Steamworks adding microtransactions, upped cloud storage limit

by Ben Gilbert on Mar 21st 2010 3:00PM

As the company itself puts it, "Want to offer your customers a scabbard for their sword? New tires? The latest in night vision goggles? Now you can!" It seems that while we were all up in arms about the added Mac client for Steam and Epic Games giving away its SDK to Steam devs, Valve also slipped out software developer support for microtransactions, not to mention a 100 fold increase in cloud storage limits (from 1MB to 100MB per game).

Joystiq's PC-centric sister site Big Download noticed the additions in a PDF that Valve recently released on an overview site, detailing the changes coming to the Steam digital distribution client in 2010. As for the microtransaction update, Valve promises users the ability to "buy and instantly use the items they want –- all without leaving the game," perhaps opening up the gate to free-to-play/microtransaction-based games on the service. And, maybe more interestingly, leaving open the possibility of free-to-play games based in the Source and Unreal game engines.

[Via Big Download]

Source

Tags: cloud, cloud-computing, digital-distribution, free-to-play, microtransactions, steam, steamworks, steamworks-sdk, update, valve

Reader Comments (51)

A THIRD unlock system for Team Fortress 2É

I really wish they would update the store to not just be a webpage.

this is bad...

I feel really bad about this, but if this lets me buy my medic a hat, i'm totally doing it.

The worst thing is that I would too. :(

...This seems like it's a double edged sword...

Or... something.

I can't tell if this is GOOD or BAD news.

I feel the same way.

Maybe they will let me buy a double edged sword for my scout...

We already have the Eyelander for the Demo.

the thought of the scout with even more powerful weapons makes me want to play TF2 so i can rage quit.

$0.99 for a hat?
Ridiculous!

/sarcasm

But it's Malibu Stacy's NEW hat!

Dude, it's a kicking sweet top hat. You know you want that.

The sad part is is that I think $0.99 for a hat would be a great deal. Think of all the people that would stop using up CPU cycles idling to try and get unlocks.

Damn, now I think TF2 needs microtransactions for the good of the world.

Cheaper than a lightsaber on XBL.

I am unsure how to feel about this.

I don't think this is a good thing.

So wait, you're not sure how you feel about this update but you still somehow don't like it without having a feeling about it either way?

Pretty much, yeah. I'm as confused as you are.

Your mind says NO, but your heart says Maybe

Let's ignore the microtransactions for a second.

If a game uses the full cloud storage and forces me to download/upload 100mb of crap every time I start/close the game, I am NOT going to be impressed.

Crap? You mean like your save files (for like Mass Effect or Half-Life 2) you won't have to carry around on an seperate USB drive or trough some other half-assed way when you want to play it on another computer or if yours crashes? That sounds awesome to me.

I thought cloud storage was just about save games? At the moment it seem to be more save progress once kinda thing rather than quick save/loading when you want. Maybe that's changing now.

I'm well aware of what sort of things are being stored there, and I quite like how it works now. It will quickly lose its effectiveness if you have to wait five minutes to start or quit your games.

I really doubt that will ever happen, not only because it would be a massive strain on you, but also on theirs.

i mean, thousands of people constantly downloading gbs of data a day for a single game?
i think not.

That's not how the cloud works.

It adds save and settings files there when they're made and they are only accessed when needed. It's done on demand. A settings file should be a couple kilobytes and a save file maybe 1 MB at the most. This update just allows more things to be put onto the cloud to access when requested.

How is that a sarcasm if you are being serious, Big Daddy?

Wouldn't it be sarcasm if you said:
"$0.99 for a hat?
I'll buy twenty."?

It's more than a 100 fold storage increase. Previously it was apparently 1MB total, not even per game.

Steamworks and Cloud are completely optional, and to me, nonexistant.

These days, they use achievements and steam cloud to sell games, I'm not interested.

I will probably buy a hat or two for my characters since it is nearly impossible for me to get one by dropping. The hours I put into the game warrent a little variety in appearance.

There is no mention of selling items in Team Fortress 2. They could have already done this if they wanted to. The release is so other developers can sell things in-game.

The hat is an example.

In that case, I'll probably never notice it is there.

Come on, everyone. This is Valve we're talking about. You know, the company that brought us The Orange Box and the soon-to-come Steam Client for Mac. Revently I was watching an interview with Gabe Newell, and while some of his statements upset me, I can truly tell that this guy CARES about his customers. Only in a world where Bobby Kotick rules Valve is when this will be bad for gamers.

That isn't to say that this plan could indeed be terrible for the users, but the bottom-line is that we need to trust in Valve.

I trust in Valve. I don't trust in the other companies using Steamworks.

Why is BigDownload, a 'sister' site, so far behind in terms of site design? And why is my avatar not valid there, even though both Joystiq and Engadget use the same system?

I think y'all need to stop treating BigDownload as an inferior site and assimilate it into the AOL family properly: it's slightly pathetic.

Not as bad as Joystiq Japan...

People need to think more for themselves, and not just blind trust in anything, even Valve. I'll just wait and see how this turns out.

Good Lord.

I might be more interested in buying hats and clothes if I could use them in many different games. It's a pipe dream, I know.

more like a valve dream

Dumb.

I'm actually not surprised in this. Being such a big digital distributor, I'm surprised Steam didn't do this before!

Valve are just giving the option to have this. They want more developers to use their service. Direct your hate to the devs who use this feature, not at Valve.

Also, as Joystiq said, this may persuade free-to-play games to adopt Steamworks.

The end is near!

Though there are already 1 dollar things on steam - just not ridiculous things like hats and such.

I just hope they don't do some shit like for instance, sell Modern Warfare 2 players a BFG over9000 for $15, and fracture the game's community.

This is obviously for the companies that want to offer pay content. I highly doubt Valve will be doing this themselves.

I will really support this idea if they get in some free games that are micro-transaction supported! I will really be happy then! My computer won't be happy but it will get over it! LOL!!!

Sweet! Man, I can't wait to get horse armor in Oblivion!

i do not like thiss :>

This seems more like an option for other devs who use microtransactions in their games. Nowhere does it say Valve themselves will use it.

Top on my wishlist for Steam would be the ability to access save games from any computer and be able to pick up a game on one PC where I left off on another. I am getting tired of having to move save games around on all my computers. And when I play a game on one, I have to move the save game file manually when I want to play it on another PC. If this cloud storage system could be used to store save game files, that would be a HUGE win. Then I could just log into steam from any PC (or mac now) and just pick up where I left off.

That is exactly what it is used for.

In theory.

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Steamworks adding microtransactions, upped cloud storage limit

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