Steam Inspired by Doom’s Distribution?

<p>Gabe Newell&comma; Valve CEO&comma; used to work at Microsoft&period; In an interview with <em>Blumberg Businessweek&comma; <&sol;em>he discusses learning that Doom outranked Windows as the most used software application&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But what was so shocking to me was that Windows was the second highest usage application in the U&period;S&period; The number one application was Doom&comma; a shareware program that hadn&&num;8217&semi;t been created by any of the powerhouse software companies&period; It was a 12-person company in the suburbs of Texas that didn&&num;8217&semi;t even distribute through retail&comma; it distributed through bulletin boards and other pre-Internet mechanisms&period; To me&comma; that was a lightning bolt&period; Microsoft was hiring 500-people sales teams and this entire company was 12 people&comma; yet it had created the most widely distributed software in the world&period; There was a sea change coming&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The main bulk of the interview focuses around the unorthodox organizational structure at Valve&period; The quote above seems like Newell’s eureka moment about how alternative distribution methods could work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Via <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;kotaku&period;com&sol;5906588&sol;seems-like-doom-might-have-inspired-valve-to-build-steam">Kotaku<&sol;a>&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;