Will it work?
VALVE IS IN THE news again with two new goodies, SiN Episode 1: Emergence and Half-Life 2: Episode One . Both will be familiar to most FPS gamers, SiN being a continuation of the older game SiN, and Half-Life2 being an add-on for, well, I forget the game it was based on. Either way, the story here is not so much the releases as the paradigm shift they represent.
Both have the tag "Episode 1:" on them, and that is the significant thing. Valve has stated it is aiming for shorter, cheaper, episodic games, much like a TV series instead of a big-budget movie.
SiN will be selling on steam for $19.95 or so, about 40% the price of a modern game, and 1/3 that of a next-gen console holdup, I mean game.
The catch is they will be much shorter than a full blown epic like HL2, with the HL2 episode coming in at a claimed 4-6 hours of gameplay, SiN at 3-6. This is about half the time of a 'normal' game for less than half the price, a good value, but will it fly with the people spending the money?
That is the question, and that is the new idea that Valve is floating - cheaper, quicker and very different. Because of the Steam system, Valve can offer smaller chunks without the overhead of retail, and probably make a lot of money doing it. Will people tune in every so often for the latest episode?
If so, Valve can fundamentally change how gaming is done, and that may be a very good thing. Or it may be a very bad thing.
VALVE IS IN THE news again with two new goodies, SiN Episode 1: Emergence and Half-Life 2: Episode One . Both will be familiar to most FPS gamers, SiN being a continuation of the older game SiN, and Half-Life2 being an add-on for, well, I forget the game it was based on. Either way, the story here is not so much the releases as the paradigm shift they represent.
Both have the tag "Episode 1:" on them, and that is the significant thing. Valve has stated it is aiming for shorter, cheaper, episodic games, much like a TV series instead of a big-budget movie.
SiN will be selling on steam for $19.95 or so, about 40% the price of a modern game, and 1/3 that of a next-gen console holdup, I mean game.
The catch is they will be much shorter than a full blown epic like HL2, with the HL2 episode coming in at a claimed 4-6 hours of gameplay, SiN at 3-6. This is about half the time of a 'normal' game for less than half the price, a good value, but will it fly with the people spending the money?
That is the question, and that is the new idea that Valve is floating - cheaper, quicker and very different. Because of the Steam system, Valve can offer smaller chunks without the overhead of retail, and probably make a lot of money doing it. Will people tune in every so often for the latest episode?
If so, Valve can fundamentally change how gaming is done, and that may be a very good thing. Or it may be a very bad thing.
