Eidos gets into Steamy Lara action

Eidos is the latest big games publisher to get in on the direct-download act. The team has signed on with Valve's digital distribution service, Steam, to make past and future titles available for customers to buy without having to worry about old-fashioned physical media.

Steam users will be able to get titles from the Hitman series, as well as previous Commandos games, as soon as they load up the service. There will also be new releases, possibly at below retail prices - Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition is slated for the service, as is Championship Manager 2007.

Eidos joins 2K Games and Activision as the other big names to get involved in the service. It seems that, despite the fact that Valve is technically a competitor with many of these publishers, the Steam service is so compelling that it convinces the big boys to throw those worries out the window. Whilst EA is doing its own thing with a proprietary service, Steam is quickly becoming the go-to place for digital downloads. How long until Valve spins the service off into its own company?

Steam has clearly gotten a heck of a lot better, over the last couple of years, after its badly-handled introduction. Have you used it to buy games, or are you stuck on physical media? Let us know your thoughts over in the forums!