Microsoft and Yahoo rejected Steam

[DigiQ8]

Valve revealed to GamesIndustry.biz that they had approached Microsoft and Yahoo to develop Steam before deciding to develop it themselves. And both of them was like 'That's a million miles in the future...We can't help you.'". Steam now serves over 300 titles and hosts over 15 million accounts.

"You know, we went around to Yahoo, Microsoft...and anybody who seemed like a likely candidate to build something like Steam," he explained.[br]

"We basically had our feature list that we wanted. We wanted auto-updating, we wanted better anti-piracy, better anti-cheat, and selling the games over the wire was something we came up with later.[br]

"We went around to everybody and asked 'Are you guys doing anything like this?' And everyone was like 'That's a million miles in the future...We can't help you.'"

You can read the full interview with Valve's Doug Lombardi here.

 

[TwwIX]

Steam is practically turning into a PC version of Xbox Live.
I guess Yahoo prefers obscurity over a healthy competition.

 

[highlander]

Nice interview!

 

[soulslicer]

That is amazing! Kudos to Valve

 

[Crispy]

It has its ups and downs. I think if either Microsoft or Yahoo had developed Steam it would have a lot more functionality than it has now (e.g. why can't I browse games by Developer/Publisher?), but I think the ads and the look would have been horrible and flashy. I like how Steam is sleek and how obvious compassion has been shown in keeping the ads to a minimum, and making sure they're not gaudy or pushy.

I just wish Valve would spend a bit more revenue on Steam to make it what it should be (and please streamline the bloatware a bit).

 

[monkeyclass]

It has its ups and downs. I think if either Microsoft or Yahoo had developed Steam it would have a lot more functionality than it has now (e.g. why can't I browse games by Developer/Publisher?), but I think the ads and the look would have been horrible and flashy. I like how Steam is sleek and how obvious compassion has been shown in keeping the ads to a minimum, and making sure they're not gaudy or pushy.

I just wish Valve would spend a bit more revenue on Steam to make it what it should be (and please streamline the bloatware a bit).

In the new steamstore you can actually
http://steampowered.com/v/beta.php

 

[Trevelyan]

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=141904

I knew I should have posted it here! good interview though

EDIT

A lot of people very kindly say "before Half-Life" and "after Half-Life" in terms of single player FPS games

Doug

Whay! I say that Doug!

Before HL = Delta Force (a bit :monkee, Goldeneye (console) & Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II were cool (ignoring obvious frag fests I loved like Quake, Doom etc)

Post HL = HL 2, Call of Duty Series (Im a little out of touch tbh though),

:cheese:

 

[Eejit]

That was a good read.