How is Steam so good with sales?

[snlᴉʇnɐNɔᴉɯsoƆ]

I've paid less than five for over a dozen great games that often cost several times their discounted prices.

How do they constantly seem to have great deals?

[Crazy Tiger]

Because publishers make their games available at those prices. Nothing to do with Steam, actually.

[snlᴉʇnɐNɔᴉɯsoƆ]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Because publishers make their games available at those prices. Nothing to do with Steam, actually.

They don't offer incentives to make the specials happen?

[Crazy Tiger]

No.

[nullable]

Originally posted by cosmicnautilus:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Because publishers make their games available at those prices. Nothing to do with Steam, actually.

They don't offer incentives to make the specials happen?

The incentive is there's over a decade of watching Steam user behavior. And if you want to make money, having your game on sale during a major event can move a lot of copies and generate a fair amount of revenue.

IE If twenty people won't buy a game at full price. But they will buy a game at 50% off. Sure the publisher is making less money per user. But selling the equivalent of ten full priced copies that you weren't going to sell before adds up when you add a couple of more zeros to the number of buyers.

And lots of people wait for major events to buy games, so there's a lot of competition between publishers to have attractive discounts to attract buyers. Should I buy Red Dead Redemption 2 or Jedi Fallen Order if I can only get one...

[Kargor]

Also, pretty much every game shop runs sales all the time. It's a pretty normal thing.

[Xautos]

mid-week sales, publisher sales, event sales (spring, summer, autumn and winter sales). All depends on the developers/publishers when they want to put them up on sale.

[Blaze1961]

Because Steam offers a solid easy to use program that is convenient for their users to find what they are looking for in one spot. Developers know they can reach many more people on Steam than anywhere else and the competition between them is what keeps the price low.

[Count_Dandyman]

Originally posted by Blaze1961:

Because Steam offers a solid easy to use program that is convenient for their users to find what they are looking for in one spot. Developers know they can reach many more people on Steam than anywhere else and the competition between them is what keeps the price low.

They also know they don't have a preowned game market cutting into potential sales especially on older titles that in the same time on consoles could see one copy shuffle through five or more owners.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Also, pretty much every game shop runs sales all the time. It's a pretty normal thing.

This.

The average price I've paid per game that I've paid for (i.e. not including free games) is less than US$5.

I think it might still be less than $5 even if you excluded bundled games, since I do buy a lot of pretty cheap games.

And such deals are available on Steam and elsewhere; this sort of pricing is pretty common. For example, an older game or an indie game might easily be $19.99 base price, and then on -75% for a sales event, at $4.99.

[KillahInstinct]

Originally posted by cosmicnautilus:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Because publishers make their games available at those prices. Nothing to do with Steam, actually.

They don't offer incentives to make the specials happen?

Valve being a pioneer in terms of online sales, realised early on that it's better to have customers than none at all - even at low sales. People become engaged, stay around, buy other games, buy stuff for in-game and so on.

You can see sales raising like 10-fold during sales, and while sales became less extreme due to additions like refunds - they're still a good way to move products that you otherwise wouldn't be selling.

[Ganger]

In the past steam sales were really great with massive discounts, most 75% off games back then were sub £5. But now because AAA+ titles are now costing £50+, a 75% discount isn't as great or looks as great as it once did when games cost £30.

[snlᴉʇnɐNɔᴉɯsoƆ]

Originally posted by Ganger:

In the past steam sales were really great with massive discounts, most 75% off games back then were sub £5. But now because AAA+ titles are now costing £50+, a 75% discount isn't as great or looks as great as it once did when games cost £30.

For old school games I usually pay less than three bucks for a normal twenty dollar price. New ones are ever so rarely good deals.

[crunchyfrog]

Simple, they are the market leader as a store. They sell not just the vast majority of games from most publishers, but the most quantity too.

Because of that, and because of the nature of video games (they make their money within the first two weeks of sale), then it's part and parcel of how it all works.

And remember, when you're dealing with non-physical goods, things like warehousing, transport, and manufacture aren't a thing, so there's no additional costs. You can afford to cut huge discounts when you're essentially selling ONE filename to millions.

[KillahInstinct]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Simple, they are the market leader as a store. They sell not just the vast majority of games from most publishers, but the most quantity too.

Because of that, and because of the nature of video games (they make their money within the first two weeks of sale), then it's part and parcel of how it all works.

And remember, when you're dealing with non-physical goods, things like warehousing, transport, and manufacture aren't a thing, so there's no additional costs. You can afford to cut huge discounts when you're essentially selling ONE filename to millions.

They had sales like it from the get-go, probably even bigger ones.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by KillahInstinct:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Simple, they are the market leader as a store. They sell not just the vast majority of games from most publishers, but the most quantity too.

Because of that, and because of the nature of video games (they make their money within the first two weeks of sale), then it's part and parcel of how it all works.

And remember, when you're dealing with non-physical goods, things like warehousing, transport, and manufacture aren't a thing, so there's no additional costs. You can afford to cut huge discounts when you're essentially selling ONE filename to millions.

They had sales like it from the get-go, probably even bigger ones.

Sure, never said otherwise. The point is they can.