Pledge to not discount game.

[meiam]

Would it be possible to get some sort of easily seen (preferably from the wishlist) icon that state that a dev won't be allowed to discount a game until a certain date (either temporary sales or permanent price reduction)?

Right now there's roughly two type of game:

1) Game that come out overprice just so they can slap a big discount on the game within a few months. We've all seen them before, games that go 50% off mere weeks after release and are on discount most of the time, because people like big price drop.
example, bounty train (https://steamdb.info/app/371520/)

2) Games that come out at a certain price and stick to it for a very long time (or only have very minor sales).
example, factorio (https://steamdb.info/app/427520/)

Here's the problem, as a customer I have no way of knowing wether a game that came out is going to follow scenario 1 or 2. Therefore I just put every game I'm interested in on my wishlist and then just wait for it to be heavily discounted, ie I assume every game follow scenario 1. This suck, I hate scenario 1 and it severely punish game that follow 2 since they just stay in my wishlist for years. But unless anything is done, every game is going to be forced toward scenario 1 just to compete.

[StickyPawz]

Your suggestion makes little sense.

If a game you want is on sale, *you* decide if that's what you want to pay to play it, right then. It's not complicated.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

No.

1. Game dev/pub choice.

2. Refer to 1.

Ask the game dev/pub.

Even Valve doesn't know until the info is submitted to them.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Price reductions and sales tend to have to do more with how well a game is selling, then with a pre-determined plan by a developer.

As a customer, I pay what I am willing to for a game. If I buy a game at $60, then it was because I felt it was worth $60. If I wait for it to drop to $5, then that is what I am willing to pay. Doesn't matter if it goes on a 50% off sale a few months later as I paid what I felt it was worth.

Besides, if the idea was added, many would simply wait for the end of the date listed to get the game cheaper. This may cause a good amount of harm to a developer as well, since they often need those funds to pay employees and keep up with the bills and debts. It could cause them to go under with out any patches or further support.

[Start_Running]

Oh Boy.
To answer you question OP No. and this has to eb a rather selfish request.

FIrst your observations are a little backwards.

1. These are are simply games that did not perform well at a price point and the devs are trying to find a price point it will sell at. Generally speaking no game worth any money seens more than a 20% discount within 3 months of release. If a game gets lower than that.. its the sign that the game was not very well received.

2. TGames that hold their price are simply games where the devs have confidence in the value, usually due to the game performing well. You must have notyiced that the games that fall into theis vcategory tend to be very highly reviewed.


But regardless of all of that. WHy should any such promise be made? SO you don't feel sad because you were too impatient to wait for a decent discount?

[meiam]

Messaggio originale di StickyPawz:

Your suggestion makes little sense.

If a game you want is on sale, *you* decide if that's what you want to pay to play it, right then. It's not complicated.

You can't decide how much something is worth until you play it.

Is x$ a reasonable price for a specific game? No clue, since I haven't played it. It could be stupidly overprice, just so the dev can flash a big fat "-50%" next to it, or it could be reasonable. The only way to find out is to buy it, and if you discover it's a inflated price, well tough luck you already payed. You can refund, but you have a small window to do that.

[meiam]

Messaggio originale di Start_Running:

But regardless of all of that. WHy should any such promise be made? SO you don't feel sad because you were too impatient to wait for a decent discount?

I'm not impatient, quite the opposite, I barely ever buy game when they come out anymore, just move everything to my wish list (over 250 at this point). It just suck for small dev that probably need the money right now rather than in 10 months when I can look back and see that the game does hold its price. Plus its a pita having to check everything on 3rd website to see the price history of the game, maybe if the price history was build into the steam UI it'd be better.

[Start_Running]

Messaggio originale di meiam:

Messaggio originale di Start_Running:

But regardless of all of that. WHy should any such promise be made? SO you don't feel sad because you were too impatient to wait for a decent discount?

I'm not impatient, quite the opposite, I barely ever buy game when they come out anymore, just move everything to my wish list (over 250 at this point). It just suck for small dev that probably need the money right now rather than in 10 months when I can look back and see that the game does hold its price. Plus its a pita having to check everything on 3rd website to see the price history of the game, maybe if the price history was build into the steam UI it'd be better.

Your statment is kinda self-contradictory.
Just but the game when its a price you deem personally acceptable because I guarantee you, sooner or later that games price will get lower than what you paid for it. So please lets cut the "But think of the small indies" bs. If small indies want to make a sale, they have rto make something worth buyuing and have to work to sell it.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

Games are a luxury, not a right.

Also, game companies are not charities, their primary aim is to make as much money out of their customers as possible. If that means they never go on sale, or it is a very long before they do, then you likely were not their primary demographic to begin with.

[76561198407601200]

Just pay for the game if you feel the price is justified, otherwise simply skip past it. Don't know if it's worth the price? Watch a review video and gameplay footage. Not exactly rocket science, unless you are purchasing kerbal space program.

[meiam]

Messaggio originale di the.jester:

If that means they never go on sale, or it is a very long before they do, then you likely were not their primary demographic to begin with.

That's literally what I want, but because there's no way to guarantee that they will do that, I'm forced to assume they put the price far above what it reasonably should be just to be able to heavily discount it.

[Start_Running]

Messaggio originale di meiam:

Messaggio originale di the.jester:

If that means they never go on sale, or it is a very long before they do, then you likely were not their primary demographic to begin with.

That's literally what I want, but because there's no way to guarantee that they will do that, I'm forced to assume they put the price far above what it reasonably should be just to be able to heavily discount it.

What you think is 'far above' and 'reasonable' are subjective to you and you alone. So unless you think all these companies are out to spite YOU specifically. How about applying occams razor.

[Garou]

Unless you're a game key trader this won't help you much.

[meiam]

Messaggio originale di Start_Running:

What you think is 'far above' and 'reasonable' are subjective to you and you alone. So unless you think all these companies are out to spite YOU specifically. How about applying occams razor.

It's not spite, it's just basic marketing. Something that cost 10$ will sell less than something that cost 20$ but is on sales for 10$. So this means that developer try and figure out what the best price for game will be, they then increase it just so they can heavily discounted quickly and flash the big sales number.

I guess this is great for consumer who enjoy the sales and have lots of disposable income, but for everybody else it just means you have to waste a lot of time and energy trying to decipher what the true value of something. Yeah you can read a tons of review/watch lets play, but I'd rather spend that time playing games.

It would be amazing if, trough some magic, you could pay for a game after playing it and decide there and then how much you think the experience is worth, but since that's impossible (or rather if it was implemented would fail for obvious reason), we have to rely on dev. They are the people with the best understanding of how much there game is worth, they've almost certainly played other game in the genre and can compare those to there's. Simply put, they have a better idea how much is game is worth to the consumer than the consumer does, because the consumer has no information about the product itself and dev can make pretty good assumption about the consumer, an information asymmetry.

But because they also know that games on discount sell better than full price game, even if the price is the same, they'll mark up the price. Except they don't all do that and as consumer we have no way of knowing what pricing strategy they'll implement. I just want to know this ahead of time so I can make informed purchase decision without having to spent hours trying to figure out the true worth of every game I want to buy (again, over 250 game on my wishlist, if I spend 1 hour reading review and watching lets play for all those, that would be over 10 days wasted!).

[RedLightning]

I think watching 'lets plays' takes the surprise out of the game for me.

Its like watching a movie before you pay to go see it, kinda ruins it.. heck even previews give away too much.

Having to rely on biased and sometimes paid reviews, and lets plays to judge a game is not really for me.

However what is the big deal .. really.. if you pay for a game. and *you* deem that the game was not worth the asking price.. before two hours use .. and two weeks..

*you can get your money back*.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Messaggio originale di RedLightning:

...before two hours use .. or two weeks..

*you can get your money back*.

And

Not or.