Steam's success in 2009

Man, I thought I was an addict at 108. :eek:
 
I think 2009 was the first year in a very long time that I did not buy a physical copy of a (PC) game.

And while steam is pretty good as a replacement to the box retail games, as Oldie was saying, it's been perfect for the smaller / indie titles. Giving smaller titles that would never have the marketing budget to get themselves into a retail shop an audience of tens of millions of people. They really have created a PC competitor to XBox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. That's a pretty massive shift from the market those types of developers had on the PC even a few years ago.
 
Member since Oct. 15 2004. Must have been the day I pre-purchased the Silver Bundle or whatever it was called. :cool:

Only 47 games though.. I blame WoW. :p
 
For me the advantages of Steam have been about the sales, some indie titles, the ability to get some older games, the usual, but not always, lack of third party DRM and availability. It's not always the easiest thing to find certain titles, especially if more than a couple years old in my area.

One of my first purchases on Steam was Mass Effect. I had a buddy telling me the game was great but the DRM kept me from going anywhere near it. I absolutely refused to pay for the DRM on that game. Once I found out it was on Steam without the DRM and had the money, I bought the game. I was also able to snag a few other games around the same time on sales and such which I probably wouldn't have normally purchased plus a couple of indie games I've put a good amount of time into. I'm someone who still prefers having physical media but the convenience and great prices on sales kept my physical media purchasing to a minimum last year.

It's also been good for my son. I've gotten several games for him through Steam. It was easy enough to setup an account for him and gift him the games I wanted to give him. This is even better because he spends a lot of time at my parents' house and I can have the games installed there and at my place easily. All he has to do is log in at either place and he has access to his games. It also allows me to track how much time he spends playing them.

I don't believe Steam is the end all be all of gaming distribution but it is definitely good for now. I have purchased a number of games through Steam which I would not have gotten otherwise and I'm glad for Steam because of that.

Member since: July 14, 2007
Steam Rating: 10
Playing time: 91 hrs past 2 weeks
Dragon Age: Origins 83.1 hrs / 240.5 hrs
Audiosurf 7.2 hrs / 133.6 hrs
View stats Left 4 Dead 0.7 hrs / 0.7 hrs
View stats
View all 29 games


 
I love steam, at first it was an annoyance as I played tfc competitively... I'd say 2006 or so was when I truely started to embrace it and buy 90% of my games from it

Member since:September 12, 2003
Steam Rating:10
Playing time:63.7 hrs past 2 weeks
Left 4 Dead 2 29.7 hrs / 101.4 hrs
View stats Team Fortress 2 19.7 hrs / 50 hrs
View stats Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta 10.3 hrs / 10.3 hrs
View all 65 games
 
Member since:November 16, 2004 Steam Rating:5.8 Playing time:18.7 hrs past 2 weeks Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Multiplayer10.3 hrs / 10.9 hrs Day of Defeat: Source7.2 hrs / 202.2 hrs
View stats Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 20.7 hrs / 5.4 hrs
View stats
View all 32 games


half life 2 release date
 
Bah, text is too boring, I prefer pics :D

stats1101.jpg
(went on a bit of an unlock binge lol)

In brutal honesty though, Steam was the reason I stopped playing CS. Nothing ever loaded up properly and the friends list was just decoration.

As it stands right now however, I back Steam in full. Cheap games, easy access and I find it can max out my connection for game downloads (rare for me anyway :p )
 
Last edited:
Member since Nov 16th, 2004. I guess I'm a late comer compared to most of you guys.

0 Hours played in the last two weeks, I've been too busy.
 
sculelos said:
Member since Nov 16th, 2004. I guess I'm a late comer compared to most of you guys.

0 Hours played in the last two weeks, I've been too busy.
Click to expand...

One of the best days of my gaming experience. My birthday, as well as the release date for Half Life 2. :D

Member since:September 23, 2003
Steam Rating:3.2
Playing time:10.3 hrs past 2 weeks
 
I actually bought this account on Ebay in late 2004/2005 for CHEAP. (Back when eBay was good and before VAC)

Member since:June 16, 2004
Steam Rating:7.2
View all 45 games
 
I was actually thinking of making Steam the Godparent of my children as homage to the all-around greatness of the modern-day corporation.
 
Member since:
September 12, 2003 on my account I never use. Was just for DoD and CS. Newer account I buy things on Since September 26, 2007.
 
Member since:July 8, 2006
Steam Rating:5.9
Playing time:19 hrs past 2 weeks

Whats the steam rating? lol

I ad no idea what steam was or that it was any good, I was just forced to install it and register when I had boughten red orchastra lol
 
Sikkyu said:
been part of steam since nov 03... (might have been the beta)

anyone in before that?
Click to expand...

Member since September 12, 2003. I think that's the first day they opened up for accounts.

Either way I love it. Even when it was super buggy I saw the potential for it to be a great service.

Oh yeah, 154 games. :eek:

A lot of those were bought in bundles and package deal sales. I don't think I've ever installed a third of them.
 
