'The Final Hours of Portal 2' iPad app tests the waters of for pay videogame 'making of' stories

If you're hungry for more Portal 2 love, yes, there's an app for that. Geoff Keighley, known best today for hosting GT.TV on Spike but whose body of work stretches back to 1992, has created an in-depth behind the scenes piece on the game titled "The Final Hours of Portal 2" as an iPad app.

Priced at $1.99, the Final Hours of Portal 2 combines a 15,000 word story delving into the making of Portal 2 with the multimedia capabilities of the iPad for supporting photos, audio clips, videos, and other interactive elements. "iPad is the perfect platform to bring the amazing story of Portal 2's development to life in a new, innovative way," said Keighley.

It's an interesting experiment in modern videogame journalism. Keighley visited Valve over the three years the game was in development to put together the story, conduct interviews, and put together the media to complete the package. Not an uncommon time investment for similar "making of" books, but it definitely stands in contrast to the get-it-posted-five-minutes-ago nature of online reporting. Keighley previously wrote similar stories as part of his Behind the Games series at Gamespot, the last of which, "The Final Hours of Half-Life 2," was published in 2004.

The audience on the Net also expects to get its content for free. How willing people are to pay, even if only a couple bucks, will be an interesting experiment to watch. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the subject in the comments.

More information on the app can be had on the Final Hours of Portal 2 official site.