14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer Valve, the creator of the Steam digital distribution platform, has announced that it has introduced a new Free to Play Games category to the service, and that it is adding five video games that can be played by any gamer without paying any money.
The five games initially added to the category are: Champions Online: Free for All, Global Agenda: Free Agent, Spiral Knights, Forsaken Worlds and Alliance of Valiant Arms, aka AVA.
The new initiative is designed to again expand the audience of Steam and make it more interesting to a category of gamers that is not interested in blockbuster titles that come with a price tag.
All the titles launched as part of the Free to Play games category will be getting exclusive in-game contents for those who try them out on Steam on a designated day and all those who are interested in getting more content in the titles will be able to do so using a Steamworks-powered transaction system.
Jason Holtman, who is the director of business development at Valve, has stated when the announcement was made, “The introduction of Free to Play games is another example of the constant evolution of Steam.”
He added, “Free to Play games offer new game genres and game experiences for customers, while offering developers and publishers new revenue opportunities and the ability to reach customers in areas of the world where the traditional packaged goods model is less popular than F2P.”
The free-to-play model is becoming more and more attractive to video game developers who are looking for a wide audience and can support their games with the money of only a small number of players.
At the moment Steam offers users access to more than 1,500 video game and there are more than 30 million active accounts for the service.