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Comment by pak | Hacker News Reader

Did he seriously write that entire article without bringing up Steam?

Wake up and smell the coffee, Windows users: you've had an app store for seven years now, and its primary target (gamers) are actually pretty damn happy with it now. If they branched out and sold regular apps (not that they would, it seems too dilutive for the brand) you'd basically have a pretty competent Windows App Store. (I can see it now: "Achievement Unlocked, 10 page paper")

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Even more so than Steam there is Impulse from Stardock which has an active software section. They not only have their own software but from 3rd parties as well.

I should note that the post was written by one of our writers and I don't necessarily agree with him which I will be writing up a rebuttal type post, so thanks for reminding me of Steam (which I use all the time).

The other one to keep an eye on is OnLive, which right now is just games but rumor has is looking at movies as well so it would be a short step to include software.

Honestly, it feels like steam should license that to another party for steam sales for non-games.

Ya, I seriously did. Reason being is basically what you said actually. Their primary target is gamers, and it will probably stay just for gamers, and even if Microsoft releases their own store with games, it probably won't be better than Steam.

But that is also what makes me not bring up Steam. It is not an "app" store. It's a game store, and a very damn good one at that.

They do have their own store for games: Games for Windows - LIVE

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