Episodic gaming good for studios

Valve's Gabe Newell states that their Half Life 2 episodes are helping them to make the better games due to all the feedback they are able to get each time they release a new episode. They release an episode with some quirky new gameplay features or some new weapon (like the portals) and they are able to get feedback on how it works. That helps them determine what path they should walk down for their next episode, or how big of an impact a certain gameplay aspect or character should have on the game. To me, this gives developers more concrete proof of how both devs and consumer can benefit from episodic content. Gabe also goes on to talk a bit about Team Fortress 2. Good interview, check it out here.