{"id":122666,"date":"2020-12-30T19:44:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T19:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/375718"},"modified":"2020-12-30T19:44:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T19:44:00","slug":"steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/12\/30\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental\/","title":{"rendered":"Steam’s end of year bonanza gets ‘experimental’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gamasutra: Simon Carless’s Blog – Steam’s end of year bonanza gets ‘experimental’<\/title> <!--[if lt IE 9]> <a href=\"http:\/\/html5shim.googlecode.com\/svn\/trunk\/html5.js\">http:\/\/html5shim.googlecode.com\/svn\/trunk\/html5.js<\/a> <![endif]--> <!-- CSS --> <!-- link href=\"https:\/\/twimgs.com\/gamasutra\/css\/minified.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/ --> <!-- Mobile Specific Metas --> <!-- Start Visual Website Optimizer Asynchronous Code --> <!-- End Visual Website Optimizer Asynchronous Code --> <!-- Start HeatMap.me Code --> <!-- End HeatMap.me Code --> <!-- Start: GPT Sync --> <!-- End: GPT --> <!-- Eloqua tracking code --> <!-- End Eloqua tracking code --> <!-- Google Tag Manager (noscript) --> <!-- End Google Tag Manager (noscript) --> <!--Cookie banner code starts here --> <!--Cookie banner code ends here --> <!-- Informa Branding code goes here--> <\/p>\n<div id=\"iribbon-container\" class=\"content-body-wrapper\"> <button id=\"iribbon-title\" title=\"show\/hide\" class=\"inactive\">Informa<\/button> <\/p>\n<div id=\"iribbon-detail\" class=\"ribbon-hide\">\n<div id=\"iribbon-left\">\n<p>Gamasutra is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"iribbon-right\">\n<p>This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. 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calendar--> <!--begin about--> <\/p>\n<div class=\"bottom2\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/advertise\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental.jpg\" alt=\"Sponsor\" border=\"0\" class=\"whiteTop\" width=\"177px\" height=\"60px\"> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!--end about--> <!--begin network--> <\/p>\n<div class=\"leftnav_network bottom2\"> If you enjoy reading this site, you might also want to check out these UBM Tech sites: <\/p>\n<hr>\n<hr>\n<p> <br class=\"clear\">\n<\/div>\n<p> <!--end network--> <!--begin store--> <!--end store--> <\/div>\n<p><!--end leftcol--> <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"span-16 last\">\n<div class=\"content_box_middle\"> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name=\"BodyContent\" --> <\/p>\n<div class=\"page_item\">\n<div><a name=\"twitter_share\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com?status=RT @gamasutra: Steam's end of year bonanza gets 'experimental' http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/blogs\/SimonCarless\/20201230\/375717\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-1.gif\" alt=\"Share on Twitter\" border=\"0\" height=\"20\"><\/a> <span id=\"edit_post_link\"><\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/blogs\/rss\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-2.gif\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" border=\"0\" alt=\"RSS\"><\/a> <\/div>\n<hr>\n<div class=\"item_body mobile_image_transform\"> <strong><i><small> The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra\u0092s community.<br \/>The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. <\/small><\/i><\/strong> <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><em>[The <a href=\"https:\/\/gamediscoverability.substack.com\/\">GameDiscoverCo game discovery newsletter<\/a> is written by \u2018how people find your game\u2019 expert & <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamediscover.co\/\">GameDiscoverCo<\/a> founder Simon Carless, and is a regular look at how people discover and buy video games in the 2020s.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Just the one more GameDiscoverCo newsletter in 2020 – because it turns out people are buying LOTS of games and things are happening, even in this whole \u2018holiday period\u2019 thing.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll be back properly next week (and we did run out of time to do the first <a href=\"https:\/\/gamediscoverability.substack.com\/subscribe\">GameDiscoverCo Plus<\/a> AMA newsletter, but look for that in the first week of Jan 2021!) So let\u2019s go look at stuff, starting with innovations in the Steam Winter sale:<\/p>\n<h2>Steam sale gets faceted subpages!<\/h2>\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.substack.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa64c9623-4212-45e9-8aa1-eecee89d3076_1000x494.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt data-attrs=\"{"src":"https:\/\/bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/a64c9623-4212-45e9-8aa1-eecee89d3076_1000x494.jpeg","height":494,"width":1000,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":96285,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image\/jpeg","href":null}\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-1.jpg\" width=\"600\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>It may not have escaped your notice that the <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/\">Steam Winter Sale<\/a> is on right now! During this time, looks like most of your Steam games or game portfolios are making 5-8x their regular daily revenue. (And even more units than that, since prices are reduced.) So this sale is a couple of months revenue in one big pop\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s good to see that Valve is also trying new things to deepen discovery in the sale. Alongside the Winter Sale this year they\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/news\/group\/35143931\/view\/2914357483082955840\">unveiled faceted browsing<\/a>, a new way to explore sales on Steam. (It\u2019s listed as a Steam Labs experiment\/project, but is already rolled out to everyone in this sale.)