14 DAY TRIAL // Digital distribution is catching up quite quickly with the traditional brick-and-mortar retail game stores. Services such as Steam or Direct2Drive for the PC and the Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Store or WiiWare Channel for consoles are beginning to replace outlets such as GameStop or Target.
Another pretty important step has now been made, as Valve has just announced that its leading digital content service, Steam, will soon start to offer in-game Downloadable Content, which gamers can purchase by using the browser that is built into the program.
Consider this: you’re starting up a game that has multiplayer, but you find a server that has a map that recently went on sale. You will be able to buy, download and install it, all without leaving the game, and immediately enter the multiplayer match with your friends.
Although this might seem like nothing but good news for PC gamers, let's not forget that this will lead to a lot of map packs that were usually given to these gamers free of charge, as opposed to console owners, turning into paid downloads.
While this will surely make some people frown upon the decision of Valve, developers and publishers will surely be extremely happy, as another profit opportunity has popped up for them. Maybe in the future we will see DLC packs appear at the same time for all the big platforms, like the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC.
The first game to receive paid DLC on Steam is The Maw, but it certainly won't be the last. So besides the money Steam users will have to pay for the games, they'll also have to save up for the eventual DLC that their favorite titles will receive.