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Gabe Newell is the co-founder and managing director of Valve. He often has something interesting to say, and the recently lengthy interview with Develop is no exception (seriously, it's worth a read).
One of the topics Newell covered jumped out at us: creating the optimal pricing service for each customer. In short, the co-founder says to hell with equality: the industry should charge gamers based on how much fun they are to play with and how they influence the community.
Newell explained that some people bring many gamers with them when they join a server while there are people who join a server and cause other gamers to leave. "We should have a way of capturing that," he says. "We should have a way of rewarding the people who are good for our community." This means that a really likable person in the community should get a game for free, because of their past behavior in a different game, while a jerk that annoys everyone should pay full price for a game, and have to pay an extra hundred dollars if they want voice.
A more extreme example is how some gamers want to pay for a dollar for items over and over again while others want to run servers and create mods. Newell believes each one of these people should represent a different monetization scheme for the community as a whole. He explains that Valve has started finding high value customers and connecting their Steam accounts to their PayPal accounts. These people aren't just paying for games; they're making money from them: some are being paid as much as $20,000 per week.
Valve has a unique opportunity in the gaming industry because it has built a platform. Steam is very popular because it gives gamers a lot of what they want. What do you think about an optimal pricing service?
User Comments: 37
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People like free. You give the people free, and they'll do anything you ask.
I'd rather see advertisements during loading screens or put a mountain dew add between songs on one of Liberty City's radio stations. Reduce prices and get people back onto PC gaming. Pushing Portal 2 at people for a rediculous price isn't a good way to keep ur good "name." Sure I'm gonna use Steam still, cause its free. But I'll think twice before paying for Valve again.
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I think Mr. Newell has been spending a little too much time with Mr. Sheen. If anyone out there is making $20k a month from Steam please stand up and say hi, because otherwise I don't believe it to be true. This wouldn't be the first time Steam lies to its clientèle to try to get more attention.
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Seriously...
The author of that diatribe is a child. Steam serves transients & their business model is based on knee-jerk buys from Steams membership.
These developers are utterly ignorant & lost. Bf3 should cost $100 bucks, have root kit and disables the game until u uninstall ur hacks. Then... ud see BF3 being played more, being talked about more, being used as the next platform for tourney play.
Selling off used/old games that "somebody" can now try because of a weekend sale is all kiddie space. Steam simply is not a service needed.for home owners and adults. Provide CHEAT FREE games and provide real tangable discs...
Nearly everyone I know wants their discs.. unless u like to pretend ur a gamer n use a laptop.
Where are the real games... that cost money and provide a professional environement? Azzh0l3s & 1d0its will be locked out of their $100 game and cry to mommy (when they are embarrased and can no longer play the adult game because "all they were doing was only using a sprint hack, not aimbot" ... lol
GOOD PLAYERS don't mind paying $100 on a quality game, specially when only real players r there... not hacktoidz.
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I'd pay $150 bucks if I knew no hackers could play BF3... all long-term games like the BF series should be like what you are saying (eula + rootkit etc)
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Darkshadoe said:
Guest said:Seriously...
The author of that diatribe is a child. Steam serves transients & their business model is based on knee-jerk buys from Steams membership.
These developers are utterly ignorant & lost. Bf3 should cost $100 bucks, have root kit and disables the game until u uninstall ur hacks. Then... ud see BF3 being played more, being talked about more, being used as the next platform for tourney play.
Selling off used/old games that "somebody" can now try because of a weekend sale is all kiddie space. Steam simply is not a service needed.for home owners and adults. Provide CHEAT FREE games and provide real tangable discs...
Nearly everyone I know wants their discs.. unless u like to pretend ur a gamer n use a laptop.
Where are the real games... that cost money and provide a professional environement? Azzh0l3s & 1d0its will be locked out of their $100 game and cry to mommy (when they are embarrased and can no longer play the adult game because "all they were doing was only using a sprint hack, not aimbot" ... lol
GOOD PLAYERS don't mind paying $100 on a quality game, specially when only real players r there... not hacktoidz.
Yes because button mashing takes great skill huh? That is all any video game is really..a series of mashed buttons to produce a satisfying outcome. If a "GOOD PLAYER" has any "skills" at all, they would know how to overcome cheaters and not ***** and moan about it. Here is another idea, don't play on servers with people that cheat.
Yes, lets raise the price of games so you can feel better about your game play. Raising the price of the game does not make it better, it just makes it more expensive.
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wow Jurassic I play L4D and L4D2 on PC and never get anything you have described. I play with freinds maily tho, maybe you should get some freinds.
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stewi0001 said:
so people who have jobs and/or lives will have to pay more than the jobless and/or lifeless players? hmmm... sounds like a bad idea.
When I play FPSs I don't leave if ONE person leaves, unless they are a friend, I'll leave if the match feels too one sided. Yes even if I'm on the winning team cuz it just gets boring.
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gobbybobby said:
wow Jurassic I play L4D and L4D2 on PC and never get anything you have described. I play with freinds maily tho, maybe you should get some freinds.
Some people don't have friends online when they want to play.
And I'd learn how to spell friends before you tell someone to get some.
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The success of Steam has apparently got good ole Gabe hella gased, this idea is ludacris... period!
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Come on people this was more of a PR stunt... although I imagine that this concept could come alive in a milder form.
It is like customer rewards. If you are a very positive force within a community you should be rewarded right. - But do take what and how he says it with a grain of salt.
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What????
They are paying some people $20,000 a week. That is $80,000 a month and around $960,000 for a year. That is almost a million dollars. If you can make $20,000 a week, would you leave you house? Would you go a vacation? You have a life just still on your butt playing games every day and not even know that life has just past you by.
But this type of person is consider to be a high value customer. To me it sounds like a addict, and this addict is to attract more addicts.
Sounds more like someone who made smart choices early in life and now makes money sitting on his *** while most people dread going to their dead end jobs. If anything you should take the lesson from learning that. The guy is kicking your *** because he spends 90% of his day worry free. However he spends that time shouldn't be a big deal to you or us.
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Since it is likely that you're same here as you are in Steam, I can see immediately by the wide variance in the comments who would get the discount and who would get the full price + $100 charge for voice
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