Valve announces Steamworks development tools

Valve has announced that Steamworks, a suite of publishing and development tools, is now available free of charge to developers and publishers worldwide.

The tools are available for all PC games distributed via retail as well as through online platforms such as Steam.

"Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market," said Valve president Gabe Newell.

"Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing."

The Steamworks tools were used in titles such as Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box and offers real-time stats on sales, gameplay and product activation. as well as territory control, an encryption system, auto updating, voice chat, multiplayer matchmaking and social networking services.

"As more developers and publishers have embraced Steam as a leading digital distribution channel, we've heard a growing number of inquiries regarding the availability of the platform's services and tools," said Jason Holtman, director business development at Valve.

"Offering Steamworks is part of our ongoing efforts to support the needs of game developers and our publishing partners."