Steam Will Add Non-Game Software This September

Perhaps you remember sometime in July when pictures of the Steam smartphone app showed categories other than video games. It had sections for things like photo editing, video production, and web publishing. No one was certain of what this meant but it definitely suggested that Valve was planning on introducing other software to their store. Source Filmmaker was the first but it won't be the last.

Today Valve sent out a press release which basically proved all that speculation right. On September 5th, various software applications will be added to Steam which aren't video games. What exactly the software is wasn't announced but they will "range from creativity to productivity." This isn't just a test either, since they also say that non-game software will continue to come out after that date. Prospective programs may even be submitted through Steam Greenlight to see if the community is interested.

What would be the benefit of having something like Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Suite on Steam? Installation should be streamlined as it is with the games on Steam, as well as have automatic updates. Steam Cloud will also sync with the software so that files can be accessed in multiple places. So far there's no mention of adding achievements though (thank goodness).

Why did Valve decide to expand beyond gaming products on their store? Mark Richardson of Valve gave an answer:

"The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games. They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests."


Would you buy non-gaming software on Steam? If so, what are the kinds of programs you'd be interested in?