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Over the past decade, Steam has gone from an optional piece of software used to deliver updates to Valve's games to an annoying hindrance which prevented many from playing Half-Life 2 at launch to the one and only place to purchase PC games for many gamers. It's been a remarkable transformation, particularly when considering just how significant of a portion of the digital PC games market it commands -- Stardock, which operated competing digital distribution service Impulse, estimated Steam's market share as being 70 percent in 2009. Steam has only grown in size since then, and while it now faces more competition from Origin, Amazon, and others, it remains the preeminent source of digital PC games. Beginning very soon, it will expand into a new market that will help to ensure its future growth even if Origin and company continue to become bigger players in the games space.

Valve announced today that the first pieces of non-gaming software will be released on Steam on September 5. No names were revealed; the closest we got to any degree of specificity was a line in the press release which reads, "The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity." That's still awfully vague, so it looks as if we'll be waiting a bit longer before finding out exactly what kind of programs you'll be able to download alongside your copies of Audiosurf and Portal 2.

Last month, The Verge reported Steam's mobile app for Android had been updated to list new genres of software available on the service. Alongside the likes of RPG and strategy were things like accounting, photo editing, and audio production. This suggested such an announcement was forthcoming, which isn't as surprising as it could have been considering Valve has not hesitated to explore areas outside of game development lately.

Steam itself is the most prominent example, though there have also been the educational version of Portal 2's Authoring Tools, experiments with wearable computing, Source Filmmaker, the sale of Indie Game: The Movie and The Final Hours of Portal 2 on Steam, and Gabe Newell's proclamation earlier this year: "[I]f we have to sell hardware we will."

What should have been a clearer indication that Valve had some interest in non-gaming software were Newell's comments at casual games conference Casual Connect last month. Noting that he believes the business and distribution model for games is going to be much different -- as evidenced by something like how a single Team Fortress 2 player makes $150,000 per year producing hats for the game -- he said, "That causes us to have conversations with Adobe, and we say the next version of Photoshop should look like a free-to-play game, and they say, 'We have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds really bad.' And, then we say, 'No, no, no. We think you are going to increase the value being created to your users, and you will create a market for their goods on a worldwide basis.' But that takes a longer sell. This isn't about videogames; it's about thinking about goods and services in a digital world."

Clearly Valve is now thinking about more than just games as Steam comes to resemble the App Store or the former Impulse by offering games and software alongside one another. Whether Photoshop will be among the pieces of software that make it onto Steam we do not currently know, although developers (presumably only the ones much smaller than Adobe) will have the option of submitting their software to Steam Greenlight to receive community approval. Aside from the exposure being on Steam could bring to these software titles, they'll also be able to make use of some of Steam's most appreciated features from a user standpoint such as simple installations, automatic updates, and Steam Cloud support. That last one, in particular, could prove to be tremendously beneficial to smaller developers that lack the expertise or resources to build their own cloud storage system for users to take advantage of.

I would presume software, by and large, won't be included in the same kind of sales Steam's games are. Part of the benefit of those sales for game makers is that it establishes a fan base which then spreads the word on how great the game is and is there to buy the sequel at launch. Software developers, on the other hand, might not be releasing a new version of the title in question, and users may not be as likely to tell their friends about a great piece of tax preparation software as they are a fantastic indie game. Then again, one might not see any benefit to offering games at the prices seen during Steam sales, and yet Valve has managed to convince many developers and publishers that offering steep discounts is a wise move. Perhaps the same could happen with software.

What's most intriguing about all of this is the potential use of Steam Workshop. Steam's mod distribution arm has already made modding a game like Skyrim a significantly easier proposition. Now imagine it being used for plugins and user-created modifications for software purchased through Steam. Like game mods, it's something possible without the use of Steam Workshop, but having an extremely easy-to-use, centralized hub for downloading and installing these things could expand their usage. Combine this with Linux support (which Valve has been very high on lately, particularly because of concerns over Windows 8) and Steam Cloud support that lets you share your settings and work across computers (plus a potential Cloud subscription service to provide users with additional space), and you start to see where this idea could evolve.

In addition to the additional revenue this will generate, also consider the edge this gives against other games distributors. If Steam on its own can be used for all your gaming and software needs and lets you reinstall all of that on a new computer, it makes it all the more attractive to those deciding where to buy a game from. For software developers, you surrender a cut to Valve but maybe you lure in new customers who would have otherwise been averse to purchasing your software through your website.

Some gamers will undoubtedly bemoan this expansion of Steam and worry that Valve's focus on gaming will be weakened to the point where Half-Life 3 (or Episode 3) takes even longer to be made. That example aside, until we actually see a decrease in the company's output (we'll have seen Left 4 Dead 2, Alien Swarm, Portal 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Dota 2 in a three-year span) it would be unfair to hold it against Valve for exploring a potentially lucrative area. Especially when you take into account that Steam's overwhelming success enables Valve to do what it wants and take its time in crafting truly great games, I won't fault it for looking to further increase the size of that security blanket.

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Source: http://ob-game.blogspot.com/2012/08/valve-improves-its-security-blanket-by.html

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