Valve Releases Steamworks

Valve announces the release of Steamworks free of charge, offering developers and publishers the game publishing tools used for Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box. Steamworks allows for copy protection, stats tracking, auto-updates, voice communication, and more:
January 29, 2008 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announce Steamworks, a complete suite of publishing and development tools - ranging from copy protection to social networking services to server browsing - is now available free of charge to developers and publishers worldwide.

Steamworks, the same suite of tools used in best-selling PC titles Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box, is available for all PC games distributed via retail and leading online platforms such as Steam. The services included in Steamworks may be used a la carte or in any combination.

Specifically, Steamworks offers:

    • Real-time stats on sales, gameplay, and product activation: Know exactly how well your title is selling before the charts are released. Find out how much of your game is being played. Login into your Steamworks account pages and view up to the hour information regarding worldwide product activations and player data.

    • State of the art encryption system: Stop paying to have your game pirated before it's released. Steamworks takes anti-piracy to a new level with strong encryption that keeps your game locked until the moment it is released.

    • Territory/version control: The key-based authentication provided in Steamworks also provides territory/version controls to help curb gray market importing and deliver territory-specific content to any given country or region.

    • Auto updating: Insures all customers are playing the latest and greatest version of your games.

    • Voice chat: Available for use both in and out of game.

    • Multiplayer matchmaking: Steamworks offers you all the multiplayer backend and matchmaking services that have been created to support Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, the most played action games in the world.

    • Social networking services: With support for achievements, leaderboards, and avatars, Steamworks allows you to give your gamers as many rewards as you would like, plus support for tracking the world's best professional and amateur players of your game.

    • Development tools: Steamworks allows you to administer private betas which can be updated multiple times each day. Also includes data collection tools for QA, play testing, and usability studies.

"Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing."

"As more developers and publishers have embraced Steam as a leading digital distribution channel, we've heard a growing number of inquiries regarding the availability of the platform's services and tools," said Jason Holtman, director business development at Valve. "Offering Steamworks is part of our ongoing efforts to support the needs of game developers and our publishing partners."

Steam is a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC games and digital content. With over 13 million active accounts and more than 250 games, plus hundreds of movie files and game demos available, Steam has become a frequent destination for millions of gamers around the world.

For more information regarding Steamworks, please visit www.steamgames.com/steamworks. To find out about more about Steamworks contact jasonh@valvesoftware.com

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Re: Whew.
Jan 31, 2008, 10:41
>U
Re: Whew. Jan 31, 2008, 10:41
Jan 31, 2008, 10:41
>U
 
Lending games to others or using a game loaned to you (which is what playing with someone else's Steam account technically is) are not allowed in other EULAs.
Actually it depends on the EULA. All EULA's are not like that. Some specify that games can be transferred or sold so long as copies are not retained by the seller/transferring party.

The fact that many gamers do it doesn't mean it's allowed by the company that made the game. Steam just gives Valve better ability to enforce its EULAs.
Actually it's not just "better" ability. It's a case of with DRM systems like Steam developers and publishers can actually enforce the EULA through technical means and without systems like Steam they can't. To me as a consumer that is more than just an academic or trivial difference because the EULA might not even be legal and even if it is, as a practical matter I don't give a damn what it says if the company that wrote it doesn't have the technical means to enforce it. Consumers should be allowed to use the video game software they buy with the same freedom that they can use other media like music, movies, and books. If they buy a copy of a work, they own it and can use and transfer that copy as they wish according to copyright law. The content creators including those of video games shouldn't be able to usurp consumers' rights under the law using a EULA's as they do now.

You could make the argument that you're still able to do certain things that violate EULAs for retail games (such as lending a game), but then you might as well ignore CD protection because it can be overcome with a crack, or ignore Steam's restrictions because they can be overcome with a hacked Steam client.
That is a specious comparison because first, circumventing copy-protection/DRM is a definite violation of coptright law under most circumstances whereas not adhering to a EULA may be legal such as when the EULA is unconscionable. Second, any consumer can ignore a EULA. It takes no technical knowledge or skill to do so, and it can be done with absolute certainty. For example I can lend you the original media for a game whose EULA forbids lending without having to know or do anything special. However being able to bypass copy-protection or DRM takes at least some technical knowledge or skill and is far from a certainty. Yes, popular PC games tend to have their copy-protection and DRM broken by hackers, but the availability of such cracks for every game and every version of a game is no certainty at all. So, there are big differences between ignoring a EULA and circumventing copy-protection/DRM from both a legal standpoint and a practical one.

It's the ability to easily enforce the EULA that makes Steam different.
As a practical matter that makes all the difference in the world, and it is the heart of my criticism over the technical aspects of Steam.

This comment was edited on Jan 31, 12:08.
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