An architect of GameStop's long-forgotten Steam competitor explains why he thinks Valve came out on top: 'What Steam did better than anybody else was to create a community'

Larry Kuperman made his mark on the industry as part of the team at Nightdive, the games preservation and remaster specialists, but before that, he was on the front line of the digital distribution wars from the early 2000s to 2013. He helped build up the online storefront, Impulse, which was later acquired (and ultimately shuttered) by GameStop.

Valve's unlikely victory against titans like EA and Microsoft has always fascinated me, and I asked Kuperman for his take on Steam's ultimate victory...