Can a non game software be published on Steam?

[amjad.khan]

We develop a product, which is basically not a game itself but installer of a game with the facility to provide online playing option of the game to the user while the game is installing. Once the game is installed locally on the client computer, it tells the user to play it locally. now we want to publish our product (the installer) on steam. is that possible?

[Zekiran]

I would say you should look up Steam's terms and legal info before asking the forums?

[amjad.khan]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

I would say you should look up Steam's terms and legal info before asking the forums?

yes, but i am unable to find answer to my question, that's why i am asking the forum. I've contacted the steam support though making a ticket as well, but got no reply.

[amjad.khan]

Pleas reply!!!!

[Darren]

There is no requirement that a product you sell on Steam have any Steam integration, or really do anything with Steam once it's downloaded. It is perfectly fine to have your own account system for your game. You can even make Steam integration optional so you can use the same binary from your website or downloadable from Steam. You also don't have to use any DRM (include Steam rights management in your title).

You shouldn't have any issues with this product, sign up for Steam Direct and given Steam all the details and you should be fine. Do note Steam may offer refunds of the purchase price even if your download takes longer than 2 hours to download (and the launcher counts as "game time") and people complain about issues. Also if you have no Steam integration in your actual client they will never hit 2 hours "game time" and so the refund period will be only the 2 weeks.

[amjad.khan]

Originally posted by Darren:

There is no requirement that a product you sell on Steam have any Steam integration, or really do anything with Steam once it's downloaded. It is perfectly fine to have your own account system for your game. You can even make Steam integration optional so you can use the same binary from your website or downloadable from Steam. You also don't have to use any DRM (include Steam rights management in your title).

You shouldn't have any issues with this product, sign up for Steam Direct and given Steam all the details and you should be fine. Do note Steam may offer refunds of the purchase price even if your download takes longer than 2 hours to download (and the launcher counts as "game time") and people complain about issues. Also if you have no Steam integration in your actual client they will never hit 2 hours "game time" and so the refund period will be only the 2 weeks.

what if we have integrated it with some third party game. and that third party like Square Enix for Final Fantasy XIV has allowed us to integrate their game with our product?

[ KARR™]

It doesn't need to be a game to be on Steam : http://store.steampowered.com/software/

If it integrates with a product that is already in the store then it wouldn't be a product that you are delivering on Steam, it would be another part of the published game. No idea of any legal licences that need to be agreed to allow third party software to install with a product or if they just need to state that it's a part of their game.

Lots of games have third party 'splash' installers and i would imagine that this would need to be like those where you download the small interface and that then does the work. I'm fairly sure that already happens with some games.

[amjad.khan]

Originally posted by  KARR™:

It doesn't need to be a game to be on Steam : http://store.steampowered.com/software/

If it integrates with a product that is already in the store then it wouldn't be a product that you are delivering on Steam, it would be another part of the published game. No idea of any legal licences that need to be agreed to allow third party software to install with a product or if they just need to state that it's a part of their game.

Lots of games have third party 'splash' installers and i would imagine that this would need to be like those where you download the small interface and that then does the work. I'm fairly sure that already happens with some games.

Thanks I've got the answer I was looking for

[Venuo]

Hi,

I just started a discussion about submitting a non-game software, can anyone help me submit the software on Steam in 2018?

Details about the software

Software Name: MiniTool ShadowMaker

Website:
https://www.minitool.com/backup/shadowmaker-pro.html

About the software

An all-in-one system backup and data protection solution that can be used to back up system/disk/files/folders, to customize backup schedule, to manage disk space taken up by backup files, to create WinPE bootable media, to clone hard drive, and so on.

Main Features

System and Disk Backup
Schedule and Event Trigger Backup
Differential and Incremental Images
Bare Metal Recovery and Universal Restore
WinPE Bootable media builder and PXE server
Password Protection and AES Encryption

System Requirements

Processor Pentium 1 GHz
1GB RAM for 32-bit OS
2GB RAM for 64-bit OS
1.5 GB free disk space

Supported Operating Systems

Windows 10 (all editions)
Windows 8 (all editions)
Windows 7 (all editions)
Windows XP (all editions)
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012/2012 R2
Windows Server 2008/2008 R2
Windows Server 2003/2003 R2

Supported File Systems

FAT 16
FAT32
NTFS
Ext2/3
exFAT

Appreciate any help from you guys, thanks in advance.

Best Regards

[Moderate my posterior.]

If you can't figure out how to publish software on steam it doesn't inspire much confidence in the product you are trying to sell now does it. Add to that the forum necromancy...