There's much more to Steam than a digital distribution platform. Some developers chose to engage with Steam on a deeper level by incorporating Valve's Steamworks development platform, which allows for Steam to fully integrate with the game.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be the latest game to take advantage of Steamworks, Bethesda Game Studios revealed today over Twitter. And lo, there was much rejoicing amongst PC gamers.
There are several advantages to leveraging Steamworks, whether it's integrated voice communication and Steam Cloud support to accessing anti-cheating mechanisms and player authentication tools. That might sound like a bunch of gobbledygook if you've never played a game with Steamworks, but in short, it makes the user experience a hell of a lot better.
Now, if only I had a PC capable of running Skyrim. I should add that to my wedding registry...