Steam's Left 4 Dead sale increased purchase infection by 3000%
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Feb 20th 2009 at 12:15AM } 
Steam has certainly been experimenting with numerous sales lately. Valve has even hired an experimental psychologist to maximize buzz and marketing around the online retail sales. Wait, now Valve doesn't just want our wallets, they want our braaaaaaains too? Taking the whole zombie thing a little seriously, perhaps?
[Via Shacknews]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mezzanine @ Feb 20th 2009 12:19AM
I kicked myself in the face for not buying this or TF2 when it was on sale. Stupid face.
JXCgunrunna @ Feb 20th 2009 12:30AM
yea i did too. it was a bad move on my part. i have it for the 360 and i have the orange box but both would be good to have on my pc too. i need to play CSS again
WiiFTW @ Feb 20th 2009 12:31AM
To be honest, you deserve a good bonking for not picking up TF2.
MastrCake @ Feb 20th 2009 12:20AM
And the crazy thing?
I was one of them.
Reinard @ Feb 20th 2009 12:29AM
I wish they'd do this with L4D again, I missed that sale and have been meaning to get the game >_> Dammit.
aacman007 @ Feb 20th 2009 12:35AM
IT'S OVER 3000!
Not surprising for Valve... They're the most awesomest awesome ever, after all... Each game, something new, something rad, something innovative.
War Machine @ Feb 20th 2009 12:35AM
In al fairness, $24.99 is what Left 4 Dead should've been priced in the first place.
aacman007 @ Feb 20th 2009 12:44AM
Disagreed... 50 bucks is fine for it. I think it's worth 50 beans because of the technology they put into it. (The AI Director, is hands down one impressive fuckin' tech.)
ELUNO @ Feb 20th 2009 12:59AM
It is worth 50 bucks, but after receiving the super awesome deal that the orange box was, we might have been a little spoiled...
Courtney @ Feb 20th 2009 1:14AM
I've gotten more playtime out of it, and more fun, than most single player games. It's been worth every penny, and I paid full price on launch day.
War Machine @ Feb 20th 2009 1:23AM
It's a good game, no doubt. But strictly speaking, the size of the game didn't merit that price tag. They're still piggy backing on the source engine, which is not bad, but it means that less time went into development, and looking at similar games like Team Fortress 2 (sold at $20 at the moment), the price is difference is huge.
Maybe $35 bucks would've been a fairer price tag, but not $50.
Strategy_Panda @ Feb 20th 2009 1:29AM
I've definitely gotten $50.00 worth of enjoyment out of the game and then some. I love the highly competitive versus mode. I can see how the game would get dull if you only played co-op though.
Strategy_Panda @ Feb 20th 2009 1:31AM
oh, and I can assure you that Valve put more development time into this game than many many other studios put into their standard retail releases
sicsided @ Feb 20th 2009 1:41AM
War Machine, when less time is spent on the engine, more time is put into development. I'm making L4D maps right now, and trying to even match the amount of content in terms of gameplay affecting and visual candy in even just one section from a campaign is becoming quite a handful for me and several others working together.
I keep thinking this game is getting the bad rep of "not enough content" because everyone is running there asses off from zombies and not able to 'take in' the scenery.
t_m @ Feb 20th 2009 2:48AM
length != value
;-)
War Machine @ Feb 20th 2009 3:56AM
More than anything I'm comparing similar games. TF2 has basically the same experience, simple and short with lots of replay value, the only discernible difference being, again, the price tag. I just can't justify the $50 over $20 difference of L4D over TF2.
Calvin @ Feb 20th 2009 5:36AM
Look at it this way, people complained that TF2 was lacking in content due to it's 5 or so maps at launch. Now look at TF2 and how it's grown. Expect the same thing to happen with L4D. It's worth well more than $50
Stupidiot @ Feb 20th 2009 8:36AM
To each their own. I personally didn't get much enjoyment out of L4D, but at £20 (for the boxed game) I won't say I was ripped off.
Matthew Goldthwaite @ Feb 20th 2009 12:55AM
They saw the rate of increase of their customer base go up 1600%, not their total number of customers.
Zanthox @ Feb 20th 2009 1:01AM
I bought it for mah best friend, spreadin' the fun thru teh interwebz!
I wonder what the ratio of gifts were?
Seishino @ Feb 20th 2009 1:06AM
I've actually picked up sale games on Steam that I haven't played yet. The XCom bundle was just too good to pass up, though I'll be damned if I have had time to play them yet.
Good on Valve. They've done a lot right so far. Actual game sales is just another thing they're bringing to the table.
