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81-582: FFO may refer to: Firefly Online , a video game Frankfurt (Oder) , Germany Frankfurt East station , in Germany Funds from operations , a measure of revenue for investment trusts Furnace fuel oil Norwegian Federation of Organisations of Disabled People (Norwegian: Funksjonshemmedes Fellesorganisasjon ) Wright-Patterson Air Force Base , in Ohio, United States Topics referred to by

162-634: A gray market around some games, where a user in a country where the price of a game was substantially lower than elsewhere could stockpile giftable copies to sell to others in regions with much higher prices. In August 2016, Valve changed its gifting policy to require that games with VAC and Game Ban-enabled games be gifted immediately to another Steam user, which also served to combat players that worked around VAC and Game Bans; in May 2017, Valve expanded this policy to all games. The changes also placed limitations on gifts between users of different countries if there

243-417: A PC dedicated to gaming, gaming from a second Windows installation, or using a computer account with limited rights dedicated to gaming. In July 2015, a bug in the software allowed anyone to reset the password to any account by using the "forgot password" function of the client. High-profile professional gamers and streamers lost access to their accounts. In December 2015, Steam's content delivery network

324-491: A Steam Workshop-type interface but blocks access from students. In-Home Streaming was introduced in May 2014; it allows users to stream games installed on one computer to another on the same home network with low latency. By June 2019, Valve renamed this feature to Remote Play, allowing users to stream games across devices that may be outside of their home network. Steam's "Remote Play Together", added in November 2019 after

405-642: A background recording. Users can then edit and clip footage to share via Steam with other users. In September 2014, Steam Music was added to the Steam client, allowing users to play through music stored on their computer or to stream from a locally networked computer directly in Steam. An update to the friends and chat system was released in July 2018, allowing for non-peer-to-peer chats integrated with voice chat and other features that were compared to Discord . A standalone mobile app based on this for Android and iOS

486-478: A claimed breach of this contract. Sierra counter-sued, asserting that Valve had been working to undermine the contract by offering a digital storefront for their games, directly competing with Sierra. Steam was released out of beta on September 12, 2003. In November 2004, Half-Life 2 was the first high-profile game to be offered digitally on Steam, requiring installation of the Steam client for retail copies. During this time users faced problems attempting to play

567-538: A commercial vulnerability research firm, published a paper in October 2012 that said the Steam browser protocol was posing a security risk by enabling malicious exploits through a simple user click on a maliciously crafted steam:// URL in a browser. This was the second serious vulnerability of gaming-related software following a problem with Ubisoft's Uplay . German IT platform Heise online recommended strict separation of gaming and sensitive data, for example using

648-578: A daily and weekly basis, sometimes oriented around a publisher, genre, or holiday theme, and sometimes allows games to be tried for free during the days of these sales. The site normally offers a large selection of games at a discount during its annual Summer and Holiday sales, including gamification of these sales. Users of Steam's storefront can also purchase games and other software as gifts for another Steam user. Before May 2017, users could purchase these gifts to be held in their profile's inventory until they opted to gift them. However, this feature enabled

729-561: A feature introduced in beta in December 2012 that would allow users to sell virtual items to others via Steam Wallet funds, further extended the idea. Valve levies a transaction fee of 15% on such sales and game publishers that use Steam Market pay a transaction fee. For example, Team Fortress 2 —the first game supported at the beta phase—incurred both fees. Full support for other games was expected to be available in early 2013. In April 2013, Valve added subscription-based game support to Steam;

810-632: A flat 30% from all direct Steam sales and microtransaction . In October 2018, Valve updated their policies that cut theirs to 25% once revenue for a game surpasses US$ 10 million , and further to 20% at US$ 50 million . The policy change was seen by journalists as trying to entice larger developers to stay with Steam, while the decision was also met with backlash from indie and other small game developers, as their revenue split remained unchanged. While Steam allows developers to offer demo versions of their games at any time, Valve worked with Geoff Keighley in 2019 in conjunction with The Game Awards to hold

891-583: A game is running rather than waiting until the user quit; this was added ahead of the portable Steam Deck unit so that users can save from the Deck and then put the unit into a suspended state. In May 2012, the service added the ability for users to manage their game libraries from remote clients, including computers and mobile devices. Product keys sold through third-party retailers can also be redeemed on Steam. For games that incorporate Steamworks, users can buy redemption codes from other vendors and redeem these in

