Whodda Thunk?

I’m sure this is blowing the top business minds everywhere, but apparently giving people a free basically unlimited sample of something and then selling that something at a substantial discount will dramatically increase its use and sales.

I know, I know… Crazy, right?  But that’s the lesson we learn from the news that Epic’s Unreal Tournament 3 saw a 2000% increase in simultaneous players after allowing people to take it for a spin for free for a full weekend and discounting the game 40% off of its normal price on Steam.

Apparently, this result was so shocking that brilliant minds at Epic determined that they would extend the sale and do another free weekend.  Maybe it will be so successful that Epic will just feel compelled to permanently keep the game on “sale” and make every weekend a free one!

I guess Epic can’t take all the credit for this idea though… after all, this comes after Left 4 Dead sales increased 3000%, beating out even its own launch sales, after Valve discounted it 50% for a weekend.

It really is shocking… heavily discount a popular and well-reviewed game and its sales increase dramatically.  I never would’ve guessed.

Now, snark aside… I’m just glad that someone has finally realized that they can still have sales on digital items.  It seems that Microsoft is sort of getting the hint as well as they’re actually having weekly sales as well… though it doesn’t seem like it’s with things that are that interesting yet.  Why they don’t start discounting and having sales on some of their older catalog is beyond me, and the number one thing I am not looking forward to as we approach a discless gaming world.