Steam is a digital distribution platform developed by Valve Software, offering access to games, community features, and software tools for game developers.
Introduction to Steam
Steam was first launched in 2003 as a standalone software client to provide automatic updates for Valve’s own games, such as Counter-Strike and Half-Life on Windows.
Over time, it expanded to include games from third-party publishers, as well as community features such as multiplayer matchmaking, social networking, and user-generated content for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Steam has since become the dominant platform for desktop gaming.
Some alternatives to Steam:
- XBox Game pass for PC
- Epic
- GoG
Steam Development
See the article Getting Started with Steam Development