<\/p>\n<p>As the Steam team notes: <em>\u201cAs part of this year\u2019s Autumn Sale we introduced over a dozen genre- and theme-specific sale pages to help players browse and discover our most popular games on discount during the event. We found these themed pages drove more game store page visits during the sale than all but one other Steam store point of discovery \u2013 the grid of featured games at the top of the home page. Given the popularity of these themed pages, we\u2019ve introduced more of them in this year\u2019s Winter Sale, and we\u2019ve added some smarts so we\u2019re able to now list them based on their likely relevance to you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So there\u2019s two things going on here. Firstly, each of these bigger subpages (of which there are 20 in this sale, I think, from \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/sale\/winter2020_story\">Story-Rich<\/a>\u2019 through \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/sale\/winter2020_horror\">Horror<\/a>\u2019 & beyond) have an infinite-scroll set of \u2018Featured Titles\u2019, which are ranked based on some kind of algorithm looking at revenue\/review popularity. There\u2019s also \u2018Recommended For You\u2019 personalized picks at the top of each of these subpages.<\/p>\n<p>(I did discover during researching this article that <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gamediscoverco\/status\/1344313967716364288\">Monopoly Plus was in the \u2018Horror\u2019 section of the sale.<\/a> But that\u2019s because some hilarious Steam user tagged it \u2018Psychological Horror\u2019, which is at least 50% true! Overall, it seems to work very well.)<\/p>\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.substack.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe4b16e01-ed11-4957-985f-1ca3ea704a71_1196x493.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt data-attrs=\"{"src":"https:\/\/bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/e4b16e01-ed11-4957-985f-1ca3ea704a71_1196x493.jpeg","height":493,"width":1196,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":106440,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image\/jpeg","href":null}\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-2.jpg\" width=\"600\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>And then there\u2019s faceted browsing, which <em>\u201c\u2026lets you tell Steam what you\u2019re looking for as you browse, by quickly filtering titles along a variety of axes such as visual style, theme, mood, player support, and more. Concepts can be selected across categories to serve as quick AND search operations, while concepts can be selected within categories to serve as quick OR search operations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This seems neat, too – I\u2019d be interested to know how much people use it, because I don\u2019t know that all of the tags you can filter by are ones that I would naturally apply when looking for a game. But many certainly are.<\/p>\n<p>And again, the point is – more choice, more ways to browse, less of the <em>\u2018your game is either featured or it isn\u2019t\u2019<\/em> binary which occurs in most sales. You can check out the Steam user feedback so far <a href=\"https:\/\/steamcommunity.com\/groups\/SteamLabs\/discussions\/14\/?snr=1_2108_group__1601\">in this forum<\/a> – and maybe you should go add your own!<\/p>\n<h2>Mobile games, misleading ads & ethics<\/h2>\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.substack.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F05b0862d-9d04-4555-832a-24d1998210c6_750x984.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt data-attrs=\"{"src":"https:\/\/bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/05b0862d-9d04-4555-832a-24d1998210c6_750x984.jpeg","height":984,"width":750,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":87628,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image\/jpeg","href":null}\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-3.jpg\" width=\"500\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>So, I was served this mobile ad for <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.topgamesinc.evony\">Evony: The King\u2019s Return<\/a> on Twitter the other day, and I think it\u2019s worth weighing in again on this ridiculous paid discovery hack.<\/p>\n<p>My comment was: <em>\u201cI see the \u2018people might be intimidated by a complex-looking strategy game, let\u2019s advertise it with a cute puzzle game\u2019 trend is still in effect for F2P mobile games\u2026 They may have this puzzle-y stuff actually in there as an initial mini-game but it\u2019s not how Evony plays at alllll.\u201d <\/em>(Actually, Evony is a complex strategy game, which ironically was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarysue.com\/evony-ads\/\">known for its \u2018sexy MMO ads\u2019<\/a> back a decade ago, sigh. So they\u2019re still at the \u2018ad hacking\u2019.)<\/p>\n<p>And this mobile game ad trend isn\u2019t limited to Evony. It used to be that games would show completely unrelated stories\/gameplay that didn\u2019t exist. But now, companies like Playrix (Gardenscapes) started <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deconstructoroffun.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/13\/how-playrix-township-became-a-billion-dollar-game\">actually integrating the puzzle ad mini-games<\/a> into the game itself – they <em>\u201chave essentially de-faked the fake ads by implementing these playable ads into their games.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And this is what Evony is doing too. A prominent review <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.topgamesinc.evony\">on Google Play<\/a> right now says: <em>\u201cThe puzzles get you on this game but then after a dozen or so puzzles this game becomes something totally different.