Steam Dev Days: Steam At 75 Million, Greenlight Going Away

Valve's developer-only Steam Dev Days summit has begun, but that doesn't mean corrupt, malformed press types like us can't be there in spirit. And by spirit, I mean Twitter, because this is what my life/career has become. So then, what's going on behind the iron veil of Valve's Seattle warfortress? Tons of stuff, honestly. But so far, the biggest announcements concern Steam (it gained another 10 million users in three months) and Steam Greenlight's slow, probably painful death. Also, Steam Machines, because I will not stop writing about Steam Machines every week until the day I die.

The One PC Gaming Service To Rule Them All is now at a whopping 75 million users, 10 million of whom were picked up over the holidays (thanks, Steam sales). As you can see, the majority of players come from North America and Western Europe.

On the Greenlight front, Gabe Newell once again proclaimed that the infernal community machine will eventually be smashed up into a million tiny cubelets and shot into the coldest reaches of space where it will live out eternity in a state of ceaseless, clawing discomfort. My words, not his. These are his words, per Rise of the Triad marketing brofessional Dave Oshry:

"Our goal is to make Greenlight go away. Not because it's not useful, but because we're evolving."

Newell's hope is to give developers more power over Steam, eventually allowing them to control the store itself and, in turn, how they promote their games.

Last but not least, Steam Machines. Alienware's will be launching in September. I think it looks like a Jawa Sandcrawler when viewed from the right angle. Thrilling!

Oh, also, as Valve told me last week, it'll eventually roll out TV, music, and movies on Steam to support its living room takeover initiative.

Whew. So there is a bunch of Valve news for you. Check back tomorrow for heaps more, because Valve won't stop hogging all the headlines and hashtags. #steamdevdays #valve #gaben #bieber