Steam , not always a competitive source of games...

[JPW]

I recently submited a steam help request asking why many games are less expensive through Amazon. This clearly seems counter intuitive as you are getting physical copies of CDs, maps, booklets etc rather than digital files. Steam also often over prices new releases, and some of their old releases are no better, consider among other examples Settlers 7 and Civilisation IV.

The reply I obtained was suitably curt. I'm not sure what I expected but there we are

"Hello,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

Steam does not offer price matching.

For information on current sales and promotions please refer to the Steam Storefront or Steam News.

Steam News:
http://store.steampowered.com/news/ "

Is this sensible, wouldn't it be great if you knew when you bought a game from Steam it wasn't £5, £10, or £20 less expensive on Amazon. I, for one, would by now have purchased a lot more games, instead I have a stream of games coming my way from Amazon.

Views? Comments? Agree? Disagree?

As they say "just saying".

[Satoru]

Note that physical retaielrs need to GET RID of inventory because inventory rotting on the shelves COSTS money. Other than in the first 2 weeks, after that, they need to get rid of physical games because depreciation and inventory costs start mounting.

Discoutns at physical retailers don't actaully follow demand/supply curves. Their pricing after release is dictated by inventory cost control.

[eram]

Purchase from the cheapest reliable source and if they happen to be steamworks titles then even better. :)

[Marble]

İlk olarak JPW tarafından gönderildi:

Is this sensible, wouldn't it be great if you knew when you bought a game from Steam it wasn't £5, £10, or £20 less expensive on Amazon. I, for one, would by now have purchased a lot more games, instead I have a stream of games coming my way from Amazon.

Views? Comments? Agree? Disagree?

As they say "just saying".

If it's cheaper somewhere else, then I will buy it somewhere else. Choice is not a bad thing.

[JPW]

Don't get me wrong, I've been uing steam now for a month, and love it, wish all my games were steam bought, but cost is an issue.

Satoru, good point, hadn't thought about that, but then steam don't have the overheads of maintaining storage space, shipping costs, etc.

[JPW]

"Choice is not a bad thing."

Quite. But how do I choose less expensive games that also have full steam support. While the Witcher 2 is available on steam, the Amazon purchase is not a steam recognised purchase. No trading cards for this game for me, but got hard copies of maps etc I choose both, just being greedy... :(

[Hempest]

Sometimes steam has the best deal and sometimes not. I personally like having all my games on steam so I am usually willing to pay a little bit more to support steam rather than buying the game for cheaper somewhere else.

[Cheechako]

İlk olarak JPW tarafından gönderildi:

The reply I obtained was suitably curt.

Did you expect a handwritten response? A canned reply is fitting of this question.

No price matching. You are free to shop elsewhere. Often, you can still install via Steam to get patches, Workshop, and all that stuff.

I really fail to see any problem with that. Sure, price matching would be nice, but the rest is great.

If you want to be sure that the game will install and work here, look for "Steamworks" or "Requires Steam Client". I bought Skyrim at Gamestop when it was on sale there. All I needed was the key in my e-mail receipt (or the GS client) to put into Steam.

Some DVD games might allow this. However, DVD games are still subject to regional issues. For example, a USA key might work in Steam, but a German key may not. I don't know if DVD games are ever labeled Steamworks - I did not see that on the Amazon page for Skyrim (as an example).

The simple fact is that with more and more digital distribution, an unsold digital game costs nothing to store while an unsold physical copy does cost, however small that cost might be.

If you noticed Amazon music lately, you will see some CDs that are not only cheaper than the digital version (also on Amazon) but include a free digital version!

[Spawn of Totoro]

İlk olarak JPW tarafından gönderildi:

Satoru, good point, hadn't thought about that, but then steam don't have the overheads of maintaining storage space, shipping costs, etc.

Steam/Valve also doesn't set the prices. The developers/publishers do. Valve only gets a 30% (estimated) cut from every sale.

They are also different business models.

Amazon, and other retailer, buy the game whole sale from the developer/publisher. They have more control over what a game sells for then Valve does. That includes their digital sales.

Valve doesn't pay the developer/publisher unless a sale is made (minus the 30%).