Steam introduces free-to-play games

The first wave of free-to-play games have now gone live on Steam.

Valve announced it is now offering support for such titles, including use of Steam’s micro-transaction backend system to handle in-game transactions. The system is already available to Steamworks partners and currently used in titles such as Team Fortress 2.

The first five free-to-play titles to be made available are Champions Online: Free For All, Forsaken Worlds, Global Agenda: Free Agent, Spiral Knights and Alliance of Valiant Arms.

The firm will also be running a five-day ‘free-to-play game of the day’ promotion through it’s digital retail outlet. Beginning with Spiral Knights today and closing with AVA on Sunday, June 19th, each of the five games will offer exclusive in-game content to users.

The introduction of free-to-play games is another example of the constant evolution of Steam,” said Valve business development director Jason Holtman on the official site.

Free-to-play games offer new game genres and game experiences for customers, while offering developers and publishers new revenue opportunities and the ability to reach customers in areas of the world where the traditional packaged goods model is less popular than free-to-play.”