Why are so many games so much more expensive on steam ?

[Tretch]

Ive just been wondering for a while now, howcome so many games are so much more expensive. As an example i just looked up the newest Tomb Raider and on steam its 49.99 euro while on Amazon its only 19.99 dollars. That shud be around 15 euro!

Even if theres some taxes and a fee to deliver it, its so much cheaper getting the game elsewhere. This is even for a download so there shud not be a delivery fee.


Another example is Assassins Creed 3 which is 29.99 euro on steam where Amazon price is allmost 15 euro.

Hitman Absolution on steam 24.99 on Amazon allmost 15 euro.

This is a few examples but pretty sure there is more to be found.
In general im gonna be controlling prices more before i buy games on steam from now on and would suggest others to do the same.

Another thing i found out when researching is that alot of titles are cheaper to buy via danish game sites, not sure why to be honest. As an example Assassin's creed IV ( Black Flag) i found for 29 euros while both steam and Uplay priced it to about 50 euro.

Interested to see other gamers take on this.

[bvguthrie]

Amazon is a competitor to Steam, and they have recently been working to undercut Steam's prices. I would expect Steam to have Tomb Raider for a significant discount in the near future in order to counter. But you're right--definitely check other sites to see who has the best deal at the moment.

[lumpkin]

You found one game that's cheaper on Amazon so that means "every" game on Steam is overpriced?

Please reread and edit your post. In it's current state you're just coming off as whiny.

[ehManiacal [CnB] [33rd]]

It depends where you live, in North America prices are generally the same when not on sale (both US & Canadian Amazon, they, sadly, operate seperately). For some reason it seems that the European Amazons are a lot more competitive with their pricing, where as the prices on Steam are directly controlled by the publishers.

[CarbonCarl]

You should always check the internet for better prices, but you should also keep an eye on steam sales, as tomb raider may be expensive now compared to amazon, but if i remember correctly, steam had the tomb raider collection on sale for about $17 which included all 10 games a few months back, so unless you want a game right away, steam will most the time beat all prices with a sale price at some point, which is what i like about steam.

[zebbydog]

I noticed that Grid 2 was £29.99 on Steam But only £10.94 on Play,com inc free p&p. Guess where I ordered the game from?

[FinFalls]

A wise consumer shops the markets. Steam has sales every single day and giant sales 2-3 times a year. Comparing non-sale price on steam to sale price on amazon is a really braindead way to compare prices. If you are looking for a specific title you SHOULD shop around. I buy more games through Greenman Gaming and Humble Bundle than I do STEAM on non-holiday/summer sales. Doesn't mean that Steam hasn't provided the best price for games I want. Steam also provides a cloud save service for most all of my games. I can't say that about amazon.

[zebbydog]

Have to agree, on the other side of the coin I just got Rage from Steam at a steal price of £3.24 always always shop around.

[Kargor]

Yeah well, I generally don't expect the Steam shop to have decent prices unless the game is on sale.

I haven't used Steam for long -- had the account sitting around for a few years due to a game bundled with my gfx board that I couldn't (and still can't) figure out how to play ("Dirt 2"). Then, one day, I got a couple games that I had ordered from Amazon UK (I'm in Germany, so I never used Amazon US) -- and two of them turned out to be Steam games.

So I was like "Oh sh*, Steam has a shop too, if I had gotten the games there they would have been even cheaper". Turns out, they weren't... quite the contrary.

Every once in a while I check Amazon for prices when Steam has a game on sale, and on more than one occasion the normal Amazon price was pretty much the same general range as the Steam sales price.

Needless to say, I've never bought a game full-price at Steam :-)

[Tretch]

Originally posted by lumpkin:

You found one game that's cheaper on Amazon so that means "every" game on Steam is overpriced?

Please reread and edit your post. In it's current state you're just coming off as whiny.

You might be right that i came of a tad whiny in my 1st post so now i posted some more examples and changed it a bit.

[Tretch]

Originally posted by Ankhgaming:

A wise consumer shops the markets. Steam has sales every single day and giant sales 2-3 times a year. Comparing non-sale price on steam to sale price on amazon is a really braindead way to compare prices. If you are looking for a specific title you SHOULD shop around. I buy more games through Greenman Gaming and Humble Bundle than I do STEAM on non-holiday/summer sales. Doesn't mean that Steam hasn't provided the best price for games I want. Steam also provides a cloud save service for most all of my games. I can't say that about amazon.

Perhaps its a braindead way to compare prices but nonetheless arent we allways looking for the cheapest way to aquire the same product?
Btw since ur German u might have known what i recently discovered for a long time. That A LOT of games are much cheaper aquiring through european sites than on steam.

[Tretch]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Needless to say, I've never bought a game full-price at Steam :-)

Heh wish i could say the same. unfortanely ive done that 2 or 3 times, but i definetly wont ever do that again :)

[MrBanana]

I think that Steam offers a good deal :
-First, when you buy a game, you can play it on Windows/Mac/Linux and on any computer at any place.
-And second of all Steam proposes a lot of packages and sales. It's normal that they have not the best prices on every product.

[deathyy]

-Steam sales, 75% of. Steam wins.

[Meekus Mc Awesome]

well ... 22.99€ for a game like baldur's gate II is still a deal breaker, even for a long-term fan of the series like me, who appreciates the revision of the game's mechanics, GUI, and the "newly" added content. Still too exensive

[Tretch]

Originally posted by MrBanana:

I think that Steam offers a good deal :
-First, when you buy a game, you can play it on Windows/Mac/Linux and on any computer at any place.
-And second of all Steam proposes a lot of packages and sales. It's normal that they have not the best prices on every product.

I agree steam does offer a brilliant service, but i just saved 5 euros on dawguard expansion to skyrim and now ive got it on steam to get all the same services even tho i didnt buy it on steam. :)