Distribution Revolution Q&A: Valve

[Azlan]

Gamecloud has released an interview with VALVe's Doug Lombardi involving the thought process behind using Steam to distribute their games.

Gamecloud - First, why did Valve wish to get into distributing its games via the Internet?
[br]</br>
Doug Lombardi - After shipping a number of multiplayer games, such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic, we wanted to solve a number of issues that would improve the customer experience. We made simple advancements such as including a server browser within the game itself that, at the time, was a nice step forward in putting players together. But, as online gaming grew, it was obvious that things such as auto-updating and more sophisticated anti-cheat measures were going to be requirements. We couldn't find an existing solution for these issues, so we started development internally. Several other features have been added along the way. Steam is now the backend for all of our games, serving millions of gamers, allowing us to conduct more robust and secure betas of new products, and sell the final products directly.

To read the full interview, head on over to GameCloud.

 

[Roland Deschain]

No matter how hard I try to accept getting game through the internets, I cannot. I need the box, it is too deeply ingrained in me.

On the article, it is pretty dry and the only cool thing is that Valve is considering 'leasing' steam for other distributors.

 

[Hazar]

cool

nice one post btw

 

[Asuka]

Havnt had a interview from Valve in a long time. Was good to hear we are going to see some other developers on steam in early july.

 

[CyberPitz]

Sweet, more Steams! I am personally a lover of Steam..I don't care if I get flamed but <3<3<3!
Good read. It's always good to read and see some things from Valve, in interviews and such.

 

[Insano]

Sweet, more Steams! I am personally a lover of Steam..I don't care if I get flamed but <3<3<3!
Good read. It's always good to read and see some things from Valve, in interviews and such.

Same opinion here. I love it and I will buy all Valve games from now on at Steam. Silver was the first

 

[ZoFreX]

Yuck, more games on Steam. As much as I love the concept, I can't stand the execution. However, having other developers on Steam is a really good idea. I'M CAUGHT IN INTERNAL CONFLICT!

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Glad to see more people using Steam

I for one can do without boxes and manuals... They just get thrown in a drawer or closet anyways. I've had problems with Steam 3 times (causing me to reinstall Steam... but I saved the GCF's and my user data, so nothing was lost... it's like a 30 second process) and considering I've been using it since beta, that's a good record.

I wish Friends would work more often lol (I remember I used that sooo much when it was working... quite useful!)

 

[Monkwarrior]

shortcoming of steam

Steam could be great, but it has 1 big weakness.
You can never tell if clients all have the same version of a game.
Some weekends ago we found out the hard way.
Though everybody fired up steam the night before the LAN-party to synchronize our steam versions, it still didn't work for 50% of the players. Something steam doesn't tell: you have to PLAY the game before it's completely updated. In the background it seems to download small files without the player noticing it........

For our next LAN it is still uncertain if this will work

Besides this too much black-box-idea w'r satisfied with steam.

Monk.