancy that it has been since 2005 - even the Epic Games Store, with all its exclusives, could not shake Valve's confidence in its site. It remains only to connect access to a subscription like Microsoft PC Game Pass with access to a huge library of video games with monthly payments to hit the jackpot - perhaps Valve will announce this for the 20th anniversary.

Source: PC Gamer.

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