\u201d <\/em>And here\u2019s another: <em>\u201cDownloaded it because it advertised it to be a puzzle game. Doesn’t tell you it’s actually a war type game with a few puzzles thrown in. Doesn’t tell you when someone attacks you until it’s over, and the monster’s levels are ridiculously hard..\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So yep, this is the actual, \u2018real\u2019 game (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QVlXtNT6_qA\">video<\/a>, including both mini-games and normal gameplay), which the latter reviewer actually started playing:<\/p>\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.substack.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F92df9b92-2403-4953-88ab-d4bbce420715_576x768.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt data-attrs=\"{"src":"https:\/\/bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/92df9b92-2403-4953-88ab-d4bbce420715_576x768.jpeg","height":768,"width":576,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":134956,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image\/jpeg","href":null}\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-4.jpg\" width=\"500\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>The icing on the cake for me is this article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.storemaven.com\/mobile-gaming-companies-fake-ads\/\">about why the misleading mobile game ads are actually working<\/a>. And it\u2019s.. not great: <em>\u201cTo break out and signal to Facebook to serve its ad to a different audience (Resource Management, Hidden Object, Story Adventure) who would also enjoy the game but need to discover it, [mobile publishers] needed to somehow tell the optimization algorithms to focus on that audience. They did so by creating creatives for such types of games.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So I understand that making paid mobile ads that partly or wholly misrepresent the game makes business sense. It encourages some otherwise disinterested people to spend money in the game long-term, despite the fake pitch.<\/p>\n<p>So it is – apparently – a discovery win for some major mobile game companies. And doubtless revenue-positive when done right. But this is precisely why the paid ad-centric nature of mobile gaming encourages less-than-ethical behavior. You have to keep ratcheting up the tactics to compete (because paid ads drive revenue, and you need high ROI).<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019m just talking about acquisition tactics here – not retention and revenue maximization through monetization design, which is a whole different ball of wax when taken to the extreme. Not saying that F2P companies are \u2018evil\u2019 – plenty of good, interesting game design & reasonable business still happening there – but\u2026 heads up?<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The game discovery news round-up..<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.substack.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9f7809bf-126c-4c4c-9f1b-d4c38c7c3758_800x392.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt data-attrs=\"{"src":"https:\/\/bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/9f7809bf-126c-4c4c-9f1b-d4c38c7c3758_800x392.jpeg","height":392,"width":800,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":102941,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image\/jpeg","href":null}\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-5.jpg\" width=\"600\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>And that\u2019s pretty much it for the year. Except these interesting and relevant links from the world of game discovery, of course, which should tide you over until this newsletter returns in the first week of January:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Steam has <a href=\"https:\/\/steamcommunity.com\/games\/593110\/announcements\/detail\/2904223825295910215\">published its \u2018best of the year\u2019 lists<\/a>, which actually include true rankings by total revenue for the year for all games, new releases for their first two weeks, VR games, Early Access graduates, and a chart of most played games! Fascinating data here – we\u2019ll do a deep-dive analysis on these for <a href=\"https:\/\/gamediscoverability.substack.com\/p\/gamediscoverco-plus-subscribe-today\">GameDiscoverCo Plus<\/a> in the New Year, but feel free to peruse at your leisure.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>David Wehle (The First Tree) has <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DavidWehle\/status\/1341531929384865792\">a little update on iOS vs Android sales<\/a> for The First Tree, following <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DavidWehle\/status\/1332429885382426624\">his earlier transparency<\/a> on Week 1 revenue: <em>\u201cSome of you were asking for a 1 month follow up on mobile launch for The First Tree. It’s looking like an 11:1 [revenue] difference between iOS and Android. No features yet on Google Play from what I can tell… I can’t overstate how helpful the Apple feature was, especially since the game has just left the New Games We Love section, and daily sales have dropped by 80%.\u201d <\/em>Premium mobile sales are incremental, for sure, but can be handy!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>SteamDB\u2019s rating algorithm <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SteamDB\/status\/1342092662581690369\">has decided<\/a> its own take on the top new\/Steam 1.0 releases of 2020 – it\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/steamdb.info\/blog\/steamdb-rating\/\">mixture of number of reviews and positive ratings<\/a>, and the top entries are as follows: <em>\u201c1. Hades – 97.45% 2. Factorio – 97.41% 3. Half-Life: Alyx – 96.81% 4. Helltaker – 96.57% 5. The Henry Stickmin Collection – 96.51%.