Also Steam acquired its user base in the first place by vendor lock-in on Quake mods. (Counter-Strike derived from Navy Seals Quake, Team Fortress was originally a Quake mod, and Half-Life is a Quake total conversion originally sold on a CD-ROM in a box.)

Indeed. Steam client is an Electron app that can display advertisements, too.

https://i.imgur.com/08dhZb5.mp4

They are each bloatware that insists upon itself.

If Steam had not acquired a userbase by vendor lock-in it would be no more popular than any other “game launcher”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icecast

quake mapping community in 2026:

“Download and support documentation are in our Discord!”