The Rise of Steam: From Half-Life 2 to Digital Domination

Mitch and Blake take an in-depth look at one of the most important companies in the global gaming business: Valve. They trace the company's origin as the developer of first-person shooter Half Life, their use of the Quake engine and the benefits Valve derived from their relationship with id, and their development and deployment of the Steam platform.

They explain how Valve used content like Half Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, and other games to aggregate audiences on Steam, and how they used those audiences as the bedrock of their move to platform-based publishing on Steam. They discuss the evolution of Steam and its competitive advantages as an internet business, and how Valve used those advantages to become the publisher/distributor of choice for independent PC games, and later a key distributor of games from incumbent publishers -- including the rumored launch of the PC version of the much-anticipated new Grand Theft Auto VI. 

Finally, they look at the Steam's success in China, how the increasing market power of Steam could pose a problem for the PC gaming business, and how Valve is attempting to leverage Steam into a hardware platform. 

Show Notes:

GameCraft S1E2: The Fall and Rise of Publishing

Aggregation Theory

Valve 25th Anniversary Documentary

Michael Abrash

"The Fragile State of Steam in Mainland China" - gamesindustry.biz

Steam Anti-Trust Litigation