Spring Sale is WEAK!

[Mr_Know_It_All]

Wow - this is the weakest sale yet.

I was really hoping for better than 15-20% discounts.

Am I the only one disappointed?

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

J4MESOX4D님이 먼저 게시:

ValentB님이 먼저 게시:

13yo PSP port is 20% only, 2 months after. WTF. FOR REAL
P5 Royal was 30% 1 month after release already and that game was 3yo port of PS4.

Literally worst sale ever. Steam is done I guess.

Why you blaming Steam? It's the developers/publishers that set the prices.

coz steam has given these devs the vehicle
to treat the customers like a captive
cash cow audience....

[J4MESOX4D]

ragefifty50님이 먼저 게시:

J4MESOX4D님이 먼저 게시:

Why you blaming Steam? It's the developers/publishers that set the prices.

coz steam has given these devs the vehicle
to treat the customers like a captive
cash cow audience....

So publishers discounting their recently released games by 20% is seen as a cash-cow move because they aren't giving them away at 75% off a pop?

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

J4MESOX4D님이 먼저 게시:

ragefifty50님이 먼저 게시:

coz steam has given these devs the vehicle
to treat the customers like a captive
cash cow audience....

So publishers discounting their recently released games by 20% is seen as a cash-cow move because they aren't giving them away at 75% off a pop?

there are some good devs in there....
but when you look at whats happening
as the years move on and on and on.(thanks to Steamdb)...
the devs are getting a good deal and the customers are the cash cows..

[WhiteKnight]

They should bring back flash sales.

[J4MESOX4D]

WhiteKnight님이 먼저 게시:

They should bring back flash sales.

Never going to happen. Not only did it punish users who were either asleep or couldn't reach the store because of things like work in missing out on great deals, it also stalled sales for developers as people would wait up to 2 weeks for a further discount that may not materialise so in the end, everyone was frustrated and then there was always a last minute rush. It's more boring now but at least what you see day one is what you get throughout so there no FOMO because you have a life outside of Steam.

[Bee🐝]

This sale is pretty much what I expected. It’s not good or bad…it just is.

But while the publishers and developers did mostly what was expected - except for an early sale screw up by the Pathfinder devs in some regions - full marks to Valve for the surprise Steam Deck sale.

[wesnef]

WhiteKnight님이 먼저 게시:

They should bring back flash sales.

They got rid of flash sales when they added Refunding.

Otherwise, people would buy games, then see a flash sale the next day and do piles of refunds to buy at the flash price, and overloading the system.

[MadZec]

It is still usuall onany sale that happens that there are some people who will complain on it....... just way things are....
People in general are just too spoiled......

[Tito Shivan]

J4MESOX4D님이 먼저 게시:

WhiteKnight님이 먼저 게시:

They should bring back flash sales.

Never going to happen.

People seems to have forgotten Flash sales stopped being flashing long before they stopped being.

On the last years Flash sales still were around, the discount increase over the regular sale one was minimal. Games went a mere +5-10% cheaper on a Flash sale in the last years they were around.

Bringing Flash sales back won't bring back the deep discounts, because they were gone before Flash sales did, and for different reasons.

ragefifty50님이 먼저 게시:

the devs are getting a good deal and the customers are the cash cows..

And a lot of blame for that can be seen at the other side of the mirror. It takes two to tango.

[Mr_Know_It_All]

Glad to see some people are willing to engage in a conversation, rather than just trolling. :)

I'm also glad many of you have found games at discounts you like.

I've been a Steam member since November 20, 2004 - how about you trolls?

This means I have a history of seeing how Steam sales have played out for nearly 20 years.
And this is what I've seen (I'm sure this list will piss off a lot of you, but will resonate with many more):

- Old games never die - they get recycled and 'remastered', then sold as new with little more than moderately upgraded graphics. A double-dip and rarely worth the re-purchase for me.
- New release prices were steady for a long while - about $50. Now they climb as high as $70 while still selling 'annual passes'. Meanwhile, game company profits are higher than ever by an order of magnitude. So like many other businesses they squeeze their customers every chance they get. Particularly in this current economic environment, squeezing and gouging customers is in fashion.
- Steam absolutely has a hand in pricing. It's no different than any other high-volume retailer - it's a partnership with give and take.
- As many have noted, it takes about a year to get a discount down to about 50%
- Steam has created so many sale 'events' that they've diluted their own distinctiveness. It's starting to remind me of one of those discount electronics stores that always has "Going Out Of Business" banners up 24/7/365 yer after year.

And for those who suggested it - yes I do buy from other sources now that there is viable competition - Epic (primarily), GOG (if you're willing to wait), EA/Bethesda/Ubisoft (sometimes, but their library is specific to their own), Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc, (but mostly for cartridge games
Xbox/PlayStation which I do not play).


So, there's your red meat - have at it.

[Start_Running]

ragefifty50님이 먼저 게시:

all fair points...

as well as...
there are a lot of devs that arent making new and creative games because
the dont need too.... they just need to wait for inexperienced steam users
to join up and think they are getting some great new deal....

when they arent..

i feel as a customer i am losing thanks to lazy devs.... subjective of course

Or... you know. Maybe making a decent game means you can reliably count on a new generation of gamers coming to discover your awesome game. As for not needing to...Meh. You should probably look into how game development works , especially at the A and AAA.

Also creative games don't necessarily mean good, or profitable.

A game needs to be good enough to be deemed worth the money by any buyer and if a 5 or 10 year old game can do that wile being compared against contemporary offerings...yeah it's doing something right.

[Tito Shivan]

Mr_Know_It_All님이 먼저 게시:

I've been a Steam member since November 20, 2004 - how about you trolls?

