Steam adopts Skype voice technology 'SILK'

Valve has significantly improved the Steam digital distribution and game client the past few years, although a weakness has been its somewhat lacking voice chat innovation. Today that's better, too, as a new client patch updates the game with the "SILK" audio codec, the same stuff Skype -- the ever-popular VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service -- uses.

Decent headset or phone

Assuming both parties have a decent headset or phone, Skype is usually very high quality, so this should benefit Steam gamers greatly. Connectivity and reliability are said to be improved here as then.