Steam decided to shoot UT3 for a free multiplayer trial last weekend, plus a discount on the full game. The result? A massive 2000% increase in players. No kidding.
A special version of the game, Unreal Tournament 3 Black was released on Steam on March 5th, completely updated and juiced up and all that. Steam also gave the free away on a free multiplayer trial for the weekend. Turned out to be an excellent idea.
As stated above, a whopping 2000% increase in players means that either the game had a miserable amount of players, or the operation has resulted in resounding success.
To cash in even more, you can now get UT3 Black for 40% off via Steam. Plus, Steam will be offering an encore free trial this weekend this Friday.
This will probably serve as incentive for more Multiplayer-focussed games to ally with Valve’s Steam. In any case, I definitely think that this week’s encore weekend won’t be the last of this…