Valve has announced that its distribution platform, Steam, will expand beyond game software this September (Photo: opticalreflex)
Game developer and distributor Valve has announced that come September 5, its online distribution platform Steam is to begin selling non-game software.
Applications distributed via Steam will benefit from its support for automatic updating and Cloud-storage for users' personal files so that they can be accessed from different internet-enabled computers, the latter feature currently being put to use for storing game save files.
Though no specific software has yet been announced, Valve will invite software developers to submit their programs through Steam Greenlight, a system that grants the Steam community a say in which titles will see eventual release.
Strictly speaking, the announcement constitutes an expansion of Steam's non-game catalog, as Valve already ships its (admittedly gamer-oriented) Source Filmmaker machinima-creation tool through the service.
Rumors that Microsoft is hurriedly building online team death match functionality into PowerPoint for Office 2013 in response to Valve's announcement are yet to be confirmed.
Source: Valve
James is a graduate of the Open University, with a B.Sc. in Technology and a Diploma in Design and Innovation. After a decade in building design engineering, he side-stepped into writing about green tech and the environment. When not clattering about the web, he listens to early 90s hip hop, writes bad haiku and ponders the merits of an English three-man seam attack. All articles by James Holloway
That last line made me laugh my ass off at work. Thanks James!
Emilio Maldonado Reyes9th August, 2012 @ 05:33 am PDT
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I think the idea of letting the steam community help decide which apps get approved is really cool. With games when you get a crappy game it usually just isn't fun to play, with software it rootkits your OS, bundles adware/spyware, changes home pages, installs toolbars, and runs at startup.
Diachi9th August, 2012 @ 04:33 am PDT