With all the consoles moving towards an online approach focused heavily on social gaming, it only makes sense that such a system should develop for the PC as well. Currently Microsoft’s Live for Windows, Gamespy, and Steam all are slowly stepping into the social zone, but none of them have fully made it in. Valve plans to change that by making their application the standard connectivity tool for all major PC games. To get a general idea, try to imagine Xbox Live working with games like Counter-Strike and Crysis.

Valve’s name for this project is Steamworks, and their plan is to give it freely to developers and publishers. They hope to dominate online PC gaming by working directly with the source. Besides social networking, Steamworks will feature server browsing, which Steam is already known best for, and copy protection, to appeal especially to game-makers. Honestly, this move could have been expected by most average users of Steam: in such a short time it has gone from a simple application to organize and connect to Valve games, to a multi-faceted, not to mention stylish, program that heavily features games from a plethora of companies. With the recent release of the Steam Community, it delved even further into the world of social gaming. Check after the jump for more details on the tools Steamworks will support, and some quotes from Valve.

Gabe Newell, the president of Valve said,

“Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today’s market. Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing.”

Jason Holtman, director business development at Valve, also stressed the fact that the plan would benefit the producers as well, saying, “Offering Steamworks is part of our ongoing efforts to support the needs of game developers and our publishing partners.”

Now, a list of all of Steamworks’s planned features:

• Stats on sales and gameplay, in real-time
• Advanced encryption to counter piracy
• The ability to market some products specifically to targeted regions
• Auto-updates of users’ games
• Voice chat in and out of game
• Matchmaking for action games
• Social networking features, such as achievements and leaderboards
• Development tools for private betas

via [Kotaku]