Courtney @ Feb 20th 2009 1:19AM
Yep, Steam's sales have also suckered me into buying games I have yet to play, the Xcom bundle being one of them.
n3rd @ Feb 20th 2009 1:10AM
slickdeals front page effect
Ahmedz @ Feb 20th 2009 1:17AM
awesome....it's too bad Steam disabled my account for no apparent reason >_>
Nomi @ Feb 20th 2009 1:17AM
Everyone should buy this game...
Anticrawl @ Feb 20th 2009 1:28AM
By this math if the game industry would cut the price of games they would sell enough extra copies to overcompensate for the lower profit margin and end up making more money.
Nick8708 @ Feb 20th 2009 5:52AM
If only it were that simple.
sporge27 @ Feb 20th 2009 1:29AM
Until they make it OVER 9000!!!!! that of the launch I willl refuse to be impressed.
Reader @ Feb 20th 2009 1:35AM
but that's impossible
michas_pi @ Feb 20th 2009 1:39AM
I was part of this three thousand percent.
xtrmlybad @ Feb 20th 2009 1:41AM
I'm proudly one of those 3000%. In fact, I just finished Dead Air. Frigging amazing stuff this game is.
duffy @ Feb 20th 2009 2:10AM
This is misleading, as FEAR2 forced everyone on PC to install Steam in the last week. would of been a surge of atleast 10000 new users due to the game. Cant credit it all to Left4Dead
Strategy_Panda @ Feb 20th 2009 2:15AM
credit for the increase in users was never given to L4D. The article never said the two statistics were related
squeevi @ Feb 20th 2009 2:58AM
Why is this post tagged for xbox?? I thought we were talking about PC here?
Einhanderkiller @ Feb 20th 2009 3:13AM
No idea. Joystiq doesn't have a PC tag, though, for some reason. They could easily make a PC tag that would link to Big Download.
Deck @ Feb 20th 2009 3:32AM
3000%?! Seriously? That's truly... MADNESS! SPAAAARRRTAAA!
Charlie_Six @ Feb 20th 2009 4:48AM
yo, if anyone wants to buy my Steam account for $50, email me at gku@sfsu.edu. It has all the Valve games.
Lee @ Feb 20th 2009 6:41AM
If you don't have L4D for PC now after that most epic of sales you deserve nothing in life ever again.
Troy Coughlin @ Feb 20th 2009 7:37AM
I grabed it when it was on sale and i'm so glad i did. What a Great Game!
WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ Feb 20th 2009 8:35AM
Get a PC tag, Joystiq
xGeneral DEATHx @ Feb 20th 2009 8:53AM
I'm still playing this game on 360, and it's a riot in Vs mode. Last night I was lasso'ed by a Smoker from across a chasm, and the resulting hilarity had my sides split for the rest of the evening. I was skeptical at first about paying full price for a game with less maps/etc, but this one has gotten more play time than Gears of War 2, and that's saying something.
outlaw640 @ Feb 20th 2009 9:50AM
The only time I went to buy this game for 360, it was on offer and sold out >_>
MAFKKA @ Feb 20th 2009 10:28AM
whats this got to do with xbox? and second, l4d was a complete waste of money.. and i was one of them fools who pre-ordered it on steam.for my pc. It was fun for about 3 hours, then it just kept repeating itself.
Jose @ Feb 20th 2009 7:21PM
Yeah, what's with the xbox tag? Xbox got no Steam.
Guibs @ Feb 20th 2009 10:54AM
I'm also part of those 3000%. I never thought that Left 4 Dead was worth 50$ personally. But at half of that, I figure it was a deal so I bought it.
Only played one campaign with a friend of mine and it was fun. I'll wait further before giving more comments about being worth the money or not but I'm possitive that I'm more happy about bpaying 25$ instead of 50$ for this. But this is a given ;-)
p_ABSO @ Feb 20th 2009 1:01PM
Perhaps Ninja Theory should re-release Heavenly Sword with Zombies they seem to make everything perfect, no matter how many times a horde of zombies completely ignores you who has injured them to gnaw upon your party members.
nate @ Feb 20th 2009 6:06PM
For only having 4 campaigns and at this time only two of the campaigns can be played in Versus mode I can't justify the $50 price tag. I pre-purchased the game, saved me 5 bucks. I'm not saying the game isn't fun, its a total blast but seems "light" in content. If somebody would just play offline, the fun wears off fast, but playing with friends and everybody has a mic, that's FUN!
Jose @ Feb 20th 2009 7:24PM
I think it does justify a $50 price tag, easily. $60 however, remains to be seen, as the Xbox DLC for this game (as opposed to TF2) seems to be traveling on as parallel a track as the PC stuff as has ever been seen by Valve.