STEAM is a game system which combines security checks, a multi player mode, gaming services, an Instant Messaging program and an on line shop. Made by Valve initially just for the purposes of their flagship titles – Half Life and Counter Strike, it has been steadily growing in popularity among gamers in general. It is easy to use, it creates and brings closer various gamers' communities, it lets you communicate with other gamers and see what game your friends are currently playing. It got off to a good start also among FM users; FM 2009 demo appeared first on STEAM, and it could be downloaded with maximum available speed, whereas downloading from other sources could hardly even kick off. The size of a downloaded package – 1,4 G could at first raise a few eyebrows, but, as it later turned out, what you actually downloaded was a full, ready to use game. STEAM does not download any installers, it prepares the installation itself, so that we can start playing as soon as the download has finished.

How could STEAM help the FM Community? The question of how to update the game is vital here. Users already familiar with STEAM (via Counter Strike) will already know that each update of the game is published straight away on STEAM; all you have to do is wait few minutes, restart the program et voila, all done. No more big size patches and waiting for the patching to be completed. You could say that all happens as if in real time. These solutions, if employed with regards to FM, would certainly be advantageous for many reasons. Of course, this would still leave us with the problem of what should be done for gamers who continue to use FM in a traditional way. I do not think SI would be happy if every one of us had a different version of the game, as it would seriously hinder technical support and day to day working on the patching of the game. In that case, how would a person not using STEAM get such an update? It remains to be seen.

SI have announced that they will be carefully analysing sales figures of FM 2009 through STEAM; if they are deemed satisfactory, the company might consider the ways in which the Valve system could be put to further use. Miles claims that STEAM opens up new possibilities, especially connected with patching of the game, but he also says that at the moment this is all pure speculation.

There is one more important aspect to the matter: STEAM can greatly expand the game's MultiPlayer. If these applications were integrated, we could directly search for servers on which the games were currently being played; as a result, finding a game partner willing and having some free time to play against us would be much easier.

Will STEAM become more popular with FM fans? Will SI want to take this direction too? We will have to wait and see.