Steam game market celebrates its 20th anniversary. The indispensable platform for PC gamers has been with us for a very long time.
The official statement made by Valve platform Steam for the 20th anniversary celebration is as follows: happened: “Valve launched Steam on September 12, 2003, and we’re extremely proud and incredibly grateful for everything we’ve done over these past 20 years. Steam owes its success to the players and developers who use it around the world. We thought it would be fun to remember the most popular games on Steam from each year (many of these games, including all Valve games, are on sale as part of this celebration!) and added some fun facts from both Steam and pop culture in general (visual and in writing). However, show us the same patience you show to your elderly grandmothers and grandfathers. The dates and information below have been written relying on our ever-failing memories. We are really old. Anyway, if you are not interested in reading a novel in your free time, feel free to use the “years” menu to jump to a year that interests you. At least scroll down to the bottom of the page. There might be something there that will lead you to free products.” The company also made year-specific statements, for example for the year 200r:
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“The year is 2003. MySpace launches, Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes governor of California, and “In Da Club” becomes the number one song. So what else happened this year? It was released on Steam on September 12, 2003. We first announced Steam at the Game Developers Conference the previous year in 2002, and after its launch we largely used it solely to more easily deliver Valve game updates. But our ultimate goal was to make it easier for game developers to meet their players and directly build their own player base.”
The statement made for 2004 was as follows: “In March 2004, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero became the first game we released on Steam, and on November 16, Half-Life 2 made its big debut. Between these two games, Codename: Gordon, released in May, was (technically) the first third-party game released on Steam. The game was unfortunately later removed, but it will remain an important part of Steam history! Other interesting facts from 2004: Facebook and Motorola Razr were released (not together, of course); Google went public; The Numa Numa meme has taken the internet by storm.”
The year 2023 we are in is summarized as follows: “The year isn’t quite over yet, but we’ve released a huge Steam client update, Counter-Strike 2 is in beta (and coming soon), and there are 11,000 confirmed or playable-rated games available to play on Steam Deck. On the popular culture front; Even though there are still a few months left in the year, Taylor Swift has already stepped up to the plate. Over the summer, four of his albums entered the Billboard 10 simultaneously (becoming the first living artist to achieve this feat in 60 years). And of course there is the Eras tour!”