Usage of Steam Points for a discount

[Sitix]

Hello, I came up with the idea of having additional use for steams point

As many of you know, currently the only use for Steam points is for cosmetic / decorative purposes, which isn't a bad thing of course and a lot of people enjoy decorating their profile (including me) but i think having another use for those points would be appreciated.

I bet there is a lot of people who are just sitting at thousands of points with nothing really to spend it on. So i had an idea, why not give people the option to "redeem a discount".

Currently the conversion (at least for EURO) is 1€ = 106 points.
So why not give people the option to, as and example convert 10 000 points (around 10€) to a 10% discount. The idea is, that steam could either : add the option for 10% (10 000) / 25% (25 000) respectively, as it is for depositing money with the minimum being 5€, or let people "craft" their own discount, in which 1000 points would be equal to 1%, with the minimum of 10%.

I know that it isn't entirely profitable, and that it would most likely came with a lot of restrictions, like "can't be used on already discounted products", but at the end i think it would still be profitable for steam overall, because not only would people be happy that they finally have some use for their collected steam points, but it would bring more people into buying more games and not having to wait for the game / product to be on sale.

I think that overall it would be a great addition for both sides.

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the day

[Thermal Lance]

Yeah. No.

People are already baiting arguments for points all the time when they are worthless. Giving them any kind of value would just shift the issue into overdrive.

[Brian9824]

I'd suggest using the search, its been suggested to death and it really boils down to there is no real reason for steam to offer it. They don't lack in sales, they have an active user base, etc. Other sites like EPIC offer it and take losses because they are trying to steal customers away from other sites and don't have the same features to offer

Originally posted by Łuci:

but it would bring more people into buying more games and not having to wait for the game / product to be on sale.

Keep in mind ifs more profitable for steam if users DO wait for it to be on sale, rather then buying the game earlier at 10% discount.

Steam would make more money if you bought a $50 game when it was on sale for $35, then they would if you bought a $50 game for $45 with a 10% discount.

[Sitix]

yea sorry, i should have thought that this issue was addressed before a dozen times, i just thought that steam would actually implement more use for them, if people would want it

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

Originally posted by Łuci:

yea sorry, i should have thought that this issue was addressed before a dozen times, i just thought that steam would actually implement more use for them, if people would want it

Given how easy points are to get, they'd need to completely overhaul how points are obtained so that only points from purchases count, not points from forum awards.

I got 60k points in a 2-3 day span when BG3 first launched, just debating certain people who were brigading the game with spam forums.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Łuci:

yea sorry, i should have thought that this issue was addressed before a dozen times, i just thought that steam would actually implement more use for them, if people would want it

Don't forget what people want, and whats good for developers and a store are often very different things.

Plus don't forget the amount of outrage this would create. Can you imagine how outraged people who used their points on awards or other stuff would be if this was done and they found out they lost hundreds of dollars of potential discounts?

[DiceDsx]

Originally posted by Łuci:

yea sorry, i should have thought that this issue was addressed before a dozen times, i just thought that steam would actually implement more use for them, if people would want it

Various people have been asking this since the Points Store opened, but I think Valve made it cosmetic only on purpose: they had points usable for coupons years ago and even had a 5€ discount on a 30€ cart once.

They simply don't need to do it.

[Sitix]

I also thought about the idea of having only a certain games discountable with the steam points, only the ones that would agree to it, or having some kind of "steam points sale" which would be a minor sale

[IntoTheVoid13]

Originally posted by Łuci:

Hello, I came up with the idea of having additional use for steams point

As many of you know, currently the only use for Steam points is for cosmetic / decorative purposes, which isn't a bad thing of course and a lot of people enjoy decorating their profile (including me) but i think having another use for those points would be appreciated.

I bet there is a lot of people who are just sitting at thousands of points with nothing really to spend it on. So i had an idea, why not give people the option to "redeem a discount".

Currently the conversion (at least for EURO) is 1€ = 106 points.
So why not give people the option to, as and example convert 10 000 points (around 10€) to a 10% discount. The idea is, that steam could either : add the option for 10% (10 000) / 25% (25 000) respectively, as it is for depositing money with the minimum being 5€, or let people "craft" their own discount, in which 1000 points would be equal to 1%, with the minimum of 10%.

