are steam seasonal sales just not good anymore?

[FluxZ]

I remember back in 2014 and 2015 when the summer and winter sales had so many good deals for relatively new games. now every year the savings are more and more underwhelming. The Dead Space remake had a better discount 2 weeks ago and Elden Ring had a better discount a few months ago. Most of the games I had considered buying now from the sale had better discounts weeks or months prior too. To all the long-term Steam users, are the seasonal sales seeming to be getting worse? I also miss the events the seasonal sales used to have with them.

[SKARDAVNELNATE]

1) I already got good deals on the games I wanted in past years, so even if the discount on those is the same I'm not benefiting from it a second time. The sales lose their impact when you already have a large library.

2) I'm not discovering as many new games that interest me as I use to. The sales lose their impact when you have a smaller selection you want deals on.

3) Newer games don't get discounted as much. So it's either get them when any discount is on them or wait for until they are less new and get a better deal. The sales lose their impact when all the games you don't have yet get less of a discount.

[Yujah]

Yes; sales are less "all out ninety percent" than they were by now a fair few years ago.

Frankly I've never been too sure that it was a good idea to discount that deeply as was the norm back then. It did in fact devalue games for me and maybe it shouldn't. I.e., Steam I don't really care about, but if I were a small indie developer I'm not so sure I'd appreciate seeing the game I poured sweat and tears into for a few years go for literal pennies into voids of never played bit-collections -- probably even IF it'd end up making me more money overall.

Anycase. Be that as it may, yes, sales are not as overall deep anymore as back in 2014/2015.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Not steam. Blame the devs they are the ones who decided if their game is on sale or if it's not.

[Rin]

Dev/Games has gotten more expensive as payouts and golden parachutes have gotten bigger over the years. You also have several financial crises, some global some national that are still plaguing us.

The Crypto and AI (aka stolen info/assets) "boom" also made things more expensive, both for devs and gamers alike.

[Soren]

Elden Ring had the DLC come out just come out. Which increases the value proposition of the base game again. It's probably why the discount was better 2 months ago.

[wesnef]

The lack of flash sales & daily/limited time bonuses (due to Refunds now being a thing), and so many more sales throughout the year (back when there were only 2-3 sales a year, they were more meaningful), are also likely contributors to the lower amount of 80-90% off things.

Plus also being older, more jaded, etc.

[FluxZ]

Originally posted by wesnef:

The lack of flash sales & daily/limited time bonuses (due to Refunds now being a thing), and so many more sales throughout the year (back when there were only 2-3 sales a year, they were more meaningful), are also likely contributors to the lower amount of 80-90% off things.

Plus also being older, more jaded, etc.

those daily and flash sales were great. I remembered being in school checking the steam app at the time new sales come through every day. good times

[Gnome]

Well, you have 5K+ games on Steam. Aren't you satisfied yet?
I own about 1/4 of what you own (which is still a lot) and I'm fine.

[FluxZ]

Originally posted by Penguin:

Well, you have 5K+ games on Steam. Aren't you satisfied yet?
I own about 1/4 of what you own (which is still a lot) and I'm fine.

most of them just for the sake of collecting from years ago. its different when you actually want to play specific games and then new games also come out.

[Kim Jong Un 위대한 수령]

Originally posted by Gnome:

Well, you have 5K+ games on Steam. Aren't you satisfied yet?
I own about 1/4 of what you own (which is still a lot) and I'm fine.

Someone's jealous...

[Rosa]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.