Valve's Steam to rule world, first THQ, now id Software

id Software has join the Steam Nation. This follows closely at the heels of THQ joining Steam mid July. We can only assume that there are more shops in the works. Hopefully these events will encourage other companies to join in and perhaps some of the current companies (like Activision) will release more current games into the mix.

As I download every id Software game on Steam, I'd like to reiterate my previous posts on why Steam is great.

1) No CDs ever again -- Switching CDs every time you want to play a different game is unnecessary. Newer games like Relic's Company of Heroes doesn't check CD's. This makes going back to older games that do annoying. From a company's perspective, copyright protection is not an issue on Steam. Since all CD-keys are tied to your account, you can only play the games you own.

2) Add friends, instantly join their games -- Remember trying to join the same multiplayer game as your friend? In pre-Source Counter-Strike, you had to read off IP numbers. Even in games like BattleField2, it's a hassle to join in a game. Source's friends list allows you to see who's online, what they're playing and join their games in just a few clicks.

3) No more stores -- Video game retailers focus on console gaming. This has always been true and probably always will be true. When is the last time you went to a specialty shop where the PC games were not tucked away into some back corner, behind the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast section? When is the last time your niche PC game was actually at the store? Steam let's you never wait in line again. You can buy a game at 3 am and play it within the hour. Impulse buy to your heart's content.

4) Everything in one location -- Open Steam, all your games are there, listed alphabetically. All your trailers and extra content, developer tools and server packages are all there. No more having to organize your games by hand. Sorry Vista, your games tab doesn't cut it. It doesn't even recognize older games. Yet Hexen is organized fine on Steam.

5) It comes in nice packages -- Steam throws nice package deals together, like the entire id Software collection, so that you can get the most for your money. On top of that, there are discounts and sales all the time. The packaging and sales of a bulk amount of games would never happen in a retail store.

I'm sure there's more, but those are my top 5. As more and more companies sign up with Steam, those reasons just become better and better. If you would like to add more reasons, please leave a comment.