Steam's ability to provide instant feedback to developers is one of its major selling points. This is especially helpful when it comes to pricing, as the developers can quickly see how lowering or raising the price on a particular game affects its sales. And as it turns out, it has quite a large impact, as we saw during the 50 percent off sale of Left 4 Dead last weekend.

While speaking at DICE, Valve's Gabe Newell revealed that a recent sale on the Steam version of Left 4 Dead led to an astounding sales increase of 3000 percent. In fact, the numbers during the sale period actually eclipsed the sales during L4Ds launch week, typically the highest selling period in a game's life.

It's not just Valve games that see benefits from discounting games on

Steam, as Newell also explained that an undisclosed third-party title

saw a 36,000 percent jump in sales over a similar weekend. Here are

some of the figures that Newell revealed:

10 percent sale = 35 percent increase in sales

25 percent sale = 245 percent increase in sales

50 percent sale = 320 percent increase in sales

75 sale sale = 1470 percent increase in sales

Numbers like these help to illustrate the benefits of digital distribution, especially on the PC. By having so much control over the pricing of a game, it allows developers to give titles a longer lease on life, constantly keeping them in gamers' minds. Hopefully this is something we will eventually see make its way to downloadable console titles.

While the prices on Steam are often higher than what you'd find at retail, the sales are likewise usually stronger. It's an odd dichotomy in terms of pricing, but the deals are there if you're willing to wait.