So, this is happening.

At first glance it appears to be part of Valve's strategy against being side-lined by Windows 8's app store which is positioning itself to have a monopoly on new Win 8 styled program distribution.

 

While this may or may not work I somehow don't see this becoming a huge success for them, but you never know - it's Valve after all. As bad as Windows 8 and its appstore appear to be I won't say no to high quality alternatives.

Before they introduce this they seriously need to fix the fucking offline mode. I started using Steam in 2005, and as far as I know it has never worked in any sort of reliable fashion. It's bad enough that I can't play the games I bought while having internet problems, but if I can't even access software that I may need for something important then I'm not going to buy it from them.

 

I used offline mode without issues for about a month, two years ago, and on-and-off since then. I remember when offline mode was as flaky as hell, but it seems to be quite good now. Of course, if your game has 3rd party DRM that requires an internet connection [eg. some Ubisoft games], then Offline mode won't work. For the vast majority of Steam games however, including Valve's own, it's working just fine.

Regarding Steam competing with the Windows app store, I'm pessimistic. It doesn't matter how fantastic the Steam store is at distributing applications, the Windows 8 app store has overwhelming advantages, much like IE did. Steam's success seems entirely dependent on Microsoft screwing up rather than them winning on their own merits.

 

I've never had any major issues with Steam, unlike most other people I've read about.

Maybe it's just different expectations/viewpoints?

Anyway, don't see anything wrong with Steam doing this - if it means you can get cheap apps, programs, and other such things reliably, I'm all for it.

 

Ditto.

I'd use the hell out of shit like that. Ditch Google Docs/Drive or whatever the hell it is nowadays..

Translation: Its pretty much a guaranteed thing. When has Microsoft not screwed up?

 

The only time I've had problems with Steam's offline mode is when I've been switching between profiles and I've logged off of the one I wanted to be on without turning on offline mode first, then not being able to connect to Steam later on, giving me error messages. Other then that, I never had had a problem with it.

 

Sherman Antitrust Act vs. Microsoft, round 2! Ding ding!

 

Valve look set to make a killing if you take Microsoft's track record when it comes to alternate releases of Windows into account. Windows 98 was good, Windows ME was terrible. Windows XP was good, Windows Vista was terrible. Windows 7 was good, Windows 8...

Well, at least their failures are guaranteed.

 

Actually, the first release of 98 was royally fucked up and they had to release a "Second Edition" to fix the big bugs.

 

I don't remember encountering any major bugs with the first release of '98, but OK.