I wonder if the province pulled some strings / spent some money / offered a deal to get this to happen, or if Valve just thinks its a good marketing angle.
These sales are pretty regular. I see them at least yearly, it’s not a political context-dependent sale on Steam’s part.
Quebec also has a pretty big gaming presence, with Ubisoft, Behaviour, Eidos, EA, WB, Bethesda, and many others big players having studios in Montreal.
Not even considering current politics. Most of the games they are promoting may well have been developed in Canada, but by foreign corporations.
Quebec also has a pretty big gaming presence
Yes, but it’s not like it’s something that any sizeable portion of consumers seek out. The non-indie games have no recognizable Quebec culture, they could have been made anywhere on the planet.
It’s not an accident that Quebec has an outsized presence in gaming. The Quebec government went out and made that happen through policy, taxes, subsidies, etc. They have a budget to promote the industry, and I strongly suspect that some money changed hands for Valve to present this angle to consumers when it is all but meaningless to the consumer experience. It’s really hard to come up with another explanation and I’m not sure you’re trying to offer an alternative or just add colour.
I strongly suspect that some money changed hands for Valve to present this angle to consumers
Maybe? It’s certainly a reasonable expectation. I mean I agree it’s probably not something that people actively seek out in general, but they have all kinds of sales based on themes that people don’t necessarily think to look for either. As a gamer from Quebec, I don’t actively search for games made in Quebec, but it’s nice to be able to look at a collection like this and know that they’re all made locally without having to make an active search for that. It’s a factor that’s generally not advertised very explicitly.
