'Dangerous' for Steam to dominate digital PC market - Minecraft creator

Valve's digital delivery hub Steam has 40 million users and is a juggernaut in the broadband PC gaming market. But there's reason to be wary of such dominance, according to Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson.

Speaking to GameSpy, Persson explained that he is a supporter of Steam but finds the idea of one platform to be "scary."

"I think it's a bit dangerous to only have one digital distribution platform like Steam," he said. "I love Valve, but out of principle, I find the idea of one platform a bit scary."

Persson added that competing services like EA's Origin, as well as Desura and Impulse are good for the market.

Speaking directly about Origin--which now has 11 million registered users--Notch said he was surprised by the implementation of some of the portal's services.

"Origin does a couple things badly compared to Steam, which is impressive since they had eight years to study Steam," he said. "They should definitely have a chance to do their thing, but they might want to move away from titles that make people use it and show people why they should use it."

A recent report stated PC gaming surged in 2011, claiming the global market took in $18.6 billion last year and predicting a valuation of $25.5 billion by 2015.