So with the computer version of the game comes various ways of advertising and distributing. If at all possible would the game be released over the Steam virtual console? Steam has had great success with advertising and boosting sales of numerous games. Games from higher up companies such as Activision or Atari to a small groups such as the creators of Audiosurf or Gish. Audiosurf is a game that used only Steam as a distributor and when it was available for pre-order it was first in the top sellers. If the PC version of World of Goo is to have multilayer capabilities then it would spark even more interest in the community and help sales.

For those who have not heard of Steam it is a free program for the PC that allows secure accounts that keep very close track of every game that you purchase with it. Steam is unique because it allows you to log into it on any computer and download your games whenever you want. So say you want to go over to your friend Joe's house to play so-and-so game just log into your Steam account on his PC and you have direct access to your game. Steam also features a wide community with over 1 million members.

No matter which way of marketing you choose you have my full support and a definite purchase from me.

Linky ;)

valve recently stated that sales of steam HL2 are just now at, or nearly, equal to the retail copies of HL2.    But they've released sales figures for neither (one of the last press releases they made said that, i think planethalf life posted that).  So it's a pretty good bet they'd make more sales by tackling the "stay at home mom's" who buy the $10-20 jewel case games & wally world/target then steam.  Odds are then this would be one of those games I buy other people just for fun, like Defcon or Darwinia.  :D

plus steam = ::)  :)

Yes, It would be very good if WoG was to be put on steam. The only problem is that it would be hard to make it availiable earlier to pre-orderers (i think). Not sure if steam has support for this.

Good idea anyway.

If World of Goo is released on Steam, I will purchase a license.  If it isn't on Steam, it'll take more consideration.

[quote author=sixtyfps link=topic=146.msg1187#msg1187 date=1216522778]
If World of Goo is released on Steam, I will purchase a license.  If it isn't on Steam, it'll take more consideration.
*scratches head*
Why would you take more consideration when it's not on steam? Why would steam be that much of an improvement?

[quote author=Sanjuaro link=topic=146.msg1136#msg1136 date=1214866682]
Steam also features a wide community with over 1 million members.


Actually the steam community has 15 million members (Source).  And that was as of Feb 8th '08, so it might be up around 16 million already from what I know of their growth recently.

I definitely would prefer the game to be available on steam...but I've already pre-ordered so unless I can do the secret PW thing it wouldn't matter to me. 

I think it would be most beneficial to 2dboy to partner with Valve for this, the reason being is that the community is a great network to tap into for sales.  Once you prove how great the game is to a small segment the rest will soon follow as all of their friends will be constantly playing (you can see what games your friends are playing on steam in realtime).

[quote author=Sqrl link=topic=146.msg1197#msg1197 date=1216811040]
Actually the steam community has 15 million members

don't believe that 100%.  I have 2 or 3 accounts because I kept getting free HL1's/CS/etc. & needed a new account for each.  So I'm one person, who hasn't started it up in 5 months, with many copies (valve calls them "sales") of one product.  Go by the logged in stats.  Max =~1.2m, double that & say ~2m use it more then occationatly. 

[quote author=The Happy Friar link=topic=146.msg1199#msg1199 date=1216964980]
[quote author=Sqrl link=topic=146.msg1197#msg1197 date=1216811040]
Actually the steam community has 15 million members

don't believe that 100%.  I have 2 or 3 accounts because I kept getting free HL1's/CS/etc. & needed a new account for each.  So I'm one person, who hasn't started it up in 5 months, with many copies (valve calls them "sales") of one product.  Go by the logged in stats.  Max =~1.2m, double that & say ~2m use it more then occationatly. 




Well I'm not saying all 15 million are unique users, and I don't think they all log in on a daily basis. 

With that said in August of 2006 there was a report that Steam had hit 10 million users and then in May of 2007 they were crossing 13 million and now January of 2008 they are at 15 million. While I'm sure there are plenty of dupe accounts and plenty of folks who don't log in regularly the fact remains that they have added 5 million members in only a 15 month period and are continuing to add members at similar rates.

I fully agree companies like to fudge the numbers but they aren't typically bold enough to play with the numbers as much as you are saying.

