Digital Download Pricing Is Wonky, Says Valve

[Greg Tito]

Digital Download Pricing Is Wonky, Says Valve

Promotions and timely pricecuts can actually make a metagame out of buying games, says Valve's director of business development.

Valve's Jason Holtman, director of business development, said today at the Montreal International Game Summit that the digital games market is very different from the way the industry has operated for years in the retail market. The idea that once a game is discounted, it must then stay in the bargain bin, is not valid in digital sales. He cited several examples of gamer purchasing habits on Steam and urged others to experiment with traditionally held notions. Doing so can create a sort of metagame for the consumer.

Holtman cited two promotions as examples. For six hours one day, Valve sold Team Fortress 2 for $2.50, marked down from $19.99, without any ad campaign or marketing, and their revenue "jumped up dramatically." The price then went back to normal and gamers were still flocking to purchase the game again, perhaps because of the buzz the "sale" created.

For a Left 4 Dead promotion, Steam sold the game for half-price one weekend, and the retail sales were unaffected. "We moved more units of Left 4 Dead on that weekend than we did at launch," Holtman said.

I'm not sure what this means for us the gamers, but it is interesting that Valve is willing to experiment with models that have been around forever. It almost makes buying games a sort of game in and of itself, something that Holtman mentioned himself:

"There was a meta game of people buying and selling [Team Fortress 2]," he said. "They thought they were exploiting us by buying a bunch of gifts - we love it when people buy a bunch of gifts. They were stockpiling the game."

Source: Gamesindustry.biz [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/digital-pricing-can-go-up-and-down-without-penalty-valve]

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[Swaki]

steams weekend deals and midweek madness deals makes up for them taking ages to lower the price of a game, i am quite surprised of the screenshot you choose, it seems like something that would be easy to get a newer version of.

edit: i find myself puzzled over your job title "games editor", do the escapist produce and/or publish games without me being aware?

 

[Lord George]

I do like the deals steam does occasionally but I still find it stupid that new games always cost £5-£10 more on steam then what you can get in retail where you get a box/manual/disc. I thought the whole point of digital distribution was cheaper prices.

 

[SaintWaldo]

edit: i find myself puzzled over your job title "games editor", do the escapist produce and/or publish games without me being aware?

I'm happy to take a shot at clearing that confusion. He's an editor for the Games beat. Escapist has more than a single focus, the primary one being, as I'm sure you already know, Games.

 

[Greg Tito]

Correct

I'm happy to take a shot at clearing that confusion. He's an editor for the Games beat. Escapist has more than a single focus, the primary one being, as I'm sure you already know, Games.

Correct, thanks SaintWaldo.

I'm not an editor of games, but a Games Editor.

 

[Greg Tito]

i am quite surprised of the screenshot you choose, it seems like something that would be easy to get a newer version of.

The news piece mentions Left 4 Dead and the screenie has it in there.

Better than a random TF2 shot, isn't it?

 

[Swaki]

I do like the deals steam does occasionally but I still find it stupid that new games always cost £5-£10 more on steam then what you can get in retail where you get a box/manual/disc. I thought the whole point of digital distribution was cheaper prices.

i actually don't mind paying a little extra if i can get writ of disc, boxes and manuals, they take up a shit load of space (if i had purchased all my steam games at retailers they would probably fill two of my kitchen cabinets) and i will never lose them or accidentally drop them thus scratching the CD, making them useless, and i don't have to change CD, i can play my 100+ games without ever having to get out of my chair (in theory).
and the installing and updating is easier, granted installing a game was never hard, but it was a minor annoyance, oh and the manuals, in those rare chases where i don't know how to perform an action (i think last time was in oblivion, dropping items) doing a google search is much faster than looking it up in that little brochure .

 

[Miral]

For a Left 4 Dead promotion, Steam sold the game for half-price one weekend, and the retail sales were unaffected. "We moved more units of Left 4 Dead on that weekend than we did at launch," Holtman said.

Wait, what? Is this some strange usage that I wasn't previously aware of? Or just a typo?

It almost makes buying games a sort of game in and of itself, something that Holtman mentioned himself:

I have lots of games on my "must buy as soon as it has a discount weekend" list. Which I guess also might surprise the people used to the traditional retail model where your first week/month is mostly it.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

For a Left 4 Dead promotion, Steam sold the game for half-price one weekend, and the retail sales were unaffected. "We moved more units of Left 4 Dead on that weekend than we did at launch," Holtman said.

Wait, what? Is this some strange usage that I wasn't previously aware of? Or just a typo?

Retail vs Digital Download...

 

[laserwulf]

i actually don't mind paying a little extra if i can get writ of disc, boxes and manuals, they take up a shit load of space (if i had purchased all my steam games at retailers they would probably fill two of my kitchen cabinets) and i will never lose them or accidentally drop them thus scratching the CD, making them useless, and i don't have to change CD, i can play my 100+ games without ever having to get out of my chair (in theory).
and the installing and updating is easier, granted installing a game was never hard, but it was a minor annoyance, oh and the manuals, in those rare chases where i don't know how to perform an action (i think last time was in oblivion, dropping items) doing a google search is much faster than looking it up in that little brochure .

I agree that less physical clutter is nice, as is not having to swap out CDs to play a different game and automatic updates, but just pray that your Steam account is never banned. That's why I have physical copies of UTIII and GalCiv2 packed away, and don't like current Valve games requiring Steam: you are paying for a (revocable) license, not a copy of the game.

And turning to page 5 to see the keyboard layout is slower than [Alt+Tab, open Firefox, type in the search, sort through results, Alt+Tab]?

 

[Zac_Dai]

I have lots of games on my "must buy as soon as it has a discount weekend" list. Which I guess also might surprise the people used to the traditional retail model where your first week/month is mostly it.

