Steam (content delivery)

Steam is a content delivery system developed by Valve Software, currently used to distribute and serve multiplayer games for Half-Life and soon, Half-Life 2. Steam is a replacement for WON, the online system used for Half-Life multiplayer games pre-Steam.

Though many Half-Life players disliked the Steam beta, WON has since been shut down on July 31, 2004, and Steam is now accepted by most players. However there is not yet a Linux version of Steam, frustrating some users.

Two products are currently avaliable through Steam, Half-Life Platinum Pack (Half-Life and all mods) and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Soon there will be Half-Life 2. The expansion pack, Blue Shift is not yet available, because modifications were made to the Half-Life engine.