Steam Surpasses 15 Million Accounts

Valve® today announced that Steam®, a leading platform for PC games and digital entertainment, has surpassed 15 million accounts and realized year-over-year sales growth of 158% through the holiday season.

The year also marked the debut of the Steam Community and launch of several best-selling and critically-acclaimed titles such as Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, and The Orange Box.

[wageslave]

This is why I dont have very long term hopes for Gamestop (the corporation).

They really survive on software sales, and used software sales at that.

How long until the entire videogame industry goes to Digital Distribution?

People are going to be able to download (and, possibly burn) their discs themselves.

Steam is just proving that PC users dont want to be bothered with driving to Gamestop or Waiting for Discs in the mail.

[Yuprules]

Or how about OUT OF STOCK all the time, legal digital download is the way to go and Steam has it down pat.

[BloodySinner]

"How long until the entire videogame industry goes to Digital Distribution?" - Software piracy still exists, you know...

[JsonHenry]

I thought PC gaming was dead?

[Capt CHAOS]

I think is here to stay. I just joined Steam the other week and have been having great fun on Counterstrike again (and yes, CS 1.6 still rocks)

[mighty_douche]

ah thats just me and my 14,999,999 buddies...

[Yuprules]

LOL mighty_douche, could you imagine having 14,999,999 friends on your Steam friend list? :)

[Vip3r]

I like having games on a disk than as a DLC. Easier for when you have to change HDDs.

[Yuprules]

True about installing the game from a cd/dvd is faster, but Steam did add a backup function so you can easily move it to a new hd or computer. At least when you back it up and restore it right away you don't have to download any patches like on CD/DVD media.

[funkeystu]

I built a new comp on Monday and I just copied my entire steam folder from my old HDD to my new one. I have a healthy collection of games/mods in it (~25gb) and it only took a few minutes to copy - a lot quicker than it would have been to reinstall an equivalent number of games from CD.

[nirun]

steam was pretty bad at first, wouldn't start games, friends list server always down, random errors etc. a lot of these problems have been solved since then and steam is better than ever. games like TF2 are utilizing achievements and gamerscores, and steam is providing some really detailed stats http://www.steampowered.com... it's just getting better!

[Rooted_Dust]

I love being able to pre-download a game and then unlocking it and playing the minute it becomes available.

[Yuprules]

I agree, even faster than driving to the store at say 10AM, coming home...installing it. The person who is on Steam will get it hours before the person from the store.

[TwissT]

Yowza thats a lot of people.

[Phoebian]

I like the fact I can buy games through steam, but sometimes I like owning a hard copy of a certain game.

Same with music and films.

[Charlie2688]

But I thought Digital Distribution of PC games was a myth O.o

I mean "PC gaming is dead" articles and advocates keep conveniently omitting this out of their articles (along with a lot of other facts) so it MUST be a myth

/end sarcasm

[Bnet343]

PC Gaming has and always will be on top. Anyone who denies that doesn't know what they are talking about.

[Rikus]

still doesn't change the fact Steam is a steaming pile of crap & ruined counter strike

[n00dl3s]

That is the dumbest statement I've heard today, and I've read the "Revenge of the PS3" comments with the fanboy wars.

[Yuprules]

15 million steam accounts is failed?
"Realized year-over-year sales growth of 158% through the holiday season." Failed? I think the "stock holders" disagree with you on that one.