An Odd Sale

[Start_Running]

This is a first. A Steam Sale where I don't feel compelled to buy anything. No Flash or Daily Deals to tug my psychological reflexes.. This is not meant in a bad way.

It's given me the time ti realize that... I have most of the games I was ever ineterested in already.. Steam you need to expand that catalog. Get some more classics from He olde Mindscape Catalog. As it stands I've bought most all of the games I was ever really interested in. and you don't seem to be adding more

[WolfEisberg]

引用自 Satoru：

There's several things most people forget when any 'omg this is the worst sale ever' thing comes up

1) If you're in the "it used to be more awesome" camp, there's a reason. In the 'old' days Steam was THE ONLY ONE doing these sales on that scale. It was special because only Steam was doing it. As such every sale was interesting. There wasnt anyone else doing it. So those sales were exciting. It was exciting because it was new.

2) As collorary to not only are other stores doing it, but now there are sales CONSTANTLY. Literally every second of every day of the year some store is running a sale. Before Humlbe bundle was super interesting. Now there are literally upwards of a dozen bundles running simultaneously at any given time of the year. The entire concept of a sale being exciting is moot. Any game you want is probably on sale somewhere somehow all the time.

3) As a result Steam can't be 'special' because sales themselves are now so normal that the baseline has shifted. People are now magically expecting insane things like "Hey is FO4 going to be 75% off this winter sale? What its not? WURST SEAL EVAH!!!11!!!!1!!!!!!". The entire bombardment of sales from other places means that people somehow expect steam to put everything on the store at 90% off or something insane. We're essentially desensitized to sales by now, not because the sales on Steam are bad. but because the sales are everywhere, and all the time.

4) and this is generally the most critical part. . We are, myself included, the mega coupon clippers of the PC game world. Graphs, charts, sale price tracking, bundle tracking, we're correlating tons of information to decide if we want to buy it. We use websites to track historical prices, even track if they've been in a bundle before, etc. We're already buying outside of steam because we know it was 75% off on Amazon 2 months ago. Our 'baseline' discount is 75%.

The problem with that is we are, by definition, the minority of users. Sure its cool to watch "Mega Coupon Clippers" and see people on TV get a metric ton of food for $1. But are 'real' peple going to be going to those lenghts? Not really. And thats more or less where we are. We are the 'elite crazy coupon clippers'. We spend more time analyzing historical data on a $2 game than we would on our retirement investment portfolio. But the thing is most people simply arent lke that.

Sure we say "hey wait for the sale! dont buy until its a flash deal! dont pre-order". Yet even before this sale, everyone basically did all that. People bough the game even after it was on a flash deal as there was a 'halo' effect of sales even though the "Steam Sale Rules" say wait till the last day! But people didn't do that. The 'sales' on steam are not targetted to us. Because we're simply 'beyond' that now. Before e were fine getting our sale 'high' when something was 50% off. Now we need something that resembles some kind of jungle juice concoction made by Walter White to even get a mild buzz.


And as a final thing. Remember what Steam's business is.

Steam is not a store

Steam is a middleware company that happens to sell games

If you're wondering why Steam is the leader. This is why. Other companies are doing everything wrong.

a) Steam is popular, we need to make our own store to compete!
b) Steam is popular, but if we have exclusive titles to our platform customers will defect!
c) Steam is popular, they have sales we should do that too then their customers will defect!
d) Steam is popular, they have a client we can make our own then people will buy from us!

Why is none of the above working for Origin/uPlay/Beamdog/GMG/GoG/etc? Because none of the above addresses WHY steam is popular. They're popular because they're a middleware company that developers use. That's their 'secret'. If you're not competing on that level, you are not even playing the same game in the same universe as Steam.

Sales aren't the reason Steam is popular anymore. And any company trying to emulate them that way will continue to by vying for the 'distant 2nd place' behind Steam. Which is also why Steam doesn't care if you think its the 'worst sale ever'. Because sales are not the reason why Steam is successful.

