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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2026
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His innovation was to create the modern online verification bullshit that plagues the industry. Before Steam, you bought a game, put in the disc, and played it. If it HAD and online component, you may have had to type in a CD key.
No extra launcher to access your library. No having to reconnect to the internet to renew your license. I had a dedicated gaming PC that didn't even have a modem. And no mandatory updates. It's unacceptable that any time I want to play a single-player game I have to hope there hasn't been some 140 gig patch that I have to install because the multi-player suite I'll never open added a new $30 outfit to a character and they just make everyone reinstall everything.
If Half Life 2 had come out a year earlier, I wouldn't have been able to play it because I didn't have internet connected to my gaming PC until college.
All of those problems are easily avoided by not playing AAA slop
If you're installing a game through Steam, you're dealing with DRM, a third-party launcher, and online verification, and Steam is taking a 30% cut to insert those features into the process. It doesn't matter how "indie" your game is.
Valve will take the cut from the sale no matter what of course, but the DRM and even the in-game Steamworks integration is actually optional. You can publish DRM-free files on Steam which do not require Steam to run at all if you want. People might get grouchy if you skip achievements and save sync or whatever, though.
ETA: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam
And to further clarify, you do not need to eschew achievements and that other stuff if you want your game to work without steam. You can make your game check to see if steamworks is working and then provide those services if if available.
God I remember raging at having to go online and install this "Steam" bullshit thing just to play a game I bought from the brick and mortar store in my town.