are free to play games, actually purchasable?

[[[e-mail]] (~) #]

like, I added a free to play game to my library, played it for a bit, uninstalled and "removed from my library", and now it's a 3.99€ purchase, like, what? is this a common behavior?

the best part is, I go to steam support to ask for this behavior to valve, there is no f*ing section to report something like this, because either you fit in the categories of support requests that they chose to, or you pound sand, and instead there is a button to re-add the game to the library...

and finally, the "re-add" button does not actually re-add the game to the library, before clicking it the game was in the library with a "purchase" button instead of the "play"/"download" one, and now the game is simply not in the library, but the store page does not have a price anymore, so you can click "play for free" again and re-add it this way

what the f* is this behavior? first time I encounter sh*t like this... and surely I wouldn't expect these things to come from valve/steam, I would expect this more to be a bug in the epic games store or something...

any thoughts?

[Zarineth]

Devs are able to change price of their games at any time, nothing to do with Valve. Also are you sure it wasn't a free week game?

[Pierce Dalton]

What game was that?

[[[e-mail]] (~) #]

it was OplitisAV (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1741420/OplitisAV/). the store page says it's 3.99 but I found the game under the "hacking" tag in the free to play section... IDK, is valve running promotions like "you can get this game for free, but only once, if you remove it you have to pay" or anything like that? like, is this a known marketing thing?? there are no microtransactions in that game, sooo... idk...

[[[e-mail]] (~) #]

to be clear, I'm not crazy, it shows up as free to play for my account: https://imgur.com/a/CMVOP2v

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Oprindeligt skrevet af [e-mail] (~) #:

it was OplitisAV ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/1741420/OplitisAV/ ). the store page says it's 3.99 but I found the game under the "hacking" tag in the free to play section... IDK, is valve running promotions like "you can get this game for free, but only once, if you remove it you have to pay" or anything like that? like, is this a known marketing thing?? there are no microtransactions in that game, sooo... idk...

Fixed the link.

[HikariLight]

Sometimes devs may have a 'free to keep' special for a short time, anyone who adds the game to their library during that time can keep it forever and get it for free.
Some games have free weeks or weekends where you can play the game for free for the time period, but once the time is up, you have to buy the game to be able to play.

[[[e-mail]] (~) #]

that part I knew, I didn't know however "free to keep" timewindows existed... TIL.
thanks for the explanation