You are missing one other thing. How many people have been dealing with these sales for so long that they basically have everything they want, and the only thing that is left for them now are new or fairly new stuff. I know that is the point I am at. Up until about 1.5 years ago, in the past sales there was always something that was older that I wanted and was able to get it at a deep discount. Over the years I have basically got all caught up. Now it is basically new or fairly new titles that I look forward to, but I have to wait for them to become "old", and when they do become "old", because very few games actually intererest me that release, there isn't very many games to buy when they do go on sale. Also take this in conjuction with everything else you said above, I might have already bought it for the price I was happy somewhere else.

[secuda]

a problem i have with this sale is, yes there is no flash deal wich they stated in an article on PCG. But seeing the prices are no different then any other current holly day sale is little bit weak imo and only seems to serve as "billboards" rather then awesome deals to look forward to next day.

[Start_Running]

引用自 secuda：

a problem i have with this sale is, yes there is no flash deal wich they stated in an article on PCG. But seeing the prices are no different then any other current holly day sale is little bit weak imo and only seems to serve as "billboards" rather then awesome deals to look forward to next day.

Excepot that those deals are avaiulable more or less every day... Again JC Penny effect.

[RedLightning]

The best thing steam could do would be to go back to the old format for the next sale.. Then everyone would go absolutly crazy nuts buying stuff.

Someone said in this thread it would be a miriacle. I tend to agree.

[[MCat] Corr]

beats the heck out of the endless clicking game

[LUKETO]

HI

[meowmixx]

引用自 MCat Corr：

beats the heck out of the endless clicking game

You don't like Diablo?

[Satoru]

引用自 RedLightning：

The best thing steam could do would be to go back to the old format for the next sale.. Then everyone would go absolutly crazy nuts buying stuff.

Someone said in this thread it would be a miriacle. I tend to agree.

Most people whining about sales were whining BEFORE on the 'old' format anyway. So how does going 'back' help when apparently 'everyone' hated how it was in the 'old' days. It wasn't 'better' in the old days. It was 'different'. The things that made the sales before 'special' no longer apply now. The market is entirely different.

Note that Steam has the absolute metrics as to what is or is not successful. If the data shows that this sale format is successful in that sales of not only featured items but also obscure games saw bumps then they'll deem the sale format to be a success. People can whine all day long but the numbers dont lie. People said the discovery queue was horrible, yet objectively drove sales higher for not just the 'big' titles but for titles all over steam.

THe old system was a 'rich get richer and the poor die in obscurity' system. Do we need a winter sale to put Civ5 on 75% again? Or Bioshock Infinite. Or FTL? All the previous system did was make it a russian roulette lottery of if Steam picked your game to be featured. If it did yeah you won! If not you were screwed.

And all people did was whine

1) omg this game 'again' WURST SALE EVAH
2) wtf is this game i've never heard of WURST SALE EVAH

Going back to the 'old' way is just replacing one version of whining with a different one.

[Satoru]

引用自 eisberg：

You are missing one other thing. How many people have been dealing with these sales for so long that they basically have everything they want, and the only thing that is left for them now are new or fairly new stuff.

I did have something similar but I cut it out of my post because it didn't flow.

My problem is that I have too MUCH stuff. I mean sure I could buy the Witcher 3 but yah... shouldnt I finish 1 and 2 first. Oh and Fallout NV. And Wasteland 2, and Shadowrun... oh and maybe I should get around to Metro2033...

I'm not buying bigger titles simply because I have too much stuff that I shoud probably finish first :P

[BluSkul]

I usually keep about 10 - 12 games on my wishlist and wait until they are at least 50% off before buying them. I was able to pick up a few this year. The lack of the daily deal to me is a good thing. I was waiting for some Steam gift cards and would have been upset if the games I wanted went on super sale before I got the cards. It all depends on if you get what you want I guess.

