Not so sure how I feel about this.. Steam at its heart is a game distribution platform and not an app store.
http://store.steampowered.com/news/8584/
edit: maybe the topic title sounds a bit bot like...

I don't use Steam much, but they are a computer-based program and store, and I think computer games are not the only thing they should sell in today's market. Offering more they just games does start to bring the company's center away from gaming, but I still think games will be the number one selling genre. I think we can compare what Steam can become to Apple's App Store (and even Google Play) where games are the number one selling genre, but not the only profitable thing in their market. Selling various categories and selections of different programs can bring more buyers into their store, and a customer might look at Steam's selection for one thing, and find another product they are interested in. Considering how many different places we can purchase and different kinds of software, I think Steam is doing this for the best of their profits, and to increase their customers, and it might not be a bad thing. If I can buy Photoshop, MS Office, or an antivirus software off their site all at the same time, I think that makes my life a whole lot easier.

-Tom

Tommy7777 wrote:I think we can compare what Steam can become to Apple's App Store (and even Google Play) where games are the number one selling genre, but not the only profitable thing in their market.

The difference here is that Valve is a gaming company. Apple and Google aren't. Both of those are generally "multipurpose" if you will.

Tommy7777 wrote:Selling various categories and selections of different programs can bring more buyers into their store, and a customer might look at Steam's selection for one thing, and find another product they are interested in.

Valve isn't the kind of company that would expand Steam, a program that's been around for games and games only for many years now, to become an online software store just for marketing purposes. Besides the fact that most games on Steam don't even belong to Valve to begin with.

Tommy7777 wrote:Considering how many different places we can purchase and different kinds of software, I think Steam is doing this for the best of their profits, and to increase their customers

As I said before, it's not a cynical decision just to increase their share in the market. They're only doing it because that's what a lot of Steam users want them to do.

I just don't know how to put it, Valve is a gaming company and that alone.. and for them to own an online software store would be a bit awkward. Besides the fact that Steam has been in the gaming market for years now. It probably just won't be their strong suit.. but.. we'll see.

It's just my opinion.. if this is what most people want then, so be it.

Well the thing is expanding your product offering way is to increase your profits - and as for the awkwardness of them selling software, consider this:

Future Shop and Best Buy Canada (Best Buy bought out Future Shop years ago up here... 2001 or so) have begun expanding what they sell online to include luggage, camping gear, tools, and furniture. While it may seem odd for them to do this, they are expanding their selection to increase profits, and stave off competition online (Amazon isn't that big up here yet, honestly their product selection generally stinks.)

And Walmart as well. When they launched groceries to their stores with the first Supercentre/Supercenter - it was something new for their stores. Now most Walmart's in the U.S. is I'm not mistaken are Supercentres, and it is headed that way here too.

So it may seem weird in the beginning, but years from now it may be odd to think of them without non-gaming software. I know the above examples are either physical stores, or online stores selling physical goods and Steam sells digital downloads, but they are meant to be examples of businesses going into new ventures in order to stay relevant.

And that's my two cents worth.

I think that covers it simLink, I mean a lot of retailers are increasing their variety so to say. Its pretty much a one-stop-shopping kinda thing. If you can cover more of what a customer wants in one place, and take away their need to go to another store, that's more money for you. If you look at a lot of your older chains, like here we have Sears, and Boscov's, they're sales are going down because more people can get what they need at stores like Target and Walmart. Its all customer convenience.

And, the article also says this was a majority vote by many of the users. So it's actually not really valve's decision anyways. They're just trying to keep people happy. (not that I really like that decision either way)
woops. disregard everything above

Exactly what I'm trying to say.
Valve didn't make the decision for any "marketing" or "getting more customers" reason. It was just because it was in favor by many of steam's users, as it says in the article.
How hard is this to understand? Valve has always been in touch with its fan and player base for almost everything (unlike most other gaming companies) and this definitely isn't an exception. And you can't say that Valve would just do it out of the blue.. that's not how they work. It's almost like a democracy.. what the people want, the people get.

I should also add that even if they are doing it just for marketing purposes.. if the majority of steam users were against the idea it wouldn't go through.