The interesting thing about a brilliant idea is that, just like everything else, it will eventually fall out of style. However, unlike everything else, someone will end up reinventing it years or even decades down the line. It may not be a one-for-one replica of the original concept, and it may have a totally different name, but its very DNA is strongly reminiscent of an idea from the past.
One such case is with Steam, which has revisited a practice that was a mainstay of the PC gaming market back in the early 2000s. And while it has a different name and a very different delivery method, it’s a glorious return to a concept that helped put so many developers on the map before the turn of the 21st Century.
Shareware began its big break in the 1980s
The ‘free trial’ of the time
The beginning of our story goes all the way back to 1983, when programs were primarily distributed on floppy disks. At the time, people used words ending in the suffix -ware to describe the legal rights to copy and distribute software. While making a copy of a company’s floppy disk without permission was illegal (much like pirating a game on the internet), there was also freeware, an app that cost nothing and could be freely shared.
Back then, we saw the beginnings of free software trials. This was called shareware, and the idea was that it included software with a limitation, such as reduced features or an expiry timer. The idea was that the shareware version of the software was totally legal to copy and give out to your friends, hence the name ‘shareware’. The fully paid app was still very much illegal to copy, but you could make as many floppies of the shareware version as you like.
Then the game developers hit the scene. They had a big problem: they didn’t have a reliable way to spread the word about their games. This was before the internet was a common utility and gaming magazines hit the mainstream. Instead, they tapped into the power of shareware. The idea is that the developer would release the first chapter or levels of the game as shareware, which people could copy and share as much as they like.
Once the player finished the shareware version, the game would display instructions on how to unlock the rest of the game, which usually involved sending money via snail mail to the developer’s HQ. Yes, this was before emails and PayPal were a thing; your orders went straight to the devs, who made the disks themselves.
Nobody can beat Steam, but why?
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Some of the biggest developers of today got their breakthrough via shareware
It was more influential than you may think
The practice of gaming shareware began in 1987, when the founder of Apogee Software, Scott Miller, distributed their newest game, Kingdom of Kroz, as episodes. The first episode was shareware and acted as the hook to get people to buy the rest of the game.
Other developers that we know and love today would adopt what would become known as the “Apogee model” to garner interest. Tim Sweeney, whose company would eventually become Epic Games, released the first world of the puzzle-adventure game ZZT as shareware, which helped spread the word and build popularity.
id Software used the model to release demos of Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, and their magnum opus, Doom. Again, the shareware model helped Doom achieve massive popularity at the time and established a series we still enjoy today.
Shareware would eventually die out around the turn of the 21st century, as the internet became an excellent tool for developers to spread the news about their games. Some games didn’t even need a free demo; they could be released as free-to-play and give people most of the game at zero cost. Eventually, the practice of releasing a demo for a PC game dwindled, only to resurface about 20 years later.
Steam Next Fest brought back the fun of shareware
Although it’s not called ‘shareware’ anymore
In 2021, Valve had a great idea: what if developers could release demos of their games, which Valve would catalog as part of one big event celebrating the long-forgotten practice of playing a bunch of free samples? To make its idea a reality, Valve invented the Steam Next Fest, where full game releases took a back seat, allowing demos to rule the storefront.
The idea was a big hit, and we’re now seeing Steam Next Fests regularly. However, what’s fascinating is how the Steam demos have evolved from the shareware days. You no longer have to make physical copies of the game, because you can download them from Steam yourself. And finding the demos was as easy as browsing Next Fest and finding something that clicks.
But the marketing power still stays the same. While shareware gives you a portion of an existing game, Next Fest allows people to upload demos for games they’re still working on. This allows people to wishlist the titles they want, which, in turn, boosts the signals Steam sends to the titles when they finally release. Plus, it lets developers gather pre-release feedback and tweak the game before it launches.
Valve changed gaming forever with a single app
Seeing how Valve completely changed how we enjoy games on PC.
Steam Next Fest gives developers the same marketing tools that helped big names in the 80s
While game demos are not a new tech, they tend to evolve with the tech of the time. It’s good to see Valve not only carrying the torch, but dedicating a whole event to spreading the word about the games people are working on.
