I thought about it before. You could distribute your own builds prior to Steam. Here is a sample of the value Steam brings to developers: monetizing, managing D

I thought about it before. You could distribute your own builds prior to Steam. Here is a sample of the value Steam brings to developers: monetizing, managing DLCs, getting online features, getting visibility on the storefront, running promos/discounts/marketing operations, getting analytics, reviews, achievements, distributing free keys to testers, getting some partner connections to deploy server code, running a community forum, managing beta programs with two different builds, supporting screenshots, banning at the Steam level abusive players... it takes a lot of features to provide a meaningful MMO experience; the rendering engine sounds like 10% of the effort ;).