In-game downloadable content on Steam makes its debut today in Twisted Pixel’s The Maw. Available now are two additional levels for the action-adventure platformer, namely Brute Force and River Redirect. Each costs $1.25 apiece. Quite reasonable.

And this is just the beginning. As an extension to Steamworks, Valve says all service partners are now able to roll out DLC straight from within their game. While extremely convenient, let’s just hope this move won’t entice developers and publishers into releasing lots of paid content and skimp on free offerings. Unlike console gamers, those on the PC side are used to receiving substantial goodies for no cost.

Interestingly, DLC can be added to Steam titles regardless of whether it was purchased from Steam or not.

Steam offers gamers in-game downloadable content

March 16, 2009 – Valve, creators of best-selling entertainment products and advanced technologies, today announced the arrival of in-game downloadable content to Steam, their massively popular PC gaming platform. In-game DLC allows developers and publishers to use their own games as a platform for selling additional content to gamers.

The first game to take advantage of this new in-game DLC capability is The Maw, by Twisted Pixel Games. Their first DLC releases are levels entitled The Maw: Brute Force and The Maw: River Redirect. Each DLC level expands The Maw storyline by fitting in-between the original levels as “deleted scenes.”

Twisted Pixel CEO, Michael Wilford, says “We’re happy that we can now offer Steam customers significant expansions to the Maw story, delivering more Maw directly to gamers while they’re still playing the game.”

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.

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