Comments on: Valve’s ‘Alien Swarm’ giveaway, and implications for e-books http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/valves-alien-swarm-giveaway-and-implications-for-e-books/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:31:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Felix Torres http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/valves-alien-swarm-giveaway-and-implications-for-e-books/comment-page-1/#comment-1175008 Felix Torres Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:15:30 +0000 http://www.teleread.com/2010/07/25/valves-alien-swarm-giveaway-and-implications-for-e-books/#comment-1175008 @Johan is right, plus one more: It exposes more customers to the platform. In the connected world, the online platform itself is a product that can benefit from promotion, adds value to content and draws in customers to the ecosystem. The comparison to Baen is appropriate as the Free Library was for many a PDA user an introduction to ebooks. Regular buyers of Steam-hosted games are familiar with and happy with the service; a free game can bring in others who aren't familiar with the platform but can try it risk-free. If they like what they find, they'll be buying *other* steam-hosted games. Amazon achieves similar benefits via their free Kindle Reader apps and the free ebooks; if you have supported hardware you can get a real good idea of what Whispernet is all about without spending any money. Its a good promotional practice for an emerging business. @Johan is right, plus one more:
It exposes more customers to the platform.
In the connected world, the online platform itself is a product that can benefit from promotion, adds value to content and draws in customers to the ecosystem.

The comparison to Baen is appropriate as the Free Library was for many a PDA user an introduction to ebooks. Regular buyers of Steam-hosted games are familiar with and happy with the service; a free game can bring in others who aren’t familiar with the platform but can try it risk-free. If they like what they find, they’ll be buying *other* steam-hosted games.

Amazon achieves similar benefits via their free Kindle Reader apps and the free ebooks; if you have supported hardware you can get a real good idea of what Whispernet is all about without spending any money.

Its a good promotional practice for an emerging business.

]]> By: Johan http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/valves-alien-swarm-giveaway-and-implications-for-e-books/comment-page-1/#comment-1175001 Johan Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:01:03 +0000 http://www.teleread.com/2010/07/25/valves-alien-swarm-giveaway-and-implications-for-e-books/#comment-1175001 I believe there are three things Valve gets out of Alien Swarm. Because it is open source and heavily integrated into the Steam service, with Steam Cloud, it is a demonstration for third party game makers of how to integrate into the Steam platform. The more third party makers use Steam only features, the bigger a stranglehold Valve gets on the Digital Download market, which, according to NDP, is almost 50% of PC game sales. Valve also license the Source engine to third parties, and this is an open source demo of what developing on the source engine is like. Also, all the mod tools that were released helps attract mod makers to Valve's platform, which helps by getting them comfortable with the tools, which may motivate them to make mods for other Source games, and if they become professional game makers themselves they are already Source evangelists. Sort of the same reason why Microsoft gives their high-priced development tools to students for free via Dreamspark. I believe there are three things Valve gets out of Alien Swarm.

Because it is open source and heavily integrated into the Steam service, with Steam Cloud, it is a demonstration for third party game makers of how to integrate into the Steam platform. The more third party makers use Steam only features, the bigger a stranglehold Valve gets on the Digital Download market, which, according to NDP, is almost 50% of PC game sales.

Valve also license the Source engine to third parties, and this is an open source demo of what developing on the source engine is like.

Also, all the mod tools that were released helps attract mod makers to Valve’s platform, which helps by getting them comfortable with the tools, which may motivate them to make mods for other Source games, and if they become professional game makers themselves they are already Source evangelists. Sort of the same reason why Microsoft gives their high-priced development tools to students for free via Dreamspark.

]]>