Stop Misleading Discounts on Steam: Demand Honest Sales Practices

[tjbhan]

I've become increasingly frustrated with the way Steam handles sales. Often, when I check my wishlist, I see games listed with substantial discounts. However, upon closer inspection, these discounts are usually part of a bundle where an older or less popular title is heavily discounted, while the game I'm interested in has only a minor discount. This misleading practice wastes our time and diminishes customer satisfaction.

For instance, a game on my wishlist might appear to have a 40% discount, but when I click on the offer, I find that the game itself is only discounted by 10%, while an older title is marked down by 70% or more. In my country, this kind of practice is actually illegal, as it constitutes misleading advertising. If a game is advertised with a 40% discount, I should be entitled to that discount on the specific game I want, not a bundled offer.

I encourage more people to speak out against this practice and vote with their wallets. Don't buy games when these misleading "sales" are shown. Let's push for more transparency and honesty in advertising.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Steam nor Valve set prices for any games that they did not develop. or publish.

I encourage you to take it up with the developers and publishers of said games if you want to complain about prices.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/pricing

You'll notice there that it says they are responsible, the word partners is referring to developers and publishers.

[tjbhan]

That is all fine and dandy. However, who provides the platform and the code of conduct on Steam? Who programs the front end that consumers use to view the offerings, ensuring transparency or the lack thereof? While developers and publishers set the prices, Steam provides the tools and interface for these adjustments and has significant control over how prices and discounts are presented to users. At the end of the day, Steam does bear responsibility for the transparency and honesty of pricing shown on their platform.

[Crazy Tiger]

Nothing misleading about it, all of those have a greyed out discount next to it indicating it's part of a bundle.

Store pages have all the further prices on them.

Nothing dishonest or misleading about it.

[tjbhan]

Yes when you click further into the offer from your wishlist, but it shows the bundle discount and not the discount on the specific game - it should be a fairly easy to display the actual discount on the game and not the bundle in the wishlist. But If you want to defend this practice and prefer to be deceived, that's your choice, but I prefer very clear transparency and not have to click down to see what the actual discount is.

[Crazy Tiger]

How am I deceived? It tells me the lowest price I can get it for in the wishlist. I can click further and see all the info I need to make a decision without anything being hidden or anything.

So how?

[tjbhan]

Sure if you prefer to have a wrong discount percentage for the games in the wishlist, keep supporting this. Personally I find it tiring and misleading to have to go to the store page to find the real discount.

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by 76561198083019420:

you cannot "buy" a game you merely donate money to the company and steam when you "buy" games

when you "buy" games you dont own them so just dont even bother "buying" games on steam

You don't own any games regardless of where you buy them, so you can stop singling Steam out for that.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by tjbhan:

Sure if you prefer to have a wrong discount percentage for the games in the wishlist, keep supporting this. Personally I find it tiring and misleading to have to go to the store page to find the real discount.

It's not wrong, though. It's a discount percentage related to the game. The game being in a bundle still contains the game and thyusly a correct price.

I'm not supporting anything, I just don't have an issue with how it's presented. It's crystal clear, as said I have all the info I need. And it's certainly not misleading, deceiving or "wrong".

[tjbhan]

We agree to disagree there Tiger - the price for that particular game is *not* correct when it factors in the bundle price ( and often you can buy the other game on it's own with the same "bundle" discount. We can agree that you can find the correct discount but it's first when you click on the details and that is what I would like to see changed. Then they can mark that it's part of a bundle for a different discount for the whole bundle that would be fine by me.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

You are going to hate dynamic pricing at grocery stores (all types of stores) in the near future.

Dynamic pricing is the future of retail thanks to companies like Amazon.

[tjbhan]

I am not discussing how Amazon or others are conducting their business, only how Steam store is presenting discounts on the customers wishlists :)

[sfnhltb]

The green discount is the best discount you can currently get. A grey discount next to it shows what part of the discount may not apply unless you buy it as part of a bundle. Don't see a problem.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by tjbhan:

I am not discussing how Amazon or others are conducting their business, only how Steam store is presenting discounts on the customers wishlists :)

Steam isn't presenting anything. As you were told and I guess you keep ignoring, developers and publishers are in sole control of the prices of the games that they themselves put on the Steam store

It's not our fault that you don't understand how this works.

Do you honestly think that developers and publishers would pay Valve $100 for each game they put on the store and then Valve turns around and tells them how much they can charge for said game? No, again, that is not how it works.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/discounts

Read the part about configuring discounts. You will quickly see that Steam nor Valve are the ones doing it. It is the developer or the publisher or both.

[tjbhan]

Guyver you are utterly missing the point, but try to read though the posts one more time, and maybe then you understand it :) Funny enough GoG does not have this issue btw.