Approval by the gaming distribution channel could open up a new demographic for online gambling operator
The growing fame of online gaming distribution channel Steam has clearly caught the eye of Amaya's Full Tilt online gambling subsidiary, which has applied through Steam's crowd-approval Greenlight facility for exposure of the free-play Full Tilt.net software.
Owned by a company titled Valve, Steam is an increasingly popular online distribution service where growing numbers of e-gamers can obtain a wider variety of games in all categories from a range of developers.
Those products have been carefully and thoroughly evaluated by the gamers themselves, who vet new proposals through the Greenlight system and vote on whether submitted products should be accepted.
E-gamers tend to be a competitive breed with a taste for contests like poker that challenge their skills, and the almost meteoric rise of eSports tournaments has additionally opened up access possibilities to the 'millennial generation' demographic sought by so many land and online operators.
The eSports connection is no coincidence – Steam's parent group Valve is responsible for some of the games most commonly played as eSports, such as Counterstrike and Defense of the Ancients 2.
To give a perspective on the popularity of eSports, recent Steam statistics show that in a single day it is not unusual for almost 800,000 players were active on Dota 2, and almost 650,000 on Counterstrike: Global Offensive, with over 40 percent of players of the feminine gender.
Games on Steam are available as one-time buys or as free-to-play products which may include in-app purchasing. Once bought, the game is tied to the buyer's account rather than to his playing device, enabling the player to use his purchase on any device at any time.
From Steam's perspective, it means that buyers cannot resell their games – the player has to log on to his or her Steam account in order to play.
Developers interested in Steam can make application through the Greenlight player-approval system either with a complete offering or whilst their app is being prepared. They are required to submit gameplay videos and static screen shots along with a written pitch on the product, which the Steam user base then evaluates and votes on.
Games which receive sufficient interest are then pre-approved for sale on the platform once development has been completed.
Greenlight adds another level of player engagement and is clearly popular.
If Full Tilt is accepted for Steam it will be the first cross-platform player-vs.-player poker client to do so, giving it a distinct awareness advantage; there are a number of poker games on the platform, but most are single-player products, and some of those are packaged within another and more general game.
Steam also represents another and more innovative alternative to social media like Facebook through which Full Tilt can achieve exposure to a demographic that is likely to be of growing importance.
An article on Part Time Poker this week speculates that Full Tilt's interest in Steam is associated with its parent group's interest and sponsorship of professional poker players on the massively popular Twitch livestreaming platform, which attracts a similar a hard core e-gamer demographic as Steam and eSports.
Read more here: http://www.parttimepoker.com/fulltilt-net-looking-for-distribution-on-steam
Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa
