Steam's success in 2009

R

Rebel44

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 7, 2006
Messages
2,284
http://store.steampowered.com/news/3390/

January 29, 2010 — Valve® today announced extraordinary 2009 growth data for Steam, a leading platform for PC games and digital entertainment, with major increases in accounts, concurrent players, unit sales and more. The year also marked tremendous adoption of the Steamworks suite of publishing services in the tangible and electronic versions of many of the year's biggest releases.

During the last calendar year the platform surpassed 25 million active accounts, up 25% from the prior year. Of the 25 million accounts, over 10 million of those have profiles in the Steam Community.

In addition to the millions of new accounts created during the year, the peak number of concurrent users eclipsed the 2.5 million mark during the month of December, pushing Steam's average monthly player minutes to more than 13 billion.

Meanwhile, Steam now offers over 1,000 games from over 100 developers and publishers around the world. Unit sales for 2009 increased by more than 205%, marking the fifth straight year the platform has realized over 100% year-over-year growth in unit sales.

2009 also delivered a wave of titles supported by Steamworks, in tangible and electronic versions, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dawn of War II, and Empire: Total War. Empire also used Steamworks for the delivery and management of its paid downloadable content releases.

“Steam turned five years old in March 2009,” said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. “With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years — such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks — we've seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform. As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day.”
Click to expand...

Steam FTW!!

Anyone saying PC gaming is dying is crazy

 
been part of steam since nov 03... (might have been the beta)

anyone in before that?
 
Sikkyu said:
been part of steam since nov 03... (might have been the beta)

anyone in before that?
Click to expand...

Not by too much but..

Gameplay Stats
Member since:
September 14, 2003
Steam Rating:
0
trans.gif

Playing time:
0 hrs past 2 weeks
trans.gif

View all 27 games
 
Sikkyu said:
been part of steam since nov 03... (might have been the beta)

anyone in before that?
Click to expand...

Ah, I've been a member since Dec 03. I don't even remember getting it back then... the only time I actually used Steam was when I bought HL2.
 
bboynitrous said:
Not by too much but..

Gameplay Stats
Member since:
September 14, 2003
Steam Rating:
0
trans.gif

Playing time:
0 hrs past 2 weeks
trans.gif

View all 27 games
Click to expand...

Those were the dark ages of Steam. It was quite painful to use back then, but they have really improved it since then.

If I may say so, Steam is Valve's crowning achievement. And that is quite impressive for the company that made Half-Life 1 and 2 among so many other great games.
 
I remember installing a demo once, and it put the steam client in.....I was like "what the freak is steam?". :)

I didn't actually get in on it until August of 2008.

I love it BTW.
 
Gameplay StatsMember since:September 11, 2003
Steam Rating:0
Playing time:0 hrs past 2 weeks
View all 104 games
 
krameriffic said:
If I may say so, Steam is Valve's crowning achievement. And that is quite impressive for the company that made Half-Life 1 and 2 among so many other great games.
Click to expand...

i'll second that.

can't believe some of you have been steam members since 2003. i wasn't even aware of steam until 2005. to be fair i was in college in 2003 and completely out of the gaming loop :D
Member since: June 14, 2005
 
I'm honestly curious where PC gaming would be without Valve. Maybe someone else would have stepped in with a good/better service by now, but I've been pretty happy with Steam so far (108 games and counting). I think it's done a lot to combat piracy as well, as it's made buying/receiving games stupid easy.

Oh, and obligatory stats:

Member since:January 7, 2004
Steam Rating:6.2
Playing time:19.9 hrs past 2 weeks
Left 4 Dead 210.1 hrs / 49.2 hrs
Plants vs. Zombies6.8 hrs / 59.4 hrs
Crysis2.9 hrs / 5.8 hrs
View all 108 games
:)

I got one of those free HL2 coupons with my ATI AIW9600Pro, and Valve gave the coupon holders the whole back catalog for free because HL2 was so delayed. I was pretty stoked.
 
