Are Steam sales inflating non-sale prices ?

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

To be honest the title says it all. Sale discounts are rarely much less than 25% and go up to 75% or even 90%.

But I notice that "Attila", currently in the more limited than usual Sega sale, is still coming in more than a year after release at £29.99 prior to discount. It would be interesting to know what percentage of games are sold at full price as opposed to on sale because I suspect that "sale" prices are becoming the "real" prices of games.

S.x.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by gallifrey:

To be honest the title says it all. Sale discounts are rarely much less than 25% and go up to 75% or even 90%.

But I notice that "Attila", currently in the more limited than usual Sega sale, is still coming in more than a year after release at £29.99 prior to discount. It would be interesting to know what percentage of games are sold at full price as opposed to on sale because I suspect that "sale" prices are becoming the "real" prices of games.

S.x.

I'm not sure I get what you mean.

Are you saying that the base price ought to drop more because it's already been a year after release?

Because the price is certainly not being jacked up just to be discounted. The base price has been £29.99 for a while now.

I don't think that retailers ought to be stuck to some sort of schedule for lowering base prices. They'll keep the prices high as long as they think they can keep selling for that price, while we customers (at least the patient ones among us) will keep waiting them out to try to pick up the game at a lower price.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Originally posted by Quint el Pizote Estacionamiento:

Originally posted by gallifrey:

To be honest the title says it all. Sale discounts are rarely much less than 25% and go up to 75% or even 90%.

But I notice that "Attila", currently in the more limited than usual Sega sale, is still coming in more than a year after release at £29.99 prior to discount. It would be interesting to know what percentage of games are sold at full price as opposed to on sale because I suspect that "sale" prices are becoming the "real" prices of games.

S.x.

I'm not sure I get what you mean.

Are you saying that the base price ought to drop more because it's already been a year after release?

Because the price is certainly not being jacked up just to be discounted. The base price has been £29.99 for a while now.

I don't think that retailers ought to be stuck to some sort of schedule for lowering base prices. They'll keep the prices high as long as they think they can keep selling for that price, while we customers (at least the patient ones among us) will keep waiting them out to try to pick up the game at a lower price.

It's not a matter of "should", more a matter of "are". Something's worth what someone is prepared to pay for it and what someone else is prepared to sell it for. Providing neither party is deceived or misled that is commerce.

It's more an observation that games appear to be maintaining release date prices far longer than previously, and wondering whether, if true, Steam sales have made a difference. I expect that Steam now accounts for upwards of 50% of all retail sales for many releases.

S.x.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by gallifrey:

It's more an observation that games appear to be maintaining release date prices far longer than previously, and wondering whether, if true, Steam sales have made a difference. I expect that Steam now accounts for upwards of 50% of all retail sales for many releases.

Okay, gotcha.

I'd say that Steam sales -- not just Steam's actually, but the general trend of sales on digital games to go to really deep discounts -- has probably influenced this.

[JimGF]

Careful, this thread will get deleted for criticizing.

I posted on Jan. 11 that the full prices seemed to be getting jacked up, for a "Sale'.

Last Month, the 2 Company of Heroes Expansions were $4.99, 75% off the full price of $19.99

This month, same games, $9.95, 75% of the full proce of $37.95.

The next day, thread had been deleleted.

Really??

[tmwfte]

Originally posted by bflynn2:

Careful, this thread will get deleted for criticizing.

I posted on Jan. 11 that the full prices seemed to be getting jacked up, for a "Sale'.

Last Month, the 2 Company of Heroes Expansions were $4.99, 75% off the full price of $19.99

This month, same games, $9.95, 75% of the full proce of $37.95.

The next day, thread had been deleleted.

Really??

https://steamdb.info/app/9340/

The individual games aren't on sale this go around, only the package with all three of the original games. http://store.steampowered.com/sub/1529/ The base price for the individual games has not changed, it was 19.99 then and it's 19.99 now.

[suksas]

Understandable. There is little reason for dev's to lower base game prices when they often send game to sale.
Waiting costumers will buy on sale and there is always a chance that someone will buy a game at full price even a year after release.
It also doesn't help that some games on pc are cheap anyway.

