Steam is no longer a video games only storefront as Valve and Lionsgate has reached a deal whereby the studio will publish 100 of its movies on Steam, starting from today.
Before you get too excited though, you should know that those movies are available on a rental basis. Once you pay the fee required, you’ll have 48 hours to watch it before the movie is locked, requiring you to pay to access it again. Also, much like Netflix, the films that are made available depends on your region. If you’re in the United States, you’ll most likely get access to most, it not all, of the catalogue. As for Malaysia, the selection is quite pitiful as the highest profile movie in the list thus far is Leprechaun.
While the selection of movies available locally is underwhelming, Lionsgate’s presence on Steam could mark the beginning of other film studios jumping onboard the online content distribution service in the near future. So far, the only other movies available on Steam is the Mad Max franchise. In any case, should Valve be able to solve the ever complicated movie licensing problem, Steam could be a very viable movie rental site in the near future.