Why Steam is the Present and Future of Content Delivery

I was a little bit of a late bloomer before I finally decided to adopt a Steam library of games from Valve for my personal computer. I was the type of person that like having the tangible disc in case of an emergency.

But after a while I ended up losing the disc. Then the patches and updates to the software are a pain to go download. The Steam Software seems to allow developers to deploy patches and updates to a large volume of users flawlessly. I am also able to install the game on more then one of my PCs as long as I validate the computer to my account.

The Steam cloud allows me to keep my saved games, screen shots and other information stored on their servers so I can pick up where I left off. I also use Windows Mesh to sync the save files and settings over PCs.

I have over 180 games on my Steam account. I seem to be a sucker for the seasonal super sales and sometimes the awesome occasional weekend or daily deal. I like to research the game on their forums to see what other users are saying about the game.

Just because the game has a good or negative review I want to know what the gamer population has to say. I am more then like to buy an indie game under 5 dollars with a great user review then a 10 dollar AAA game with a good Metacritic reviews and lukewarm user reviews.

I just read an article online whereas Steam would like to expand to the Xbox 360 marketplace as an option to deliver content. While I do not own a Xbox 360, I think it would be a great idea.

The more options Steam has for us the consumer, the more platforms we can play the games that we purchase. I can see playing a game on the PC then loading up my console to continue the game in my living room thanks to the save features of the Steam cloud.

Another great cloud gaming service is OnLive. Valve should take a serious look at acquiring that service to add to their corporate portfolio. With cloud gaming getting more popular with higher and faster bandwidth and having the technologies being built in TVs and other units.

OnLive would be a great addition to Valve's content delivery platform Steam. OnLive owns the patents for its service. I would love to play a Steam game from my Steam account on my TV. What would it be like to watch select movies, game trailers, TV shows or listen to music through Steam? I think it would be great to have it all at out fingertips.

The future of Steam seems to be very bright with other companies such as Game Stop trying to launch their own digital content platform.

Brick and mortar stores aren’t going away soon but they are dwindling due to the speed of the internet and convenience of not having to leave your house.

Valve has some excellent franchises; Half Life, Portal, Counterstrike, Left 4 Dead and Steam. DoTA2 is coming. The future is bright for Valve Software. I cant wait to see whats next to come over the horizon.

What do you think of Steam?

The original article by me can be found here at http://mbhahn.com/Blog.aspx