Valve: Steam sales even boost retail games

by Ben Gilbert { Jul 3rd 2009 at 6:00PM }

Worried that those pesky digital shelves are going to put your local brick-and-mortar out of business in the next few weeks? Worry not, friends, as Valve's Doug Lombardi is here to put all your worries to bed. Talking to GamesIndustry.biz, Lombardi claimed that "free weekend" sales on Steam (among others) actually help to bolster sales at physical retail locations as well as online.

"Recently we've seen data that shows Left 4 Dead free weekends increase the sales of Left 4 Dead on Steam, at retail and on the Xbox 360, which we would never have guessed could have happened, but it's just that word of mouth," says Lombardi. Furthermore, he waves off talk of bad blood between Valve and GameStop over the developer's Steam service, saying, "We spent more money at GameStop in the US promoting Left 4 Dead than we did at any other chain ... we sold more copies of Left 4 Dead at Gamestop than we did at any other chain ... for us, whichever cash register you want to pay at, that's fine." Not that it matters to GameStop anyway, given the lack of a threat posed for at least another five years, right?

Tags: business, doug-lombardi, gamesindustry.biz, gamestop, left-4-dead, pc, retail, steam, valve

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

samik @ Jul 3rd 2009 6:17PM

"free weekends increase the sales of Left 4 Dead on Steam, at retail and on the Xbox 360"
Is it possible that game sales increase on weekends and it has nothing to do with "free" weekends?

Rofl Waffle @ Jul 3rd 2009 6:22PM

Sales probably went up after the free weekends on Left 4 Dead in this case. I don't think they check the sales of just the weekends.

DeepFriedSushi @ Jul 4th 2009 2:14AM

they should have a test program where they send you a tangible copy of the game though the mail.

Gibbeynater @ Jul 3rd 2009 6:31PM

I'll believe that, I bought Left 4 Dead at full price after playing the free weekend. Granted I got a HUGE discount because the GOTY edition was coming out, and they had to get rid of the original versions, but still.

MrKlorox @ Jul 3rd 2009 7:12PM

There's a GOTY edition of L4D? What makes it GOTY edition? It's usually extra content... but that shit (one single solitary content pack) is already available for free via the Steam account that's required to play the game.

Gibbeynater @ Jul 3rd 2009 7:43PM

Well, it's... it has the Survivor DLC... which is already free... OK, the box art is shiny, that alone should be worth the extra 10-15 dollars.

ZenGaijin @ Jul 3rd 2009 6:33PM

I love Steam, out of all the services I use XboxLive, PSN, or WiiConnect24 Steam by far surpasses them all.

SaNcTuS @ Jul 3rd 2009 6:56PM

ugh, i hate stickers! That picture with all the game cases having matching stickers just reminded me of work. I work at a gamecrazy and we're like 75% through changing every single sticker in the store. :(:(:(:(

Yeah TB @ Jul 3rd 2009 10:42PM

I played L4D on a free weekend and had to immediately buy it. But if it wasn't for the ridiculous 50% off on Steam, though, I would have bought the 360 version. Couldn't pass it up for ~$20. And I was going to buy a retail version, I would have gone to Best Buy. Not Gamestop.