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972-432: A game. A new notes feature allowed users to create personal notes that are stored in the cloud that they could use for various tracking of progress or reminders while in game. Valve provides developers the ability to create storefront pages to help generate interest in their game ahead of release. This is also necessary to fix a release date that functions into Valve's "build review", a free service performed by Valve about

1053-507: A major update to Steam Broadcasting, adding Steam Chat and Steamworks integration for spectating matches played at the event. It has also been used for other events, such as a pre-release tournament for the digital card game Artifact and for The Game Awards 2018 and Steam Awards award shows. Game Recording was added in beta in June 2024 and released in full by November 2024, allowing for recording of gameplay sessions both on demand or as

1134-537: A means of communicating when special in-game events are approaching through Steam Events, which appear to players on the revamped Library and game profile pages. Another major overhaul of the UI was released in June 2023. Besides unifying backend functions for the main Steam client, Steam Deck client, and Big Picture mode, the new UI featured an improved screen overlay that users could pin various dialogs such as friend chat and game guides that would remain visible while playing

1215-518: A month of beta testing, gives the ability for local multiplayer games to be played by people in disparate locations, though will not necessary resolve latency problems typical of these types of games. Remote Play Together was expanded in February 2021 to give the ability to invite non-Steam players to play through a Steam Link app approach. The Steam client, as part of a social network service , allows users to identify friends and join groups using

1296-503: A one-time verification code sent to a verified email address associated with the Steam account; this was later expanded to include two-factor authentication through the Steam mobile application, known as Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator. In 2015, Valve stated that the potential monetary value of virtual goods attached to user accounts had drawn hackers to try to access accounts for financial benefit. Valve reported that in December 2015, around 77,000 accounts per month were hijacked, enabling

1377-468: A physical release, or given to a user as part of promotions, often used to deliver Kickstarter and other crowdfunding rewards. A grey market exists around Steam keys, where less reputable buyers purchase a large number of Steam keys for a game when it is offered for a low cost, and then resell these keys to users or other third-party sites at a higher price. This caused some of these third-party sites, such as G2A , to be embroiled in this grey market. It

1458-481: A timed-exclusive to the Epic Games Store . During mid-2011, Valve began to offer free-to-play games, such as Global Agenda , Spiral Knights and Champions Online ; this offer was linked to the company's move to make Team Fortress 2 a free-to-play title. Valve included support via Steamworks for microtransactions for in-game items through Steam's purchasing channels, in a similar manner to

1539-466: A trading card glitch let players generate Steam Wallet funds from free Steam trading cards with bots using Capcom Arcade Stadium and other games, resulting in the game becoming one of the statistically most played titles. Since November 2013, Steam has allowed for users to review their purchased games and organize them into categories set by the user and add to favorite lists for quick access. Players can add non-Steam games to their libraries, allowing

1620-412: A virtual collectable marketplace. Steamworks, an application programming interface (API) released in 2008, is used by developers to integrate Steam's functions, including digital rights management (DRM), into their game products. Many game publishers began distributing their products on Steam that year. Initially developed for Windows , Steam was ported to macOS , Linux , Android , and iOS in

1701-748: A week before this release date to make sure the game's launch is trouble-free. Updates in 2020 to Discovery queues have given developers more options for customizing their storefront page and how these pages integrate with users' experiences with the Steam client. Valve offers Steamworks, an application programming interface (API) that provides development and publishing tools free of charge to game and software developers. Steamworks provides networking and player authentication tools for both server and peer-to-peer multiplayer games, matchmaking services, support for Steam community friends and groups, Steam statistics and achievements, integrated voice communications, and Steam Cloud support, allowing games to integrate with

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1782-630: A week-long Steam Game Festival to feature a large selection of game demos of current and upcoming games, alongside sales for games already released. This event has since been repeated two or three times a year, typically in conjunction with game expositions or award events, and since has been renamed as the Steam Next Fest. Valve expanded support for demo versions of games in July 2024, allowing demos to have their own store page with user reviews and made it easier for user to manage demos within their game library. A Steam Points system and storefront

1863-649: Is a large difference in pricing. Due to runaway inflation in Argentina and Turkey, Valve eliminated the use of local currency pricing for users in those storefronts in November 2023, instead moving them to a special regional pricing model based on U.S. dollars as a means to provide fair payments to publisher and developers, though these local users saw effective price hikes as high as 2900%. The Steam store also enables users to redeem store product keys to add software from their library. The keys are sold by third-party providers such as Humble Bundle , distributed as part of

