Another forgotten but brilliant and unique aspect of Steam, unknown to the USA and rest of the 1st world people:
Steam is the ****only**** store that lowers the price in third world countries according to their economic situation.
So smart of Gabe, as instead of flocking to piracy, tens of millions of gamers (not all of course) *can* buy the games, and though lowered, the price adds up to a shit ton of additional money for developers/publishers they wouldn't see otherwise.
No matter how reduced other stores' prices are, they are many times higher than Steam's.
Source: I'm Argentinian, the most benefited country. 4000+ games on Steam.