Valve brings game guides to Steam

Valve has announced today that it has teamed up with Prima to bring readable guides for some games to it's digital distribution platform on PC and Mac, Steam.

The guides on offer cover some of the most popular games on Steam, including Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Just Cause 2 and Dragon Age.

All of the guides are readable through Steam's in-game browser, but can also be viewed offline at any point.

Steam isn't the first digital platform to offer downloadable guides for customers to buy - GamersGate has been doing so for quite some time. However, Prima's entire launch catalogue on Steam has been slashed to half-price, so if there's a particular guide you're looking for then it may be cheaper on Steam at the moment.

The standard price for the Prima strategy guides on Steam seems to be on par with physical copies - £12.99 GBP when at full price.

Personally, we're not sure how successful game guides will be on Steam; since the Steam already supports an in-game web browser then it's far cheaper to just look at a free, online guide. Or, failing all else, Alt-Tab out and find out through your normal browser.

Let us know your thoughts in the forums.