Valve extends Steam store beyond games
Adding to the growing list of companies providing storefronts for selling apps, Valve Software has announced its plans to expand the Steam distribution platform beyond selling games.
Starting September 5, users will be able to purchase apps from a growing selection of software titles, including photo editing, multimedia & productivity applications.
Similar to the App Store, the Steam platform offers functionality to app developers to enable automatic software updates & cloud-based data storage. Because of this, independent developers who have fallen out of favor with the App Store & Apple's iCloud offering may find this to be an intriguing development.
[via Joystiq]
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STEAM EXPANDS BEYOND GAMES
Launch Set of "Software" Titles Coming Sept 5
Aug 8, 2012 -- Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the first set of Software titles are heading to Steam, marking a major expansion to the platform most commonly known as a leading destination for PC and Mac games.
The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.
More Software titles will be added in an ongoing fashion following the September 5th launch, and developers will be welcome to submit Software titles via Steam Greenlight.
"The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games," said Mark Richardson at Valve. "They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests."
For more information, please visit www.steampowered.com.
