Is it naughty to buy games on sale instead of at full price?

[mayfluxitgay]

Do you perhaps think it's less naughty if the dev already made a lot of sales and/or they funded it themselves rather than with crowdfunding, especially at full price? For instance, buying Nine Sols at full price may be more generous of me than buying Hollow Knight at full price, as Nine Sols has sold far fewer copies (around 1 million, whereas Hollow Knight sold around 5 million). Nine Sols received $105,900 in Kickstarter funding, and Hollow Knight had anywhere from $10,000 to $56,000 in development budget (marketing and other expenses not accounted for) based on mixed sources. Although we don't have Silksong figures yet, I'll estimate $110,000 in development costs for Silksong, and based on 500,000 active players, 650,000 sales within the first week. But of course, random ass Skibidi Toilet games I find for 5 dollars will probably offer more support to the devs if I buy, and me buying GTA V at ALL was hardly necessary ATP (I did actually buy it, but on Epic Games Store) because they made a lot and continue milking money, and I already have licenses to use it on two other consoles.

Another consideration is continual cost of updates, online servers, and similar. If a game receives regular updates, more dollars add up to more support for a more expensive product to develop and maintain. And of course buying it on sale means less for Steam themselves, though this is a strategy they deem necessary for the sake of getting people to buy games they don't need at the cost of savvy shoppers buying only the games they really want while they're on discount. It's similar to Drawabox's Patreon setup where you buy a set amount of credits, and any you don't use help support them keeping the costs of lessons low, but you can get an excellent value if you are one of the few people who DO use them all up.

[artfreeman43]

No. Your money, be smart.

[SympliKrazi]

what's wrong with being frugal and waiting for a sale?

[HermitTheToad]

If the dev didn't want the game on sale he wouldn't put it on sale.

[Xero_Daxter]

Me personally I wanna wait for a sale to buy a game. If money wasn’t an issue I would be buying all the games. But then again I do have a backlog of games.

[NW/RL]

Generally, people are not going to sell something for a given price if it overall costs them money to do it. Even when they do, such as Costco and their $5 chickens, they're used to get people to come in and buy other things to recoup costs

So a dev putting their game on sale for 50%, 70%, hell even 90% off probably knows what they're doing and believes they'll be fine selling the game at that price

[AdahnGorion]

Is it naughty to buy milk when its on sale?

Well there is your answer.

[mayfluxitgay]

Originally posted by NW/RL:

Generally, people are not going to sell something for a given price if it overall costs them money to do it. Even when they do, such as Costco and their $5 chickens, they're used to get people to come in and buy other things to recoup costs

So a dev putting their game on sale for 50%, 70%, hell even 90% off probably knows what they're doing and believes they'll be fine selling the game at that price

This is an interesting answer.

Moreover, this thread surprised me, as a lot of this place seemed like developer fanboys who put more scrutiny on consumers, but these are pretty consumer-friendly responses that put a bit more scrutiny on developers to price their products reasonably or face the consequences of less revenue.

[Drain]

It's a legal purchase authorized by the publisher... so why would you feel bad about it? Pay full though if that's what you want to do.

[vkobe]

only if you have a dog and the naugthy

[Chaosolous]

You’re getting coal for Christmas, criminal scum.

[Сааребас]

There is a problem with your questioning because it's founded from the perspective of the publisher.

The publisher should worry about that, not the consumer.

As for the publisher to create a game, it's a one time investment, not counting advertising. For the consumer, it, usually, no longer is, albeit statistics will proof me wrong.
However, not every game is equal.

In this case, you ask the question from a consumer perspective whilst framing it through a publisher perspective.

These interests collide.
Logically a consumer should wish for the best quality for the lowest price, whilst a publisher wishes to spend the least amount they can to increase the r.o.i.

Should you feel guilty to wait for a sale?
I don't think so.
Even if it's just for the fact that major titles have increased in price (complete game experience) whilst also hardly, if at all, maintaining previous established quality.

Sure paying full price MIGHT put extra money in the pockets of people who actually created the game, but it's highly more likely people who didn't actually worked on the game get even more fat.

Nobody should care a company or even a person spend 300m to develop a game or 3300m hours have been spend to create a game.

That's only an issue for the consumer when the product becomes/is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and the prices keep going up (because a lot of those products fail for mysterious reasons).

Look, always respect the hustle, because it is what it is.
Companies need to make money and if there are investors, it's highly likely they invest to at the very least break bank.

[Adversary]

Being a good consumer is never a bad idea. You should always look out for your bottom line and thus look to get the best deals possible.

Remember - never preorder. Always wait for the reviews to come out. Buy games on sale whenever possible. And don't give money to people who hate you.

[steven1mac]

If they gave a bug free game when it was first released, I'd be more inclined to pay full price for a game.

[John Gigachad]

I almost never buy full price, only on rare ocasians when the devs deserve it, like Expedition 33 or Silksong. Im mainly voting with my wallet, i will buy Borderlands 4 in 2 years via the ultra pandoras bordlerlands box for 2 bucks to show gearbox how much they have fallen.

[mayfluxitgay]

Originally posted by Mittagsschicht:

I almost never buy full price, only on rare ocasians when the devs deserve it, like Expedition 33 or Silksong. Im mainly voting with my wallet, i will buy Borderlands 4 in 2 years via the ultra pandoras bordlerlands box for 2 bucks to show gearbox how much they have fallen.

Interesting... indie was what I was looking at purchasing for full price anyways, though I brought up Silksong specifically because I wonder if the devs already made enough money. I did too much thinking today and now give shoddy responses.