I'm talking about online-only, always-connected games. I'm talking about gutting single-player elements and focusing on multiplayer. Valve's suggested they may stop doing SP-only games in the future, and always include some element of MP in everything they do (heh. Nobody got nearly as angry about this as they did when EA said it).
you must have missed the 10 page thread of everyone taking a shit on Valve for saying that
and yes, those are somewhat worrying comments without knowing exactly what they mean. A lot of people misinterpreted them as meaning they'd move to make multiplayer games only, when in reality it probably means something more aking to being connected with other players all the time, wich after seeing the PS4 announcement and all that, it seems to be something the whole gaming industry is moving towards.
Do I like it? not necesarelly, I like some of it and I worry about other aspects of it.
Valve saw an opportunity with Steam and they took it. Its a business, they make money doing what they do and they're very good at that.
And yeah, Steam is like Netflix in the sense that it's a service within a service. It's an outlet for a recent movement of online games, among others like Origin, Uplay, etc.
Thing is, as they are good at making money they are also very good at making the best service for this kind of thing out there, thus people use that service, give them money and dont regret it.
Furthermore I still think we'll get plenty of "discrete" games. Not only do I not see that kind of sharing functionality being built in into every game (nor do I think that's what Gabe meant. I'll be damned if I see a "tweet this!" after a kill in TF2.. I really didnt get that from those comments), but I also think that there's plenty of room for single-player experiences delivered through a service like Steam.
Steam games work offline. You know what game doesnt? SimCity, and that's EA.
There's a different between a choice of being connected/sharing and an obligation to do so if you want to play the game. Even if Valve is heading in this direction (with the rest of the entire world), I wouldnt put them upfront as the company that's moving fastest towards that.