1944-735: Is delivered from an international network of servers using a proprietary file transfer protocol . As of 2015, Steam sells its products in US and Canadian dollars, euros, pounds sterling , Brazilian reais , Russian rubles , Indonesian rupiah and Indian rupees depending on the user's location. In December 2010, the client began supporting the WebMoney payment system. From April 2016 until December 2017, Steam accepted payments in Bitcoin before dropping support for it due to high fluctuation in value and costly service fees. The Steam storefront validates

2025-839: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Firefly Online Firefly Online ' s core gameplay would revolve around the player assuming the role of a starship captain, then taking command of a ship, engaging in missions, and trading with other ships for resources and supplies. The game would have a central narrative with various side-stories, and players might have been able to create jobs for each other to complete. Players would have been able to customize their ships while playing, and view "in-universe guides" around planets to gain information before deciding whether to land on them. Furthermore, both space and planetary environments would exist. The game would have contained more than 200 different worlds to visit. An important aspect of

2106-665: Is possible for publishers to have Valve track down where specific keys have been used and cancel them, removing the product from the user's libraries. Other legitimate storefronts, like Humble Bundle, have set a minimum price that must be spent to obtain Steam keys as to discourage mass purchases. In June 2021, Valve began limiting how frequently Steam users could change their default region to prevent them from purchasing games from outside their home region for cheaper. In 2013, Steam began to accept player reviews of games. Other users can subsequently rate these reviews as helpful, humorous, or otherwise unhelpful, which are then used to highlight

2187-760: Is restricted until a one-time payment of at least US$ 5 is made to Valve. This requirement can be fulfilled by making any purchase of five dollars or more on Steam, or by adding at the same amount to their wallet. Through Steamworks, Steam provides a means of server browsing for multiplayer games that use the Steam Community features, allowing users to create lobbies with friends or members of common groups. Steamworks also provides Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC), Valve's anti-cheat system; game servers automatically detect and report users who are using cheats in online, multiplayer games. In August 2012, Valve added new features—including dedicated hub pages for games that highlight

2268-719: Is still in development. Stay tuned." Steam (service) Steam is a video game digital distribution service and storefront managed by Valve Corporation . It was launched as a software client in September 2003 to provide game updates automatically for Valve's games and expanded to distributing third-party titles in late 2005. Steam offers various features, like game server matchmaking with Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) measures, social networking , and game streaming services. Steam client's functionality include game update automation, cloud storage for game progress , and community features such as direct messaging, in-game overlay and

2349-645: Is to allow its users to purchase games and other software , adding them to a virtual library from which they may be downloaded and installed an unlimited number of times. Initially, Valve was required to be the publisher for these games since they had sole access to Steam's database and engine, but with the introduction of the Steamworks software development kit (SDK) in May 2008, anyone could integrate Steam into their game without Valve's direct involvement. Valve intended to "make DRM obsolete" as games released on Steam had traditional anti-piracy measures, including

2430-708: The Mad Max films alongside the September 2015 release of the game based on the series , Lionsgate entered into agreement with Valve to rent over one hundred feature films from its catalog through Steam starting in April 2016, with more films following later. In March 2017, Crunchyroll started offering various anime for purchase or rent through Steam. However, by February 2019, Valve shuttered video from its storefront save for videos directly related to gaming content. While available, users could also purchase Steam Machine related hardware. Valve received revenue share of

2511-736: The ATI Catalyst GPU driver as well as offering a free Steam copy of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch to ATI Radeon owners. In January 2008, Nvidia promoted Steam in the GeForce GPU driver, as well as offering a free Steam copy of Portal: The First Slice to Nvidia hardware owners. In 2011, some of Electronic Arts games, such as Crysis 2 , Dragon Age II , and Alice: Madness Returns , were removed from sale because of terms of service that prevented games from having their own in-game storefront for downloadable content. These games were later launched on

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2592-778: The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller in 2018, the Xbox Wireless Controller for the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, and the PlayStation 5 's DualSense , as well as compatible controllers from third-party manufacturers in 2020. In November 2020, Valve said the controller usage had more than doubled over the past 2 years. In March 2019, Steam's game server network was opened to third-party developers. Developers of software available on Steam can track sales of their games through

