Posted: 19-02-09 In: Steam By: DigiQ8 | (47) comments | Add your comments

Gabe Newell believes that the new way of entertainment is direct customer relationships, service orientation. Valve aims to touch their customers in some way every three weeks, not every three years when a new game is shipped.

Valve have observed the following:

• 30-year old songs with a little service (Rock Band, Guitar Hero) generate huge profits
• Pirates are ahead not just on price, but on service
• DRM appears to increase, not decrease piracy
• Privacy and transparency
• Shrinking distance to customer empowers content creators

DRM decreases service value for customers which increases pirated copies of games because they look more appealing, so DRM is bad.

You can read the full keynote live blog on G4tv.com.