It's overpriced when I think the game is not worth what it's sold for.

These are games where the developer has already been paid for developing them and many of them would have already been in the public domain had the copyright term not been extended from the original length.

For $10 you can get a hell of a lot of gameplay elsewhere. I do buy games for $10 when I like the game, but it's missing the point to suggest that a game from 20 years ago is still worth $20 when in some cases it originally retailed for only $35 new.
I'd recommend you take some courses in economics because you seem to have no clue what you're talking about here.

Have you any idea how hard it is to adjust customer price expectations up when other people are selling for a lot less? Hell, even with gasoline and things which are getting scarcer you still see people only buying it because they have to have it. No matter how good a game is, it's just a game and one doesn't have to have it.

On top of that, games can be pirated and the chances of being caught are rather low.

The issue isn't that most games aren't worth $5 it's that indie developers can't afford to create games that are worth more than that because there are so many other games that are selling for stupidly low prices. The industry has had gluts in the market before, and at some point the industry is going to crash again. Valve is just moving it forward more quickly.

I used to be a bargain bin junkie in the mid 90s to 2000 and if i found a good game for $5 i was very happy. Everything is different now with the digital download revolutuion. The daily bargain bin comes to me everyday from all the sites and they are all racing to the bottom. Amazon is the heavy weight champion that just entered the digital download arena and they are playing to win. We as gamers also win if they crush everyone else because we'll get AAA titles for $5 alot sooner than normal (Dungeon Siege 3, Duke Nukem Forever) both of these were $5 within six months of release on Amazon. Just yesterday, i bought Divinity2 Dragon Knight Saga (AAA $40 game) for $5.99.

Another huge factor is the Indie Bundle revolution. I will never buy another indie game for $10 because i know it will be released for dirt cheap in one of the bundles. Its another game changer. I wanted Nuclear Dawn, but i waited for a bundle and IndieRoyale had it and 2 other games for $3.50 and IndieRoyale is one of the more expensive bundles. I wanted Post Apocalyptic Mayhem, but waited and Groupee had it as a bonus along with 6 other games for $1 or more. You cant beat that!!!

Another huge game changer is the F2P games. Just look at the AAA quality F2P games on Steam alone (TF2, Spiral Knights, etc) great games and all for free. I used to buy alot of games, but i only buy a few AAA quality games per year now and i rarely pay more than $5 and thats for the GotY edition or Platinum editions with all the DLC.

The gaming world has changed BIG TIME and all in our favor :)

OMG, is PC gaming dying again?

In general you're right, but every once in awhile you stumble on an indie game that is worth far more. Sequence, Bastion, and SPAZ were three of these for me last year. The sheer gameplay alone is worth way more, though ironically only Bastion goes for more than 5 USD even when it's on sale.
Nope, just the same as always: getting the short end of the stick. Though, to be fair, PC gaming sort of deserves it.

I buy lunch every day now (I really should start making it). It costs me £3.30 (approx $5). If that was $10 I'd consider it overpriced.

You eat a lot :D

Not trying to criticize, but put this in perspective. The fact that you consider $3.50 to be expensive for four or more games is kind of alarming. You don't think those developers deserve any more than 85 cents each for their game?

For the Groupees example, assuming each dev gets compensated equally and working in the 20% charity plus, let's say 5% for Groupees, you paid a little less than ten cents to each developer. Ten cents.

It's great for the consumer, but it's sad to see just how much the bundles devalue an indie game. I like to think they're worth more than mere pennies. If this is what a start up dev has to look forward to, it's no wonder game devs have so many issues getting started.

If MoO3 went on Gem Promo it would be on my shelf. It's on sale at GG for 4.99 USD atm. Or was. The only reason I didn't pick it up is because from what I read; you can't add the mods to the GG version. And I'm only assuming you can to the GOG version. I would still buy it. And someone passed it up for .83 USD? Speechless...

Hi!

GOG agrees 10 dollar is too much for old games. No game will cost more than 9.99 USD anymore.*

*Witcher 2 and future releases excluded

Did you study economy from Marx books?

If you tried to read something, you'd know that every god damn company that landed on steam earned more money that they would earn elsewhere. Also, many games during steam sales make 3000% (sic!) of revenue during that single day.

In total, most of the companies gain from being on steam.

Only BAD ones, don't.

It's somehow silly that some people here think that EVERY indie dev should earn money and be profitable. Good games never have any problems with selling on steam.
You have to be a total DRM Free Fanboy not to see this.

One of my favourite companies - Paradox Interactive earnd gazillions of dollars on Magicka on steam. They couldn't do that in any other place. And yes, most of magicka copies were sold during the sale. Still, company's growing faster than ever.
Market is just a place where weak don't survive.

Were do you get a proper lunch in London for GBP 3.30?

For an equivalent of GBP 3.30 you'd get 18-inch pizza in Poland :E Well, with current exchange rate, maybe 13-inch

So what should happen? Should sales be eliminated to help the indies make more money? But the sales helped make the Revenge of the Titans guys 10 times as much as money for that game