The co-creator of Counter-Strike recently discussed how Valve’s Gabe Newell created Steam after being fed up with publishers.
Steam is undoubtedly the biggest digital gaming marketplace out there and is a must-use for any PC user. The platform also keeps breaking its concurrent users record, hitting over 42 million earlier this year. However, the story behind how it came to be is interesting, as it was a way for Valve to get rid of publishers.
Gabe Newell Created Steam to Get Rid of Publishers
Spotted by GamesRadar+, in a recent interview with Indie Game Joe, Minh “Gooseman” Le, co-creator of Counter-Strike, shared insights on how Gabe Newell came to create Steam. According to Le, the relationship between Valve and Sierra, the publisher of Half-Life, ended on a very sour note. Newell became opposed to working with publishers, which ultimately led him to propose the idea of Steam, a digital marketplace that lets publishers sell their games online.
There was considerable doubt about Steam as a digital marketplace at Valve, especially when the idea was introduced around 2002. At that time, internet speeds were far from what we experience today, which posed a significant challenge. Minh Le also discussed with Joe that back then, people primarily purchased physical discs from stores; very few were downloading games online.
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Steam Was Originally Called ‘Grid’ and Was Envisioned as a Peer-to-Peer System
The Counter-Strike creator also spoke about there being a time when Valve wanted Steam to be a peer-to-peer system like BitTorrent. Valve “envisioned Steam to be a system where people would host the files on their machine and they would share the files peer-to-peer”. However, they couldn’t solve the security issues and went with the model they use today.
Minh-Le also revealed that Steam was originally called ‘Grid’ as the peer-to-peer system would’ve formed a grid between the players. Interested readers can check out the full interview below:
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