VALVE SOFTWARE, maker of such diverse hits as 'Half-Life', 'Half-Life 2' and 'Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2', has released the final version of its Steamworks SDK, which allows indie game developers to sell their titles through its Steam online gaming service.

Steam already includes robust tools for purchasing, anti-piracy features, anti-cheat protection, downloadable content and social networking functions. It is making that platform available to indie developers for the sweet cost of... nada.

The deal seems to be a win-win for both sides - small software developers get to sell their game through an established platform with a gimongous audience and at no cost, whilst Valve hoovers up the market share for PC digital games distribution.

Indie games have come under renewed focus in the past couple of years, as mainstream games budgets spiral upwards and gamers increasingly hanker for more innovative (and cheaper) fayre - services like Xbox Live and, now, Steam will be quite happy to cater to their whims, as long as there's market share to be had and money to be made. µ

L'Inq
Valve