I honestly didn't like Steam when it first came out, both the idea of it and the implementation of it. But the girlfriend and I got TF2 a little over a year ago and we've both come to love Steam. The sales, the easy access to our friends that are playing other games, achievements, just everything. We've bought so many games that we never would have otherwise, do to them being indie and not on our radar, or just the excellent deals.
 
Now if only steam could improve it's support. My account has been locked for the past week and a half due to a billing error. Support is very slow to give any response. :(
 
Member since:September 17, 2003
Steam Rating:0.2
Playing time:0.5 hrs past 2 weeks

Playing time is misleading since I use Xfire to play COD4 MW1.

And I didnt join steam right away cause i fucking HATED it since none of the CS server were running right and I refused to use it cause steam SUCKED.

Now...well I love steam and im glad Valve uses it :)
 
My second account as well. Don't know what I did with the first.


Gameplay Stats
Member since:March 23, 2004
Steam Rating:10
Playing time:92.6 hrs past 2 weeks

Like my playing time in the last couple of weeks????!!!??!!??! I get where I just leave games running on the taskbar instead of exit them many times. :) Gotta love a 3.6GHz i7 with 12GB of RAM. ;)
 
I felt lucky back in the day, I never had any of the crazy problems my friends were having with Steam. I hope it continues to be an excellent service.


Member since: December 18, 2003
Steam Rating:0
Playing time:0 hrs past 2 weeks
View all 51 games
 
I think if developers are going to keep making games for PC they need to get used to giving purchasers choices for online play. The fact that I gotta login to steam and then GameCrap to play with my friends is just stupid. All the same options are available via steam friends. would have taken like what a week to make a steam only version?
 
Rebel44 said:
http://store.steampowered.com/news/3390/



Steam FTW!!

Anyone saying PC gaming is dying is crazy

Click to expand...

Just a quick question, didn't MW2 require you to have a Steam account or did I not understand that right? If it did, that would skew those numbers a lot.

It took me a while to come around to not having a physical copy of a game. It wasn't until this past Christmas sale Steam had that I jumped in on some cheaper games just to give it a spin. I must say that I do like it.
 
God, if Steam wasn't enticing me with insane discounts all over the place, I would be wary of their growing power.

They are consolidating all PC gamers, it's a little frightening.
 
I agree the potential for Valve to bully people with Steam is high, but so far I'm not aware of them doing anything like that at all. Dictatorships are always good if the King's a nice guy. ;)

They're hardly without potential competitors though, so if they did anything annoying enough I'm sure people would flock elsewhere.
 
Steam is not a monopoly, there are plenty of competitors; Impulse, D2D, GOG, etc, and even Best Buy and other retailers are starting to offer digital downloads. Steam just happens to be the best, and I don't see it changing anytime soon.
 
Member since: September 17, 2003
Steam Rating: 9.2
Playing time: 29.5 hrs past 2 weeks
Mass Effect 20.6 hrs / 22.4 hrs
Unreal Tournament 3 Black 8.7 hrs / 196 hrs View stats
Bob Came in Pieces Demo 0.2 hrs / 0.2 hrs
View all 112 games

When Steam was first released to public beta back in 2003, it was borderline unusable. Now I probably couldn't live without it. It just keeps getting better and better. Better sales, better features, better game selection, better community features. It's rare that I find a piece of software that I have no major complaints with, but after years of tweaking, I think Steam has reached that level for me.
 
I've been on Steam since the night that Half-Life 2 was released - that was a disastrous night. I bought a physical copy of Half-Life 2, but Steam wouldn't allow me to validate it because there was too much traffic. Steam was also appearing on my screen after boot-up, and would attach itself to the taskbar. It was an obtrusive 3'rd party program that was occupying space in memory and I did not want it there.

The idea that I would ever buy a game from Steam was preposterous.
 
Oldie said:
I kind of wish that stat wasn't there to be honest...some weeks it makes me kind of sad. At least you can call it work, whereas I just have no personal life. :D
Click to expand...

You can also leave your games running while you're away if you want, nothing's stopping you. ;)
 
Steam was ftw from the start for me; I picked up a CD of Opposing Force (? or Blue Shift) online and it flat out wouldn't install. Shortly thereafter got HL2, installed Steam and realized that I could download it for free on Steam.

Member since 3/15/2004
 
I've yet to have a problem with Steam. I remember registering all my hard copies of the Valve Platinum Pack, or something like that, on Steam then going to Gamestop and selling them back.
/dickmove

Capture-2.png
 
was there some app that valve used before steam that looked like steam ? it seems i remember steam before 2003 or i might just be crazy.

Member since:December 16, 2006
Steam Rating:5.4
Playing time:17.2 hrs past 2 weeks
Team Fortress 2: 10.8 hrs / 248.3 hrs
Just Cause: 5.7 hrs / 5.7 hrs
Trine 0.4 hrs / 3.2 hrs
View all 55 games
 
So something I haven't seen brought up is that Valve has awesome unit sales, but how about their actual profits? Games were so damn cheap during the Winter Sale that I'd like to see some numbers concerning their actual profit margin. With games $10 and below there were several no-brainers where I never would've purchased the game otherwise, so I'm wondering how that translated beyond unit sales.
 
steam is awesome, collected a ton of money from me this christmas, have so much stuff that I don't know what to play next.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top