Steam Is Expanding To Providing Software Beyond Game Titles

A new Press Release from Valve Software, creators of Steam is stating that starting September 5th, 2012, Steam will begin distributing software titles, beyond games, using their digital distribution network.

The specific types and titles of the software coming are not known at this time, although the press release points to creativity and productivity applications. Also, according to the release, many of these titles will take advantage of features such as the Steam Cloud, making it easy to save your work across multiple computers and auto updating.

The full press release, although limited in details, is below:

STEAM EXPANDS BEYOND GAMES

 Launch Set of “Software” Titles Coming Sept 5

Aug 8, 2012 — Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the first set of Software titles are heading to Steam, marking a major expansion to the platform most commonly known as a leading destination for PC and Mac games.

The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.

More Software titles will be added in an ongoing fashion following the September 5th launch, and developers will be welcome to submit Software titles via Steam Greenlight.

“The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games,” said Mark Richardson at Valve. “They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests.”

For more information, please visit www.steampowered.com.