Why Alien Swarm is Free...

Hopefully people will read why Alien Swarm is free, and quit with the endless threads asking the same thing, here you go

When many of us played Alien Swarm, we immediately thought "Why is such a good game being released for free?". If Valve had sold this for $5, it would have been more profitable, right?

Nope. Valve really knew what it was doing when it released this game for free. And here are the reasons that they did it.

The Game isn't a Full Game
Currently, it only has one complete campaign that can be beat in an hour or two. Yes, it has plenty of replay value, but not enough to place a price-tag on it. Before Valve spends more resources on the game, they want to see that it is successful.

It Builds Brand Loyalty
Gamers like free stuff. Gamers also like good support. Releasing a game for free makes people love Valve (hell, it works for me). Valve also releases free content and support for past games, which leads to the same effect.

It Encourages Modding (ie free content)
This game is a modder's dream come true. It was created by a team of former modders that Valve hired. This gives current modders a sense of hope that their mods will be appreciated and picked up by Valve, which increases modder output. More modder output means more content for Valve games without any development cost for Valve. You can tell that Valve is counting on modders for Alien Swarm given the release of the SDK and the open nature of the game.

And last, but definitely NOT least:

It Showcases Steam to New Users
This game is designed to be played with your friends. When I first discovered Alien Swarm, my initial reaction was to tell all of my bros how awesome this deal was. Many of those friends had never used Steam before. One friend had given up on Steam a few years back, and told me that this game was "A reason to go back to Steam again". This reaction is precisely what Valve wants. They want gamers to see all the new features that Steam has to offer for free. They want to show how easy it is to install a game using Steam. They hope that Alien Swarm players will browse the store and think "Damn, these are some good deals!". More Steam purchases=More money in Valve coffers.


It's an awesome deal for everyone- Steam users get a free game and more friends to play games with, Modders have more tools to mod with, and Valve has more paying customers.

And that, my friends, is why Alien Swarm has come to us free of charge.

[link.2]

Originally Posted by NerdusMaximus

When many of us played Alien Swarm, we immediately thought "Why is such a good game being released for free?". If Valve had sold this for $5, it would have been more profitable, right?

Nope. Valve really knew what it was doing when it released this game for free. And here are the reasons that they did it.

The Game isn't a Full Game
Currently, it only has one complete campaign that can be beat in an hour or two. Yes, it has plenty of replay value, but not enough to place a price-tag on it. Before Valve spends more resources on the game, they want to see that it is successful.

It Builds Brand Loyalty
Gamers like free stuff. Gamers also like good support. Releasing a game for free makes people love Valve (hell, it works for me). Valve also releases free content and support for past games, which leads to the same effect.

It Encourages Modding (ie free content)
This game is a modder's dream come true. It was created by a team of former modders that Valve hired. This gives current modders a sense of hope that their mods will be appreciated and picked up by Valve, which increases modder output. More modder output means more content for Valve games without any development cost for Valve. You can tell that Valve is counting on modders for Alien Swarm given the release of the SDK and the open nature of the game.

And last, but definitely NOT least:

It Showcases Steam to New Users
This game is designed to be played with your friends. When I first discovered Alien Swarm, my initial reaction was to tell all of my bros how awesome this deal was. Many of those friends had never used Steam before. One friend had given up on Steam a few years back, and told me that this game was "A reason to go back to Steam again". This reaction is precisely what Valve wants. They want gamers to see all the new features that Steam has to offer for free. They want to show how easy it is to install a game using Steam. They hope that Alien Swarm players will browse the store and think "Damn, these are some good deals!". More Steam purchases=More money in Valve coffers.


It's an awesome deal for everyone- Steam users get a free game and more friends to play games with, Modders have more tools to mod with, and Valve has more paying customers.

And that, my friends, is why Alien Swarm has come to us free of charge.

