For those wondering why Steam sales have been 'meh' of late...

[gnoj]

...Deadlight is currently the #3 top seller, when you can buy the "Soundtrack Edition" for $3.75 on Amazon, or $9.99 along with 4 other great indie games in a bundle. That's less than half the price, during the very same sale period (longer, in fact, as Amazon's sale runs through Saturday). Risen 2: DW has also been under $10 on Amazon and elsewhere.

When a large enough segment of your customer base is too, er, complacent (there are better words you can fill in instead) to check around elsewhere and essentially lock themselves in to the Steam storefront, Valve has no incentive to lower their prices to be more competitive.

Now if everybody that's currently buying this game for $7.49 went over to buy it at Amazon and activate it here (they're Steam keys), or for those outside the U.S., either have somebody buy it for you or just wait for Valve to catch up and get it to that lower price later on, then we'd see prices come down much more quickly.

Before Valve apologists come out with the argument that it's the publishers that set the prices, obviously that's (partially) true, but that's just as true at these other sites where games are sold. These aren't loss leaders either- Amazon is not losing money on all these bundles they're selling.

Obviously we can't individually control what everyone on Steam does or when they buy games, but I think it's fair to ask that before anyone comes in and starts complaining about Steam sales, they should first make sure they're not contributing to the problem by not first checking to see if Steam really has the best price the game has been in the recent past, much less on the very same day.

This is not to say Steam never has good sales- Hitman Absolution was a good price the other day. The difference is that Steam used to have the best prices on virtually everything in prior sales, and not just select items here and there. If we all act to shift our demand to those games that are most fairly discounted, then eventually we will see Steam sales move closer to how they were in the past.

[Delph]

I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon isn't making very much money on a lot of their recent sales - they are trying to break into the market and so need low discounts to do so. I imagine that once they control a high enough percentage of the market share they will have less insane sales.

[ChrisW]

Amazon sells retail copies of games. The retail publisher forces digital prices high so people will purchase retail copies of games. You are rewarding the very people responsible for the high prices on stores like Steam whenever you purchase a retail copy. If you knew anything about economics, you would know Valve would undercut retail if they were allowed to do so. And why? Because people don't purchase games on Steam when they can purchase them cheaper anywhere else. And no sales means no money for Steam. Do you really think Valve wanted 99% of Portal 2 copies sold to be sold on Amazon, where they would be lucky to get $10 per copy?

[Tito Shivan]

One also has to consider up to which extent the actual pricing scheme is a publisher tactic to 'open up' the market, in order to get better negociation power with big DD platforms like Steam.

If most of your revenue comes from a single source, that source has a great power in negociating shares and such.

By 'taking your sales elsewhere' publishers take apart a piece of that power.

Publishers may have told Valve "Look, we took our big sales to Amazon, GMG... and people followed them. Now can we discuss your profit share, or we have to take to Amazon the big discounts again for the summer sale?"

[gnoj]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Delph:

I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon isn't making very much money on a lot of their recent sales - they are trying to break into the market and so need low discounts to do so. I imagine that once they control a high enough percentage of the market share they will have less insane sales.

Perhaps. I'm not privy to the details of Amazon's distribution agreement and how much they make on each sale. But they've been running these deals on digital games for a while now and show no sign of slowing down just yet. I am more sympathetic to the argument that GMG is using the narrow-margins-now, fatter-margins-later approach. It may be more a matter of Amazon willing to accept thinner profits in their DVG department because they believe it drives customers to shop elsewhere on Amazon.

Początkowo opublikowane przez ChrisW:

Amazon sells retail copies of games...

Amazon sells both retail and direct digital download copies of games. I am aware of the differences between the two. Retail copies are bought in bulk for a set price that's paid up front to the publisher. Amazon then has the flexibility to sell this inventory for whatever price it wants. By contrast, publishers get their money from digital copies incrementally, for each copy sold, and the price Amazon can sell it at is continuously negotiated with the publishers. The prices for the games I referenced in the OP are for digital copies. Valve clearly chose Deadlight as this week's Midweek Madness to compete with Amazon's deal of the week, just not compete nearly as much.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Tito Shivan:

One also has to consider up to which extent the actual pricing scheme is a publisher tactic to 'open up' the market, in order to get better negociation power with big DD platforms like Steam...

I hadn't thought of that. If that's what it is, then that requires very long-term planning to shape the market in such a way. It would also indicate a bit of collusion on the part of the major publishers, which would be illegal legally questionable.

[ChrisW]

Yes, but who has the contract with Amazon? Since they sell retail copies, it would not make sense to sign a contract for digital distribution and compete with themselves for price. Most likely their contract is with the retail publisher for their digital copies, so they are most likely getting the same deal as their retail games. If they give you a cd key, it is a retail game, regardless of whether or not they also provide a download service.

And no, Valve did not chose to put Deadlight on sale. The game publisher decided to do that. These are not Valve's games to sell.

[gnoj]

Początkowo opublikowane przez ChrisW:

Yes, but who has the contract with Amazon? Since they sell retail copies, it would not make sense to sign a contract for digital distribution and compete with themselves for price. Most likely their contract is with the retail publisher for their digital copies, so they are most likely getting the same deal as their retail games. If they give you a cd key, it is a retail game, regardless of whether or not they also provide a download service.

And no, Valve did not chose to put Deadlight on sale. The game publisher decided to do that. These are not Valve's games to sell.

Amazon's contracts are with the publishers directly (i.e. Microsoft Game Studios). They are perfectly content with, and frequently have undercut their retail sales with the download versions, perhaps because there remains a separate market for those that prefer to have a boxed copy and/or not use Steam, and are willing to pay a bit more for that. Some digital games they sell come with steam keys, others do not. I've never heard of a digital copy of a game, with or without an accompanying key, referred to as a "retail" game, but if that's what they call it internally, then so be it.

Regarding the Steam Deadlight sale, I'm sure it was a mutual decision between MGS and Valve. It's not Valve's game to sell, but it's also not Microsoft's platform to sell it on. Publishers can't feature a game for sale on Steam without first contacting Valve. Perhaps when Amazon's sale started someone at Valve noticed and called up Microsoft asking to put the game on sale at the same time. We don't know exactly how those conversations transpired.

[Kuasimoddo]

Początkowo opublikowane przez TheBDK:

"Meh of late" .. Sorry, but they were pretty "meh" last year and the year before that. Re-runs of re-runs of re-runs. This year I didn't buy a single game during the sale, I spent my money at Amazon, GMG, GOG & GamersGate.

Valve need to step it up and not depend so much on lazy people (edit: lazy users who cant be bothered looking elsewhere for much better deals).

I'm not opposed to using any other source that will get me a better buy for the buck but Steam certainly does make it easier to find the discounts on the stuff I'm looking for IMHO. GMG, GOG, and GamersGate aren't bad either but Amazon seems to kinda bury their sale stuff.

[tmwfte]

Początkowo opublikowane przez ChrisW:

Yes, but who has the contract with Amazon? Since they sell retail copies, it would not make sense to sign a contract for digital distribution and compete with themselves for price. Most likely their contract is with the retail publisher for their digital copies, so they are most likely getting the same deal as their retail games. If they give you a cd key, it is a retail game, regardless of whether or not they also provide a download service.

Most of Amazon's physical PC video games (aside from really new releases) aren't filled by Amazon themselves, but third party retailers.