Okay, let’s get this out of the way right off the bat…yes, boys and girls, Steamworks is a form of DRM. It’s wrapped around associated applications and is required for them to run. Doesn’t mean it’s evil (and let’s please leave the perception that DRM must automatically equal Satan to the screaming zealots), but it is. And yes, for the sake of total transparency, so is Stardock’s Impulse platform.
Anyway, enough blather on that front!
Regardless of how you personally feel about Steam, everyone would have to admit that it has been a smash success. Digital retail has absolutely exploded on to the PC marketplace, and Steam has dominated that market. To what extent? The figures released by Valve certainly give some idea of that.
Steam saw a 205% increase in accounts in 2009. Yes, you read that number correctly. And this is the fifth consecutive year in which their sales grew by OVER 100% over the previous year. 25 million people currently have active Steam accounts, and 10 million of them have also set up User Profiles.
The ironic part of all of this is that last year’s massive growth explosion was likely fuelled, at least in part, by Modern Warfare 2’s use of Steamworks. Impulse, Direct2Drive and Gamersgate refused to sell it from their services because of that, meaning buyers had to use Steam if they wanted to purchase online. It was supposed to be a stand against the Steamworks requirement (which means the Steam store application installs as well), but it backfired as they simply pushed more sales to their competitor.
And as digital retail continues to become a bigger piece of the PC sales pie, those numbers are likely to increase. Its also interesting to note the similarities between the account-based DRM system that Ubisoft is going to use from this point forward and how Steam’s system functions now. Clearly, others are taking notice of the popularity of the basic Steam model when crafting their own alternatives.
June 15th, 2010 
Cliff Riseborough 
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