Member since:September 14, 2003
Steam Rating:0.1
Playing time:0.3 hrs past 2 weeks Left 4 Dead 20.3 hrs / 37.7 hrs
View stats
View all 33 games
 
SixtyWattMan said:
Sup bro.
Member since: September 14, 2003 :D
Click to expand...

Heh I had an account early on too, I had a september 2003 one but my main one now is Nov 15, 2003 :p.

Member since:November 15, 2003
Steam Rating:10
Playing time:253.6 hrs past 2 weeks <--- TF2 idle ftw :p
View all 54 games
 
techpriest said:
where can you check that info?
Click to expand...

Community > Home, and Gameplay stats there on the right.

Member since: April 13, 2004 Steam Rating: 3.5
Playing time:11.2 hrs past 2 weeks
Left 4 Dead 3.1 hrs / 200.9 hrs
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky 2.6 hrs / 3.1 hrs
Doom 3 2.4 hrs / 4.3 hrs
View all 88 games
 
Member since: September 16, 2003


Back when "steaming pile of s#%t" jokes were the norm. Glad to see its come leaps and bounds from its terrible beginning.
 
Wow im pretty late to the party compared to you guys.

Member since:October 15, 2004
Steam Rating:10
Playing time:97.9 hrs past 2 weeks.
Garry's Mod 49.6 hrs / 49.6 hrs
View stats Cogs 14.3 hrs / 15.3 hrs
View stats Day of Defeat: Source 8.7 hrs / 8.7 hrs
View stats
View all 100 games

I blame all the great sales for bringing me back to it a bit more :)
 
Member since:November 12, 2003

I remember the painful transition it was going from WON to steam. Of course a lot has changed since then.
 
Member since: November 19, 2004
Steam Rating: 10
Playing time: 33.3 hrs past 2 weeks
Star Trek Online - Beta 33.3 hrs / 48.2 hrs
View all 28 games
 
yea it's always nice to drop $40-50 on a game, play the single player and then want to give it to your friend when your're done and then Steam says, "no no,sorry you don't own the game, thanks for the $50 tho"
 
I'll give you a hint... if you're into reselling games... just make a separate account for each game, then you can resell it and just give the person the account.
 
The T-man said:
yea it's always nice to drop $40-50 on a game, play the single player and then want to give it to your friend when your're done and then Steam says, "no no,sorry you don't own the game, thanks for the $50 tho"
Click to expand...

Steam Sales FTW, can't remember the last time I paid $40 - $50 for a game on steam.
 
Sept 11 2003 for me. I think I was the only guy that had NO problems with steam. Other than it was slow the first few days of release.
 
9/13/03. If I remember correctly, there was a huge rush to be one of the first registered accounts, and it took FOREVER to get on. So I waited a couple days.
 
Member since:October 11, 2003
Steam Rating:10
Playing time:34.2 hrs past 2 weeks
Dragon Age: Origins: 21.8 hrs / 117.2 hrs
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter 7.2 hrs / 7.7 hrs
Torchlight 5.1 hrs / 9.6 hrs
View all 52 games

I love steam and think it has done a ton for PC gaming.
 
Member since:June 1, 2007
Steam Rating:10
Playing time:36.1 hrs past 2 weeks
Hearts of Iron III 29.5 hrs / 441.1 hrs
Half-Life5.5 hrs / 6.3 hrs
Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms0.6 hrs / 2.1 hrs
View all 170 games

 
Gameplay StatsMember since: December 26, 2004
Steam Rating:8.4
Playing time:26.8 hrs past 2 weeks
Left 4 Dead 216 hrs / 62.9 hrs
Torchlight10.1 hrs / 80.6 hrs
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition0.4 hrs / 0.4 hrs
View all 40 games

I remember the early days of steam and it was pretty damn rough. If it were not for HL2 I would have never installed it, the problems were just too many. Amazing how much it has changed though, I play most nights (with several members here at the [H]) via Steam and there is never an issue.

It's done a LOT for indie games and access to older games you may have missed as well.

Congrats to Valve, they pretty much are PC gaming to me.
 
Steam is pretty good now, I'm just waiting for it to all go to crap in a few years.

I can see it becoming crammed with advertising, or having some kind of subscription fee or something, I just don't see it staying the way it is when so much more money could be made out of it. Especially if it's sold on to a big player.
 
I lost my first Steam account on the migration from WON to Steam-it was that bad. I remember how everyone just went back to playing 1.5 until they finally took the WON servers down...Steam has really come a long way. Mad props to valve.
 
The T-man said:
yea it's always nice to drop $40-50 on a game, play the single player and then want to give it to your friend when your're done and then Steam says, "no no,sorry you don't own the game, thanks for the $50 tho"
Click to expand...

That's a very legitimate reason NOT to use steam in my book. That said, there are a lot of nice benefits to using Steam as well. Like most things in life, it's a trade off for convenience. I really like

-Not having to keep tabs on installation media
-Being able to hit verify local cache when I screw something up with a mod
-Steam cloud on supported games
-Lack of additional DRM on a lot of titles (though this seems to be changing lately)
-Getting access to my games, even when I'm traveling for work and didn't install them before I left.

There are probably a few more I'm not thinking of. The downsides are, that I can't sell my games, and sometimes offline mode is stupid and won't work.

Additionally, some publishers are putting on DRM/EULA measures that make it very difficult to transfer a game to someone else even if you bought a box copy, so that's becoming less of a reason not to go with Steam.
 
Tweakin said:
It's done a LOT for indie games and access to older games you may have missed as well.
Click to expand...

This is another awesome thing Valve has done. There are several small devs out there right now that very likely would not exist if not for how well Valve treats them.

There's a great article here that kind of shows how Valve deals with the small guys:

http://www.destructoid.com/tripwire-valve-absolutely-not-exploiting-steam-devs-151832.phtml

A few days ago, Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford antagonized a fair few people by claiming that Valve's Steam service was a conflict of interest and a money grab, essentially insinuating that the PC studio was up to shady shenanigans with the download platform. Fellow PC developer Tripwire has fired back at the accusations, stating that Steam is in no way exploitative and praising the distribution system.

"As a small independent developer that has released multiple games on Steam, we are exactly the type of studio that Randy believes is being exploited by Valve," argues Tripwire chief John Gibson. "... So, is Valve exploiting independent developers? In short: absolutely not. Without pulling any punches, I can say with certainty that if it weren't for Steam, there would be no Tripwire Interactive right now.

"... Randy's statements suggest that small developers are getting ripped off through their royalty rates. Without breaking any non-disclosure agreements, let me just say that our royalty deal was great, and is in line with what I understand that other digital distribution services are offering. We were able to recoup our development costs for our first game within the first week of sales, and sales were straight profit from that point on."

Gibson has an entire rant on the subject, which I suggest you check out as it's quite an interesting look at what Steam can offer developers. As for why Randy Pitchford, I just have no idea why he said something like that. Not even I would bite the hand that feeds me so carelessly.
Click to expand...

Valve's willingness to work with small publishers gives us access to tons of games that may have never existed; and the potential for anyone with a good game to get it in front of millions of people and turn a great profit. You can read more of Gibson's comments here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...der-Responds-to-Gearbox-CEOs-Steam-Criticisms

If Valve ever goes "evil" I'll personally grab a pitchfork and head off to Washington. For now though, they haven't given any indications that they are.
 
Last edited:
Oldie said:
If Valve ever goes "evil" I'll personally grab a pitchfork and head off to Washington. For now though, they haven't given any indications that they are.
Click to expand...

You can stay at my place. We can use it as a basecamp.

PS Steam Member Since November 2003.
 
m3ta1head said:
I lost my first Steam account on the migration from WON to Steam-it was that bad. I remember how everyone just went back to playing 1.5 until they finally took the WON servers down...Steam has really come a long way. Mad props to valve.
Click to expand...

I remember something like that happening to me too. WON, heh.. and having low WON-ID's!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top