QuakeCon 2007 – id Software’s annual gaming convention – is just wrapping up, and one of the biggest news coming out of there this year (and there were plenty!) is that most of their game catalog – from Comander Keen and up to Doom 3 – is now available for purchase on Valve Software’s Steam platform. There are some huge discounts on it too, including the id Super Pack, where you get everything for $62.95 (for a limited time). The games have also been updated to run under modern operating systems.

This is a major move not only because it’s a rare partnership between two of the biggest players on the first person shooter market, but because getting id Software to sign to their service is a major milestone in Steam’s path for world domination. Now if they somehow manage to get Epic Games to sign with them – they already feature a few games based on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine – they’re pretty much set. Who needs sharks with lasers when you can cash in on the distribution of the biggest PC FPS games?

id Software’s John Carmack and Todd Hollenshead let go a few comments about Steam during QuakeCon and apparently they’re deep believers in this sort of distribution – Carmack himself predicts next generation consoles will have online distribution as their primary way to deliver software.

But this website is about the little guys more than about the queens and kings on the chessboard – the players and not the software developers. So what’s intriguing me now is thinking what kind of immediate effect will this have on the usual online player base. id Software games are now advertised prominently on Steam, and it’ll be interesting to see if the people who have grown up with games like Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat over the years will be curious enough to try a game like Quake 3 or Return to Castle Wolfenstein online. I’m not actually betting on any noticeable change on the online presence of these games, but I think it will give these games a bit more longevity on the long run. Too bad Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory isn’t added to the list (it’s a free game); it’d be the best game to benefit from some additional exposure considering it already has a big following.

This entry was posted Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 1:11 pm and is filed under General. Both comments and pings are currently closed.