Poll Question 223 – Do you think Valve will ever sell normal applications through Steam?

6th May 2011

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

So, this week I was looking around the Steam store and I noticed that everything uses the “http://store.steampowered.com/app/…” URL and that got me wondering why Valve don’t sell APPlications through Steam.

I don’t own many applications because there are so many free ones available but for some things I buy applications and it would be so nice to just install and load Steam and have my applications available from where ever I can use Steam.

Anyway, as you can see I have offered you six choices for the votes, two for “yes”, two for “maybe” and two for “no”.

Time to vote.

The Poll


10 Comments

  1. GoodGuyA

    I voted “No, I don’t think they will.”

    Steam built itself on gaming and they manage everything based on gaming. Gaming is an entirely different market than app games or app apps. Not only would it be more difficult to manage, but the same strategies they currently use won’t work as well with other things.

  2. Josh

    No not “normal” applications, but I’d like to think that they would have options to install more game-related apps, other modding tools, etc.

  3. Bramblepath

    Steam is a gaming platform at heart, and always will be. It wouldn’t be as useful in the way you use it for games if you used it for applications.

  4. I don’t think sandboxes counts as game but as game related, and they are all ready selling ebooks (strategy guides).

    look at:
    Dragon Age: Origins – Ultimate Edition Prima Official Strategy Guide
    http://store.steampowered.com/app/22885/?snr=1_4_4__13
    and
    Universe Sandbox
    http://store.steampowered.com/app/72200/?snr=1_4_4__13

    They aren’t really games, but on a bigger scale like, trying to sell adobe programs over steam, will properly never happen.

  5. AzzX

    The HTPC “Big Screen” Mode is a giveaway that they will.

    They will probably start with free and opensource gaming based apps and possibly onto paid apps like fraps even Steam enhancements.

  6. Herr_Alien

    Big f*cking YES!
    Steam is a digital distribution platform. For now, just for games. But when Valve realizes the degree Steam became a market of it’s own, they will sell apps for PC. Microsoft aims for an AppStore, Valve already has it.

  7. zaglis

    No, and I hope they dont.

  8. Anddos

    philip you are loosing the plot now, applications and games have no ressemblence there for applications dont need to be on steam, the only apps need are the sdk stuff and hammer etc..

    1. Herr_Alien

      applications and games have no resemblence

      Actually, they do. Games are a special type of PC/Mac/Linux apps.

      Here’s my reasoning:
      – selling apps (not only games, but apps in general) brings money for the seller
      – Steam is a digital distribution platform owned by Valve
      => selling apps on Steam brings money for Valve

      – apps (and app developers) need some sort of copyright control, so that people don’t pirate it (and yes, applications do get pirated; look up for torrent files for, say, Microsoft Office or even Windows 7).
      – Steam offers an accepted DRM scheme.
      => app developers want Steam for their DRM scheme

      – apps need a market.
      – Steam is a way to access a segment of the market
      => apps will land on Steam’s market

      Developers like what Steam offers; the extra money would not hurt Valve. It’s just a matter of adjusting interfaces and settling for an agreement. It’s just a matter of time.

      For such type of question, my take is “follow the money”. If it is an opportunity that brings money to all the parties involved, then it will happen.

  9. frumbert

    God I hope not. For me the whole steam platform has been flakey for about 2 years now. I’ve been in out out of the steam beta program had different ISP plans and connection types, rebuilt my pc a few times with various windows versions, and the one consistency between all my experiences is that steam is a bug-riddled flakey and laggy/slow system. It plays all my games and that’s the thing that keeps me using it, but it’s just a terrible system for delivery. The videos play back horribly where connecting to the streams from outside the steam platform they playback fine. The interface doesn’t follow any standard forms of navigation and forces me to use my mouse to perform mundane tasks ideal for keyboard shortcutting. Half the features loop back in unusual ways. If they start delivering apps through this platform and those are just as shoddy as Steam has been for years, it might just be the time for me to move on.

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