There are tons of games on Linux actually; Freeware titles, usually built upon the SDL framework, but few, if any, anywhere near commercial polish or extensiveness.saintdane05 said:
I'd say the idea here is that the presence of Steam (or equivalent) in itself potentially creates the market.
Once there is an easy way to pubish, offloading the chore of distribution, payments, customer service and management to a second party, who also makes things convenient to the end users, at the other end; developers may find incentive to work a little extra on their little hobby project and make a buck or two on it, even if it's no more than affording them an extra weekend beer.
It certainly seems to have worked out that way with software for mobile devices.
As for Steam itself - its other greatest achievement, I'd say, is in how it (...along with market actors that have followed their example..) has extended the shelf-life of titles just about indefinitely.
Newell's true beef with Windows 8 would likely not be its GUI paradigm, but its having "its own" marketplace, which is all but integrated into it, like Apple's appstore for IOS, making it the "natural" place to go for all your purchases, in direct competition with Steam and instantly marginalising Valve's behemoth child.
Steam's main competition feature in the future may well be being ubiquitous and cross-platform.
At least in my case.
