GamerDNA's Left 4 Dead stats reveal power of Steam sales, promotions
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ May 18th 2009 at 5:30PM } 
Sam Houston, community manager at GamerDNA, tells us that typically the engagement graphs for games "start high and just drop off." He notes that Steam sales and promotions can obviously give a shot of adrenaline to a game's engagement. He questions, "Could Microsoft do something like that? Then it would appeal to both platforms pretty highly. But, you know, Valve owns Steam and the game, so they have more flexibility."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jawmuncher @ May 18th 2009 5:38PM
That's one hell of a jump
Captain Planet @ May 18th 2009 5:40PM
Free play weekends = WIN. C'mon XBL and GFW, follow suit.
Rhamsey @ May 18th 2009 5:46PM
xbox cant do free play weekends for games, unless they hosted the full games online, for people to download and try (like a super large demo), but it doesnt really work that way.
aristokrat @ May 18th 2009 6:04PM
They could do free online MP for certain games on a given weekend. I think they've done it before in fact, but I don't recall for certain. I'm surprised they don't do it more often to get people addicted to XBL.
Premature ejaculation man @ May 18th 2009 8:16PM
Certain game developers sponsor the "gold weekends" when big games come out...Or when Halo is released.
Smoke_me_a_Kipper @ May 19th 2009 9:33AM
The only problem I found with the free L4D weekend was the inability to find a server. I'm sure it surprised Valve how strong the demand was.
Sidebuster @ May 18th 2009 5:41PM
I wonder if the PC player base with stay a little more steady (and a little higher) once people start hosting custom map servers.
Caveman @ May 18th 2009 5:43PM
This could certainly happen once digital distribution becomes the main way of playing games on your console. It's kind of an apples and oranges debate.
XBLA & PSN have seen more game activity and downloads when games are either free or reduced in price?
THE Ezio Auditore de Firenze (PSN slycooper_rocker) @ May 18th 2009 11:10PM
everyone on my PSN friends list has been playing rag doll kung-fu which was made free for 1 week since last thursday. so yeah, it works.
SidearmS @ May 18th 2009 5:45PM
Yo, Captain Planet, GFW is FREE period. It has been for close to 9 months since the annoucement last year. And it is the GFWL (the "L" is for LIVE) games that would utilize the service you bring up. But to be clear - GFWL is FREE to anyone, at anytime, no fees on the PC side.
GFWL - That's right, all you have to do is integrate a gamertag on the PC, and off you go...
Ihavepants @ May 18th 2009 5:52PM
What are you, a Microsoft exec?
He was talking about making games free for a trial period.
SidearmS @ May 18th 2009 7:23PM
@ Ihavepants: what are you, a valve suckup? All signs point to yes!
But since you like to hammer this FALSE point home, let me be clear that NO, I am just a person who likes GFWL titles, and like other GFWL gamers, our efforts are just that, OUR EFFORTS. You are probably the one who has to get paid to post here. Otherwise, you could not be bothered I'm sure...
See you online with Street Fighter IV. It uses GFWL, even with the versions from Steam.
GFWL - So I misread the statement. OH NOES! Happens to everyone.
Doug @ May 18th 2009 7:46PM
"GFWL - So I misread the statement. OH NOES! Happens to everyone."
Lol, then don't respond. That's a terrible excuse.
Just, cry.
Sir Buzz Killington( The Artist formerly known as Jakka) @ May 18th 2009 5:54PM
Just wanted to point out this is the 'Number of people playing the game', not the 'Number of sales'.
Not that it changes the overall message, but I know a couple of people will definitely overlook it and jump to conclusions.
aristokrat @ May 18th 2009 6:00PM
In all fairness, it's highly likely that the bump associated with the 50% off sale was mostly due to new players, as I can see no reason for older players to care more that weekend than any other (unless they really, really like pwning noobs).
aristokrat @ May 18th 2009 6:02PM
Microsoft does this to an extent as well, with their ongoing Deals of the Week. Almost tricked me into buying Brain Challenge last week, and will definitely get me to buy Bionic Commando when it gets reduced as well.
fatty chubs @ May 18th 2009 6:05PM
Yep I am a big user of Xbox Live's Deal of the Week. If it's an arcade title and I don't own it, I almost always get it when it goes on sale.
freedomfromconformity @ May 18th 2009 6:10PM
Hmm... looks like every two months they're trying something to increase sales/gameplay.
