Gabe Newell's DICE Keynote: Steam Sales

19 Feb 2009 at 12:37:55 by Tim McDonald

A keynote speech given by Gabe Newell at the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain conference in Vegas last night threw up some interesting points on what raises game sales on Steam.

Most major was the way Left 4 Dead sales have been affected by promotions on Steam - a combination of a 50% price drop, forthcoming content, and free trial passes for certain players. These three led to Left 4 Dead selling one-third more copies last weekend than it did on release, and a staggering 3000% more than it did the previous weekend. Interestingly, this didn't appear to have any effect on retail sales at all. Perhaps eagle-eyed Steam shoppers and retail customers are entirely different people?

Left 4 Dead isn't the only game that's been selling well on Steam, though. Newell reported some Team Fortress 2 sales figures, such as Steam sales going up by a rather large 106% every time there's a free update.

It's not just for Valve games, too. An unnamed third-party game went on sale some time ago, and during a weekend sale, the amount of sales rose by a frankly ridiculous 36,000%.

We'll be posting up more news from the keynote as the day goes on.

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