I know the system is intended for those who have licensed a Valve owned engine or for other developers with games already. From an interview I read its more or less to keep Valve from controlling all the updates and giving the developers full control. Microsoft could learn a great deal from this with Xbox Live and I think Valve is trying to not go down that road. Two different worlds I know but Xbox Live would be so awesome if this was available.
I think its still kind of up in the air if third party mods are going to be supported. It would be ridiculous on Valve's part to not do that but who knows.
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