This means I have a history of seeing how Steam sales have played out for nearly 20 years.
And this is what I've seen (I'm sure this list will piss off a lot of you, but will resonate with many more):

Been around for a year less than you, have bought over 1300 Steam games from multiple sources, so...

Mr_Know_It_All님이 먼저 게시:

- Old games never die - they get recycled and 'remastered', then sold as new with little more than moderately upgraded graphics. A double-dip and rarely worth the re-purchase for me.
- New release prices were steady for a long while - about $50. Now they climb as high as $70 while still selling 'annual passes'. Meanwhile, game company profits are higher than ever by an order of magnitude. So like many other businesses they squeeze their customers every chance they get. Particularly in this current economic environment, squeezing and gouging customers is in fashion.
- Steam absolutely has a hand in pricing. It's no different than any other high-volume retailer - it's a partnership with give and take.
- As many have noted, it takes about a year to get a discount down to about 50%
- Steam has created so many sale 'events' that they've diluted their own distinctiveness. It's starting to remind me of one of those discount electronics stores that always has "Going Out Of Business" banners up 24/7/365 yer after year.

#1 - I've never seen more freshness in gaming as in the last two decades. Never had so many new things to play in PC as right now.

#2 - Everything has climbed prices, but gaming hasn't as much as other things around. Still gaming is one of the most affordable hobbies I've come across. (Advice: You don't need every DLC nor every season pass and microtransaction)

#3 - Read the Steamworks documentation. Publishers set pricing.

#4 - Devs don't need to deeply discount games as they used to. Gamers have played a bigger role in it than they are willing to accept.

#5 - Steam isn't the only player in this game anymore. Now you have sale events happening somewhere every other week. Sales paradigm changed long ago. As in #4 Gamers have played a bigger role in it than they are willing to accept.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

Start_Running님이 먼저 게시:

ragefifty50님이 먼저 게시:

all fair points...

as well as...
there are a lot of devs that arent making new and creative games because
the dont need too.... they just need to wait for inexperienced steam users
to join up and think they are getting some great new deal....

when they arent..

i feel as a customer i am losing thanks to lazy devs.... subjective of course

Or... you know. Maybe making a decent game means you can reliably count on a new generation of gamers coming to discover your awesome game. As for not needing to...Meh. You should probably look into how game development works , especially at the A and AAA.

Also creative games don't necessarily mean good, or profitable.

A game needs to be good enough to be deemed worth the money by any buyer and if a 5 or 10 year old game can do that wile being compared against contemporary offerings...yeah it's doing something right.

i still think overall the customer is losing

subjective of course...


amen for a good refund process...

[wesnef]

Mr_Know_It_All님이 먼저 게시:

I've been a Steam member since November 20, 2004 - how about you trolls?

Only 2007 - since I bought a Half-life 2 box off a stack in Best Buy (or Circuit City?), and discovered that I'd have to install this "Steam" thing if I wanted to play it.

(been playing games in general since 1980, on the Apple II)

- New release prices were steady for a long while - about $50. Now they climb as high as $70 while still selling 'annual passes'

Games were $50 standard for the PS1/2 era, then they were $60 for the PS3/4 era. I've been expecting the rise to $70 since the current console gen came out. I don't fall for most microtransaction things, I love when games give me 'free' lootboxes (since opening them reinforces that they're awful purchases and I'll never spend a dime on them), etc. I've never been on board the "all DLC is cut content!" bandwagon. /shrug

- Steam has created so many sale 'events' that they've diluted their own distinctiveness. It's starting to remind me of one of those discount electronics stores that always has "Going Out Of Business" banners up 24/7/365 yer after year.

Yeah, I'll agree with that. Steam sales used to be Big Events! Ooh Aah! Now, I just keep an eye on games that I have on my wishlist, rarely buy any of them, and I feel no strong pressure to get them because my backlog is still full and I know there'll be another sale in a month or two. /yawn

And for those who suggested it - yes I do buy from other sources now that there is viable competition - Epic (primarily), GOG (if you're willing to wait), EA/Bethesda/Ubisoft (sometimes, but their library is specific to their own), Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc

I've not bothered with most of those other storefronts. I try to avoid them, unless forced into it by a game I really want to play - just like Half-life 2 got Steam installed, I ended up with Ubi's launcher because of The Division, and EA/Origin due to Mass Effect & Dragon Age. There's been nothing motivating me to get on GoG or Epic - I'm tired of having to create new accounts, install new launchers, etc. If I can avoid it, I will. /shrug

(and I haven't used those other storefronts that I've installed - the only games I have on Ubi are Div and Div2; the only games on Origin are ME 2 & 3, Dragon Age 2 & 3, and Kingdoms of Amalur. I've never given them my payment info, and never spent a dime on them - I bought all those games in boxes at stores back in the day, and entered codes. DIvision 2 came as a free code with my previous GPU.) I used to get console games cheap on Amazon, but it's been awhile since I bought an actual disc. As much as I dislike the 'digital age', I'm still stuck in it and am living with it. /meh


I've never refunded a game on Steam, nor felt the need for it. Of course, I also only bought like a dozen games last year, most of them indie stuff. The AAA games that I buy at launch (at most 2-3 a year), are all games I know I'm going to play and enjoy. Haven't had a problem yet. I don't think the game industry is falling into a pit, I don't view devs & publishers as "the enemy", and I think idiots review-bombing are a plague. I haven't wanted to be associated with the hive of scum and villainy represented by "Gamer" for years now, they're such a toxic pile of internet awfulness.

[RasaNova]

Scarran님이 먼저 게시:

Spring sale, is historically the weakest sale of the year.

Turns out there isn't really a history, as this is the first actual Spring seasonal sale. There have been sales in the spring, but only things like publisher sales, festivals, spring cleaning etc.

Which I totally didn't believe when I heard it, but when looking at the history to back it up I found that this is officially the first.