"DLC can now be added to any game on Steam, regardless of whether it was originally purchased via Steam, at retail, or via other digital outlets. It is also a feature of Steamworks, the suite of free tools and services available to game developers and publishers", so says the official announcement from Valve, which is providing developers and publishers with a way to include DownLoadable Content.

Savvy? Sure it is. DownLoadable Content is indeed the coming thing as Microsoft and Rockstar have both discovered with the recent success of The Lost and Damned for GTA IV. Although neither company has actually declared figures for the download, Edge has found a friendly analyst who has some ballpark numbers.

An analyst for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, called Jesse Divnich says his company reckons The Lost and the Damned has done better than retail sales of vouchers for the same content by 6:1. In terms of hard figures, Divinch says straight download accounted for $18million worth of sales.

All sounds good for Downloads and bad for retail? That is until you take note of the words of one poster to MCV who points out, "how many (downloads) were paid for using generic 2100 and 4200 points cards, available in retail stores, or from a mixture of points paid by credit card and point cards?"

All that said, the ability that Valve is offering to devs, publishers and gamers is definitely a sign for the future.