Dallas, Texas — At the Game Business Law summit at SMU's law school today, Valve's Jason Holtman addressed the business models behind the company's popular Steam service. Holtman, who serves as director of business development and legal affairs, says that Valve has sales in excess of 30 million units in their ten-year history. Steam launched in 2004. He remarks, "We're more than just a game company -- we're a platform holder, distributor, publisher."

Running through the numbers behind console sales, Holtman points out that there are more PCs in the market than all the consoles combined. In fact, in 2007 alone, over 255 million new PCs were purchased. "That's a huge install base. Everyone's got a PC, they're connected," he says. "If you think about gaming just in terms of what analysts show you... you tend to think about the consoles." Each console company, says Hotlman, has a minimum of 50 people devoted to talking to magazines, appearing in USA today, etc.

You can read the entire article at GameDaily.