2673-553: The Origin service. In 2019, Ubisoft announced that they would stop selling their future games on Steam starting with Tom Clancy's The Division 2 because Valve would not modify its revenue sharing model. In May 2019, Microsoft distributed its games on Steam in addition to the Microsoft Store . In 2020, Electronic Arts started to publish select games on Steam and offered its rebranded subscription service EA Play on

2754-423: The 25 million active Steam accounts had signed up to Steam Community. In conjunction with the 2012 Steam Summer Sale, user profiles were updated with Badges reflecting the user's participation in the Steam community and past events. Steam Trading Cards , a system where players earn virtual trading cards based on games they own, were introduced in May 2013. Using them, players can trade with other Steam users on

2835-483: The Steam Community Marketplace and use them to craft "Badges", which grant rewards such as discount coupons, and user profile page customization options. In 2010, the Steam client became an OpenID provider, allowing third-party websites to use a Steam user's identity without requiring the user to expose his or her Steam credentials. In order to prevent abuse, access to most community features

2916-690: The Steam Community feature. Through the Steam Chat feature, users can use text chat and peer-to-peer VoIP with other users, identify which games their friends and other group members are playing, and join and invite friends to Steamworks-based multiplayer games that support this feature. Users can participate in forums hosted by Valve to discuss Steam games. Each user has a unique page that shows his or her groups and friends, game library including earned achievements, game wishlists, and other social features; users can choose to keep this information private. In January 2010, Valve reported that 10 million of

2997-440: The Steam client and purchased games. A more robust implementation of Family Sharing, titled "Steam Families", was released in September 2024, allowing up to five members of a household to share games from a single account, including the ability to play different games on those accounts along with different game saves and profiles, and enhanced parental control tools for those accounts. By its acceptable use policy , Valve retains

3078-468: The Steam client to add the title to their libraries. Steam also offers a framework for selling and distributing downloadable content (DLC) for games. In September 2013, Steam introduced the ability to share most games with family members and close friends by authorizing machines to access one's library. Authorized players can install the game locally and play it separately from the owning account. Users can access their saved games and achievements provided

3159-710: The Steam client. The API also provides anti-cheating devices and digital copy management. In 2016, after introducing the Steam Controller and improvements to the Steam interface to support numerous customization options, the Steamworks API was also updated to provide a generic controller library for developers and these customization features for other third-party controllers, starting with the DualShock 4 . Steam's Input API has since been updated to include official support for other console controllers such as

3240-557: The Steam display to work on high-definition televisions, allowing the user to control Steam with a gamepad or with a keyboard and mouse. Newell stated that Big Picture mode was a step towards a dedicated Steam entertainment hardware unit. With the introduction of the Steam Deck, Valve began pushing the new Big Picture mode based on the Steam Deck UI in beta testing in October 2022, and full release in February 2023. The new UI

3321-514: The Steam level, which allowed them to police their own gaming communities in a customizable manner. The Steam client includes a digital storefront called the Steam Store through which users can purchase games. Once the game is bought, a software license is permanently attached to the user's Steam account, allowing them to download the software on any compatible device. Game licenses can be given to other accounts under certain conditions. Content

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3402-402: The Steam store. In February 2014, Valve announced that it would begin to allow developers to set up their own sales for their games independent of any sales that Valve may set. Valve may also work with developers to suggest their participation in sales on themed days. Steam has conducted and partially published a monthly opt-in hardware and software survey between 2007 and 2010. Valve added

3483-453: The ability for developers to sell games under an early access model with a special section of the Steam store, starting in March 2013. This program allows developers to release functional, but not finished, products such as beta versions to the service to allow users to buy the games and help provide testing and feedback towards the final production. Early access also helps to provide funding to

3564-531: The assignment and distribution of product keys and support for digital rights management software tools such as SecuROM or non-malicious rootkits . With an update to the Steamworks SDK in March 2009, Valve added "Custom Executable Generation" (CEG), which creates a unique, encrypted copy of the game's executable files for the given user, which allows them to install it multiple times and on multiple devices, and make backup copies of their software. Once

3645-551: The best user-created content, top forum posts, and screenshots—to the Community area. In December 2012, a feature where users can upload walkthroughs and guides detailing game strategy was added. Starting in January 2015, the Steam client allowed players to livestream to Steam friends or the public while playing games on the platform. For the main event of The International 2018 Dota 2 tournament, Valve launched Steam.tv as

