Comments on: Valve’s Portal 2 Early Release Promotion: Innovative or Crass?

By: Paula

Paula — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:51:00 +0000

Thank you, Jimmy.

Clearly the author of this story didn’t have all the facts straight when he wrote this. He was asking for opinions of the marketing campaign behind the launch of Portal 2. Believe it or not, I’m a gamer and in marketing, so I responded.

There were also a lot of “outsiders” that were directed to this post. “Social moms” tweeted about it, so a lot of people, even the original poster, weren’t clear on the game, it’s jokes, or even what the intent of Valve was when they began the promo for Portal 2.

Don’t assume that everyone reading this post has been playing Portal for the last five years. The marketing campaign around the launch is drawing new attention to an old game. Which is good for gamers, for Valve, for anyone who wants to get angry about someone beating a dead horse, I guess.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:19:03 +0000

Considering how many times I have bought a game on steam, only to have the box copies of the game(either PC or console) in people’s hands before the release date, only for me to have to wait until the middle of the day to even start -downloading- the game, and then not being able to play it until the day after the official launch day…

Suffice to say, I feel very little sympathy. Kudos to Valve for throwing a bone to people who use their service. Valve made Portal 2, they made Steam, they have the power to distribute the game in any way they see fit, and in this case instead of pushing their own agenda and their own games, they are drumming up sales for indie developers. If that’s crass, we should all be so crass.

By: Ridge

Ridge — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:03:45 +0000

I think the big problem here is people are apparently getting upset with “having” to buy these games to release Portal. But that’s not it at all. If this had never happened, then the game would have released normally. This is just a program to help these indie developers get their names out there, and has the added bonus of potentially releasing a big name game early.

By: Ark

Ark — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:38:08 +0000

Wow dude don’t be such a jerk.

By: Zombified

Zombified — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:12:44 +0000

Yes, you do not HAVE to buy games. But they are strongly suggesting that you do, knowing that many people WILL buy the potato sack solely for the hopes of getting Portal 2 released early, and Valve doesn’t actually have to deliver (no, I don’t count a few hours earlier release as being worth an extra $40 spent). That is an extremely crass thing to do.

By: dude

dude — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:09:05 +0000

additionally if you have owned steam for 2+ years (and thus are in the habit of buying lots of those $5-$10 games, you will find that you already own 3-4 of the games in the pack!

people that are whining are just overacting, not once have i thought “omg we gotta buy 13 games”, how about thinking “thats a neat idea, i dont want those 13 games. but im gonna play the shit out of the 3 i already own to support this cool and neat idea”

its all a matter of perspective and mine is, hell yeah valve cool beans! (you also didnt mention that all of those 13 games got sweet portal themed levels and such)

By: MiiDNiiT3

MiiDNiiT3 — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 06:10:39 +0000

the facts are that it isnt like if you want portal 2 you have to buy some other games first, its an option that you have the choice to take or not, if people are annoyed about this then they must have problems + i own super meat boy and after reading about it i put a few hours in on it to try and help a little bit, whether it makes a difference or not is not really a big deal. just my two cents :)

By: markcocjin

markcocjin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 05:48:29 +0000

Despite the corrections made on this article with the help of some nudging from the commenters, this article is still wrong.

Insisting that Valve’s marketing scheme is crass is out of line. They are offering an earlier release to everyone if enough people play into GlaDOS’ game. And that is to play the select games that exist in the bundle. If you don’t own those games, you are encouraged to buy some or all of them.

Nobody is forcing you to buy Portal 2. It only applies to those that pre-ordered or have decided to buy it.

If you don’t take part in the experiment, you still get to play Portal 2 on the day that was promised.

Retail copies of Portal 2 like those of boxed PC and console versions cannot possibly work with the advanced release date due to physical limitations.

This experiment is for those who are interested in taking part in the ARG. They are given added value that lasts during that small amount of time before the original release. That’s like a few hours. A victory for those who is into the Valve ARG.

Why the in the world are you comparing this experiment to music albums and Kickstarter? Why can’t you see this in the context of gaming where overpriced, day one, low value DLC, network gaming subscription fees, draconian DRM, and yearly release game franchises are the norm?

Crass is such a strange thing to call Valve coming from a website that has a dedicated Apple tab in its features.

By: Prototype

Prototype — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 01:52:26 +0000

Valve is promoting the sale indie games.
If you buy the bundle, you get 75% off, or 50% off individual games.
Playing any of the listed games brings portal 2 release date forward by up to 13 hours.

How is any of this a bad thing?

Indie games developers get more sales.
Gamers get cheaper games and will play them, some of which are awesome (super meat boy, anmesia, audiosurf).

Everyone is happy. Well everyone except you aparently.

By: AK B

AK B — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 08:07:19 +0000

The games covered in the ‘promotion’ aren’t bad, or miscellaneous fluff. I bought several over the course of the past few months, long before the promotion was announced, because they’re actually pretty good. So rather than framing it as “Valve is trying to force people to buy $40 bucks of crap to get Portal 2 early”, it’s possible to frame it as “Valve’s got a really great deal on some good games, and if you buy them, you can help get Portal 2 released early.”