(gamasutra) Steam sales: How deep discounts really affect your games

[Final8ty]

Valve's Steam sales have always proven a great time for consumers to score some cheap PC games, but over the past several months, there's been some debate over whether these promotions are good for game developers. Some have argued that the major discounts devalue games, and end up hurting the industry in the long run.

But according to a number of developers that took part in this year's Steam Summer Sale, that doesn't seem to be the case. The teams who've discounted their games during this or previous Steam sales have found that the promotions not only attract more sales, but also generate more revenue and breathe new life into aging products.

Full Article
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...w_deep_discounts_really_affect_your_games.php

 

[ShreddedWheat]

I agree that it is good to discount older games to low prices but to see a name brand title such as Skyrim to go on sale a few months after it is released for $ 29.xx instead of $59 is a no brainer. Otherwise I would have waited till this game hit in the $10-20 range.

 

[RussianSensation]

Steam sales are great. Over the course of 6-7 years, it really makes PC gaming cheaper than console gaming, despite the costly PC hardware upgrades. Also, as ShreddedWheat mentioned, even high profile PC games tend to drop much more quickly in price than console games. The downside to that is we may see the death of the "$60 game." If majority of people stop buying $50-60 games, the industry may start to slowly move towards Free-to-Play with more focus on making up the revenues via micro-transactions and DLC content packs. The other major advantage of Steam and places such as GOG is that you can buy much older games that normally would be impossible to find in retail. This is especially true for console games where once a sequel is released and the original game hit the bargain bin, eventually it's simply phased out, while Steam games often go on sale for $2.49, $3.74 and $4.99-$7.49 for Ultimate/Game of the Year editions with added content. The convenience of picking up a good game that you missed in the past with all the patches and downloadable content packs in place for $5-10 is hard to match.

Overall, it sounds like a win-win (although a lot of Steam gamers have massive backlogs of games despite spending $$$, which means Valve ultimately wins over us ).

 

[micrometers]

but you do this too much and you will erode your market position. They should probably do like a "deal a day" sort of thing where one game gets marked down.

 

[Gothgar]

EA is really the only one saying its a bad thing.

Most people feel the same about EA as well, &^*$ EA.

 

[Gothgar]

Also, I would NEVER have bought most the games I do on Steam sales if they were full price, or even normally discounted.

 

[diesbudt]

Overall, it sounds like a win-win (although a lot of Steam gamers have massive backlogs of games despite spending $$$, which means Valve ultimately wins over us ).

Don't remind me... I havent had many games in a few years. And this was first tiem I had a very nice PC... and I learned of steam 2-3 weeks prior to the sale...

Outcome? 80 games purchased, $200-$250 spent.

 

[MiataNC]

I spent close to 3x as much on this years sale, because I was buying games for myself, my daughter, and my wife. Indie and Co-Op is taking over at my house, and we are loving it. This would not be happening if the games had not gone on sale at a deep discount.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Doesn't this also favor developers who put out more games, pure quantity? That is to say, the consumer's purchasing power is not endless, which puts a limit on how many new $50 or $60 games they can buy, but, as games age and hit that $4.99 or $9.99 mark on steam, developers with more games that at least reach the "don't suck" level of quality,they can reach those gamers who might have $30 or $40 more dollars they can eke out of their wallets?

 

[mindcycle]

EA is really the only one saying its a bad thing.

Most people feel the same about EA as well, &^*$ EA.

Yeah exactly. Pretty much everyone else out there seems to think the opposite. Tells you something about EA and their shady PR speak..

 

[SunnyD]

Well duh...

Let's see... you can sell 1 copy @ $30 netting $28 profit every month, or you can sell 500 copies @ $5 netting $3 profit every month for a total of $1500 profit for the month. Granted this is a simplistic view, but yeah, here you are.

In the indie world where the sunk costs are really one to a handful of individual's development time, and then the distribution medium's cut (aka: Steam), there's not a whole lot else worth of overhead to worry about in the gran scheme of things. Steam sales can bring in a hell of a lot of money for them, whereas an EA is going to have to pay for several global office facilities, shareholder dividends, CEO bonuses, etc. Economies of scale.

Not only that, but EA cares about AAA titles given AAA production costs, meaning AAA consumer costs to recapture some of those costs as well. Indie and smaller devs aren't going big budget titles, and not pouring millions of dollars into up-front costs into a title. EA and the smaller/indie devs are really apples/oranges in this conversation.

 

[Tweak155]

I spent close to 3x as much on this years sale, because I was buying games for myself, my daughter, and my wife. Indie and Co-Op is taking over at my house, and we are loving it. This would not be happening if the games had not gone on sale at a deep discount.

Examples? I tend to be weary of Indie games as 9/10 I watch videos for, I would not play. Only 2 Indie games I own are Bastion and Dungeon Defenders. Actually I forgot about Limbo, but that game was no good. I'd like some GOOD suggestions.

I like hack n slash style mainly for coop, but will consider others.

 

[MiataNC]

Examples? I tend to be weary of Indie games as 9/10 I watch videos for, I would not play. Only 2 Indie games I own are Bastion and Dungeon Defenders. Actually I forgot about Limbo, but that game was no good. I'd like some GOOD suggestions.

I like hack n slash style mainly for coop, but will consider others.

Not all of the games we play are both co-op and indie, but here are some we are enjoying thanks to the summer sale.

Borderlands (Co-Op)
Brink (Co-Op)
Payday the Heist (Co-Op)
Orcs Must Die!
World of Goo
Torchlight
Trine
Trine2
Legend of Grimrock
Swords and Soldiers HD
Defense Grid
SimCity4

Borderlands, World of Goo, and Torchlight are getting the most play. My daughter loves being a criminal in Payday. I will have to keep an eye on her as she gets older.

 

[PowerYoga]

without the sales I simply would not have purchased a lot of these games, period.

But with 50% off? 75%? I ended up spending a little over $200 for a bunch of games I never would've bought. Most are indie games as well, and one or 2 big titles.

In short? Fuck you EA.

 

[Aikouka]

Borderlands, World of Goo, and Torchlight are getting the most play. My daughter loves being a criminal in Payday. I will have to keep an eye on her as she gets older.

The best part is that the bolded have sequels coming out really soon and the latter will bring co-op!

Note that Orcs Must Die! 2 comes out this coming Tuesday and it also features a new co-op mode!

 

[postmortemIA]

Borderlands would never been hit if it wasn't for Steam.

 

[dangerman1337]

There's one problem I have with this article, it's that most of these developers aren't mentioning hard reveune numbers or profits.

 

[reallyscrued]

In b4 turns into EA hate thread.

...oh wait.

 

[MiataNC]

In b4 turns into EA hate thread.

...oh wait.

:biggrin: