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Steam Reaches 13 Million Users
Gamasutra is reporting that Valve's PC game download service Steam has reached 13 million users. The company's offering has 150 movies and games on offer. "Looking further at its stats, Valve says Steam sees over 7 billion player minutes a month, and has served over 2,500 updates to its titles since its first release. Valve also says that summer will see new announcements from more publishers bringing their games to Steam ... Said Valve president Gabe Newell, 'We've approached the development of Steam the same way we treat our online games; we release something we've tested, we internalize the feedback, and then we release new features and functionality based upon the feedback received. In the past year, we've added over 100 new titles from third parties ... This growth has taught us a lot and inspired many additional features and services that we'll be releasing later this year.'"
Not covered here are their plans to create an XBox Live Gold type of service later this year - without the fee. Oh, and don't forgoet about EP2, TF2, and Portal.
Add all that to how successful and powerful Steam has become, and I'd say times are pretty damn good at Valve right now...
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
... that the first users are just going to be able to authorize their games.
"Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life." -- Marcus Aurelius, _Meditations_, Book 9, 37
The half life collection I bought years ago came with three valid half life 1 cd keys. So I have three steam accounts. How many do you have?
Steam beats playing the "find the latest patch" game. Not to mention the with server browser I can view ALL servers for ALL GoldSource/Source games I have, instead of having to pick which game I want to play FIRST and then checking the servers from in-game. Friends finally works now, which is itself neat since it integrates with GoldSource and Source so nicely.
Lastly it serves as a convenient launcher menu if nothing else.
I like it. When I reformat my computer, it's hit-or-miss which games I reinstall. Basically, whatever CDs I have handy, I might toss in. Except for my Steam games. I install the Steam client, spend 5 minutes getting all the downloads started, and a few hours later there are my games. I've never had a problem with it.
I wonder how many subscriberse WoW has, it was 7 Million in August, I'm guessing it has grown since then. Now I wonder if Blizzard is going to launch something similar to Steam, they sure have the user base to support it. And competition is badly needed, Steam has become alot better the last years, but an alternative would be great.
I like the idea with buying online, it's so damn fast and gratifying. You can just get the game without searching for cracks and stuff. I've bought Half Life 2 on a whim, it's wonderfull for casual and non gamers.
I would love to buy ordinary programs this way as well.
I approve of Steam. It's made getting patches for the game much easier and any problems I've had where quickly sorted by the support department. Also means that I don't have to go searching for those potentially scratched CDs every time I reinstall (which is fairly regularly).
I rent game servers, see my homepage for more information
and they say PC gaming is dead :)
Anyone with brains knows that consoles will never defeat PC's. The plain fact that by the time a new version of the console has come out the hardware is already outdated and surpassed by PC's.
PC's also will always have more flexibility then consoles. You might be able to IM on the 360, you might be able to browse the internet on the Wii. But you can do both of those, type, draw, 3D modeling, code editing, and more.
Consoles can't do one single thing PC's cant do (except for the Wii's motion sensing, and you can use that on your PC if you hook it to your Wii anyways).
Consoles have controllers? Try plugging that 360 controller into your PC. Yes, you can now play the same Need for Speed game, or Halo 2, on your PC, but with more updated hardware! You can download movies onto your 360? Try iTunes. You can see what all your gamer friends are playing, and chat with them while you two are playing different games on the 360? XFire was doing that same thing quite long before the 360 was released. [My-favorite-console-only-game] cant be played on the PC! Well, thats because its crappy more then likely, but have you ever heard of emulators?
Real Time Strategy games are better when played on the PC with a Mouse and Keyboard.
MMORPG's are better when played on the PC with a Mouse and Keyboard.
First Person Shooters are better when played on the PC with a Mouse and Keyboard. Yes, you may prefer to play them with an XBox controller. But two control sticks however will never match the speed and accuracy of a mouse. Period.
You can install Linus on a PS3? Well, it isn't a console really now is it?
"...and has served over 2,500 updates to its titles since its first release" And the friends system STILL doesn't work, how hard can it be?
-Simon
What is so horrible about Steam anyway? Really? I always hear people complaining about it but what is the big deal? When I fire up Counterstrike, it does just that, launches Counterstrike and Steam launches in the background. When I leave Counterstrike, I go down to the system tray, right-click, press exit, boom, Steam is gone again. Wtf is so hard about that? Oh yea, sometimes it pops up an ad about some new game that 9 times out of 10 is actually something interesting to me. In fact, I can think of no other advertising in my life that is more targetted to my tastes then that little window that occasionally pops up from Steam. Hell even most gaming sites don't advertise games that I find remotely interesting.
Other than that I don't do anything with Steam. I don't leave it running, I don't launch games from it (I launch them from their own icons like any other game), it doesn't eat my lunch, it doesn't date my sister, it does download patches for you, it does mitigate somewhat the prevalence of cheaters and griefers, it does promote independent games to some extent, but for the most part, it doesn't do anything much at all but sit in the system tray until I right-click/exit it after a game. Why so much whining?
Anyone with brains knows that consoles will never defeat PC's
Actually, anyone with a brain knows it isn't a war.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
i take it you're not one of the many who has had their account mistaken blocked for several days. give it time.
I've never understood the whole mothership fear thing. All it does is check for updates, it's not like you can remove a purchased game from your account (you can delete local content, ie. the stuff on your computer, but the server side account record still shows that you are entitled to that game) so it's not authenticating your ownership or anything (that's why even 3rd party mod stuff triggers it; it checks for update entries for 'mod z' sees none and continues on.) What with the fear? Is it a fear of something hidden? A fear of loss of control? Or is it some fear/anger I don't understand, like dial-up?
Demented But Determined.
Im probably counted as 1 of those 13 million, even though i uninstalled steam 2+ years ago.
Average unique players per month: 2,981,465= US
source: http://steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=stats&cc
Uh, how is "Unplug network cable" before starting Steam arcane? Heck, if you were lazy, you could just hit the "standby" button on your cable modem if you were lazy. Or if you're technically advanced, prevent Steam from getting access to the Internet via your firewall. Windows Firewall can prevent egress packets per-application. All you have to do is prevent Steam from getting on the Internet.
And if you forget to go offline... just restart Steam. It's not like you have to reboot your computer or anything. It takes a minute, tops, to shut down and restart Steam. Most of it is waiting for Steam to try to connect to the Internet.
I understand that the early days of Steam, it was arcane to go offline, but things have changed a lot since then - it's improved tremendously.
Gamespy does the server browser thing with ALL your games, not just Steam ones.
Did you really just try to defend that steaming pile of fecal matter known as Gamespy? Jesus... I'm speechless.
-- toolie
i didnt like gamespy either, but there were others that did the same thing. i used All Seeing Eye (i think it was/is called)
"I understand that the early days of Steam, it was arcane to go offline, but things have changed a lot since then - it's improved tremendously."
I can remember at a lan gaming event several years ago we had a ton of people that couldn't play HL2 because the internet connection the hotel blocked steam. That was all I needed to see to know I didn't want it. Maybe they fixed it, so maybe I should spend the $10 or $15 for HL2 and try it. I am glad I never spent $60 on it when it first came out though.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
I absolutely love steam. The concept is perfect, I've never had an issue with the service over the years, and the first time I had an entire system take a hard-drive hit, it was great.
It's the only way I buy games now, when I upgrade my computer, I just grab my saved games, and tell steam to install all the games I own overnight. Get up in morning to all my games being there without any pain.
I've done the computer migration 5 times now, without a hitch... and I have quite a few games through steam. No hunting down CDs and activation codes, finding a scratched CD, etc.
This sig is the express property of someone.
Steam works well if you have a constant broad band connection. It is nice for keeping the Valve games organized and updated; and it really helps with finding servers. However, if you are one of many who do not have a constant internet connection (or none at all) then you're out of luck, Valve gives you the finger and you're out $50 (until you return it). This was my case with HL2, I installed it, was so excited, got all my hopes up, clicked on the icon and got nothing but Steam's account and game verification crap. What's worse, is that because I have no connection in my room, I had to rip out my rig and reconnect everything where I could get a connection, but as if that wasn't enough, after I thought I had finally appeased the Steam gods, I took it back up to my room, tried to play, and the f***ing thing still wouldn't work! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! Anyway, I think Steam is a great idea, but very poorly executed, you shouldn't need to have an internet connection to play single player games. (Yes, I know about the off-line mode, but it's been my experience that getting it to work is a craps shoot at best).
Y'know, I never realized it, but you're right about that Steam ad.
It only shows up once, but I think their ads have an almost guarenteed click-rate on me. I click them almost every time. I only just now realized that I've been clicking on a pop-up...
Oh I've had plenty of issues. When it was first introduced it was pure crap. Resource hog to start with, plus a memory leak to make it even worse. Frequent lock-ups. I preordered Ragdoll Kung-fu and DoD:S, both pre-order discounts did not occur because the credit card billing system screwed up and instead of playing at release at a discount, I had to wait 3-4 days longer to have it reset, then had to pay full price.
However, overall Steam has improved considerably and I actually like Steam. It just hasn't been perfect. The resource issues have been solved AFAIK, and I can only hope the pre-order problem has also been resolved. When Steam works (I've bought several times on it) it's a great program. Given the option between Steam and retail, I choose Steam.
It's a first-party popup that comes up fairly predictably (always on launch) on a service you're choosing to use. That's nothing if not targeted. If Steam were to start popping up "your PC needs optimization" or adverts for gaming keyboards during random game or server browsing, I suspect the clickthrough on those owuld drop precipitously. As it is, I tend not to click on them, since I'll see the same thing on the landing page anyway. Still, Steam's taken nearly a couple hundred bucks off of me already, and it's money well spent.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
So they didn't set up a security question, they lost their email access, changed their drivers licenses, and closed their credit cards? At the same time?
Are you sure your friend is the same actual person every year?
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
There are a couple Steam alternatives out there already, though none are as robust as Steam is. I just recently used Direct2Drive to purchase STALKER, though unlike Steam they just give you a zip file to download, and you have to type in a cd key and an activation key that they send you. You also have to get the patches separately. In fact it's almost exactly like pirating a game, except instead of searching for a crack, you pay for them to give you the keys. The big problem I had with it was that it took about 20 hours to download. In comparison, I downloaded Prey off of Steam in about 2 hours. Steam has bunches of other benefits including no need to type in keys, automatic updating, almost automatic backups to cd/dvd, and the ability to access all your games anywhere with the Steam login. GameTap also has some games (or so they say!) but I haven't personally tried it yet.
Yes, I have my PlayStation and Nintendo 64 controllers plugged into my PC. But how many controllers can I plug into a USB hub and have games actually recognize them? Where is the PC-native equivalent of Bomberman, Smash Bros., Mario Party, or other four-player funfests? I want to let the kids and their guests play at once, but I want to use the SDTV a few meters from my PC rather than spending $2400 for four PCs and four monitors.
[My-favorite-console-only-game] cant be played on the PC! Well, thats because its crappy more then likely, but have you ever heard of emulators?Where do you suggest I buy a game dumper for my NES, Game Boy, Super NES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube? I can't just stick the media in an optical drive and start the game the way I can with PS1 games. And how well has PlayStation 2 emulation progressed?
Real Time Strategy games[,] MMORPG's[, and] First Person Shooters are better when played on the PC with a Mouse and Keyboard.What about arcade style sport games? What about fighting games? What about action puzzle games?
And what's the PC fan's alternative to handheld gaming systems such as Nintendo DS and PSP? A laptop?
How to sell Vista:
1) Convince Valve to release Steam for Vista ONLY!
2) Convince Blizzard to release World of Warcraft for Vista ONLY!
3) ????
4) Profit. (From selling several millions of Vista copies in few days)
Okay seriously I've just run out of pointless things to say.
oh, c'mon. Are you telling me that after 5 years you don't change things around? Different ISP... different Credit Card issued. And they didn't ask "security questions" when steam first started. In 5 years 2 of those individuals have moved twice or more.
Not only that, you can turn off the Steam News thing... it's in the Settings window.
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The only thing I can recommend in this case:
:)
1. Plug your machine in, start Steam, update all the games.
2. Log out, unplug the connection, start in offline mode.
3. Start the games to make sure they'll run in offline mode.
4. Turn the machine off, and move it to your room (or whereever).
5. Play.
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I think it sometimes had issues in the past when it could connect to the network at large, but couldn't connect to the auth servers, but I think that was fixed after the big debacle that happened when Seattle sank into the Pacific a few months back.
Try HL2 out sometime, I really like it.
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Huh? You can play all you want without being online. Even if you've already run online updates on your game. I'm not sure if the steam you're not using is the same steam that I'm using...
Music speeds up when you yawn, but does not change pitch.
I've seen many people mention having multiple accounts. What is the purpose of having more than one account?
I just figured this out last week in fact...
My laptop (which probably has about 1/2 the horsepower of my Athlon X2 4600 desktop) seemed to start up to "usable" state (ie not chugging along on startup apps that prevent me from effectively opening a brower, etc) a good 20-30 seconds before said desktop. I finally tracked the cause down to Steam running on my desktop but not my laptop. Once I set Steam not to run on startup, my desktop now starts up blazingly fast (at least compared to what it used to do).
I find this a bit disturbing. WTF is Steam doing!?
One day the mothership won't be there. I don't want to get hooked on a cool game and then have it taken away from me.
I've never had a problem with it.
Eh. I have, but I believe it was due to a bad Windows TCP/IP stack. I bough Red Orchestra which requires steam even if you buy the store copy. Didn't work no matter what I did.
Eventually, the computer was reformatted for another non-related reason and out of curiosity I tried reinstalling steam and it worked fine. I couldn't tell you want configuration caused it to not work or if it was just windows.
Even though this is anecdotal, I've heard lots of similar complaints and not everyone is going to completely reformat their computer just to play a game or two.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)