Valve Now Lets Devs Run Their Own Sales

[IanDavis]

Valve Now Lets Devs Run Their Own Sales

Prepare for even more wallet assaults in the future.

While there is the [a href=http://thecastledoctrine.net/seedBlogs.php?action=display_post&post_id=jasonrohrer_1389812989_0&show_author=1&show_date=1]occasional dissenter[/a], most people agree that buying games for less money is a good thing. While the ancient world revolved around various religious calendars, the modern one seems to rotate based on seasonal Steam Sales. Between the huge winter and summer celebrations are a regular rhythm of weekend sales and weeklong deals. Now, things are going to get even more crazy as Valve has handed control over to developers to [a href=http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1yy56p/steamwork_developers_now_can_self_discount_their/]run their own discounts[/a], effectively making anytime saletime.

The update to the Steamworks developer tools was spotted by Reddit user Sharkiller. It allows developers two different options for discounting their wares. They can either opt-in to join one of the sizable Weeklong Deals and get free promotion, or simply set their own custom discount and do it themselves.

Back in the early days of Steam, some developers had an aversion to the service because Valve wasn't just a content distribution platform, it was also a competitor. Today, they join because [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131618-Steam-Greenlight-Helped-Boost-Not-On-Steam-Sales]that's where the customers are[/a]. Moves like this and Greenlight go a long way to make Steam as neutral a platform as possible. It also lets us stuff our libraries with even more games, which can only be a good thing.

Source: [a href=http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1yy56p/steamwork_developers_now_can_self_discount_their/]Reddit[/a]

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[dyre]

More individual sales, and the major group/holiday sales still happen? Sounds like a win-win!

 

[DataSnake]

Back in the early days of Steam, some developers had an aversion to the service because Valve wasn't just a content distribution platform, it was also a competitor.

Nowadays, Valve is more of a haberdasher than a game maker, so I can see why other devs are less worried about the competition.

 

[J Tyran]

I hope this doesn't stop some of the games getting offered at a discount in the midweek and weekend deals, I probably pick up more games from those over the year than I get during the big ticket Summer and Winter sales.

 

[Crimsonmonkeywar]

The only problem is that this allows devs to 'discount' their games to make it seem as though they're giving the consumer a deal. Sort of how stores have "Holiday sales". When really they just marked up the price with the intention of making it look like a deal that is limited or 'scarce'.

 

[CriticalMiss]

The only problem is that this allows devs to 'discount' their games to make it seem as though they're giving the consumer a deal. Sort of how stores have "Holiday sales". When really they just marked up the price with the intention of making it look like a deal that is limited or 'scarce'.

I too think this is going to happen at least with some developers. Why put your game up for £10 when you can put it up for £20 with a constant 50% discount and make it look like great value. Hopefully Valve have thought about that and put some restrictions in place to at least limit abuse.

 

[Alpha Maeko]

Choose your own discount?

Halo for $1.17.
Call of Duty for $13.37.

 

[Baldr]

I see...I see...AAA publishers adding a 5-10% discount to all their games to get free advertising on the front page.

That the kicker, if they choose the custom option, Valve will not put them on the front page from what I understand.

 

[Johnson McGee]

Sales on games: good
Sifting through 600 entries on the specials list because every shovelware POS has been put on 99% sale: not so good

Case in point: the current week long 'special' on Orion: Dino Horde.

What I would really like to see from steam (other than a used game market) is the ability to blacklist games for yourself that you have absolutely no interest in buying or playing for any price so you never see them again and they won't keep repeatedly adding themselves to your library during free weekends (like a certain Ghost(s)).

 

[synobal]

Does this mean Valve no longer decides what sale prices are? Cause if so we can say goodbye to ever seeing most AAA titles going for more than 10% off. It's still mindblowing to me that Call of Duty -Not Modern Warfare, the original Call of Duty- is going for twenty bucks.

Valve never decided what the sale prices were, the publishers always did. Given activision and Blizzard I doubt you'll ever see any of their good games for less than 20 dollars.

 

[Vigormortis]

I too think this is going to happen at least with some developers. Why put your game up for £10 when you can put it up for £20 with a constant 50% discount and make it look like great value. Hopefully Valve have thought about that and put some restrictions in place to at least limit abuse.

There are already a few in place with the new system. Including, but not limited to, a two week duration limit on any given sale and a "grace period" between the initiation of a proposed sale and when the sale actually takes place.

So devs won't really be able to disguise their marked up games as sales. The price will always revert to the base price after a period of time.

 

[barbzilla]

Back in the early days of Steam, some developers had an aversion to the service because Valve wasn't just a content distribution platform, it was also a competitor.

Nowadays, Valve is more of a haberdasher than a game maker, so I can see why other devs are less worried about the competition.

Truth be told Valve has always had a 'slow and steady approach to game development. When they release something.. it's big, it's good and it kicks ass... you know like Blizzard used to be.

It will be interesting to see how other devs deal with this.

I'm glad that I am not the only one who has noticed that Bliz is off that bandwagon.

As for how other devs will deal with this, I don't see it as an issue for devs in general. In fact, it should be a boon to them (other than EA since they don't want to play nice). This pretty much allows them to set their own revenue spikes at will (sales are intended for revenue spikes and not steady income), as well as being beneficial for those online games when the numbers start slacking off in the servers.

 

[Monsterfurby]

Is that *developers* or *publishers*? Note: as far as Steam is concerned, indie developers are considered publishers internally.

 

[AstaresPanda]

As long as the Summer and Winter sales and community event things still happen im still happy. Valve be making so much money thou and no HL3