(Credit:
Steam)
Update: Left 4 Dead is currently discounted on Steam's website at 40% off (from $39.99 to $23.99), but just for this weekend only.
If you haven't tried playing Left 4 Dead yet because of the price, or aren't sure about the game in general, that's OK. Valve has decided to let you try it out for free.
At 5:01 p.m. PDT Thursday, you'll be able to download and play the game for free via Steam for a whole 24 hours. Better still, to get your full 24-hour allotment of play time Steam allows you to preload it to your account right now.
This isn't a free-forever offer, nor is there going to be a discount available afterward (as with what happened with UT3 in March). Alas, the game will be locked again the following night, but at least it will give you a chance to play and decide for yourself. Obviously, Valve is hoping you'll love it and send some cash their way to keep playing.
Valve's Steam software has a new feature for game publishers that lets them sell additional downloadable content, or DLC, from within their games.
To do this, it uses a new in-game purchasing system built off of the in-software Web browser. The first title to feature this is The Maw, which now includes two additional levels that can be purchased for $1.25 each, then played immediately. Previously, all add-on content was sold as a separate purchase from Steam's game store.
The new feature is available to all developers as part of Valve's Steamworks publishing platform. For games with existing add-on content, this means that the companies will be able go back and update their titles to allow in-game purchases.
Micropayments are becoming an increasingly important part of modern games, not only as a way for publishers to continue to make money from a title after it's released, but also to help bring in extra sales from people who purchase games used.
Valve says the new system will allow users to purchase and add additional content, even on titles that were not purchased through Steam's game store, just like it does with physical software titles that were purchased from other retailers.
Previously: Valve announces best PC gaming idea of the year (so far)
Valve is now selling downloadable content on its Steam, Web-powered games distribution software.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Starting Monday, Electronics Arts will sell its popular video game Spore free of any digital rights management restrictions.
It's part of a slew of titles which EA will offer on Valve's Steam distribution platform, according to a report by Ars Technica. Besides Spore, the collection will include Warhammer Online, Need for Speed Undercover, Mass Effect, and FIFA Manager 09. Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, and SiN Episodes: Emergence are already available on the service, and there are more on the way.
Prices for the DRM-free versions are said to be on par with what the games would sell for in a box in a retail store.
It's a move likely to win EA some points with gamers after the disastrous public response to its DRM policy for Spore. Originally the company locked the game using DRM software called SecuROM to no more than three machines, which it later upped to five.
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