Today Valve announced that their popular Steam PC gaming distribution platform will begin to offer applications other than games on the service.
The service, set to launch September 5th, will offer software titles such as “creativity to productivity” applications, according to the somewhat vague press release. Developers can submit their non-game applications to be distributed on Steam through the Steam Greenlight service, which allows the community to participate and vote on applications they’d like to see “Steamified”.
Having an application distributed via Steam brings more than just easy downloads and purchases. Developers can implement Steamworks features such as automatic updates, Steam Cloud integration, and ability to access your software library from any computer (say, while traveling).
There were no launch titles mentioned. Valve’s Mark Richardson says that the new service is the direct result of customer requests.