I had a sale idea, sent it to them last year, but in a much more gamified way which would have been an even worse pain to implement (though likely more interesting... if also annoying for some).

A slightly different (and less gamified) version of that would be (times and numbers are suggestions only):

- Time set to 20 min per game.
- Games repeat 3 times in one day, so a round has 24 games and lasts 8 hours. Game order within a round is random.
- New games each day.
- They set a sales target for each game, per day, then split in 3 to get 3 equal shares per round.
- In agreement with the rights holder, they decide base, minimum and maximum discounts, say 25-30% between min and max, base typically a step above min.
- A step is 5%.
- Every 2 minutes, the script checks number sold vs. number that should be sold to reach goal for that round, so for example if goal per round is 200, should be 40 after 4 min.
- An shrinking error margin is applied to the result, say +/- 20% after 2 min, 18% after 4, then 16/14/12/10/8/6/5 (since it looks better than ending in 4 :p).
- If number sold is greater than target + error margin, discount decreases by 1 step, until it hits min. If smaller than target - error margin, it increases by 1 step, until it hits max.
- If at any point during the 20 min, the target is hit, the game can't be bought anymore and a message to wait for the next is displayed, which remains on screen until the 20 min are up, to keep the schedule. Also, if this happens during the first two rounds, it remembers to start the game's next round with discount one step below base.
- The number sold and target is ONLY displayed during the final 2 minutes, if target still not reached.
- If target still not reached after 20 min during the first 2 rounds, it moves to the next game, adds remaining copies of the current one to its next round and remembers to start that one with its discount one step higher than base.
- If target still not reached after 20 min during the last round, it moves to the next game while the current one is moved to a secondary sale, say a list displayed under the current "featured" game, where it'll remain available at max discount until either the sales target or a set maximum duration of the sale is reached.
- So basically, for the users, it's a question of risk. Do you wait and hope others will do the same and you'll get a greater discount or settle for a lesser one so it won't go even lower or go away completely if others buy. Goes even more so once discount goes down, since it means game sells really well and unless everyone stops buying right away it'll either keep going down or, likely, vanish entirely before the time runs out.

Or something like that.