What Is Steam?

Mitch and Blake take a deep dive into the game industry’s migration from physical goods at retail to electronic distribution over the internet. They explore the rise of platform-based publishing — a new concept that marries the internet’s remarkable utility in aggregating customers on digital platforms with the traditional publishing roles of editorial, marketing, and sales. This episode covers the origins of the innovative Steam service, Microsoft’s GamePass platform (and why it led to Microsoft's $69B acquisition of Activision-Blizzard), and how the Chinese giant Tencent used platform-based publishing to become the largest game company in the world.

Links & Show Notes:

Is Publishing Dead? | Mitch Lasky (GDC, 2014)

Investing in Content | Mitch Lasky (2012)

Valve Corporation

Steam

Microsoft's Game Pass

Aggregation Theory | Ben Thompson (Stratechery)

A closer look at Tencent, the world’s biggest game company (Polygon)