You might recall
the news of Valve's recently released Steamworks, a platform for publishers to put content on the Steam infrastructure while taking advantage of many of its benefits. Today,
ArsTechnica has an interview with Valve executive Doug Lombardi where he talks a bit more about the initiative, and just what it all means for Valve.
Quote:
"What's in it for us? That's the big question that everybody's asking, it seems awfully altruistic... but there is no secret plan," Lombardi explains. "If you're using Steamworks only in your retail product and you don't even distribute on Steam, people want to use the copy-protection stuff, the customer needs to sign up with Steam to unlock it."
Well, it's not a secret plan, but it is a plan. If the developer uses copy protection—and that will most likely be everyone who uses Steamworks—players will have to make a Steam account. "And then once they're in the game you can take over and all the skinning of the server browser and all that can be specific to your game, but that customer has made a Steam account—so somewhere down the line we can sell them the id Super Pack, or Portal 5, or whatever it is that comes down the line."
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