According to this article, in August of 2007 there were 3 million users who played on Steam every month, given the user base at the time this would mean roughly 25-33% of accounts saw regular use. That trend, if continued to the present, would mean some 4 to 5.33 million unique users accessing the service on at least a monthly basis.  Of course since then The Orange Box and CoD4 have released and I'm sure both of those games have had a massive positive influence on the number of regularly active accounts. I would not be surprised if unique regularly used accounts were as high as 6.3 million right now and they will probably be going up again when Left 4 Dead launches on November 4th (if they meet the deadline..gotta love Valve Time../sigh)

I know valve would never release this (and they seem to make NDA's for sales figures, at least according to id when id was asked about their game sales on steam), but I'd love to see a breakdown of how many users bought what game, how often they log on, things like that.  I know they don't simply so the #'s can't be used against them (an hyped mystery is much better then boring sales figures), but i'd still love to see those graphs, charts, numbers, etc.  Would be great for people who wouldn't consider steam as a method of sales because they're not sure if it's worth the effort & $$ vs other methods (direct website sales, online game stores, etc). 

Yeah, they let you know things such as how many people are online, what the average system is and how many people are playing TF2/logged into steam etc.

So why not release sales figures. It may even persuade more people to use it to distribute their games!

Hi everybody!!

Now that World of Goo has gone gold I'm really worried about STEAM possibilities....

I suppose developers have already considered release the game on STEAM, but I don't know if this option have been decided yet so I want to encourage them to make the final decision:


- STEAM is very easy way to buy the game: Different and secure payment methods, worldwide simultaneous release and 15 million people have already an STEAM account.
- STEAM can help to spread the game. Lot of people still don't know about World of Goo!! And many websites talk about STEAM new content.
- With VALVE's STEAMworks tools (free tools by the way) World of Goo could have: STEAM community integration (chat in-game), auto-updating (no annoying downloading patches), stats (hours played), ACHIEVEMENTS (everybody loves achievements!!) and useful developers tools (instant sales-data, tracking gameplay).
- And best of all..... with next STEAMcloud option, you could save your savegames on the net automatically, to continue playing wherever you want.


And that's the most exciting of STEAM..... that you can easily access to all your games with your account wherever yo want. So.... PLEASE... try everything you could to bring WORLD OF GOO to STEAM. PLEASE.


Thank you for reading.

I don't think there is need to be worried, many games are going on steam months after their release.
Finally, it's mostly only negociating with them for possibilities of releasing it.

All the steamworks (with for example achivements), it's nice, but not necessary.
I think World of Goo will be found on Steam one day, but it's not the priority, it can come later.

And anyway, not only Steam exists, it could be on Impulse too, some day (the Stardock equivalent).

But there's time for it, for now, most important, preorderers ! :P

the rock paper shotgun review has me all excited about goo

i too would purchase steamed goo

Outlook is good says Kyle. Regardless of what the outcome is, Kyle hopes to find out the answer sometime this week.

[quote author=unique identifier link=topic=146.msg1693#msg1693 date=1222704097]
i too would purchase steamed goo

mmm, steamed goo. sounds tasty :)

I agree steam is a fantastic way to achieve many, many times more sales and be as succesful as a game this awesome should be. Steam is a great way for quirky independant games to become outstandingly well known, as someone sited the example of audiosurf, please dear developers sign up to steam so you can make as much money as we want you too and keep making beautiful games  ;D

It's definitely coming to Steam.

I just hope that they'll try to let us register our serials through steam so we can get the game through there as well.

[quote author=FISKER_Q link=topic=146.msg1751#msg1751 date=1223200759]
It's definitely coming to Steam.

I just hope that they'll try to let us register our serials through steam so we can get the game through there as well.

Yeah, that'd be good. They did the same thing with Trials 2.

[quote author=FISKER_Q link=topic=146.msg1751#msg1751 date=1223200759]
It's definitely coming to Steam.

I just hope that they'll try to let us register our serials through steam so we can get the game through there as well.


Where'd you get that little titbit of information from? Theres at least three steam related threads here and the general consensus was that it wasn't coming to steam. You been chatting with Valve employees or did ron tell you something he didn't tell us?

As for registration codes, if it is coming to steam i hope so too.

[quote author=Ballisticsfood link=topic=146.msg1765#msg1765 date=1223228998]
[quote author=FISKER_Q link=topic=146.msg1751#msg1751 date=1223200759]
It's definitely coming to Steam.

I just hope that they'll try to let us register our serials through steam so we can get the game through there as well.


Where'd you get that little titbit of information from? Theres at least three steam related threads here and the general consensus was that it wasn't coming to steam. You been chatting with Valve employees or did ron tell you something he didn't tell us?

As for registration codes, if it is coming to steam i hope so too.


It's due to the way Steam works, the Client has knowledge about every application on Steam, this knowledge is contained in the ContentDescriptionRecord, which is put in the ClientRegistry.blob file.

