A

[JuneauAlaska]

A

[Crazy Tiger]

Ask the developers/publishers of the games, THEY set the prices.

[Reggaejunkiedrew]

Because developers like to earn money for their work. Mobile games are typically more profitable to make free and monetize with ads.

[eram]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von JunoAlex:

Valve, i need to ask... Why is almost everything on steam paid? It doesnt make sense for games like Among us, which is free on mobile, but why is it paid on PC?

Do you only work for free?

[AustrAlien2010]

You don't understand?
Developers/artists are trying to make money from you. That's their job; to write, draw, and record sounds, that you will pay for. It's not a job that actually serves a meaningful purpose, it's more like... so that they have something to do during their lives.

I am not going to sugercoat it for you; they have to feed their children, and you are on the menu.

[Black Blade]

Just to put it out there Among us on mobile has adds you can pay 2$ to get the version without ads
On PC you get it without ads from the very start

[76561198407601200]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von JunoAlex:

Valve, i need to ask... Why is almost everything on steam paid? It doesnt make sense for games like Among us, which is free on mobile, but why is it paid on PC?

The same reason why there are people who are too cheap to purchase games, simply because they want to. Unless the developers told valve the exact reason as to why they charge for the game on steam platform, Valve would have no idea why the version on steam is a not f2p.

[ReBoot]

Games being free on mobile isn't a good example. Best case, there's ads. Usual case, the worst of cynical monetization F2P has to offer. I'd rather buy a game and enjoy it properly than the usual mobile F2P crap.

[Tito Shivan]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Black Blade:

Just to put it out there Among us on mobile has adds you can pay 2$ to get the version without ads
On PC you get it without ads from the very start

So it's not 'free'... You're just paying with your time watching ads instead of paying with money.

Ironically that makes the game more 'expensive' the more you play it on mobile. As the time spent going throw adds will keep adding, over a single monetary payment on PC.

Mobile and PC are different platforms with different purchase habits. Mobile gamers by default prefer F2P or ad-watching monetization systems over 'buying' a game in the old sense.

I read long time ago a reddit comment from a mobile app developer who did the experiment to release the same app through three monetization systems:

-Paid App.
-Free App with ads.
-Free App with in-app purchases.

The paid app was the least option in revenue. People rarely pay up-front in mobile. It was followed with the free-with-ads option and -by a very long shot ahead- the absolute winner was the 'Free with in-app purchases' option.

[SeriousCCIE]

I concur.

Privacy is a luxury you often cannot buy inexpensively, yet is often handed away freely.

Many people with smartphones have learned that the hard way -- but many more get angry when told and demand to know what you have to hide if personalized marketing is a problem.

As long as I can either not use the product or pay for a version that doesn't farm me out... of course everyone's a heifer nowadays it seems, or a whale.

[Zekiran]

Because steam is a store.

Go ahead and walk into a restaurant and wonder aloud why their food costs money? After all, your mom cooks dinner for free.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Tito Shivan:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Black Blade:

Just to put it out there Among us on mobile has adds you can pay 2$ to get the version without ads
On PC you get it without ads from the very start

So it's not 'free'... You're just paying with your time watching ads instead of paying with money.

More often than not the cycles required for the ads exceed the ones required for the goods by far

[BossGalaga]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von JunoAlex:

Why is almost everything on steam paid? I dont understand...

Valve, i need to ask... Why is almost everything on steam paid? It doesnt make sense for games like Among us, which is free on mobile, but why is it paid on PC?

That has nothing to do with Valve. The developers set the price. It's free on mobile because they make money on mobile with micro-IAP. Among us is one of the top played games on Steam currently and they have sold something like hundreds of thousands of copies on Steam. How dare they get paid for their work, right?

If you're too cheap to spend the 5 bucks and want to play it on Steam then just download an android emulator for PC and you can play it on PC.

As far as free games, there are a gajillion free games on Steam. That's right...A GAJILLION.

-List of *really* Free Steam Games:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/57fljf/the_list_of_really_free_steam_games/

-Free Game Findings Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeGameFindings/

-Free Games on Steam Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeGamesOnSteam/

-GameDeals Reddit (mix of free games & sales)
https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/

-Free Game Giveaways
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/12/154645299387862642/

-F2P Games on Steam
http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Free%20to%20Play/

[Satoru]

Do people actually think that devs like how Apple/Android have devalued games to the point where charging $10 for a game is literally unthinkable

[Sifer2]

Phone apps are often free because of either integrated ads, microtransactions, or data harvesting. There is always going to be some monetization somewhere. The only true free stuff are some mods or full conversion games.

[crunchyfrog]

Because STEAM IS A STORE.

And you cannot compare prices to that on a separate platform like mobile. It doesn't work like that. They're each their own ecosystems. This is basic economics.

Prices are determined by a lot of things, but the absolute biggest factor is determining what people are prepared to pay. That's it. As someone who got into rare record trading decades ago, once you realise this, it's a godsend.

So with mobile, the fact there is that many people play different types of games. The more quick, pick up and put down during a bus trip type of games. Furthermore, many games set the ecosystem by being free to play with in app purchases. It fit that environment because people can spend as much as they want to invest.

So charging full "regular" game prices didn't work.

Again, basic economics.

Plus again, Steam is a store so it's entirely up to them WHAT they want to stock. It';s also down to the IP owners ONLY to decide the prices, and not Valve.

I would recommend googling basic economics. It will help you.