Valve: Publishers are loving Steam

Over the past few months we've seen a number of publishers embracing Valve Software's Steam. Numerous back-catalogue PC games from have appeared for digital distribution on the platform and, in the case of the likes of Dark Messiah, on the day of retail release.

It's a trend that's set to continue and evolve, according to Valve Software.

Speaking to CVG in a Steam-focused interview which we'll be publishing shortly, Valve's director of marketing Doug Lombardi explained, "Many of the developers and publishers using Steam presently have more planned - from bringing new day-and-date titles to re-launching critically acclaimed but out of stock titles to over 10 million active gamers.

"Of all the metrics we use to gauge the success of our efforts, the fact that our partners are excited and coming back for more is the most telling", he added.

Lombardi said that "Profits and improving the customer experience" are key factors that make Steam appealing to the publishers. "The word is out: Steam has established itself as a viable platform for selling and managing PC games".

via cvg

Sorry, but Steam is the worst ever. Its slow and there is always a problem, I have never not had a problem with it. Maybe one day *sighs*

e.g. Steam friends was down last night. So me and my friend had to use xfire to communicate.

I haven't really had much of a problem with it, I get downloads at my normal speed, although it does take practically an entire night plus a little more to download HL2 the source engine (~4GB) once the source engine is downloaded though any other game that uses it doesn't take very long to get. The HL1 engine was a fairly quick download for me though...

Bah I'm just rambling