What is the power of Steam? Ask any knowledgeable gamer that question, and they're bound to give you a different answer from someone else fairly in the know. From massive sales to a vast catalogue, Steam continues to be the PC king despite many other platforms coming for its crown.
One industry analyst, Chris Zukowski, argued that Steam is actually so powerful because it allows us to simply collect games, rather than play them. "The power of Steam as a platform is that it enables hoarding," he wrote in a blog post (thanks, GamesRadar).
Zukowski argues that Steam caters to hobbyists above all else, which means that even if people buying your game aren't playing it, they're still more than willing to part with their cash. "A hobbyist is someone who is very interested in a subject and doesn't worry about how much money they are spending on it," writes Zukowski. "Basically, hobbyists buy stuff not because they actually want to consume it, but because they are collecting it."
Zukowski also points to an article from Simon Carless which found that the median Steam player has 51.5% of their library unplayed. In allowing people to collect these games for cheap prices, though, Valve has added more hours to people's day through a theoretical future. "Valve basically added infinite hours to a gamer's day, it is a theoretical future day where gamers might someday spend hours playing your game (but let's be honest, won't)," Zukowski writes.
So, we're all Steam hoarders. Some of us might pretend we'll get through our backlog, but most know we won't. Still, every time a sale comes along, it's hard not to part with a bit of cash for yet another addition to the pile of shame.