Steam stopped us going bust, says Introversion

If ever one needed proof Steam was a good portal for independent developers, Introversion, of Defcon and Darwinia fame, is it: the company has credited the digital distribution service as actually saving the company.

After running into a rough patch after Darwinia+'s lukewarm reception on Xbox Live, the company was facing creditors and had reduced its staff to three people.

That was until it decided to add Steam achievements to Defcon, and subsequent promotion from Valve saved the day.

"This came about because Introversion nearly closed it’s doors in March," wrote Introversion's managing director Mark Morris on the company website. "Internally we knew within about an hour of Darwinia+’s launch [on XBL] that it hadn’t done well enough."

Facing the apparently inevitable, Introversion turned to Valve.

"When we started Introversion we’d had a string of successes and believed we were undefeatable, but it was a long time since we’d had a victory and we really needed one. Right on cue, Valve delivered," said Morris.

"The promo exceeded all of our expectations and when combined with our low burn rate (no office or staff now) we had gone from being fearful about paying our mortgages to having a year’s operating capital in the bank."

The promotion on Steam gave the studio the capital it needed to not only stay afloat, but continue work on Subversion.

The next game is undated as yet.

Thanks, RPS.