September 12th, 2003, Valve Software launched their Steam client as a means to streamline updating their titles after announcing its existence at the 2022 Games Developer conference. It would take 2 years before the first 3rd party title (Rag Doll Kung Fu) released on this PC games launcher and like a stone rolling down a hill, the client would gain momentum and seemingly never stop.
Yesterday the client celebrated its 21st birthday and to celebrate Valve is discounting its revolutionary portable PC, the Steam Deck. You have until September 26th to take advantage of savings of 25% on the 512GB LCD Steam Deck or 15% on the 64GB LCD Steam Deck. As an owner of both of these models (yeah…don’t ask.), I can honestly say if you want to dip your toes into the portable PC I would absolutely recommend paying that extra $40~ to grab the 512GB model. I’m sure the OLED is nice, but just take what you don’t spend and go buy some games for your deck. In fact Valve regularly tracks what games are popular in the Deck and some entries are just straight up mind boggling (How did Brotato get on the list…let alone breach the top 25?).
Regardless I’m sure Steam will be around for many more years to come and I look forward to continuously growing my PC games library while barely playing a fraction of the titles. Happy Birthday Steam, and may you continue to fund Gabe Newell’s expansive knife collection!
