Steam was recently released on Mac and is expected to come on Linux very soon. Suddenly, 1.5M people were introduced to the joys of Portal (for free!) and easy digital distribution.

Steam is nothing new though. Released by Valve in 2002 as a way to ease distribution of their games (Counterstrike 1.6, Day of Defeat), the platform became widely adopted in 2004, with the release of Half-Life 2, which required to be activated online.

The iTunes of PC games

Steam’s strength comes from the combination of a very simple web shop with gaming features. Instead of closing their large reach of online gamers (Half Life, CounterStrike, Team Fortress and Day of Defeat all  dominated in online multiplayer gaming), Valve opened up its platform to both AAA companies such as Sega, Capcom, Rockstar, as well as independent developers. Because of this, the store side of Steam offers the widest selection of games to the largest community of gamers online.

For large developers, the digital distribution aspect, as well as the eased distribution of patches and the lack of used games (it’s impossible to resell a game from Steam) are very compelling. For indies, it’s a great way to push a niche game which would have been a very tough sell on the shelves. Gamers win by not having to install cracks or worry about damaging their discs, and often enjoy discounted prices.

However, with only this, Steam would be no more than yet another online store, similar to the EA Store for example. PC gaming’s strengths rely on superior multiplayer, and modding.

Multiplayer gaming on PC can be traced back as early as Doom (1993), and a whole ecosystem of professional gamers, ladders, tournaments, sponsors, as well as casual gamers has developed around it. This comes mainly from the ease to setup your own server to play the game (they’re called dedicated servers), which is not possible on consoles.

Steam makes multiplayer gaming on computers easier, by providing a social network. It is easy to find friends across different games, join them where they’re currently playing, find new matches. It is also easy to add and find new mods, which are being promoted and sometimes sold on the platform (for example, the fantastic Garry’s Mod, which birthed a whole new generation of Machinima). And now, it will be easy to frag your friends who own a Mac.

Where is the PC going?

With rampant piracy, declining developer support, decreases in retails and increasing competition from consoles (with platforms such as Xbox Live or Playstation Network), the future looks bleak. Yet, PCs have the most active independent and modding communities. With the arrival of services such as Desura (basically Steam for mods), GoG.com (Steam for old games) and OnLive (Steam for… streaming?), computers have a chance to surpass their counterparts; and if the future does lie in cross-platform, I will look forward to pwning console n00bs with my mouse and keyboard.