Steam - 20 Years old

[HiddenX]

Steam looks back at the last 20 years:

Thank you for 20 Years of Steam!

Valve launched Steam on September 12, 2003, and we're super proud and incredibly grateful for what we've been able to do in the 20 years since. Steam's success is a direct result of the players and developers around the world who use it.

We thought it would be fun to look back at the top releases on Steam each year (many of which are on sale as part of this celebration, including all Valve titles!) and added some fun facts for both Steam and pop culture in general (in art or text form, or both). But, like, give us the same leeway you might with an aging grandparent: the dates and facts below are as correct as our collectively aging memories will allow.

Man, we're old.

Anyway, if reading a novel wasn't what you had in mind during your free time, feel free to use the 'years' menu to jump around to one that interests you. And at least scroll to the end, we might have something in there that directs you to free stuff.

[...]

More information.

 

[Shattermind]

God time flies. I never used Steam in the 2000s. The only digital game platform I used back then was whatever client Stardock used back then, but didn't buy too many games on it. I had to make a Steam account when I bought Civilization 5 and Fallout: New Vegas back in the early 2010s and never looked back. Those were the last 2 games I bought hard-copies of, come to think of it.

 

[Andrew23]

Hated Steam back then, when I was forced to activate Half-Life 2 through it. I would still buy boxed games if it didn't turn completely scam. Boxes with download codes, yeah.

 

[Redglyph]

I hated it too. Then I found it convenient after a while. And then it became inflated beyond all measure and I mostly disliked it because of the obligation to update and the tons of uninteresting games that have flooded their catalogue.

So now I see it as a necessary evil, nothing more.

GOG is a viable alternative but it has its own problems with the updates (when they're not missing) and security flaws. It's good for old games and CDPR stuff, but not for recent games.

 

[JDR13]

I also hated Steam at first, but I eventually came to accept the digital age, and I appreciate it now. I could easily fill a large room with the amount games I have now if they were all boxed copies.

 

[txa1265]

I was very much an early digital adopter in all things, so jumped right on Steam (and Direct2Drive and StarDock and whatever others were already popping up by 2003). I liked the client from the start ... so by the time VtM:B and HL2 came out the following November it was a no-brainer to install them there.

 

[JDR13]

so by the time VtM:B and HL2 came out the following November it was a no-brainer to install them there.

Wasn't Half-Life 2 the first game on Steam? That's what I seem to recall.

 

[fabrulana]

Wasn't Half-Life 2 the first game on Steam? That's what I seem to recall.

It's in their exposé:


It looks like I joined in 2006

 

[ChaosTheory]

Steam almost single-handedly cut the amount of boxes in my basement in half, once hard-copies were no longer necessary.

 

[Carnifex]

I thoroughly despised Steam, didn't use it until I was forced to, like in 08 or 09. And to this day I vastly prefer great old games.

 

[SSIGuy]

I joined in 2005 and I don't recall disliking anything about it (though I'm someone who had already been working professionally on the internet since 1994, so I felt very comfortable with part of my life led online).

As well, I've never been one to care too much about physical manuals and maps... and that was really the only thing that bothered me a little bit.

 

[Xian]

My 20 year anniversary will be in November. I hadn't played Counterstrike in a couple months and I couldn't connect to Sierra's WON, it told me I had to download something called Steam. Not only that but I had to redownload the game through Steam even though I already had it installed. I didn't get to play that night since I was on a slow Internet connection. I didn't like Steam at first but they did put in efforts to improve it. The first game I bought through it was Half Life 2 and it overwhelmed their servers, I was unable to download it for days.

 

[Darkheart]

I also tried to stay away for as long as possible. In my mind, it was stupid to pay for "data" without having anything to hold in your hands afterwards.

I caved in 2012 because of a free game code I got from some PC magazine. So "King Arthur - The Role-playing Wargame" was my first Steam game. Played it only for something like 2 h, but the dam was breached.
Now I sit at 4500 games (most are sh*t I got from bundles) and even the games I do want to play amount to ~600 atm. Wish I was a student again

 

[Couchpotato]

Hated this service when it first launched as I forsaw what the future would be for PC games. Now despite that I'm still forced to use it as most games release on it.

 

[lackblogger]

I have 27 games on Steam. Well, actually 26, because you got Div classic when you bought Div EE. Well, actually 25, because you got some expansion game free when you got the original. Oh yeah, and that game was a freeby from here, as was another I barely played, so make it 23.

Oh yeah, then there's the 3 hidden object games which are teeny tiny games with zero replay value but Steam still wont let me clean house and remove them from my list.

So I have 20 games on steam. How remarkably fitting!

I used to much prefer GoG, where I have 80 games, well, probably about 65 if I ever bothered to clean house there, but ever since GoG went Galaxy I've enjoyed using the service less. I don't know why, but I guess Steam is just better at playing Steam's game, so why choose the inferior.

To cap it off even more, ever since I bought a Windows 11 laptop Galaxy has just refused to update for some weird technical reason, which doesn't help.

 

[HellRazor]

FYI, the "free stuff" at the end of the article are just a bunch of stickers and backgrounds for Steam.

 

[txa1265]

Wasn't Half-Life 2 the first game on Steam? That's what I seem to recall.

Yes, in terms of new games (and in particular Source games). Valve forced Troika to delay Bloodlines for months due to HL2 delays, which of course they couldn't afford. So HL2 came out a week before Bloodlines

 

[wolfgrimdark]

I don't have any big issues with steam. I don't like being forced to play any game online that is a SRPG but that is more a thing of the times as other games on other platforms have it.

Outside of that never had any issue with Steam and rather like that it is a great place with a lot of games. Not a fan of an online launcher for every game that comes out, but have to live with that sometimes too.

 

[notdart]

I guess i was late to the party; i didnt' bother joining till November 29, 2004.

 

[Stingray]

Oh yeah, then there's the 3 hidden object games which are teeny tiny games with zero replay value but Steam still wont let me clean house and remove them from my list.

You can remove games now, go to the game's Support tab then there'll be a menu option at the bottom to permanently remove the game from your account.