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You wouldn't think it, but that really hurts.
I still love VALVe. As if I haven’t made that clear enough in the many things I’ve said about them. They have a very high standard of quality, even if it takes them a jillion years to get anything created. All that does is enslave me further. Make me desire what only they can provide.
They do, however, long delays aside, have this tendency to make games that could generously be described as unfinished. Now, I’m not referring to bugginess or gameplay issues. As per their standard, most games of theirs roll off the assembly line very clean, bug-free, mostly well-balanced, and containing an excellent experience that is often unparalleled.
Variety and longevity are something that are sometimes lacking, however. Take Team Fortress 2, for example. It launched with only seven different maps with two game types spread out over them (variations on capture point don’t count). Since the launch they have promised (and delivered) boatloads of new content, including unlockable weapons, a bunch of new maps, new gameplay variations, etc. Now you might be thinking, “seven doesn’t sound so bad,” and you’re mostly right. It worked okay, but TF2’s only available experience is via multiplayer. There is no solo campaign. And, of course, there is new content promised in the near future.
Now take Left 4 Dead. It features no new weapons, and four campaigns with five levels in each. The campaigns take about an hour beat each, providing a fairly different experience. The AI director keeps things fresh and interesting enough for replayability, to be sure. However, L4D was only released with verses ability on two of the four campaigns. They have promised to release both new story campaigns and verses mode sometime in the future, as well as new weapons and some other fun stuff.
Day of Defeat: Source is slowly dying now, lost on the promise that it would one day feature things had in prior editions, such as the British, vehicles, etc.
I suppose it’s actually kind of a brilliant strategy. Every time a new update, patch, or anything rolls around for their games, they’ll publicize it like crazy. They’ll do a free weekend of the thing, drop the price temporarily, or anything else. This, in turn, boosts sales for a period of time.
Everyone else who’s bought it gets the new stuff for free, but VALVe ends up seeing a surge in sales each time they do this, far beyond what they may have sold with all content there in the first place. They also get what is most important: fan happiness and loyalty.
Most people end up getting really excited when a game they bought is going to provide more content for free; it makes them feel as though they’re getting more bang for their buck. Of course, if they have to pay for very minor upgrades; they tend to get mad.
As far as Left 4 Dead goes, I will very tentatively suggest that the $50 price tag on the thing was mostly worthwhile. The gameplay is pretty much pant-wetting bliss, even if you end up running out of new stuff in only a few hours. Why VALVe, why?
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