You needed Steam to access it, whether you bought the digital version or a retail copy.
How quaint those anxieties seem today - the day of Steam’s 20th anniversary.
And yet, there’s nothing quaint about Steam’s ability to shape the field in which it operates.
Between 80,000 and 300,000 players participated in the Steam beta test before its official release on 12th September 2003.
In January 2023, the service scored aconcurrent activity recordof 33 million users.
That’s greater than the population of Venezuela.
For many players, Steam is simply the air we breathe.
The original Steam client didn’t even have a storefront.
And it’s probably safe to say that Steam will always exist in a state of hectic evolution.
Another is how to ensure that games without giant marketing budgets arent buried.
Steam has an unequalled influence on the culture of both making and playing games.
When Valve sneezes, the industry and community catch a cold.
Feedback from devs and gamers is always a huge part of that."
Valve added that “we don’t see this anniversary as ‘yay we did it!’
Some thoughts on all this from Alice0: “I hated Steam when it first launched.
As frustrating as it was queueing to download patches from FilePlanet, at least that was a one-off.
Steam was there every day, slowing my already-slow computer for little benefit.
Still, I had little choice if I wanted to keep playingHalf-Lifemods.
Thankfully, over time, Steam improved enough to fade into the background.
It’s just there.
That’s where most my games are.”
What would the field of gaming be, without Steam?
It is a Question, isn’t it.
I’m interested to read your thoughts and memories.
In the meantime, happy birthday Steam.
