When it comes to digital game distribution on the PC, Steam is king. Call it opinion, call it fact, but you really cannot deny that Steam is a powerful force to be reckoned with especially when sales occur or updates are released.
Ars Technica sat down with Valve's Jason Holtman to discuss Steam and the factors that contribute to Steam's success.
Ars Technica sat down with Valve's Jason Holtman to discuss Steam and the factors that contribute to Steam's success.
"A lot of what we've experienced in some ways could be called unexpected, but in a good way," Holtman continues. "If you ask me to predict what's going to happen in two years, where Steam will be, I could try, but I'd probably be wrong...Part of what we've learned about that is you have to keep listening to your customers and you have to keep listening to developers, because we're in both businesses: making games for customers and making services for developers." "It really pays to listen."
And just how well do those price reductions and updates do to boost sales on steam?Team Fortress 2—which has had a mind-boggling 97 updates since launching in 2007—for example, saw some great success when the Sniper vs Spy update was released. Sales on Steam jumped 520 percent, retail was boosted 40 percent, gifting increased 71 percent, and total player minutes were up 105 percent.
And when Left 4 Dead had a half-price weekend sale on Steam, sales jumped 3,000%, while the number of new users increased 1,600%. In fact, more units were moved during that sale than during the game's launch.
Jason had "no comment" to give specifically to Randy Pitchford's statements made against Steam. However, he did say that Valve is constantly listening to developers. It is because of this listening that they "think we'll make Steam better" in the future.
And when Left 4 Dead had a half-price weekend sale on Steam, sales jumped 3,000%, while the number of new users increased 1,600%. In fact, more units were moved during that sale than during the game's launch.
Comment