lazygecko Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 STEAM REACHES 15 MILLION ACCOUNTSLeading Platform for PC Games Building Phenomenal Annual Growth February 7, 2008 - Valve® today announced that Steam®, a leading platform for PC games and digital entertainment, has surpassed 15 million accounts and realized year-over-year sales growth of 158% through the holiday season. The year also marked the debut of the Steam Community and launch of several best-selling and critically-acclaimed titles such as Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, and The Orange Box. Throughout 2008 more Community features will be introduced to support existing games as well as new titles such as Valve's Left 4 Dead. Also new for Steam in 2008 is Steamworks, giving game developers access to game features and services available on Steam ranging from product key authentication and copy protection to auto-updating, social networking and matchmaking. Most importantly, the game features and services available in Steamworks are free of charge and can be used for both electronic and tangible versions of games. "PC gaming is thriving, and has evolved into an era of constant connectivity," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "That connectivity gives us the ability to have a much better relationship with customers, not just for delivering our games, but across all aspects of our business - including the design, development, and support of our games. Features like Guest Passes, Free Weekends, Gifting, and the Steam Community have been very well received both by customers and the developers who are using Steam. We are accelerating our release of new functionality in the next year as well as finding new ways to work with our partners such as the release of Steamworks, which allows them to bring the many benefits of Steam to their packaged products." Visit Valve during GDC at Expo Suite 362. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com Hey guys I heard PC gaming is dying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinewav Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 PC gaming isn't dying. It just looks that way because console gaming has gotten so popular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starla Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 With titles like Spore and Starcraft 2 coming out, PC gaming is doing ju-u-u-u-ust fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramaniscence Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Lies. Good PC titles are few and far between outside of the MMO world and Christmas time. We got Orange box, Crysis, C&C3 on a lesser extent, some more cross platform FPS...but that's it. I can't even remember a PC game that came out that mattered between Oblivion and C&C3. And between C&C3 and Orange Box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinewav Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Lies. Good PC titles are few and far between outside of the MMO world and Christmas time.We got Orange box, Crysis, C&C3 on a lesser extent, some more cross platform FPS...but that's it. I can't even remember a PC game that came out that mattered between Oblivion and C&C3. And between C&C3 and Orange Box. I fail to see how that's different than the console games. 99% of all the games released are forgettable at best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 I fail to see how that's different than the console games. 99% of all the games released are forgettable at best. It's true, shall I remind you guys of the shovelware that the Wii occasionally gets while the PS3 is hardly getting them out to begin with. Xbox360 seems more in the middle but quite a few of their good titles are available on the PC to begin with so that almost makes it moot point to have an Xbox360... Mind you though if I really were to get consoles... it would be both the Wii and PS3, if only to get the most out of gaming for this gen. edit: holy fuck I haven't done a run on sentence in an incredibly long time... edit2: nevermind my eyes must be playing tricks as I missed the punctuation... :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramaniscence Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 I fail to see how that's different than the console games. 99% of all the games released are forgettable at best. Save for MMOs console games have a LOT longer life expectancy than PC games, and their output is generally a lot more steady. PCs get maybe 1 or 2 decent exclusives a year (which is mostly only if you consider games that SHOULD be PC exclusives as PC exclusives like Orange Box and C&C3 and stuff like that that gets played primarily on PC). If even that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vivi22 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Save for MMOs console games have a LOT longer life expectancy than PC games. Tell that to Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and all of the various mods and communities that have developed around them. No console game can even touch the longevity of the best PC games, no matter how much I may prefer console gaming overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bahamut Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 I fail to see how that's different than the console games. 