The history of Steam theoretically dates back to the 1990s. However, if you look for the first game on the platform, you will quickly encounter a popular shooter from 2004. Why this shooter can be considered the first game on Steam can be discovered here on MeinMMO.
What were the beginnings of Steam? Before Steam became the platform you know today, Valve more or less used it for other purposes.
It all started in 1999, at a time when it was not so easy to connect with people worldwide over the Internet. The Internet was not yet so accessible to the general public and not so easy to use. Unlike today, most people did not have access to the Internet.
Nevertheless, the gaming industry saw a great opportunity to compete or cooperate with other players worldwide. Compared to the popular LAN parties of the time, this was supposed to offer players a much easier way to play with friends.
At that time, Valve believed that there had to be a platform from which games could be installed directly on the users’ PCs and automatically updated. Since no one wanted to take on this project, they simply did it themselves.
Thus, Valve developed Steam. After the beta version launched in March 2002, Steam officially launched for everyone on September 12, 2003.
The first game on Steam: To find out which was the first game on Steam, you have to dig 20 years into the past. And even then, it is more or less a matter of interpretation.
In September 2003, Steam was released together with version 1.4 of Counter-Strike. At that time, Steam mainly offered the ability to play on the same servers as WON users. WON is a network required for the multiplayer mode of games from Sierra Entertainment.
Therefore, Steam was mainly used for Counter-Strike and its updates.
A still popular shooter lays the foundation for Steam
What happened next for Steam? In March 2004, the real career of Steam as a gaming platform began. Half-Life 2 was the first game that required a Steam account for purchase and could then be installed and played through the platform. For this reason, it is referred to by many as the first game on Steam.
For many at the time, the necessary Steam account was a major point of criticism, as not every player had internet access or was willing to create an account for a game. This concept, which is hardly questioned today, was received rather negatively by many.
The fact that Steam managed to become so successful despite the criticism is likely attributable to the success of Half-Life 2. And even today, over 20 years after its release, the first part of the shooter is still among the best games on the platform.
What was the first Steam game that didn’t come from Valve? Between CS and Half-Life 2, players could actually get another game through Steam. Codename: Gordon was the first game offered by a third party through Steam.
However, since the game was eventually removed from the catalog, it may not count as one of the first games on Steam anymore, but it certainly is an important part of the history of the gaming platform.
On Steam, you also get to play a lot of classics. One of them is now even in a remastered version: Steam: After nearly 30 years, you can play a classic from Bethesda for free and completely remastered