Deathmessiah @ May 18th 2009 6:17PM
Hopefully this will make Valve get off their ass and make more maps. Or, even better... a sequel.
? @ May 18th 2009 7:09PM
More maps, new weapons, new charecters, new infected...
Bboy Izilla @ May 18th 2009 6:25PM
I was apart of that "50% off" sales spike...haven't stopped since...would like to see how well Zeno Clash is doing.
JerJer @ May 18th 2009 6:20PM
obvious graph is obvious :/
illh @ May 18th 2009 6:44PM
It's sad to see that all of the new people that bought the game stopped playing it after two weeks. Good for business, but just proves that the game has no lasting appeal.
Robert Maynard @ May 19th 2009 12:04AM
That's like having a graph showing the number of people watching a classic film per day in the years since it's cinema release, and concluding from the steep dropoffs after its cinema, dvd and special edition dvd release that it has no lasting appeal. xD
Where does it specify that individuals stopped playing it forever after buying it? It only describes players per day. It's reasonable to expect that people hyped up for a new release, a patch, a sale or a free weekend, will play the game a lot for a brief period, and then inevitably drop back into their regular routine. I played it for hours on end when it launched and when the new content was released - then it's time to do other things, and maybe play it on weekends. The typical daily rate doesn't mean a huge proportion of people stopped playing it altogether, let alone from a lack of interest, and the graph doesn't actually show that.
All it means is that nowhere near everyone that ever bought the game is playing it every single day - which you'll find with any game, or as I mentioned above, any film or book for that matter.
Dansk @ May 18th 2009 6:56PM
Interesting, the average of players per day remained roughly the same after the xmas sale. The free weekend sale seems to have made a longer lasting effect, but i can't say much..
Jose @ May 18th 2009 7:35PM
Valve doesn't own Unreal Tourney 3, and I think I recall some pretty reprickulous number after that free weekend as well.
Cammy @ May 18th 2009 8:06PM
Would have been a more valid graph if they'd gotten the information straight from Valve and MS rather than doing their own polling.
Obvious element of suspicion : they just overlaid the Xbox and PC graphs on top of each other in a way that looked good, no way the actual numbers are that close most of the time.
Robert Maynard @ May 19th 2009 12:13AM
"Based on proprietary GamerDNA data pulled from 180,000+ active PC and Xbox users. Calculations based on equal percentages of PC and Xbox users."
Of course the actual numbers aren't that close, it's a typical adjusted sampling.
Premature ejaculation man @ May 18th 2009 8:18PM
While I don't use steam, or have a capable PC, these stats should at least encourage digital sales more frequently.
I hope. Because Valve have been touting things like this for a long while.
jrhawk42 @ May 19th 2009 2:10AM
So let me get this straight... When the game releases a new update, or has a free weekend the number of people playing the game increase.
Thanks Captain Obvious
The real question is whether or not these free weekends, and updates are producing enough sales to justify the costs of producing them. I hope Valve is right, but I'd like to see some proof to back it up.
Soliduck @ May 19th 2009 4:03AM
Everyone should go watch Gabe's keynote at DICE this year. He talks about these kinds of promotions and how they translate into increased profits.
For example, during the 50% off sale in February (you can see it on the GamerDNA chart) Valve made more money than they did when they released L4D. That means that they sold more than twice as many copies of L4D than at release.
He also talks about how the class updates for TF2 generate long term increases in sales in addition to the initial spike of the update.
Also, it's not just Valve that is doing things like this and reaping the benefits. He talks about 3rd party developers who also see benefits from these kinds of things.