Valve and the IGF team up again to bring 2014′s finalists to Steam
The Independent Games Festival has renewed its deal with Valve to give shortlisted finalists of the 2014 IGF Awards an automagical Golden Ticket onto Steam. All main competition finalists will be offered a distribution deal, whether they’re nominated in the individual Excellence categories, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, or the Nuovo Award. “Nuovo” being IGF speak for “kinda weird”.
Thanks to the IGF 2013 deal, Steam became home to games like Kentucky Route Zero, Starseed Pilgrim, Bientot l’Ete, Gone Home, MirrorMoon EP, and – winner of the Grand Prize, Nuovo and Narrative awards – Cart Life. It’s arguable that many of the games would have eventually secured distribution without the guaranteed offer, but the partnership remains a pretty convenient shortcut for indies.
It’s going to be especially interesting this year to see how the nomination list compares to Steam’s own Greenlight approval list. Valve’s wisdom-of-the-crowds voting system is supposed to make it easier for quality indie games to get onto the storefront, but its success at doing so is debatable. At the very least, the Steam/IGF deal gives acclaimed projects a second chance, even if they didn’t capture the attention of Greenlight’s core voter base.
The 16th IGF will run from the 17-21st March, 2014. The finalists will be announced January.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/09/12/valve-and-the-igf-team-up-again-to-bring-2014s-finalists-to-steam/
Gone Home has sold over 50,000 copies so far
Gone Home developer The Fullbright Company has announced that its Steam release has generated more than 50,000 sales since it launched on August 15.
The game is currently selling for £14.99/$19.99 on Steam and £20 over on the official site.
It casts you as a person who has just returned from a year abroad. You enter your family home and expect your loved ones to greet you with open arms, except they’ve all disappeared. It’s very mysterious and a novel concept to boot.
Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor issued a statement on the sales figures over on the Gone Home site which read, “We’re now almost a month out since launching on August 15, and we hope people will find it encouraging to know that, along with the positive critical response we are continually grateful for and humbled by, we are also doing alright as far as sales numbers go!”
http://www.vg247.com/2013/09/12/gone-home-has-sold-over-50000-copies-so-far/
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