It is also advertising for some of it's games
Hat trick achievement and one of the achievement icons is a cake
you see the hat trick thing -> you're interested in TF2 -> check it out on one of the free weekends or ask a steam friend who has the game as a lot of alien swarm players will also play TF2 because they recently migrated there -> you'll get a positive impression of the game or positive response from the long time player -> you want this game -> Gabe Newell laughs as your ~20$ are added to his money pile

[pez0]

Originally Posted by link.2

It is also advertising for some of it's games
Hat trick achievement and one of the achievement icons is a cake
you see the hat trick thing -> you're interested in TF2 -> check it out on one of the free weekends or ask a steam friend who has the game as a lot of alien swarm players will also play TF2 because they recently migrated there -> you'll get a positive impression of the game or positive response from the long time player -> you want this game -> Gabe Newell laughs as your ~20$ are added to his money pile

He's probably resorted to burning the smaller bills at this point just to clear some of the trash bags of loose cash filling one wing of his mansion to bursting.

Originally Posted by Croben

Dont forget the most important one!

"Valve ain't Activision!"

I'm so glad you didn't say anything about paid DLC, bringing that dead horse into arms reach again and . . .

♥♥♥♥ me.

If they wanted DLC, they wouldn't have provided developer tools. So I don't think we have to worry about that.

[Undead]

It's free because it was released under the Freeware License.
-.-*

[TheJCS]

NerdusMaximus"Obvious".

Ok, I agree with everything you said, but the most important thing is that the game is experimental. It's like Portal. "New concepts" (at least considering that this is a VALVe game) are being testeds (map editor, "custom" classes, unique POV, etc)

I wouldn't be surprised if we get another Alien Swarm game (paid) in a few years.

[Cymen90]

Originally Posted by TheJCS

NerdusMaximus"Obvious".
I wouldn't be surprised if we get another Alien Swarm game (paid) in a few years.

You mean like...a movie sequel but--for GAMES?!?!?! THAT would be completely new in the industry Those DEVILS!!! They have planned out everything!

[Acepilotf14]

Originally Posted by TheJCS

NerdusMaximus"Obvious".

Ok, I agree with everything you said, but the most important thing is that the game is experimental. It's like Portal. "New concepts" (at least considering that this is a VALVe game) are being testeds (map editor, "custom" classes, unique POV, etc)

I wouldn't be surprised if we get another Alien Swarm game (paid) in a few years.

What..
you really believe this is a unique game?

This isn't experimental whatsoever. Hell, it's a port of a UT mod. Valve only published it after buying out Blackcat.

[shackanaw]

Originally Posted by Acepilotf14

What..
you really believe this is a unique game?

This isn't experimental whatsoever. Hell, it's a port of a UT mod. Valve only published it after buying out Blackcat.

Read the parentheticals, he is saying that these concepts are new for a Valve title.

Originally Posted by EnterHavoc

bug testing the engine ahead of the game Icefrog was hired for

Even though I've never played DotA, Valve expanding into new genres excites me, especially after seeing how well Portal turned out, and how great Portal 2 is looking.

Originally Posted by juicebox360

Speaking of mods, Alien Swarm is released with a full SDK and game code. Additionally, Alien Swarm is completely free to play. Taking that into consideration, modders can now create total conversion mods WITHOUT the need for HL2, Portal, etc on their/the user's computer. This makes Source engine modding even more fruitful as people can make mods and cater to a large audience, not just those with Source games already installed. In turn, that helps Valve become more popular, etc, etc.

Valve loves hiring from the mod community, so attracting a larger community of modders helps them discover new talent, plus new gameplay ideas.

[Hat Overlord]

Well,the only thing I dont like,is that the game doesnt get into your purchases list,so if you reinstall steam,it will disappear from your account.

[VoXeR]

Originally Posted by Hat Overlord

Well,the only thing I dont like,is that the game doesnt get into your purchases list,so if you reinstall steam,it will disappear from your account.

And that's why Steam Cloud is awesome and available to this game.

[watties]

Originally Posted by Hat Overlord

Well,the only thing I dont like,is that the game doesnt get into your purchases list,so if you reinstall steam,it will disappear from your account.

♥♥♥♥ I'm getting a new computer soon. ALL MY LONG HARD HOURS ARE GONNA BE GONE

[Turrnip]

Or maybe its was just a nice gift from steam to us!

Well, considering that this game is fully moddable and already somewhat advanced (just with little content), releasing a paid alien swarm game likely would be a poor choice when there is a free one. Unless they made it completely revolutionary.