Steam Announces New Upgrade - Downloads Will Now Only Take 48 Hours

The popular game digital distribution service Steam will be undergoing a massive new upgrade that will cut game download times in half - approximately 48 hours instead of the usual 96.

"We realized people wanted to get their games as quickly as possible, and return their broadband connection to its original speed, so this upgrade will help them somewhat," said a Steam developer.

Steam, known as the downloadable service for such Valve games as Half-Life 2 and the recently released Portal 2, has been criticized by gamers for its abnormally long download times.

Another Steam developer offers this reasoning. "The load times reflect the quality of the game, in my opinion.  Besides, once it has been downloaded, the gamer is really really wanting to play the title, and hopefully too exhausted to complain..."

Expect the new upgrade in the next month, and the download to take the rest of 2011...