Valve Announces Steamworks

Serving a major blow to Microsoft’s Windows Live, Valve has announced Steamworks, a suite of tools freely available for any developers to use with retail or online PC game releases. The tools include gameplay, real-time sales, encryption system, territory control, product activation statistics, auto updating, voice chat, multiplayer matchmaking and other development tools.

Many of the above tools are already integrated into the Steam Community platform. It is quite similar to Microsoft’s Windows and Xbox Live services, though developers have to pay a fee to get access to them.

“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,” commented Valve’s Gabe Newell.