For me, a sale means one of two things.

1. Some games are cheap enough for me to show some interest and maybe check out by purchasing.

2. A game I am definitely interested in, might finally be at a fair price, so that if I can afford it, I can buy.

Number one above, is what it should only be in my opinion. But where would we be without psychology playing a part.

I don't need a huge discount to buy a game I am definitely interested in, only a fair price.

A fair price to me, is not the same as the price you are prepared to pay. There are some games, that most of us are prepared to pay a bit more for because we just have to have them. I guess in reality we are just being weak or impatient, and are certainly not sending the right message to the seller when we do give in to that.

It would be naive, to not realize that games are being played with game prices ... manipulation in other words, in an effort to get a sale or maximize profits. All about psychology.

There are some games here for instance, that regularly go on sale for the same price or discount, so much so that you could call it their other normal price.

Of course, many of us react to a discount positively, even if in reality the game is not that cheap or at a fair price yet.

To be sure, many would have a different definition of fair price, based on a load of things.

Prices can be a touchy subject and based on so many factors. Some of which only some of us give credence or acceptance to.

More often than not it is an argument between desire and sense, with in many cases desire trumping sense.

For the seller, if doing right by the customer matters, it should be easy.

For the customer though, it can be tricky to navigate. More often than not probably, it is a matter of weighing up a few things. And then there is the person with more money than sense. Or someone prepared to do it tough to have that game they must have, even if it hurts them or their family or friends etc.

At the end of the day, it is only a game, and that should drive the sense of any purchasing decisions. We are human though, and so sense often doesn't get much of a look in.

Naturally, reviews should also tie into price. But there would also be a lot of denial going on.

One thing you can certainly say about GOG, is that they have a lot of sales, and I've certainly bought a lot of games from them in sales ... a good number of which I would probably never have normally considered, certainly not at their regular price ... wouldn't have even investigated them in many cases.

Compare GOG to the ZOOM Platform, where they are yet to have a sale. They have a good number of games I am interested in, but the price never drops to what I call a fair price, so I simply don't buy them.

Over the years, I have learnt to wait at GOG, and I haven't been bitten by disappearing games very often, in fact I cannot recall any to mind, that made me wish I purchased them while I still could.

Some like Duke Nukem, disappeared before my time, but chances are I would have bought it. I have at the ZOOM Platform. I paid a bit more than I wanted to ... but hey I pondered for months over that price before giving in. So much for their promised sales so far. :(

And waiting at GOG can often pay all sorts of dividends.
1. The odd freebie.
2. A bundle price.
3. A special edition etc.
4. etc

To me, a sale is for people who are patient, as well as people who are looking for new games. While I don't have any issue paying full price for games (especially when I buy through GOG) because it supports the devs, there's nothing wrong with looking for the best deals you can get. That's why, unless it's a game by one of my favorite studios, I don't even consider preordering or purchasing full price, I just wait for a sale. Now, if it's a game by CDPR or Bethesda Game Studios, I always preorder those but most everything else is something I'll wait for a better deal on.

Sales are only useful for me as an incentive to complete my library with old games I already owned and it's a strong incentive to give new games a chance I would otherwise not. Games from genres I am not at all good in got a chance ending up in my library when they are on sale, for instance the HOI series, Strategic Command and other such titles. It does help adopting new games when they are on sale because some of them have become rather expensive.

For me this isn't about money as much as most of the time after several months waiting until a game is fixed, when I am ready to purchase it is going to be offered in at one of the big sales. The 4 Star Trek games I bought at full price. It would be a lie not to say that a discount would have been appreciated.

Bottom line is that sales are always welcome but not at all a crucial factor for me to buy a game here.

GOG are getting desperate is what sales mean to me!

They need some of that sweet Dosh because Bills are coming up!

Edited: becuase to because spell check trixxored me!

too many sales for sure
imho there shouldnt be more than one per month

I almost never buy any game at standard full MSRP of $59.99 USD or more.

I might make a rare exception once or twice a year if its an RPG series that I'm already heavily invested in, but aside from that, there is almost zero chance that I would ever pay that much money for a single game.

I'm also generally very reluctant to shell out $19.99 - 29.99 USD for a game, because most games that are released in that price range when they first come out, the only reason why they are priced that low is because they are way too short and lacking in content, and they fail to offer at least one hour of gameplay per dollar spent.

Hence, I hardly ever buy those either, unless they are deeply discounted, because at full price, they feel like a ripoff to me.

So if not for sales, and/or for old games that have a relatively low standard price simply because they are old now, then I'd almost never buy any video games.

$5 for Duke is pretty cheap if I don't say so myself.

As for sales - Depends on the games. I do feel like users are spoilt with the idea of sales after Steam sales have made people accustomed to buying games for next to nothing. GOG sales tend to be varied, but a little confusing. E.g. RPG month sales including games that are not are RPG. Bundles are pretty good deals across any store, but In general, i tend to buy the stuff i like the looks of at full price, titles I'm curious at about 30% off, eye-catchers for 50% and stuff i know sucks but would make for a fun stream for like 70%+ off.

Though i will repeat, i do feel the consumer is to accustomed to low sales prices for anything. To me, if you're willing to pay $4 for bad food that damages your body and leaves a stain in the toilet, $4 for a game is insane value even if it ends up being 'okay'

I never buy games over $20, and prefer to buy when 80% off or higher. This can be anywhere from $1 to $5 usually per game.

But this was some time ago. Right now i have issues with GoG so it's another time i get to just ignore everything and only glance to see if there's a free game. That's it right now.

With near constant sales all the time, sales have lost all meaning...

More than likely the only time they make a bunch of money (Gog and others) is when sales are on. While they have a $49 pricetag they don't plan for or expect sales over 75%, and when it lowers to maybe $10. Getting a few more buyers is the only way to make a few more dollars.

With Steam doing so many sales it more or less just makes the 'sales' the standard price, just in disguise as to make the 'sales numbers' and 'price of games' to make those at board meetings think they are making more than they are. At least for large companies like EA i'm sure.

Truthfully if they put games at lower prices combined with no cost of production (Making DVD's, boxes, booklets, etc) they might make more money consistently rather than in spurts of sales, as people like me are more than happy to be patient, the only time NOT to be patient is when you really want to get a game to join friends playing it at the same time.

Example, instead of a new game costing $49 or something, have it cost $15 and at sales (once per 4 months) lower to $10. It would be low enough people would buy it in bundles and even pre-buy a few copies to give to friends, or the price difference in sales wouldn't be a low enough bar to prevent you from just buying outright.

But you know, with companies pushing to have AAA games cost upper $200 and all that BS they throw into it, they'd never consider it. This reminds me of Disney who were last i checked hemorrhaging money and plan to fix that by raising prices far higher than their already overpriced parks can handle... rather than being good businessmen and hoping the lure of previous good-will to carry them indefinitely.

I could agree maybe, if that was $5 AUD.

As in my case, I have bought the game a few times before, and billions of copies have been sold, so they have made their money back many times over, as it is an extremely popular game ... still. It is not like they are needing to recoup costs.

I don't know what price it was here at GOG, but it was in a bundle I believe, along with the first two Dukes and the Manhattan one.

I have Duke 3D and first two dukes on disc in a big box, plus the free (at the time) Atomic download, plus I recently bought the remastered version at Steam with the extra level. Around that time, I bought the Manhattan one at the ZOOM Platform, as I've never had that one, and then some weeks ago, finally gave in and bought the Atomic Edition at ZOOM.