99% of all the games released are forgettable at best. Strength in numbers - there are quite more console games people look forward to than PC games that turn out to be quality games yearly. In addition, PC gaming retail presence has shrunk considerably in the past few years because the sales have been on the decline, especially compared to its console counterparts. As for Steam, personally I have to say that I despise it, although it may have changed some since HL2's advent. I remember being incredibly pissed that I had to connect to Steam to play HL2 - I bought the collector's edition close to launch, and I got rewarded with that type of distrust of the consumer. That almost singlehandedly made me decide to quit PC gaming completely for a few years, as it turned to become a part of a larger trend of treading on consumer prerogative in PC gaming. Blizzard never treated me so terribly, and I don't see why the other developers need to do the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramaniscence Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Tell that to Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and all of the various mods and communities that have developed around them. No console game can even touch the longevity of the best PC games, no matter how much I may prefer console gaming overall. Tell that to the emulation community. You're right, Half-Life 1 really has stood the test of time up against games like Final Fantasy VI, or Chrono Trigger...or even Mario 64.... I'm just DYING to go back and play Opposing Forces......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJT Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 As long as people still play Counter Strike PC gaming will not be dead for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthonium Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 I blame Portal and Team Fortress 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OverCoat Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 I'm just DYING to go back and play Opposing Forces......... Fuck! I know I am! OpFor rules! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I-n-j-i-n Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 It still is dying, though not with FPS games. Some genres are borderline dead (RPGs and shooters are on the verge of just disappearing. Hack and slash games are around though. Many Diablo clones are actually more fun than Diablo to me). I think they're getting the huge benefits from co-developing with console game and having the ease of transition from some 360 exclusives that are easily transferable to the PC platform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazygecko Posted February 9, 2008 Author Share Posted February 9, 2008 Consequently, platformers have become a niche genre, shoot em ups even moreso, Madden NFL tops the sales every year, and "casual" games like Singstar and Wii Fit are skyrocketing in popularity. zomg console gaming is dying!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I-n-j-i-n Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 That is a moot point when hardcore/semi-hardcore games are selling like wildfire too. While on the other side of the spectrum with PCs, there isn't much of a 'casual' market to speak of other than all the silly Tycoon games and Sims and a few free online games that really shouldn't count as 'PC games that you buy for $50'. And I don't really know how to categorize MMORPGs in that spectrum. Hardcore/Casual?... Even 2D games are selling like crazy on downloadable services for console systems. That says a lot. It also seems that platformers and shoot-em-up games are more apt for the Xbox Live Arcade treatment and it sells well that way. I admit that PC games as a WHOLE isn't dead, but the whole culture of PC gaming's importance isn't really there anymore. PC games don't trailblaze; Console games do. In the 90's maybe, but not now. There's a few stellar examples for the PC side, but it is totally out of proportion compared to what console games do nowadays. Oh, and piracy is a way bigger issue on PC gaming because it is so accessible compared to all the hardware fusses you need to contend with for console gaming: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3165631 One of my favorite franchises, Max Payne, had to be put on hold indefinitely thanks to overt piracy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vivi22 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 As for Steam, personally I have to say that I despise it, although it may have changed some since HL2's advent. I remember being incredibly pissed that I had to connect to Steam to play HL2 - I bought the collector's edition close to launch, and I got rewarded with that type of distrust of the consumer. You never "had" to connect to Steam to play HL2. It did need to be registered to Steam, but they let you play the game all you wanted until you could connect to their servers, and following that, you can load up Steam in offline mode if you want and play any of your games. I'll say from experience that I like Steam more than any other download service out there. It seems to have especially been hitting it's stride in the last couple of years, and is undoubtedly making Valve buttloads of money. Which kind of works for me as a fan of pretty much everything they do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bahamut Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 You never "had" to connect to Steam to play HL2. It did need to be registered to Steam, but they let you play the game all you wanted until you could connect to their servers, and following that, you can load up Steam in offline mode if you want and play any of your games. I'll say from experience that I like Steam more than any other download service out there. It seems to have especially been hitting it's stride in the last couple of years, and is undoubtedly making Valve buttloads of money. Which kind of works for me as a fan of pretty much everything they do. I seem to remember that there was some stuff you had to go through to get that to work (it was mainly intended for those who still used 56K), but that it isn't like that by default is pretty unacceptable in my book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vivi22 Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Actually, all it took was not being able to connect to their servers to get it to work without registration or in offline mode. They had big problems with the registration servers being overloaded when HL2 came out, but if you couldn't connect because of it (or a lack of an internet conection for that matter) you still got to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.