3726-407: The client provides an in-game overlay from which the user can access Steam Community lists and participate in chat, manage selected Steam settings, and access a built-in web browser without having to exit the game. Since the beginning of February 2011 as a beta version, the overlay also allows players to take screenshots of the games in process. As a full version on February 24, 2011, this feature

3807-505: The development of the game but was aware of it. The development team was planning to add future downloadable content which might have included the ability to switch to the Alliance faction, involved the inclusion of "Reavers", and was aiming to incorporate cross-platform functionality. The PC versions would have been distributed via Steam . Gameplay of Firefly Online was shown at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. At that Comic Con it

3888-510: The early 2010s. The storefront also offers productivity software , game soundtracks , videos, and Valve hardware such as the Index and Steam Deck . The service is the largest digital distribution platform for PC games , with an estimated 75% of the market share in 2013 according to IHS Screen Digest . By 2017, game purchases through Steam totaled about US$ 4.3 billion, or at least 18% of global PC game sales according to Steam Spy . By 2021,

3969-530: The first game to use this service was Darkfall Unholy Wars . In October 2012, Steam introduced non-gaming applications, which are sold through the service in the same manner as games. Creativity and productivity applications can access the core functions of the Steamworks API, allowing them to use Steam's simplified installation and updating process, and incorporate features including cloud saving and Steam Workshop. Steam also allows game soundtracks to be purchased to be played via Steam Music or integrated with

4050-502: The game to be easily accessed from the Steam client and providing support where possible for Steam Overlay features. The Steam interface allows for user-defined shortcuts to be added. In this way, third-party modifications and games not purchased through the Steam Store can use Steam features. Valve sponsors and distributes some modifications free of charge; and modifications that use Steamworks can also use any Steam features supported by their parent game. For most games launched from Steam,

4131-445: The game would be assembling a crew to maintain the player's ship, with potential crewmates possessing unique skills such as engineering, medical aptitude, or expertise in weapons handling, and the player needing to find, recruit, and keep them in line or risk losing their command. Prior to the announcement of an official title, a fan made game titled Firefly Universe Online was being developed by DarkCryo. Fox gave their blessing to

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4212-459: The game, but the studio ceased development following the announcement of an official release based on the Firefly franchise. Firefly Online was announced at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con for iOS and Android . It was later announced for Microsoft Windows and macOS . QMx Interactive joined Spark Plug Games to produce the game. Joss Whedon , creator of the series, was not involved with

4293-590: The game, part of legal issues that Valve had with Vivendi, who claimed that physical copies they published could not be activated as to them the game had not been released. The Steam requirement was met with concerns about software ownership, software requirements, and problems with overloaded servers demonstrated previously by the Counter-Strike rollout. In 2005, third-party developers were contracted to release games on Steam, such as Rag Doll Kung Fu and Darwinia . In May 2007, ATI included Steam in

4374-508: The hijackers to empty the user's inventory of items through the trading features. To improve security, the company announced that new restrictions would be added in March 2016, under which 15-day holds are placed on traded items unless they activate, and authenticate with Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator. After a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gambling controversy, Valve stated it is cracking down on third-party websites using Steam inventory trading for Skin gambling in July 2016. ReVuln,

4455-463: The identity protection provided by Intel's second-generation Core processors and compatible motherboard hardware, which allows users to lock their account to a specific computer. Once locked, activity by that account on other computers must first be approved by the user on the locked computer. Support APIs for Steam Guard are available to third-party developers through Steamworks. Steam Guard also offers two-factor , risk-based authentication that uses

4536-493: The impression of a game to users. To prevent observed abuse of the review system by developers or other third-party agents, Valve modified the review system in September 2016 to discount review scores for a game from users that activated the product through a product key rather than directly purchased by the Steam Store, though their reviews remain visible. Alongside this, Valve announced that it would end business relations with any developer or publisher that they found to be abusing

4617-512: The in-game store for Team Fortress 2 . Later that year, Valve added the ability to trade in-game items and "unopened" game gifts between users. Steam Coupons, which was introduced in December 2011, provides single-use coupons that provide a discount to the cost of items. Steam Coupons can be provided to users by developers and publishers; users can trade these coupons between friends in a similar fashion to gifts and in-game items. In May 2015, GameStop began selling Steam Wallet cards. Steam Market,

4698-467: The main owner is not playing. When the main player initiates a game while a shared account is using it, the shared account user is allowed a few minutes to either save their progress and close the game or purchase the game for their own account. Within Family View, introduced in January 2014, parents can adjust settings for their children's tied accounts, limiting the functionality and accessibility to

4779-466: The most useful reviews on the game's Steam store page. Steam also aggregates these reviews and enables users to sort products based on this feedback while browsing the store. In May 2016, Steam further broke out these aggregations between all reviews overall and those made more recently in the last 30 days, a change Valve acknowledges to how game updates, particularly those in Early Access, can alter

4860-431: The online user base disconnecting for several days until players had installed the patch. They decided to create a platform that would update games automatically and implement stronger anti-piracy and anti-cheat measures. They approached several companies, including Microsoft , Yahoo! , and RealNetworks , to build a client with these features, but were declined. Valve began its own platform development in 2002, using

4941-551: The platform. In 2022, Ubisoft announced that they would return to selling its recent games on Steam, starting with Assassin's Creed Valhalla , stating that they were "constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are". By 2014, total annual game sales on Steam were estimated at $ 1.5 billion. By 2018, the service had over 90 million monthly active users. In 2018, its network delivered 15 billion gigabytes of data, compared to less than 4 billion in 2014. Steam's primary service

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5022-489: The public data to estimate Steam sales count. Valve established a HackerOne bug bounty program in May 2018, a crowdsourced method to test and improve the security features of the Steam client. In August 2019, a security researcher exposed a zero-day vulnerability in the Windows client of Steam, which allowed for any user to run arbitrary code with LocalSystem privileges using just a few simple commands. The vulnerability

5103-483: The review system. Separately, Valve has taken actions to minimize the effects of review bombs on Steam. In particular, Valve announced in March 2019 that they mark reviews they believe are "off-topic" as a result of a review bomb, and eliminate their contribution to summary review scores; the first such games they took action on with this were the Borderlands games after it was announced Borderlands 3 would be

5184-1014: The right to block customers' access to their games and Steam services when Valve's Anti-Cheat (VAC) software determines that the user is cheating in multiplayer games, selling accounts to others, or trading games to exploit regional price differences. Blocking such users initially removed access to their other games, leading to some users with high-value accounts losing access because of minor infractions. Valve later changed its policy to be similar to that of Electronic Arts' Origin platform, in which blocked users can still access their games but are heavily restricted, limited to playing in offline mode and unable to participate in Steam Community features. Customers also lose access to their games and Steam account if they refuse to accept changes to Steam's end user license agreements ; this last occurred in August 2012. In April 2015, Valve began allowing developers to set bans on players for their games, but enacted and enforced at

5265-452: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title FFO . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=FFO&oldid=1030748193 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Articles containing Norwegian-language text Short description

5346-642: The service had over 34,000 games with over 132 million monthly active users. Steam's success has led to the development of the Steam Machine gaming PCs in 2015, including the SteamOS Linux distribution and Steam Controller ; Steam Link devices for local game streaming; and in 2022, the handheld Steam Deck tailored for running Steam games. In the early 2000s, Valve was looking for a better way to update its published games, as providing downloadable patches for multiplayer games resulted in most of

5427-413: The services being attacked by hackers . An attempt occurred in November 2011, when Valve temporarily closed the community forums, citing potential hacking threats to the service. Days later, Valve reported that the hack had compromised one of its customer databases, potentially allowing the perpetrators to access customer information, including encrypted passwords and credit card details. At that time, Valve

5508-659: The software is downloaded and installed, the user must then authenticate through Steam to de-encrypt the executable files to play the game. Normally this is done while connected to the Internet following the user's credential validation, but once they have logged into Steam once, a user can instruct Steam to launch in a special offline mode to be able to play their games without a network connection. Developers are not limited to Steam's CEG and may include other forms of DRM (or none at all) and other authentication services than Steam; for example, some games from publisher Ubisoft require

5589-486: The use of their Uplay gaming service. In September 2008, Valve added support for Steam Cloud, a service that can automatically store saved game and related custom files on Valve's servers; users can access this data from any machine running the Steam client. Users can disable this feature on a per-game and per-account basis. Cloud saving was expanded in January 2022 for Dynamic Cloud Sync, allowing games developed with this feature to store saved states to Steam Cloud while