Simply put, last friday World of Goo was added to the CDR.

A very slick way of finding out which games are coming to Steam! I mean really, really slick.

Also: Dammit. This means I may have to buy twice, as I use Steam for practically everything else.

[quote author=Ballisticsfood link=topic=146.msg1787#msg1787 date=1223280962]
A very slick way of finding out which games are coming to Steam! I mean really, really slick.

Also: Dammit. This means I may have to buy twice, as I use Steam for practically everything else.


Hehe yeah, hopefully they'll be able to activate from serials, atleast it's worth asking :P

I heard you could activate them with cereals.

*snicker*

Just to prove what FISKER_Q said about WoG showing up in steams ClientReg.blog:



All that program is is something that lets you view the file.

Seems like we have steam distribution for WoG :D:D:D:D

Don't count on the serials thing though because Kyle has said there is no DRM on the download version, which means no serial or anything with it. Kinda make it impossible to type a serial key into steam :P

Also, that feature has only ever been used by official Valve games at retail and games based of the Source engine. I don't see Valve letting 2D boy use it because it would mean Valve has to pay out for update bandwidth without anyone paying them any money, which isn't good for business.

If the price is right I might just get it twise or something. Plus it will likely be 10% off for the first week it's out on steam like most games they release on there :D

[quote author=matto1990 link=topic=146.msg1792#msg1792 date=1223286507]
Just to prove what FISKER_Q said about WoG showing up in steams ClientReg.blog:



All that program is is something that lets you view the file.

Seems like we have steam distribution for WoG :D:D:D:D

Don't count on the serials thing though because Kyle has said there is no DRM on the download version, which means no serial or anything with it. Kinda make it impossible to type a serial key into steam :P

Also, that feature has only ever been used by official Valve games at retail and games based of the Source engine. I don't see Valve letting 2D boy use it because it would mean Valve has to pay out for update bandwidth without anyone paying them any money, which isn't good for business.

If the price is right I might just get it twise or something. Plus it will likely be 10% off for the first week it's out on steam like most games they release on there :D


Well the Chapter 1 Preview had a serial, it was "The Magic Key".

True, it did, but I'm reffering to this:

http://2dboy.com/2008/08/24/updates-balls-absinthe-drm-aug-24/

The last bullet point says no DRM, and serials are a form of DRM so I don't think this will be in the final version. Also I think one of the answers in the FAQ says you won't have magic keys for the final game, it was only as protection for the preview.

I'm not sure really but I wouldn't get your hopes up with the steam serial thing ;)

Kyle told me the outlook is good regarding a Steam release. Clicky.

[quote author=matto1990 link=topic=146.msg1802#msg1802 date=1223297015]
True, it did, but I'm reffering to this:

http://2dboy.com/2008/08/24/updates-balls-absinthe-drm-aug-24/

The last bullet point says no DRM, and serials are a form of DRM so I don't think this will be in the final version. Also I think one of the answers in the FAQ says you won't have magic keys for the final game, it was only as protection for the preview.

I'm not sure really but I wouldn't get your hopes up with the steam serial thing ;)


Just recieved my copy in the mail, and the "Magic Key" is still there, infact it's the same as the one from the chapter 1 preview, so if you know the right link you'll probably be able to skip waiting for the pre-order e-mail.

Here's hoping that they can make the serial acivation achievable on Steam :)

[quote author=FISKER_Q link=topic=146.msg1838#msg1838 date=1223323029]
Just recieved my copy in the mail, and the "Magic Key" is still there, infact it's the same as the one from the chapter 1 preview, so if you know the right link you'll probably be able to skip waiting for the pre-order e-mail.

No, not possible unfortunately. The email bot has to remove your preview file and replace it with a full version, which he only does when he mails you.

And yes, waiting for your turn is better for the speed and reliability of the server.

Off to bed now, got school tomorrow.

[quote author=Tom Brouws link=topic=146.msg1843#msg1843 date=1223324816]
[quote author=FISKER_Q link=topic=146.msg1838#msg1838 date=1223323029]
Just recieved my copy in the mail, and the "Magic Key" is still there, infact it's the same as the one from the chapter 1 preview, so if you know the right link you'll probably be able to skip waiting for the pre-order e-mail.

No, not possible unfortunately. The email bot has to remove your preview file and replace it with a full version, which he only does when he mails you.

And yes, waiting for your turn is better for the speed and reliability of the server.

Off to bed now, got school tomorrow.


Alright, atleast noone to hammer the server even more then :P