\u201d<\/em> Interesting – also neat that Townscaper made it into the Top 10. (There\u2019s a full <a href=\"https:\/\/steamdb.info\/stats\/gameratings\/2020\/\">list of ratings here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>There\u2019s been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.morningstar.com\/news\/dow-jones\/202012232475\/apples-china-app-store-sheds-games-under-pressure\">even more iOS game removals in China,<\/a> due to the great majority of titles not having the correct Chinese game license, and Apple gradually cracking down: <em>\u201cApple had 272,000 games in its China App Store last year, according to Sensor Tower, a company that tracks app business globally. For 2020, it has found at least 94,000 removals from the China store, far exceeding the 25,000 game apps taken down last year.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Relatedly, Chundi Zhang from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ampereanalysis.com\/\">Ampere Analysis<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChundiZhang\/status\/1341464685443473413\">just noted<\/a> on Twitter: <em>\u201cSteam China announces it will provide game teasers via “Steam Labs” at Perfect World Esports Carnival on Jan 16-17, 2021. Perfect World is Valve’s licensing partner to operate DOTA 2 and CS:GO in China\u2026 It is a signal that the new Steam storefront is coming soon in China after 2 years development, which also raises players’ concerns about the current international version of Steam is facing censorship or even being replaced in China.\u201d<\/em> The saga continues!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Some <a href=\"https:\/\/howtomarketagame.com\/2020\/12\/28\/5-things-you-need-to-do-before-the-end-of-the-steam-winter-sale\/\">useful reminders from Chris Zukowski<\/a> about things you could (or should!) do before the end of the Steam Winter sale: <em>\u201cTell them it is still on sale (even though you did when the sale started).. Take the pulse of your marketing channels.. Give one final reminder with 24 hours to go.. Cross Promote Your Next Game.. Remind existing followers to review your game.\u201d <\/em>Granular marketing actions are important, folks.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>[Happy holidays! We\u2019re <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamediscover.co\/\">GameDiscoverCo<\/a>, a new agency based around one simple issue: how do players find, buy and enjoy your premium PC or console game? You can now <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/gamediscoverability.substack.com\/subscribe\">subscribe to GameDiscoverCo Plus<\/a><\/strong> to get <a href=\"https:\/\/gamediscoverability.substack.com\/p\/gamediscoverco-plus-subscribe-today\">access to exclusive newsletters, interactive daily rankings of every unreleased Steam game<\/a>, and lots more besides.]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<hr>\n<div class=\"hide-phone\">\n<h3>Related Jobs<\/h3>\n<div class=\"stories_item\">\n<div class=\"thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobs.gamasutra.com\/job\/java-software-developer-core-team-hamburg-34724\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-2.png\" alt=\"innogames\" width=\"120\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"stories_item\">\n<div class=\"thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobs.gamasutra.com\/job\/senior-producer-amsterdam-34706\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-3.png\" alt=\"Guerrilla Games\" width=\"120\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"stories_item\">\n<div class=\"thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobs.gamasutra.com\/job\/senior-development-manager-espoo-34705\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-3.gif\" alt=\"Remedy Entertainment\" width=\"120\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"stories_item\">\n<div class=\"thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobs.gamasutra.com\/job\/senior-development-manager-xdev-team-espoo-34552\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-3.gif\" alt=\"Remedy Entertainment\" width=\"120\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<hr><\/div>\n<p> <!-- InstanceEndEditable --> <\/div>\n<p><!--end contentbox-->\n<\/div>\n<p><!--end span-16--> <\/div>\n<p> <br class=\"clear\"> <\/div>\n<p><!--end span-21--> <!--begin right sidebar--> <!--end right sidebar--> <!– <\/div>\n<p> Extra Div –> <!-- Beginning Sync AdSlot 21 for Ad unit Gamasutra\/\/consolepc ### size: [[8,2]] --> <!-- End AdSlot 21 --> <!-- Beginning Sync AdSlot 22 for Ad unit Gamasutra\/\/consolepc ### size: [[8,4]] --> <!-- End AdSlot 22 --> <!-- Beginning Sync AdSlot 23 for Ad unit Gamasutra\/\/consolepc ### size: [[4,4]] --> <!-- End AdSlot 23 --> <br class=\"clear\"><\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--end content-body-wrapper--> <\/div>\n<p><!--end container--><br \/>\n<!--begin footer--> <!--end footer--> <!-- SiteCatalyst code version: H.21.\nCopyright 1996-2010 Adobe, Inc. All Rights Reserved\nMore info available at http:\/\/www.omniture.com --> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniture.com\" title=\"Web Analytics\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/steams-end-of-year-bonanza-gets-experimental-4.gif\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt><\/a><!--\/DO NOT REMOVE\/--><br \/>\n<!-- End SiteCatalyst code version: H.21. --> <!-- Begin ADSNATIVE Code --> <!-- End ADSNATIVE Code --><br \/>\n<!--Begin Ad script for pixel --> <!--END Ad script for pixel --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><!– –> Gamasutra: Simon Carless’s Blog – Steam’s end of year bonanza gets ‘experimental’ Informa Gamasutra is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC’s registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}