5670-459: The user's other media players . Valve adjusted its approach to soundtracks in 2020, no longer requiring them to be offered as DLC, meaning that users can buy soundtracks to games they do not own, and publishers can offer soundtracks to games not on Steam. Valve has also added the ability for publishers to rent and sell digital movies via the service, with initially most being video game documentaries. Following Warner Bros. Entertainment offering

5751-576: The user's region; the purchase of games may be restricted to specific regions because of release dates, game classification, or agreements with publishers. Since 2010, the Steam Translation Server project allows Steam users to assist with the translation of the Steam client, storefront, and a selected library of Steam games for twenty-eight languages. In October 2018, official support for Vietnamese and Latin American Spanish

5832-525: The working names "Grid" and "Gazelle". The Steam platform was publicly announced at the Game Developers Conference event on March 22, 2002, and released for beta testing that day. Prior to the implementation of Steam, Valve had a publishing contract with Sierra Studios ; the 2001 version of the contract gave Valve rights to digital distribution of its games. Valve took Sierra and their owners, Vivendi Games , to court in 2002 over

5913-413: Was added in June 2020, which mirrored similar temporary points systems that had been used in prior sales on the storefront. Users earn points through purchases on Steam or by receiving community recognition for helpful reviews or discussion comments. These points can be redeemed in the separate storefront for cosmetics that apply to the user's profile and chat interface. The popularity of Steam has led to

5994-518: Was added, in addition to Steam's then 26 languages. Steam also allows users to purchase downloadable content for games, and for some specific games such as Team Fortress 2 , the ability to purchase in-game inventory items. In February 2015, Steam began to open similar options for in-game item purchases for third-party games. In November 2007, achievements were added, similar to Xbox 360 Achievements . In conjunction with developers and publishers, Valve frequently provides discounted sales on games on

6075-508: Was also adopted by SteamVR in October 2023. In 2012, Valve announced Steam for Schools, a free function-limited version of the Steam client for schools. It was part of Valve's initiative to support gamification of learning . It was released alongside free versions of Portal 2 and a standalone program called "Puzzle Maker" that allowed teachers and students to create and manipulate levels. It featured additional authentication security that allowed teachers to share and distribute content via

6156-804: Was announced that the original TV series cast was going to voice their in-game characters, along with a number of cast from the series, with Star Trek: The Next Generation ' s Wil Wheaton providing the male voice for the player's avatar. Originally planned for launch in Spring 2015, the developers were required to recreate large amounts of it after the original show's cast were brought on to provide voice acting. John O'Neill, CEO of Spark Plug Games, said that they were having to "change everything" and that they were deliberately not providing development updates to avoid "saying something that’s wrong again." The last post on Firefly Online's Facebook page dated March 2016 said, "We're still here. We're still flyin'. Game

6237-493: Was misconfigured in response to a DDoS attack , causing cached store pages containing personal information to be temporarily exposed for 34,000 users. In April 2018, Valve added new privacy settings for Steam users, who can hide their activity status, game lists, inventory, and other profile elements. While these changes brought Steam's privacy settings in line with approaches used by game console services, they also impacted third-party services such as Steam Spy , which relied on

6318-427: Was not aware whether the intruders actually accessed this information or discovered the encryption method, but nevertheless warned users to be alert for fraudulent activity. Valve added Steam Guard functionality to the Steam client in March 2011 to protect against the hijacking of accounts via phishing schemes, one of the largest support problems Valve had at the time. Steam Guard was advertised to take advantage of

6399-427: Was reimplemented so that users could share screenshots on websites of Facebook , Twitter , and Reddit directly from a user's screenshot manager. Store game pages display a score from Metacritic since 2007. Steam's "Big Picture" mode was announced in 2011; public betas started in September 2012 and were integrated into the software in December 2012. Big Picture mode is a 10-foot user interface , which optimizes

6480-478: Was released in May 2019. A major visual overhaul of the Library and game profile pages was released in October 2019. These redesigns are aimed to aid users to organize their games, help showcase what shared games a user's friends are playing, games that are being live-streamed, and new content that may be available, along with more customization options for sorting games. Associated with that, Valve gave developers

6561-483: Was then reported to Valve via the program, but it was initially rejected for being "out-of-scope". Following a second vulnerability found by the same user, Valve apologized and patched them both, and expanded the program's rules to accept any other similar problems. The Anti-Defamation League published a report that stated the Steam Community platform harbors hateful content in April 2020. In January 2021,

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