Dead Stock On Steam

[J4MESOX4D]

I've just seen the truly terrible Walking Dead Survival Instinct on my store homepage at £29.99 - this game was reduced to £6 in the sale recently for a period of around 4 days and I was thinking about games like this that surely must not sell any copies whatsoever now at the maximum pricepoint.

The quality of the game itself is irrelevent but games like this that are known to be reduced every so often for sales purposes surely can't be puchased much at the top end deal in the Steam store and must be sitting as essentially dead stock until the next sale where the product is likely to be reduced significantly.

Games like Prison Architect, Flight Sim X, The Evil Within, Alien Isolation, Civ Beyond Earth, Torchlight 2 etc.. all have their usual fixed prices but are almost guaranteed to be reduced 50-90% in weekly sales or major events. It got me thinking how much business Valve actually do on these types of games during the normal periods where the games are placed at their maximum value. The likes of The Evil Within is sitting at a cost of £34.99 but has been reduced a number of times since release to £11.89 which is a substantial saving and I cannot see who would purchase at the current £35 price unless they are completely oblivious to the market and how sales work.

I think it would be really interesting to see how games like these fare in terms of off-peak sales. I'm also surprised that many products don't get reduced to lower costs the older they get and it gets me thinking as to whether people actually still pay premium prices for these products throughout the year and outside of the sales. I know Activision are bizzare with their pricing on PC but who the hell would still pay £29.99 for MW3? They aren't the only ones who keep older titles are lavish pricepoints despite hefty reductions when the game discounts.

[Black Blade]

Be surprised, some users do not have the power to wait for games sales, and buy games on full price even a long time after the game is out

Any how many games do drop in price over all over time

[Satoru]

With regards to your first point. Games actually tend to go into a steady state after various spikes for sales, relases,etc. Steam's said that their own sales have not impacted users buying games at full price, nor have impacted people pre-ordering games. Obviously the steady state for each game varies.

http://forums.stardock.com/452355

LH does about $40k/month in steady state sales. This number as the post indicates, removes the 'halo' effect around sales. in that the steady state of a game will increase slightly after a sale. Each game is different obviously. But people defintely buy games at full price off-sale in some decent amount depending on the popularity of your game.

I think the thing people forget is that not EVERYONE is a sale hungry, coupon clipping, crazy cat lady! If they were, no one would pre-order anything. Yes there is a large sub-culture of sale tracking. But there are also people who just buy things full price because they don't want to wait.

With regards to lowering the price. Since steam is digital there is no 'inventory depreciation' going on. thus there's no real incentive to fire sale the game unless you really have to. If people are buying MW3 for $50, why should I bother reducing the price. My data shows people will STILL buy it. It's why the entire CoD series is still uber-expensive. Because it can. They'll throw you a 25-33% discount on a sale once and awhile. But overall they have no need to race to the basement.

Other devs/publishers likley just dont bother updating their prices. They likely don't even care about the #s that much. It's probably making 'some' money and that's better than the 0 they'd be making otherwise. Not to mention hiring somene to data analyize and tweak the pricing might cost moe than you'd make on the game.

Steam gives you a lot of data to analyze and work with. Whether any publisher/dev decides to look or care about that data is up to them really.

[Atom.Little]

引用自 Black Blade：

Be surprised, some users do not have the power to wait for games sales, and buy games on full price even a long time after the game is out

....plus many people - especially people who are new to gaming and to buying games online - aren't aware that games will be sold at lower prices after a while.

As for pre-ordering, I've realized that this is a very bad idea for several reasons. But remember that many custumers aren't adults, and thus do not have the same awareness about economy and spending practices as an adult has.

I'm not saying people buying games the way they do is all understandable, but I'm saying it isn't all due to foolishness or not caring about how to purchase wisely.

Edit: I also know a few examples of simple peer pressure ("If you don't buy right away we can't make that awesome team!" and "If we don't get into the game on launch day we'll never make it to the top 10 list!").

[Gus the Crocodile]

引用自 Satoru：

I think the thing people forget is that not EVERYONE is a sale hungry, coupon clipping, crazy cat lady! If they were, no one would pre-order anything. Yes there is a large sub-culture of sale tracking. But there are also people who just buy things full price because they don't want to wait.

Yep. A game's launch period wouldn't be such an important time for the developer if there weren't a huge chunk of people perfectly happy to pay top dollar.

[Lady Rose]

引用自 AmaDraque：

引用自 Black Blade：

Be surprised, some users do not have the power to wait for games sales, and buy games on full price even a long time after the game is out

....plus many people - especially new players - aren't aware that games will be sold on lower prices after a while.

And even those of us who are aware still sometimes succumb to "I must play this game TODAY!" :D

[Tito Shivan]

引用自 Satoru：

I think the thing people forget is that not EVERYONE is a sale hungry, coupon clipping, crazy cat lady! If they were, no one would pre-order anything. Yes there is a large sub-culture of sale tracking. But there are also people who just buy things full price because they don't want to wait.

Or because their level of disposable income to spend on games is just higher.
For many people $60 isn't that much to spend on a game. Sometimes, waiting is a factor not even considered.

[Fishook]

As a rule I would never pay full price for a game older than week, as I generally know the games I want to play, and I do buy alot of full price games from steam or GMG. KIds or Casual gamers such as my mate (he got a vgood rig) who are not on steam on a daily basis to be up to date on the latest realeases.

No everybody can afford to buy every they fancy (I am lucky to be able to do that).

[ACSlater2001]

Bought Terraria a year ago for $1.99. Played for a while and then told my friend about it. Told him that the game always goes on sale for 75% - 90% off. He decided to pay the full $10 for it instead of waiting. Lots of people will pay full price so as to not have to wait.

Patience is a virtue.............that can save you a lot of money.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

引用自 Agent_ACSlater2001：

Patience is a virtue.............that can save you a lot of money.

This.

People are just impatient.

And apparently, the market rewards these fools.

[Atom.Little]

引用自 Quintelligent Calcium：

引用自 Agent_ACSlater2001：

Patience is a virtue.............that can save you a lot of money.

This.

People are just impatient.

As many of us have explained, it isn't always about being impatient.

引用自 Quintelligent Calcium：

And apparently, the market rewards these fools.

And they do so because it makes more money, plus it places not so impatient people in a difficult position by 'forcing' them to also buy prematurely if say, they're in a (high end) gamers guild, to mention one possibility.

[76561198180807398]

Всем Привет

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

引用自 AmaDraque：

引用自 Quintelligent Calcium：

This.

People are just impatient.

As many of us have explained, it isn't always about being impatient.

Well I see the peer pressure thing as essentially a cause of impatience, but if you're counting that separately, fine.

引用自 AmaDraque：

And they do so because it makes more money, plus it places not so impatient people in a difficult position by 'forcing' them to also buy prematurely if say, they're in a (high end) gamers guild, to mention one possibility.

I'd do a day-one purchase if I can afford it and I actually really want to support that company or demonstrate the market viability of that particular product, specifically. In fact, I have done this before.

But "keeping up with the Joneses" is very silly, in my opinion. It's a waste of effort, time, money, and attention. Even if said "Joneses" are high-end gamers -- honestly, I regard most of their bells and whistles to be pretty (or completely) unnecessary to my gaming experience. Of course, opinions differ.

[NakiriAyame]

You got VACations

[Atom.Little]

引用自 Quintelligent Calcium：

Well I see the peer pressure thing as essentially a cause of impatience, but if you're counting that separately, fine.

I don't see how your friends being impatient is the same as you being impatient. - C'mon, honestly, you know what I mean, right?

引用自 Quintelligent Calcium：

I'd do a day-one purchase if I can afford it and I actually really want to support that company or demonstrate the market viability of that particular product, specifically. In fact, I have done this before.

Good point.

引用自 Quintelligent Calcium：

But "keeping up with the Joneses" is very silly, in my opinion. It's a waste of effort, time, money, and attention. Even if said "Joneses" are high-end gamers -- honestly, I regard most of their bells and whistles to be pretty (or completely) unnecessary to my gaming experience. Of course, opinions differ.

I can only agree.

On a side note: It may be different to say a group of 12-year olds. And after all, much of the gaming industry caters to this age group.