UK GAME Stores To Get Dedicated Steam Section
Valve has announced that it has partnered with the UK based GAME branch to launch a dedicated Steam section in all stores. The move will see the continued sale of pre-paid Steam cards and hardware such as the Steam Controller, Steam Link and Steam Machines. According to Valve, GAME will be the exclusive home of Steam hardware in retail stores, although digital services such as Amazon will also stock the products.
The popularity of Steam has grown immensely over the past few years as it becomes the standard storefront for most PC gamers. It has also seen its user base increase thanks to the fact many products now use the service to redeem their own keys, such as Football Manager. GAME began selling pre-paid cards for the service three years ago and the sales of these have increased every year, making the dedicated section a smart business decision.
“Creating a ‘store within a store’ across North America and the UK is a significant win for getting the first generation of Steam Hardware products into gamers’ hands,” said Valve boss Gabe Newell.
Steam Machines are due to launch on November 10 and will range in price from $400 to $6,000, with specially designed controllers available for $49.99. They are essentially pre-built gaming computers that either run SteamOS or have the Steam client installed straight out of the box. However, they have generally been purpose built to be played in the living room like a console rather than a traditional gaming computer and will be able to stream games directly from other PCs running Steam.