Steam’s 15-year history of evolution – from CS 1.6 to the biggest game store on PC

This week marks Steam’s 15th birthday. Although Steam is now the face of PC gaming, this success did not come overnight. The digital game store has changed a lot over the years, from a simple portal for Counter-Strike 1.6 to a platform where you can buy games, review them, and even participate in the development process. game development – ​​if you’re not too busy buying and selling things on the Community Marketplace. Let’s go back in time to see how this one-of-a-kind platform has improved over the past 15 years – dive into this Steam history.

2003

On September 12, Steam was born as a way for Valve to master the process of updating titles like Counter-Strike, as well as the portal that developers release about their games. However, at the time, Steam was not very welcome on PC Gaming: it required a constant Internet connection while only 20% of the US population at the time had ADSL Internet. This doesn’t help Steam’s servers keep up with user demand, constantly preventing them from playing the games they’ve purchased. In addition to slow download speeds, a clunky interface, and constant patching, many gamers have had an unremarkable Steam experience.

In the image above, Steam’s main focus is pretty clear: only games developed by Valve are available, and there’s no way to buy them from the website. The Steam app lacks a store, focusing solely on connecting players instead of making them spend money.

2004

The birth of Half-Life 2 is considered to be the reason that makes Steam what it is, and the fact that people can buy games on Steam speaks for itself. Valve also wants you not to forget: to play this popular shooter title, you also need to register on Steam.

2005

Ragdoll Kungfu and Darwinia became the first non-Valve titles to appear on Steam. This is big news, marking the platform’s transformation from a download and server application to a real game store.

2006

Now, we see Steam begin to take shape. The concept of selling digital games was born. Free demos and HD videos join the catalog. With nearly 100 games, the problem of displaying information started to surface.

2007

Clear search, review integration with Metacritic, and filtering capabilities like Top Sellers and New Releases make the sales page easier to use. The presence of community forums shows that Steam is beginning to recognize users as an integral part of the platform.

With the Steam app, the Steam Community platform offers many important features, including stats tracking, friend lists, community groups, and voice chat.

2008

Viewing games by genre, and focusing more on the New Releases list helps keep track of Steam’s catalogs ever-expanding. Meanwhile, the Spotlight feature, slide show, and large billboards for important games help Steam reach 20 million users.

In terms of software, Steam Cloud makes it easier to play games on multiple computers of the same game, with the ability to automatically synchronize game saves, configuration settings, and controls.

2009

The presence of the Under $5 and Under $10 section stimulates the need to shop for games on Steam, including cheap games that you’ve probably never played before.

2010

Discounts are now displayed as a percentage, making it easy for buyers to see which games are on sale. The Steam Stats Activity Chart reminds Steam users that it’s growing wider, with Mac titles marking Steam’s first foray into new markets beyond Windows PC.

2011

With a game library that has surpassed 1,000, Steam introduces the Recommendation feature to explore the game as well as combat the excessive game rain.

To combat account fraud, Valve launches Steam Guard, which requires a two-step login, first via email and then through the Steam mobile app. Meanwhile, Modders are happy that Steam Workshop is here, allowing users to share their content directly on Steam.

2012

The rapid increase in the amount of DLC caused Downloadble Content filtering to be added to the New Release list, as well as adding DLC ​​and Demo tags in the upper left corner of the game thumbnail. Steam Greenlight began to launch, showing Valve’s openness but at the same time revealing many mistakes in Steam’s game review process.

In addition to the desktop, Steam launched a new mobile application, allowing chat, purchase and install games indirectly. Later, the Steam Marketplace launched, allowing in-game items to be bought and sold with Steam Wallet currency.

two thousand and thirteen

With the advancement of SteamOS, Linux support appeared on Steam, taking the place of the Mac in the Menu bar and adding its own Featured Games tab. The Big Picture mode also appeared, showing Valve’s ambition to break into the ‘living room gaming’ segment of the console. The experiment continued to grow with the presence of Early Access, although it was initially overlooked due to its limitations, being only found in the notification banner and search section.

2013 also saw the launch of Family Sharing, allowing users to share their game library with each other if they’re not playing. Along with it is the feature of game reviews from users, supporting the current Metacritic system. User profiles also expand with an RPG-like leveling system, encouraging users to participate in item exchanges and post reviews.

2014

The Recently Updated feature transforms itself, from product to service. Linux is no longer present in the menu bar – not surprisingly, to make way for SteamOS.

In terms of features, In-Home Streaming turns laptops and tablets into wireless displays for high-end PCs. With Twitch-like integration, allowing Steam users to follow their gaming friends and share online games they’re playing. Choosing Family View helps parents limit the content their children can access

Late 2014-2016

At the end of 2014, we have the Discovery Update, which resembles the look and feel we know today. Customize your own recommendations right on the homepage, from Steam’s Discovery Queue to popular game review communities also present. 2015 added hardware options to support Steam Controller, Steam Link and Steam Machine, while 2016 added the VR segment to service the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

2017-2018 and the future

Steam doesn’t look much different now than it did last year and the year before. Steam Greenlight is gone, replaced by Steam Direct, which allows anyone to submit games themselves, without community approval.

Thanks to the latest game policy changes, any game title (as long as it’s not illegal or intentionally trolled) will be allowed to appear on the platform, with filtering tools for users to sift through content. adult or not. We should see this feature in Steam’s future game library soon.

Valve also started pushing the livestream segment, including a developer livestream site, launching Steam.tv, which could become a competitor to Twitch in the coming years. Meanwhile, Steam Machine has failed, but valve has not given up on Linux, with a Steam Play update making the game easy to play on this operating system, including Valve’s SteamOS.

Although slow, Steam has also grown into the video segment. Although somewhat controversial, the software segment (not for games) is also available on the store. As for its plans to expand into hardware, Valve continues to launch hardware and software for VR, expanding the VR segment on Steam to become a large segment of the store.

Perhaps Steam has reached a new milestone. With an endless library of games thanks to the results of Steam Greenlight and Steam Direct, but from here, everything will be larger and more diverse. Valve is adding discovery features – including portals for new Curators and developers – to further expand the game library. The face of Steam in the future will look so different, just like now, no one will realize Steam was once the app for updates exclusively for Counter-Strike games.

According to PCGamer