Unreal Tournament 3 play jumps 2000%, Steam adds second free weekend

by Randy Nelson { Mar 11th 2009 at 5:45PM }

Get this: if you grant free access to a top-tier FPS ... a lot of people will play it. Valve learned this after letting Steam users download and play Unreal Tournament III Black on the house last weekend, to the tune of a more than 2000% increase in simultaneous UT3 players. Valve claims that the conversion rate of trial downloads to full purchases has put the game at the top of its most-downloaded titles, so, being entrepreneurial, it's announced another free-to-play weekend for March 13-15.

The promotional $11.99 purchase price for the game (it's usually $19.99) has also been extended through March 22. Given the apparent success of this program, it'd be unreal to think Valve won't try it with more titles in the future.

[Via Blue's News]

Tags: epic, midway, pc, steam, unreal-tournament-3, valve

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Stevie Wonder @ Mar 11th 2009 5:50PM

Great news for epic. I was going to pick up UT3 for ps3 because of the trophies & I have played the pc version and liked it... but they slipped on the titan pack release so I just went ahead and bought killzone 2 and am loving it.

Kinsey @ Mar 11th 2009 6:49PM

Titan pack is only delayed 2 weeks, but KZ2 is a kick ass game either way.

Its nice to see Valve test the waters with New and Current games on the market. UT3 is a good game just dropped off the radar, but maybe this will zap some life into it.

Temidien @ Mar 11th 2009 5:52PM

Before the trolls get a hold of this, I just want to congratulate Epic for an excellent marketing decision. We need more companies doing things like this...

boomsilent @ Mar 11th 2009 5:57PM

just grabbed a copy last week...used to be 10 bucks at EB, those bums went ahead and raised to the price to 20....arhghgr you Gamestoop purchased barstards..but i got mine. action like this you cant get in any other fps save for halo MP- on a smaller scale though

Konstantine @ Mar 11th 2009 6:18PM

IMO, Halo has been garbage since the PC release of Halo: Combat Evolved.

Unreal has better balance among vehicles, more fun variety in weapons, better maps, more game types, etc. Pretty much better than Halo in every aspect.

Maulok @ Mar 11th 2009 6:26PM

For $20 you can get a new copy at Target in their discounted section with the greatest hits and shovelware wii titles. Maybe I can talk you into buying this, even though you just got KZ2? UT3 needs more players.

j.howlett @ Mar 11th 2009 7:25PM

i'm still looking to buy the ps3 version

Rollins @ Mar 11th 2009 8:20PM

It's $12.99 new in box on Gamestop's site. For the record.

boomsilent @ Mar 11th 2009 10:48PM

@rollins

dude, thats the pc version. thats for getting my hopes up on that whopping 5 dollar refund...smh

TravisO @ Mar 12th 2009 11:01AM

Don't forget if you buy the box version of UT3 you can register it with steam using your serial code, and now you own the game virtually so if you lose or damage your copy you can download it.

Just keep in mind in order for your copy to be steam-able you'll need to download the Steam edition after you enter your UT3 key into Steam, it won't convert your existing copy. Kind of annoying but if you have a fast connection not a big deal.

I know some update is coming out for UT3 and it might be only for Steam copies of the game.

blindspot @ Mar 11th 2009 5:58PM

wait im not sure if im understanding this correctly cause i understand its on sale but it costs money just to play this online?

Monkeys Suck @ Mar 11th 2009 6:06PM

No no, they are letting you play the full game for free all weekend...you need to buy the game to play it after that.

Foetoid @ Mar 11th 2009 6:07PM

No. It doesn't cost anything to play online. It's like CS:S and Team Fortress. You buy the game, you play online. It just happens to be free to dowload and play this weekend, but after that you must buy the game just as you would have to normally to continue playing it.

Crusty Magic @ Mar 11th 2009 6:08PM

This is an excellent idea, way to go Valve.

I didn't get to participate last weekend, but hopefully I can this weekend.

You can preload the data right now so you can be ready for this weekend's free to play event.

Shafnitz @ Mar 11th 2009 6:14PM

So did Valve not admit that they're doing this again because their first attempt was problematic? Read the Steam forums. There were tons of people, myself included, that couldn't download the game in time to get to play it. This time, they're letting people pre-load the game before the free weekend, something they should have done the first time.

gamer4250 @ Mar 11th 2009 6:22PM

You should realise that it isn't Valve's fault that your internet sucks.

John @ Mar 11th 2009 6:34PM

Hmm...yeah, actually it is Valve's fault.

Monkeys Suck @ Mar 11th 2009 6:45PM

Probably both, but it's probably more for the 2000% increase...personally I'm glad cause I love this version almost as much as 2k4, but nobody else accepted it.

Aero @ Mar 11th 2009 7:47PM

It wasn't his internet gamer4250, I had the exact same problem all weekend where whenever I tried to install it I just got a message saying that the Steam servers were too busy. Literally all weekend.
And typically I'm away from my computer the second weekend they do this so I won't get to try it :(

deanb @ Mar 11th 2009 8:57PM

They had to patch the Steam Client just so people could get UT3.
Too bad for me by the time the download completed i had 6hr's till the free weekend finished.....then i uninstalled it (8GB is big space to keep for a pre-load)

jron @ Mar 12th 2009 8:58AM

I had the same problem. Gave up and downloaded a demo on steam, which kept crashing randomly. First time using steam too, used this as an excuse to try it out. My first impression is very low.

I will give them another shot this weekend. ( i really like the idea )

Cosmo @ Mar 11th 2009 6:19PM

Ah Steam, your giving PC gaming a huge shot in the arm, and I love you for it.
Though I wish you would let my brother buy one copy of a game and let both of us play it just like when we used to buy physical copies...... : (

Mats @ Mar 11th 2009 6:23PM

As long as it is not a online game, you can. Just have your brother boot up steam in offline mode. My girlfriend playes my steamgames on her PC all the time this way.

Durinthal @ Mar 11th 2009 6:23PM

2000% increase, eh? So what, 21 people play it now?

Seriously, though, now that they've fixed a large number of issues I initially had with the game, I've bought it and will be happily playing this weekend.

Einhanderkiller @ Mar 11th 2009 6:26PM

Steam works.

maxpontiac @ Mar 11th 2009 6:26PM

I bought this game once I heard trophies were out.

Good game.

SunKing @ Mar 11th 2009 6:33PM

Ok, so Valve's comment that UT3, "has enjoyed an increase of over 2000% in simultaneous player numbers" since 5th March may be true, but there are still less than 2000 players playing at peak, which doesn't even beat something like the original Day of Defeat - an eight year old game.

And yes, I think Shafnitz is partially right. The decision to release the update at the same time as the free weekend was moronic. Some people couldn't even update their client because of the network bottlenecking, and those were just the people with the original files already installed on their system.

I like the new update; I like UT3, but lets not get caught up in Valve's hype machine now, shall we?