What happened to the cheap games?

[StaRsTroke]

I used to remember buying games for $0.19 during the weekend sales last year.
Why are there no more games for sale like this?

[Bob]

Inflation.

[Rzep]

It wasn't a sustainable model. The sales haven't been as deep for at least a year. Sometime a year ago, I am guessing Valve, stopped the plumetting prices. Knowing that a game will be 95% off does not generate sales so these days its more along the line of 70%, but very often only 50%.

[StaRsTroke]

Originally posted by Rzep:

It wasn't a sustainable model. The sales haven't been as deep for at least a year. Sometime a year ago, I am guessing Valve, stopped the plumetting prices. Knowing that a game will be 95% off does not generate sales so these days its more along the line of 70%, but very often only 50%.

Thanks for your detailed response, really appreciated.

[Starwhite]

There are still plenty of cheap games. No idea about NA prices but EU1 has 0.22€ now as cheapest. Also games sold for that cheap usually have been/will be in several bundles and/or free giveaways. But I don't think them going up from 0.09/0.14€ to 0.22€+ now is that big a deal personally, it still costs less than a cup of coffee for a game that you can hopefully enjoy for hours.

[Exiled Alchemist]

Sale prices are set by the publisher/developers not by Valve. Still the same facts do remain that some games that are on the very low sale price still didn't make a profit at that sale price so instead they stopped going that low. Sadly some of those super cheap games are not all hidden gems. A good number have ended up being nothing more then broken trash put on sale as a quick cashgrab.

[Rzep]

Originally posted by ExiledAlchemist:

Sale prices are set by the publisher/developers not by Valve. Still the same facts do remain that some games that are on the very low sale price still didn't make a profit at that sale price so instead they stopped going that low. Sadly some of those super cheap games are not all hidden gems. A good number have ended up being nothing more then broken trash put on sale as a quick cashgrab.

From what I've read over the years that is only partially true. The Developers/Publishers decide which offer from Valve to accept, Valve suggests the discounts and the time they appear.

Just like Valve makes suggestion on regional pricing, which is why for example the cheaper EU tier is very rarely used these days.

[Starwhite]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-02-27-developers-can-now-set-their-own-steam-sales

[76561198001062896]

Originally posted by Deathpool:

I used to remember buying games for $0.19 during the weekend sales last year.
Why are there no more games for sale like this?

I still can see games for like 20-40 cents though

Rest assured that most of those deeply discounted games (based from my own experience that is) are very rarely any good. There are of course exceptions but you really need to dig to find a hidden gem.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by Zetikla:

I still can see games for like 20-40 cents though

It's still one of my favourite things to do on a sale. Swimming deep on the discount bin for this kind of deal (Card sake funds go great for that)
There usually was a 'hidden gems' thread every sale on SPUF.

[76561198001062896]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by Zetikla:

I still can see games for like 20-40 cents though

It's still one of my favourite things to do on a sale. Swimming deep on the discount bin for this kind of deal (Card sake funds go great for that)
There usually was a 'hidden gems' thread every sale on SPUF.

I can understand why XD

and same here, sitting on almost 11 euro on my main ^^ although I learned to control my buying OCD

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Deathpool:

I used to remember buying games for $0.19 during the weekend sales last year.
Why are there no more games for sale like this?

THere still are.. they just aren't the sort of games you'd want to spend money on.