[PencilLord]

I just miss some of the excitement. I didn't realize there was a badge for this sale until I bought a game. II would like something to bring me in more often during the sale. A way to earn some free older games or coupons for after the sale?

It's very low key and there is no reason for me to look at the sale more then one day.

[Nakatomi]

I haven't bought anything this winter sale I decided to buy the S.E Humble Bundle at the first tier because I already have most of the games listed in the higher tiers but I paid the 50p for Tier 1 and I got about 5 games for it so it was a bargain

[RedLightning]

引用自 Satoru：

引用自 RedLightning：

The best thing steam could do would be to go back to the old format for the next sale.. Then everyone would go absolutly crazy nuts buying stuff.

Someone said in this thread it would be a miriacle. I tend to agree.

Most people whining about sales were whining BEFORE on the 'old' format anyway. So how does going 'back' help when apparently 'everyone' hated how it was in the 'old' days. It wasn't 'better' in the old days. It was 'different'. The things that made the sales before 'special' no longer apply now. The market is entirely different.

Note that Steam has the absolute metrics as to what is or is not successful. If the data shows that this sale format is successful in that sales of not only featured items but also obscure games saw bumps then they'll deem the sale format to be a success. People can whine all day long but the numbers dont lie. People said the discovery queue was horrible, yet objectively drove sales higher for not just the 'big' titles but for titles all over steam.

THe old system was a 'rich get richer and the poor die in obscurity' system. Do we need a winter sale to put Civ5 on 75% again? Or Bioshock Infinite. Or FTL? All the previous system did was make it a russian roulette lottery of if Steam picked your game to be featured. If it did yeah you won! If not you were screwed.

And all people did was whine

1) omg this game 'again' WURST SALE EVAH
2) wtf is this game i've never heard of WURST SALE EVAH

Going back to the 'old' way is just replacing one version of whining with a different one.

Oh good lord.. not you again.. nighty night...

[suksas]

引用自 Satoru：

引用自 RedLightning：

The best thing steam could do would be to go back to the old format for the next sale.. Then everyone would go absolutly crazy nuts buying stuff.

Someone said in this thread it would be a miriacle. I tend to agree.

Most people whining about sales were whining BEFORE on the 'old' format anyway. So how does going 'back' help when apparently 'everyone' hated how it was in the 'old' days. It wasn't 'better' in the old days. It was 'different'. The things that made the sales before 'special' no longer apply now. The market is entirely different.

Note that Steam has the absolute metrics as to what is or is not successful. If the data shows that this sale format is successful in that sales of not only featured items but also obscure games saw bumps then they'll deem the sale format to be a success. People can whine all day long but the numbers dont lie. People said the discovery queue was horrible, yet objectively drove sales higher for not just the 'big' titles but for titles all over steam.

THe old system was a 'rich get richer and the poor die in obscurity' system. Do we need a winter sale to put Civ5 on 75% again? Or Bioshock Infinite. Or FTL? All the previous system did was make it a russian roulette lottery of if Steam picked your game to be featured. If it did yeah you won! If not you were screwed.

And all people did was whine

1) omg this game 'again' WURST SALE EVAH
2) wtf is this game i've never heard of WURST SALE EVAH

Going back to the 'old' way is just replacing one version of whining with a different one.

How is this sale better when obscure game are still not highlighted.
So far highlighted games I've seen are the ones I already knew about.

So far I'm not compeled to buy anything or even to check the sale despite having 600games on wishlist.
The boredom of christmas sale makes me think that I might as well wait for next sale cause I won't be playing thouse games yet anyways.
And I usually buy stuff on impulse.

[OneMore]

Steam sales will never be the same after I reached 500 games....these days I have to dig and dig to find stuff I actually want. There is plenty of classic games I want to buy but the discounts are asking way too much [4.99 for Sonic Adventure 2? my local retro store sales that for 99c for gamecube]

So I end up digging and looking for games to try or discover. I am not complaining though, I got some good stuff out of this year's sale