Valve's decision to create Steam, a pivotal move that changed the gaming industry, is comparable to Nintendo's release of Super Mario Bros. and Sony's creation of the PlayStation. Steam almost overnight completely transformed the way PC games were distributed, and according to the co-founder of Counter-Strike, it all stemmed from Gabe Newell's dissatisfaction with the game publishing landscape at the time.
Minh Le is one of the co-founders of Counter-Strike. After selling this multiplayer shooter to Valve, he worked at Valve for many years under Gabe Newell. In an interview with Indie Game Joe on YouTube, he revealed that Gabe Newell created Steam due to a breakdown in relations with Half-Life's publisher, Sierra, during which he famously ranted, "Screw these publishers."
"I think Gabe was the one who said, 'Screw the publishers.' Valve was working with a company called Sierra at the time; Sierra was their publisher. Sierra published Half-Life, and I remember they also published Half-Life 2, but the experience of working with Sierra was terrible, which made Gabe very upset. He basically wanted to say, 'Screw it, I never want to deal with publishers again.'"
Sierra did publish the original Half-Life, but not the sequel, as Valve's relationship with Sierra deteriorated sharply, leading both parties to take legal action against each other. The sequel was crucial to the launch of Steam—as early as 2004, Valve made the extremely wise decision to require all purchasers of Half-Life 2 to use its brand-new Steam platform.
The sequel to this groundbreaking first-person shooter garnered significant attention, leading Gabe Newell and his team to realize that these players could be converted into a user base for their emerging digital distribution platform. Although change was inevitable, Le recalls that there was some skepticism at the time.
He said, "Many people at Valve, including many of my colleagues, were wondering at the time, 'Will this work?' Because it was 2001, 2002. Back in 2002, people had slow internet speeds and poor connections. So we could only buy games from physical stores. At that time, I think everyone just bought games directly. There was no such thing as downloading games. Everyone's internet speed was painfully slow. We thought, 'It takes me a whole day to download Half-Life; this definitely won't work.'"
But he admitted that they "did not anticipate" broadband, Wi-Fi, and the internet developing to become as fast and ubiquitous as they are today.
"We really didn't anticipate how fast the internet would develop. It's been 25 years, and seeing Everythinggj change and witnessing the evolution of Steam has truly been an eye-opener for me."