GSC Game World using Steam to distribute strategy title

Ukrainian publisher GSC Game World has joined the ranks of companies using Valve's Steam platform to digitally distribute its software.

Valve claims that titles promoted through Steam are available to some ten million potential customers.

GSC's PC strategy/role-playing hybrid Heroes of Annihilated Empires will go on sale from 22 November priced USD 39.95.

"We are very happy to start working with Valve to distribute our latest creation via this mighty online distribution platform," said GSC CEO Sergiy Grygorovych, adding that he hoped the relationship with Valve would be useful "both now and in the future".

Steam's profile has been raised in recent months as major publishers including Take-Two and Activision have looked to the service in a bid to expand the audience for their PC games.

Its initial success has been put down to the incredible popularity of Half-Life 2, for which the service was one of the most reliable ways to get hold of the game during its very first day on sale.

It has since become key to the launch of several episodic game series, including Valve's own Half-Life 2 episodes and Ritual's Sin Episodes.