Steam Introduces Dynamically Priced Bundles

[Steven Bogos]

Steam Introduces Dynamically Priced Bundles

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Steam is allowing developers to create dynamic bundles, which get cheaper if you already own some of the games contained within.

Steam [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/steam] bundles are a great way for developers to sell a collection of games at a discount, and a great way for gamers to purchase a whole bunch of games on the cheap. The only problem is when you see a cool bundle, but realize you already own a few of the games in there. Valve is aiming to change that with dynamic bundles - bundles that will get cheaper if customers already own some of the games contained within.

e-mail to publishers [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/league%20of%20legends], described the new system as such:

"With Steam Bundles, if a customer already [owns] some items in the Bundle, they will pay for and receive only the items not already in their account. This allows the best fans of your series or franchise to 'complete the set' and get a deal on the remaining items in the Bundle.

"Past Complete Packs were sometimes a bad deal for customers that already [owned] one or more of the products in the pack. Either it made bad economic sense for those customers to purchase the pack, or they just felt bad about doing so since it [looked] like they were paying for products they already [had]. The new Steam Bundles system addresses this."

Keep in mind that this is a totally optional feature, and is decided on a publisher by publisher basis. That said, the Headup Games Complete Bundle [http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/225] is already using the new system, and we can probably expect quite a few more to follow.

Either way this is a move that is pretty great for both publishers and consumers alike.

Source: PC Games N [http://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-dynamic-bundles]

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[John Markley]

This seems like a promising idea.

 

[Kaymish]

Sweet in the past i would see a bundle that had games i really wanted but because i would often have like 2 or 3 games in some bundles i would pass on them and also when i give gifts to people on steam of left over games they often give me something random in return which i dont like
so now steam can burrow even further into my wallet

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Not a bad idea at all, in fact I'm very onboard with that. Similar to what happened with the release of the Director's Cut of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

 

[JCAll]

Finally! I would also be down with being able to gift or trade the games you already owned from a bundle, but you can't do that either.

 

[Leg End]

That it took this long is amazing, but welcome nonetheless.

Finally! I would also be down with being able to gift or trade the games you already owned from a bundle, but you can't do that either.

Fucking this.

 

[Something Amyss]

Finally! I would also be down with being able to gift or trade the games you already owned from a bundle, but you can't do that either.

Especially if it's either/or. More choices are better.

But yeah, I like this idea.

 

[MortalKomic]

This could actually work, then again I bet Jim will still find problems with it.

 

[Steven Bogos]

i believe this was done in order to curb more, unscrupulous people who would purchase games en-masse in bundles for a discount, and then re-sell them at full price on the grey market.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

So, they're finally catching up to iTunes.

While I'm happy that they're going to do this and that it shows some promise, I'm kinda wondering what took so long.

 

[Ironman126]

This could actually work, then again I bet Jim will still find problems with it.

Well, it is literally his job to find out what's wrong/nitpick gaming related shit. Otherwise, it wouldn't be called "The Jimquisition," anything else just wouldn't have the same ring, to be honest.

OT: I, uh, tenth? Yes, I tenth the opinions of the previous nine posters, sounds like a good idea to me.

 

[Creator002]

Sounds like a very promising idea. I know I've sometimes not bought bundles (like the 3D GTA trilogy) because I already own one of the games.

Finally! I would also be down with being able to gift or trade the games you already owned from a bundle, but you can't do that either.

That would be the day.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Now if Steam would get a bit more quality control on the software they carry, maybe I'd be happier as a customer. Its sad when they have games that GOG also has but GOG's versions of some are in better working order, relating to the older games specifically. I know its up to the developers but Steam should have at least some standards for their platform. If the competition offers the same product and it works compared to Steam, there's definitely a QC issue going on.

 

[Strazdas]

This is very good. Often i have skipped on buying a bundle because i already had half the games and the ones i wanted didnt have a sale individually.

 

[RealRT]

What a promising idea that GOG did since the dawn of time. Only GOG didn't do it on a publisher by publisher basis, yes.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I approve of this idea. Like several people here, I too have on occasion skipped on a bundle because I already owned some of the games.

Ideally though, I'd the price or the bundle should go down proportionally by the value of the component games I already owned. I don't know if that's the plan.

 

[DoPo]

What a promising idea that GOG did since the dawn of time. Only GOG didn't do it on a publisher by publisher basis, yes.

Came here to say this. I was floored it took that long for somebody to mention this. I mean, not even the article mentioned it. That was, honestly, one of my favourite features in GOG and it's been there for years. When I read the title GOG was the first thing to come to mind but...does nobody else realised it was there?

This could actually work, then again I bet Jim will still find problems with it.

GOG has literally been doing this for years now. I first saw it when they were offering a bundle and I already had some of the games. It was one of those bundles where the more games you get, the bigger the discount is (sometimes that means that getting 5 games is cheaper than 3 games) - I already had some of them but wanted the rest, so I was a bit sad that I wouldn't qualify for the full discount but...lo and behold GOG told me "We see you already have some of the games - do you want the rest for the full discount?". I said "Hell yeah!" and fell deeper in love with GOG.

If anything, I believe Jim would congratulate Steam for catching up.

 

[Metalrocks]

thats great. there were few bundles i skipped out because of that. lets see what the next sales have to offer. im sure there is a bundle i would like to have.

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

This could actually work, then again I bet Jim will still find problems with it.

Aside from "why not have the extra games become spare copies to give to my friends" or "about bloody time", I seriously doubt that there's anything negative anyone can come up with about this. Unless you came up with something desperate like "wow another cheap moneymaking move from a greedy corporation" or... something, I don't know, I feel dumber just saying that.

 

[Schadrach]

Finally! I would also be down with being able to gift or trade the games you already owned from a bundle, but you can't do that either.

Hell, I wish you could put a game activated from a steam key into your inventory if it was already in your library, if only because it would make keeping track of them easier.

Stupid bundles and their copies of things you already have...