Steam is a digital distribution platform for video games created by Valve Corporation. It is a gaming community where gamers and developers can buy and sell games. video games in line. Steam is one of the most popular platforms in its field, if not THE most popular, due to its characteristics that meet the needs of users. A significant example of this is its customer support services, with tools and features to help and overall improve users’ gaming experience.
Steam is also a convenient platform for game developers, whether large corporations or small independent creators. Any developer can partner with Steam to add their games to the platform as well as easily engage and inform the gaming community through a store page. If game developers want to update or fix their game, they can use Steam to release “patches” for players to download. This allows developers to improve their games without forcing their product to be recalled.
Historical
Steam was created in 2003 by the same company that created video game behemoths such as the series Half-Life, Left4Dead and Counter-Strike. The platform was developed in 2002 when Valve needed a site where they could easily update multiplayer games.
Steam worked fine at first, but soon ran into a problem. On the long-awaited release of Half Life 2 from Valve, the company has asked players to register on Steam for the purpose ofauthentication and fight against piracy. However, the influx of visitors caused the site to crash, prompting a strong reaction from players. Valve was able to fix the issue quickly, allowing the incident to serve as a warning. When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was released on the platform, the site was able to withstand the onslaught of player registrations.
It wasn’t until 2005, however, that the gaming community’s perception of Steam began to turn positive. Before that year, Steam was only relevant for games made by Valve. By signing up publishers outside of the platform, Valve has allowed other big, well-known game companies like Capcom and Activision to distribute their games on Steam. The diversity of video games readily available on the platform has been great news for the gaming community. Valve also began adding other features that ultimately made Steam the video game distribution platform we know today.
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