Valve Expand Steam Android App

August 9, 2012

The search function on Steam’s Android app provides evidence that Valve may intend to branch out beyond games. The Verge reports, “Steam Store Search Shows Categories for Non-Gaming Apps.” Granted, when writer T.C. Sottek encountered the new, non-game headings there were no apps under any of them. But why create the categories if the company doesn’t plan to populate them? The write up states:

“The ‘Genre’ section of the app’s index lists genres like ‘accounting, education, software training’ and ‘photo editing,’ with a total of ten additional categories over those shown in the Steam desktop client — though none of the categories contain any software. There’s obviously no guarantee that this means Valve intends to sell more than just games, but it’s not unreasonable to think that the company might someday go down that road: it’s already working to streamline the selection and release process for games on its platform with Steam Greenlight, and could conceivably do the same with other software genres.”

Steam is Valve‘s very successful online game platform, currently hosting over 1,800 games. Some are their products, but many others are from third parties. More than an effective way to distribute software, the platform also allows users to build communities around many of the titles, complete with a chat feature. Valve declares that their Source game engine is “considered the most flexible, comprehensive, and powerful game development environment out there.” The company began in 1996, and receives its mail in Bellevue, Washington.

Cynthia Murrell, August 9, 2012

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

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