Frequently Asked Questions

Question

What is Steam ?

Answer

Depending on your point of view, it is either a neat program to facilitate your gaming experience or a curse upon humanity. The official story is: Steam is Valve's new broadband platform for direct software delivery and content management. Steam lets you: * Buy Valve games via the Internet, and start playing within minutes of confirming your purchase * Access your games from any PC * Stop worrying about product updates and patches (they're all handled automatically!) * Instant-message your friends, even while playing games. * Browse and connect to game servers * See when your friends are playing, and join their games In addition to using Steam to deliver games, Valve is also making Steam available to other software developers. Steam is a distributed file system and shared set of technology components that can be implemented into any software application. With Steam, software developers are given integrated tools for direct-content publishing, flexible billing, ensured-version control, anti-cheating, anti-piracy, and more. The Steam SDK also includes an integrated set of communications tools and Valve’s Graphic User Interface (V-GUI) that provide built-in support for a variety of services such as instant messaging, configuration, and server browsing.