PopCap Games on Valve's Steam service

Casual games provider PopCap Games and Valve Software have jointly announced a new agreement that will see a significant number of casual games digitally distributed through Valve's Steam platform.

Beginning 30th August with a selection of seventeen titles, PopCap's casual word, puzzle and arcade titles will be made available for a free trial period, with the option to buy the full game via digital download.

Gabe Newell, Valve's president and co-founder, commented: "The addition of PopCap Games' expansive library of leading casual games is an important step for the growth of Steam and direct distribution channels."

"The benefits of Steam will now be provided to a much wider group of games and game customers. PopCap games by themselves are larger by an order of magnitude than the next-gen consoles online gaming services," he added.

Both companies have praised the past and current success of PopCap's games, quoting "175 million downloads and three billion player minutes per month." In addition to the initial selection of titles, the two companies plan to introduce PopCap collections and specific compilations at a later date.

"This is a great opportunity to put our content in front of a large and passionate audience. We're thrilled to be the first casual game publisher to distribute our games via this new channel; we're all Steam users here in the studio, and it's going to be very cool to see our own titles up alongside such awesome content as Half-Life 2," stated Bryan Fiete, PopCap's co-founder and chief technology officer.