Heh I do the exact same thing.

 

[toliman]

the "metagame" of buying from steam becomes more of an issue than trying to beat down on a few dollars from the release price.

it becomes more of an issue when you don't live in the US, and the pricing metagame that foreign publishers d**k around with, makes it necessary.

i.e. i live in australia. fair chance you say. you're not in the same boat, sic, etc. the bits travel for miles longer, so you pay more. you have to pay for the bits to be turned over so you can play them the right side up, whatever justification works for the increase in price.

recently, there have been 3 games released with let's say 'differential' pricing/releases for australia, and for the US releases. i.e. november release games such as
modern warfare 2, borderlands (arguably not november, but lets say it is) , left 4 dead 2, and dragon age: origins.

all have different issues, different publishers, different prices in different countries, different release dates in different countries. with the original release of steam, all of these games would have been the same price, in USD. with the current version of steam, all of these games are now cheaper to buy in the US than in Australia.

modern warfare 2 is $89 USD, due to a publisher being a d**k.

borderlands was censored, then later restored, the release date was extended after the US release as well.

left 4 dead 2 is censored in australia, with a delayed release, though on the whole, the censorship is far more of a problem.

dragon age origins, is cheaper overseas, and the release was delayed as well.

all of these slights, as well as heinous problems with the games being released via steam, are fixed if you buy the games in the US, instead of in australia. all of them. they're also cheaper in some cases, and you can even get games that haven't been 'rated'/publishers haven't approved sales, i.e. the rockstar/sierra games packs are one example, there's others.

but, in short, people in the US are buying the games and 'gifting' the serial numbers and cd-keys to foreign gamers via cdkey sites.

there's probably at least 200k gifted copies of L4D2 that have been sold to australians due to the censorship issue, and anyone silly enough to buy the regular version, deserves it.

so, i can spend $360 in a store to buy a boxed copy of 4 new release games, i can spend $300 in steam to buy a censored, delayed and more expensive downloaded version of the same games, or i can spend $140 and get the same games from steam in the US, and play the games via steam the same day, (or later, 30+ gb does take a while via steam)

guess what i think is 'wonky' about Valve/Steam.

yeah.

 

[Tron-tonian]

My biggest problem with their pricing is the lack of conversion for those in a different country.

Here in Canada, the price for COD:MW2 is $59.99 Cdn. You get the box, the DVDs, the whole package.
On Steam: $59.99 US.

You'd better believe I find that wonky. If it was $49.99 US, or $59.99 Cdn, I'd consider it. But that $60 US is easily $70 Cdn. by the time exchange and CC fees are worked into it.

 

[Yopaz]

I've been a part of an awful experiment! I was one of those who bought TF2 for 2.50. I also bought Saints Row 2 a few weeks earlier... Saints Row 2 was the reason I was still awake for the Halloween sales on TF2. Now that's awesome. One good deal led to another. Steam must understand they're getting me hooked as that made me buy L4D2 too!

My problem with Steam pricing is the 1 USD to 1 Euro deal. It makes games cost a lot more, and Euro isn't really my currency. If they made it convert to 1 UDS to 1 NOK I would be delighted though. Og, they did actually convert it to Euro in the real rae on L4D2 though.

 

[gabdewulf]

I like steam in alot of ways but they definitly have thier flaws.

My biggest annoyances is delayed release date from retail's release date. And, the fear to try any mods cus steam my think that I'm hacking and ban me.

I would like to see steam get decent competition.

 

[Froobyx]

Weekend deals <3

First weekend I had Steam - Oddworld pack £3.05! And Audiosurf was £5.99

The weekend before last I got Mass Effect for £6.49, weekend just gone, Overlord pack £6 something...

Steam has stolen quite a lot of my uni money too

 

[toliman]

I have lots of games on my "must buy as soon as it has a discount weekend" list. Which I guess also might surprise the people used to the traditional retail model where your first week/month is mostly it.

i bought mass effect twice. just having a DL version that won't get scratched up, makes it worth $10.

though for other games, $10 is pushing it, i.e. popcap games, and really, crysis is still overpriced at $20 or $30 or $40, etc.

well, maybe $20

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Yes prices are wonky anything 50$+ should be 30$ or less,anything 30-49$ should be 20$ or less, anything 10-20 should be under 10$ and anything under 10$ should be 5$ or less... basically shit costs to much these days so I limit my game purchases to 30 or less...

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I do feel that there shouldn't really be individual games over £25 when it comes to DD, as if I remember my time in retail, about 30-40% of the cost is end retailer's cut, and then from thew 60-70% take off manufacturing of the item, transport, etc, and dealing with faulty items.

So to me Digitial downloads should be under 75% of retail cost, even after server and bandwidth costs. Perhaps they can't do that for fear of all the retail stores giving up on PC sales entirely, however.

Having said that, I've not bought a single full price game from Steam, yet my games list is about 30ish titles.

The packages they offer are irresistable at times, I picked up ALL the GTA games except IV for I think £13, that's 1,2,3,VC, and SA. Absolute classics. I picked up 5 X-Com games for a lousy £3 total also. There's something strangely alluring about just swelling your games collection for spare change, too.

apart from GTA IV I don't think I've paid more than £5 for any game on Steam so far.

I'm also totally into not needing CD Keys, finding a disc to put in my drive, etc. I recently bought Fallout 3 GOTY from Tesco for £20, (bargain), and it actually feels like a hassle to have to put the cd in now, Steam's made me criminally lazy!

 

[Skizle]

steams weekend deals and midweek madness deals makes up for them taking ages to lower the price of a game

This is the only reason I like Steam.