In a move that could have significant ramifications for PC gaming, Valve have released a free suite of applications called Steamworks that allows any game publisher to take advantage of Steam's stat tracking, voice chat, multiplayer matchmaking and social networking. The Steam Community has proved to be a good, solid way of finding friends in a game and we'd love to see it spread far and wide. There hasn't been any shortage of similar systems over the years - Xfire and Gamespy, to name just two - but none of them have found the kind of universal acceptance that's necessary to make them the first and last stop for online gaming. And the less said about Games for Windows Live the better.

Steam, all of a sudden, stands a very, very good chance of unifying the wild and wacky world of PC online gaming, which is brilliant. It's doubtful that monolithic publishers like EA are going to be leaping on board, and Microsoft will keep flogging Games for Windows Live until it's a red, pulpy mass, but for independent game publishers everywhere, their day just got a whole lot better. There is a slight note of concern with Valve plunging their fingers in pies all over the place, so it'll be well worth keeping a critical eye on things as Steamworks rolls out. And let's be frank, Steam itself isn't exactly the lightest, fluffiest application around - a round of digital botox and a virtual tummy tuck wouldn't be out of place. Nevertheless, we'll take this as very good news indeed and look forward to seeing what happens next.