[Redrusty66]

ANything you find here can be found at a small 4-6 key site list if you just wait and keep watch. Add them to your favorites, and check in every day or 2, and now with all this market crazy it's even more worth it to just watch those sites every couple days. USually whatever you want will come up on them. After all, Steam has just made very clear, they don't need a large group of player's money...so why hand it over for nothing.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Originally posted by suksas:

Understandable. There is little reason for dev's to lower base game prices when they often send game to sale.
Waiting costumers will buy on sale and there is always a chance that someone will buy a game at full price even a year after release.
It also doesn't help that some games on pc are cheap anyway.

That's the attitude of E.A. who have publically criticised Steam for its sale's policy. There again being criticised by a company TWICE in recent years voted as being the worst company in the U.S.A. may not make much difference to Valve.

What makes games unusual but by no means unique as a retail item is that their development costs are far, far greater than their production costs meaning there is far greater price fluctuation than in commodities like food and tools.

Other entertainments have a similar curve with films and music having an initial release price usually much higher than their later retail value.

Personally I think E.A. games are very steeply priced, especially as they are the high priests of holding back large parts of the game to sell as expensive DLC.

But I would acknowledge that Skyrim at £2.49 in the sales is a bargain.

I'd suggest the smartest gamers are those that wait to get the games once the price has dropped and updates have sorted out the worst of the bugs.

Although arguably the smartest people are those who don't play games at all. As "the opium of the masses" computer games arguably leave religion and television breathing their dust.

S.x.

[Joki the Disco Bandit]

Originally posted by gallifrey:

As "the opium of the masses" computer games arguably leave religion and television breathing their dust.

Not even close. Not even remotely close. The power of the latter two to shape minds absolutely dwarfs the ability of the former.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Redrusty66:

ANything you find here can be found at a small 4-6 key site list if you just wait and keep watch. Add them to your favorites, and check in every day or 2, and now with all this market crazy it's even more worth it to just watch those sites every couple days. USually whatever you want will come up on them. After all, Steam has just made very clear, they don't need a large group of player's money...so why hand it over for nothing.

Because people are impatient.

But yeah. I actually got like over 100 things on my wishlist after the discovery queue sale and I ended up moving a whole bunch of those to Humble Store and GOG wishlists. (And trashing a few of course.)

Just make sure we're talking the legit sites that sell keys, like Humble Store, Indie Gala Store, Playism-Games, and GamersGate.

[Red Shift]

I think Gabe once said that a 75% sale on CS: saw a revenue increase by a factor of 40. Implying sales were 160 times higher at that price point.

Only one example I guess, but its very rare to ever get any actual figures like these for any company.

[Raven Wolfe]

Hey, they could do things like console companies do. Nintendo will charge you full price for most games forever and only ever put Monster High and Barbie games on sell. Sony will sell you games for 75% off...... from 2008.

I'm just glad to see a big budget game go under $40 occasionally.

[suksas]

Originally posted by FrankenQ:

Hey, they could do things like console companies do. Nintendo will charge you full price for most games forever and only ever put Monster High and Barbie games on sell. Sony will sell you games for 75% off...... from 2008.

I'm just glad to see a big budget game go under $40 occasionally.

Consoles have a nice second hand market. And physical version can drop in prices quite fast.

[Raven Wolfe]

Originally posted by suksas:

Originally posted by FrankenQ:

Hey, they could do things like console companies do. Nintendo will charge you full price for most games forever and only ever put Monster High and Barbie games on sell. Sony will sell you games for 75% off...... from 2008.

I'm just glad to see a big budget game go under $40 occasionally.

Consoles have a nice second hand market. And physical version can drop in prices quite fast.

That's true. PC will likely never have a nice second hand market. I've noticed often that a Playstation title will drop to $30 or $40 dollars after 2-3 months at retail but the price for a digital copy is still full price.

I'm glad the PC market works differently.

[JimGF]

Originally posted by tmwfte:

https://steamdb.info/app/9340/

The individual games aren't on sale this go around, only the package with all three of the original games. http://store.steampowered.com/sub/1529/ The base price for the individual games has not changed, it was 19.99 then and it's 19.99 now.

Not in the email I got, and not when I just looked. I had a offer for the 3 game package a couple of weeks ago for that sale deal.

I don't see any reference to it being that, just the Tales Of Valor and Opposing Forces each being on sale for $9.95, 75% off a $36.95 list price.