Online platforms for video game distribution gathers steam

Digital distribution of online video game content is growing rapidly, which can be seen from the fact that Steam, an online distribution platform for videogame content, has already signed up more than 13million users. Valve, the owner of Steam, has said that more than 150 PC games can be downloaded through Steam and also Steam can be used to automate more than 2500 updates to existing games.

Giants like Microsoft, Sony, and Yahoo have already started such online distribution platforms where games can be directly downloaded onto their game consoles.

"In Steam's case, we have millions of customers who are gamers and dozens of customers who are developers and publishers. In the past year, we've added over 100 new titles from third parties, grown to over 13 million active accounts," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve.

Steam lets users to download hugely popular games such as Call of Duty 2, Top Spin 2, and Half Life 2. Steam offers new and old games through its service for prices between EUR 3 and EUR 10. Steam also allows users to download the demos of popular games and thus makes it an attractive market place for new titles.