Of course it is not only Steam, other sites have low sales too, even GOG.

But I don't blame them, even Steam, for low prices. I don't believe any game publisher is forced to sell their games through any service that they feel is selling their game too cheaply, and putting too early to promo sales.

But then, I feel they shouldn't really expect to sell their games for the same prices as they did in the era of retail-only games, because the retail games had resale value (or even gift value). Digital games don't, so digital games should cost less by default, at least in many customers' eyes.

The developers complain that the cost of making games is sky rocketing, but that is their problem to figure out, not a law of nature. Why are the costs sky rocketing, are development kits of today that much harder to use, that much more testing is needed, the International Game Developer Union is rising the wages so much etc.? Or, the stupid developers insist in making movie-wannabe games which have movie budgets?

The complaint of development costs is similar as if movie makers would say all movie ticket prices would have to double due to increased movie making costs. e.g. due to implementing 3D technology into movies. Awww, tough.

Must be a slow and agonizing death then. :)

I don't know how this thread evolved into another Steam discussion again, but just for the records I guess there aren't many companies out there that tell you how much they earn exactly. So reading won't help there much. It might still be like this, but knowing it should be impossible.

With the 3000%, of course if there are sales frequently everybody paying a little attention would mostly buy during sales only. In consequence selling numbers outside of sales will drop and the ratio goes up. I don't say it's impressive, only the meaning is somewhat reduced. You have to look at overall turnover and profit.

I think it is understandable that Indies must aim for a higher price in general for sophisticated games because the audience they reach is smaller in general or they go for the really low price segment, much smaller than 10$, maybe 1$ or 2$. However it's their decision.

For a good new game I am willing to pay not more than 30$. For a good old game up to 10$ is perfect. Bad games I try to avoid and won't buy for any price. For games in between I gradually adjust the price. If the publisher is an indie publisher I might add a premium of 10-30% to honor the good cause. I find that these prices are in line with what the market offers.

this isn't dumping

Yes it is, they're selling at a price that most other stores can't afford to sell for. Regardless of what you call it, it's anticompetitive and needs to be dealt with.

You can quibble all you want, but the fact of the matter is that most other stores can't afford to sell at those prices, they just don't have the number of customers necessary to make it work.

what about other sites that occasionally have sales that are cheaper than what steam has offered, like amazon and gamersgate? Are their sales bad too?

I'm not gonna whine about the price. I just won't buy it if the price isn't right.

I made a post about it here (bottom): http://forums.utopia-game.com/showthread.php?621193-As-this-game-is-worldwide-and-this-problem-is-worldwide

My personal metric: games that are over 6 years old shouldn't retail at 10$, ever.

And given that games are sold digitally, the customer should pocket some of the money saved for that.

However, GOG holds a promo for almost all their games, so it's no biggy.

Those that think 10$ is fair can buy it when the game initially comes out at that price and others can wait for the promo.

Everyone is happy.

And those that never go on promo, well, they can just eat the lost sales (gaming industry keeps talking about piracy, but they should really consider lost sales in general, not just sales that are lost through piracy).

One of the things you have to consider on GOG is that people have often already paid for a physical copy of the game previously and are often only buying again for the digital convenience.

The other thing to consider is that most old games aren't actually better than new games. Given the choice between a relatively new $10 title and a very old one, the new one will often seem a more attractive proposition.

Personally I very very rarely pay more than £10 for any game because I know that in a month or so it'll be available for that price anyway. If the market dictates that games will be sold at 50% off one month later who am I to complain? What I'm trying to say is that the market has created this situation(ain't competition great?) not consumers.

I don't think ten is too much; often with these older games you get a much better story and more depth. I get sooo many hours of enjoyment from them that they pay for themselves many times over.

I think part of the problem is with all these "pseudo-games" that are flooding the market and don't cost much - people's ideas of what a "game" is seems to be changing, and since every Tom, Dick, and Harry can put out "games" now, people expect them to cost little or nothing.

I would much rather buy five or six good old games rather than one over-priced current game that turns out to be crap (ie, Skyrim).