I know that it isn't entirely profitable, and that it would most likely came with a lot of restrictions, like "can't be used on already discounted products", but at the end i think it would still be profitable for steam overall, because not only would people be happy that they finally have some use for their collected steam points, but it would bring more people into buying more games and not having to wait for the game / product to be on sale.

I think that overall it would be a great addition for both sides.

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the day :luv: :lunar2019piginablanket:

Yeah i am totally with you on this! see the post i made just before you.
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/4334229775333763211/
and as for everyone else commenting, why are you all so pessimistic about such a reasonable concept? We just want to use a certain amount of our steam points for up to maybe 25% Off per Cart Total to offset the total cost. I believe Steam Customers deserve some type of a Rewards Program for being such loyal customers. If Playstation can do it with Playstation Stars, then Steam can do it with Steam Points within reason of course.

[IntoTheVoid13]

And realistically it would cost a reasonably large amount of Steam Points per Total Checkout Discount and would obviously cost more in Steam Points than Steam Profile Cosmetics, and those Cosmetics would cost the same in Steam Points as they currently do. So yeah Steam could implement it in a way where their customers get rewarded and are happy and Steam still makes money.

So yeah basically you either, pay a huge chunk of your Steam Point Balance for a good Total Checkout Discount and you can choose a Discount Tier of either 5%,10%,15%,20% & 25% and those Tiers would be priced accordingly in Steam Points.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

I can farm thousands of points per dollar spent (sometimes earning points and money at the same time) making the points per dollar for a coupon listed above a loss for Valve in every way.

[IntoTheVoid13]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

I can farm thousands of points per dollar spent (sometimes earning points and money at the same time) making the points per dollar for a coupon listed above a loss for Valve in every way.

:winterbunny2023:

My point is it doesn't need to be that way, Valve could make some reasonable adjustments to the Points System to balance it out so that you wouldn't earn points per dollar and would earn points slightly differently and Valve would sell the Cosmetics in Different Point Numbers that would still be the equivalent of what they currently cost now so you would now have the choice to use your Points for Cosmetics or Reasonable Discount Percentages at Checkout. why does nobody want nice things anymore? Every time someone makes a constructive suggestion that has the best interest of everybody including the company in mind someone has to come in and just be like, "nah that'll never happen", not with that attitude it won't.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by IntoTheVoid13:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

I can farm thousands of points per dollar spent (sometimes earning points and money at the same time) making the points per dollar for a coupon listed above a loss for Valve in every way.

My point is it doesn't need to be that way, Valve could make some reasonable adjustments to the Points System to balance it out so that you wouldn't earn points per dollar and would earn points slightly differently and Valve would sell the Cosmetics in Different Point Numbers that would still be the equivalent of what they currently cost now so you would now have the choice to use your Points for Cosmetics or Reasonable Discount Percentages at Checkout. why does nobody want nice things anymore? Every time someone makes a constructive suggestion that has the best interest of everybody including the company in mind someone has to come in and just be like, "nah that'll never happen", not with that attitude it won't.

We always would like to have stuff but people keep exploiting the crap out of it and we stop having nice things. (Remember the Sticker Book?)

You have to look at an idea from all perspectives, not just the consumer benefits. The pros and cons from both sides of it.

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by Łuci:

yea sorry, i should have thought that this issue was addressed before a dozen times, i just thought that steam would actually implement more use for them, if people would want it

I'm sure Valve will implement more eventually but only stuff that has no monetary value (ie. more profile customization options) as Steam Points are designed to neither have nor give anything of monetary value.

[cinedine]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

I can farm thousands of points per dollar spent (sometimes earning points and money at the same time) making the points per dollar for a coupon listed above a loss for Valve in every way.

:winterbunny2023:

You do and so does Valve.

Every single point in the ecosystem is a cent spent directly on Steam. There is no other way to generate point without spending money. If you get 1000 points without spending money, e.g. through awards that means somebody spent at least 30 dollar on Steam. If you buy stuff for 10 dollar to get the 1000 points and make back these 10 dollars on the market it means somebody paid 11.50 dollars - that's additional to your 10.

[TGC> The Games Collector]

I'd rather have a few more community features we could spend points on...