Steam Mobile May Capture A Whole New Audience For Both Ecosystems

If you've ever used Steam to purchase games, converse with your friends, or get information and news on the developers you love, you know that it lends itself to a mobile environment without even asking about it. Thats why now that Steam is moving into the mobile environment with both iOS and Android, it seems as though both mobile and gaming are in for a mash-up that's destined for winning glory. What we've got here is a trusted environment for gamers, one that hordes of gamers trust, inserted into the smartphone and tablet world where it can thrive on a whole new level.

There are four basic tenants to the applications as they stand now in beta form: chat, groups, shopping, and news. As you meet up with friends through the same profile you've used on Steam in the past, you'll come to realize that this is not a separate ecosystem from the desktop-based Steam, it's the same group of people and feeds! In this you'll find that Steam users will immediately feel at home and will head straight for the sale bin for games. The sale area of the store, mind you, is one of the most popular features in Steam because it offers up games at next to free when they're usually a price that some game addicts just can't afford.

The store is set up in a way that should be familiar to Steam users, and the whole process is ready to engage those who've only otherwise used the iTunes Appstore or the Android Marketplace before – simplicity is key here. The Steam news feed will be helpful to those that get most of their news via mobile, but will likely be the least used bit of the whole system. Chatting with Steam friends on the go and the trusted store interface will undoubtedly prove to be big hits for both Steam lovers and those new to the system as well.