Sure, Steam has good deals, but they still seem to be geared towards the "buy everything" crowd and most of the time I have no interest in whatever they're pushing. (But I have to say I'm glad they have the Hacker games, which I plan on getting.)

But, all that said, I can also understand the perspective that when we're buying a NEW, premium digital game and all we're doing is downloading it and installing it, why does a new game still cost as much as it used to when buying it from a store? They don't have to worry about packaging now, or shipping, and everything that goes along with creating a physical product. I envision the day when games are no longer available in stores but they'll still be over-priced.

So long live GoG!

I'm surprised they made anything after over a million DRM free copies came out of HIB. I guess HIB must do the same thing as Steam sales overall, promote the hell out of the game so that sales go up even after the price reduction is over.

Also, I love TD games and I didn't see much to like about RotT.

Christ man, not even DVDs lose value that fast.

DVDs tends to reach a rather stable price point after a while. Games though have a shorter expected shelflife and after a few years, most stores just wants to get rid of them.


I have not read the entire thread, but here is my take on the pricing issues:

It is not a matter of $10 being too much for a game, not at all. $10 is a very low price for the (possible) amount of entertainment you get out of a game. Heck, over here I would get ½L of sub-par cider for that price in a bar (well, ½L and a few coins back in a normal place). The problem is with expectations. Due to how cheap games have become, I never expect to pay more than a few $ for an older game, heck I expect to not pay a lot for any game these days. There is a price war going on, with stores trying to undercut each other, and digital distribution offering games on sale for a silly good price. It has come to a point where I will usually flat out refuse to buy a game for more than 20€, as I know that I'll very soon find the game that I'm looking for for that price.

And in regards to the indie situation. The person behind Spiderweb software pointed out a few years ago that all the undercutting of prices in the indie scene will make it very hard for indies in a few years. People expect to not pay more than 10€ for a brand new indie game, and a lot of people won't even pay 3€. If you check the steam boards for many of these indie titles you will see people openly complain about games costing 15€ being "far too expensive" (even if they are great, like Eschalon), simply because they expect indies to be a lot cheaper. And bundles are not really helping the situation either. Why would I buy a new indie game (unless it is something that I really want), when there is a significant chance that I'll get it for a far lower price in a few months, and quite likely be found in a bundle?

I'm absolutely not saying that I want to go back to a time when games were far more expensive, but I do wonder what will happen to the (PC) market in the long run, if this goes on.

Subway, daily lunch deal, one 6 inch sub and a bottle of fizzy drink.

If you're talking about movies, I just saw Hannah the other day for 9$. I almost bought it (liked most of the movie, felt so so about the ending). It's a bit less than a year old.

I've seen movies that were a couple of years old for 5$.

I've seen movies that were less than 10 years old for 3$.

To reiterate some of the points I made in the Utopia forum, what constitutes a reasonable price point is relative to the audience.

A working teenager that is a fanboy of an upcoming game might find 60$ to be a very reasonable price point.

Someone who has a mild interest in the product (but is by no means a die-hard fan) or someone who is earning minimum wage and has multiple dependents to support might have a different viewpoint entirely.

Prices need to degrade nicely.

The game should come out at 50$ so that the die-hard fans with disposable income can get it right away.

Then at 35$, the die-hard fans with less disposable income or those with disposable income who are less interested might barge in.

At 20$, the minimum wage worker who is really eager to tryout the game might give it a try.

At 10$, the minimum wage worker or the student who was somewhat interested in the game might give it a try.

At 3$-5$, someone who is on a tight budget who has never heard about the game, who has no expectations about it, but finds it mildly intriguing might give it a try.

Etc, etc.

If you cut off the game at a given price point, there will come a time where those that were willing to fork out that much for the game will have gotten it and the remainder will either pirate it or just won't play it.

I think that realistically, a game should go all the way down to 2$-3$ once it gets sufficiently old.

Broadband cut out the middleman and decrease delivery cost to near 0.Number of middle class is growing rapidly.In this situation,low price is no problem.If human population grow 10 times,$0.1 will make profit.