Actually it'st he perfect marketing setup and it's long past due for consoles to start paying attention and follow suit.
Yes, many people still buy games new on steam. Why?
Because money is not a large problem to them, and saving a few dollars by waiting months....is not worth it.
They are your base of gamers that are going to buy a game anyway...and are just waiting for it to release. Even they often get discounts for pre-ordering etc.
Next you have the group that waits for the first sale. Because so many do that Steam often gives discounts if you order a game now before it's released....preventing the need to wait 2-3 months for the initial discount anymore (since you can get it right away.
Then you have the people who wait patiently for a 50-75% off sale. Most of them would not have bought the game anyway...or at least not from steam, so it's basically free money from people you would not have gotten any money from anyway. It also prevents piracy since who is going to bother pirating a game if they can get it for $2?
As far as making money...they make a ton. You still have your whole group of buy a game or pre-order it asap ....but you have a large additional group of people who will buy the games at a much lower amount. Steam gets a percentage of each sale and the game creator gets the rest. No overhead, no stocking fees etc (you could basically consider steam a stocking fee I guess....but there is still way less production/overhead costs).
Now...based on the huge number of games that are made available on steam...this setup has to be working...and working well for the game creators. They are making plenty of money...and so is steam. This is what Xboxbone should have done, and what Ps4 (and for that matter even current gen consoles) should be doing. Sell primarily digital copies, and only use retailers for customers without internet access (basically to primarily sell consoles, and a small percentage of games for customers who still need a physical copy). The physical copy of games would be at a higher price and not get the discounts etc that you get for digital copies.
That should be the future of gaming. There is no more real need for a majority of us to have physical copies, and certainly no need for us to be paying $60+ for them.
Steam got it right. There are still people who don't like steam etc, but over the years I believe Steam has proven itself to be a reliable place to get and play games...and a massively lower cost.
Now...with the addition of trading cards with many games....you can in theory get many games for completely free. I have sold enough cards that I have gotten playing games just in the last 2 days to buy a $10 game if I wanted. A young kid without a credit card ....could in theory build up enough money to buy another game eventually...with cards, and then sell those cards for yet another game (or even 2 in some cases).
If you buy cheap games on sale for 75% off......like magicka, Bastion etc.....you can get a game with multiple cards that sell for 50 cents or so.....for a dollar or 2. Net profit if you time everything right...would double your investment. That means you could then buy 2 more games with cards etc...and keep doing that as you build up your library. So....1 steam game that costs $2 or so, could set up a young kid with the ability to get as many steam games as they want eventually.
Go Home Dinosaurs for instance is a great example. The game was on sale for 75% off or about $2.50...I bought the game at that price, and played it for about 2 hours. In that time I got 5 cards..which I sold for between .40 and .50 cents. That was in fact the first game I sold cards for. Net result when I was done (and mind you this was awith prices right after a 75% off sale..so the value of each card had dropped)...was $2.27 in my steam account. I payed $2.50 for the game initially...so net cost after selling the cards was 13 cents.
I must say...quite a good game for 13 cents.
I now have just over $10 in my steam account ready to buy rogue legacy. I'm holding off to see if it goes on sale more then 20%. I'm not trying to save every dime I can...and that game looks fun.
Yes, many people still buy games new on steam. Why?
Because money is not a large problem to them, and saving a few dollars by waiting months....is not worth it.
They are your base of gamers that are going to buy a game anyway...and are just waiting for it to release. Even they often get discounts for pre-ordering etc.
Next you have the group that waits for the first sale. Because so many do that Steam often gives discounts if you order a game now before it's released....preventing the need to wait 2-3 months for the initial discount anymore (since you can get it right away.
Then you have the people who wait patiently for a 50-75% off sale. Most of them would not have bought the game anyway...or at least not from steam, so it's basically free money from people you would not have gotten any money from anyway. It also prevents piracy since who is going to bother pirating a game if they can get it for $2?
As far as making money...they make a ton. You still have your whole group of buy a game or pre-order it asap ....but you have a large additional group of people who will buy the games at a much lower amount. Steam gets a percentage of each sale and the game creator gets the rest. No overhead, no stocking fees etc (you could basically consider steam a stocking fee I guess....but there is still way less production/overhead costs).
Now...based on the huge number of games that are made available on steam...this setup has to be working...and working well for the game creators. They are making plenty of money...and so is steam. This is what Xboxbone should have done, and what Ps4 (and for that matter even current gen consoles) should be doing. Sell primarily digital copies, and only use retailers for customers without internet access (basically to primarily sell consoles, and a small percentage of games for customers who still need a physical copy). The physical copy of games would be at a higher price and not get the discounts etc that you get for digital copies.
That should be the future of gaming. There is no more real need for a majority of us to have physical copies, and certainly no need for us to be paying $60+ for them.
Steam got it right. There are still people who don't like steam etc, but over the years I believe Steam has proven itself to be a reliable place to get and play games...and a massively lower cost.
Now...with the addition of trading cards with many games....you can in theory get many games for completely free. I have sold enough cards that I have gotten playing games just in the last 2 days to buy a $10 game if I wanted. A young kid without a credit card ....could in theory build up enough money to buy another game eventually...with cards, and then sell those cards for yet another game (or even 2 in some cases).
If you buy cheap games on sale for 75% off......like magicka, Bastion etc.....you can get a game with multiple cards that sell for 50 cents or so.....for a dollar or 2. Net profit if you time everything right...would double your investment. That means you could then buy 2 more games with cards etc...and keep doing that as you build up your library. So....1 steam game that costs $2 or so, could set up a young kid with the ability to get as many steam games as they want eventually.
Go Home Dinosaurs for instance is a great example. The game was on sale for 75% off or about $2.50...I bought the game at that price, and played it for about 2 hours. In that time I got 5 cards..which I sold for between .40 and .50 cents. That was in fact the first game I sold cards for. Net result when I was done (and mind you this was awith prices right after a 75% off sale..so the value of each card had dropped)...was $2.27 in my steam account. I payed $2.50 for the game initially...so net cost after selling the cards was 13 cents.
I must say...quite a good game for 13 cents.
I now have just over $10 in my steam account ready to buy rogue legacy. I'm holding off to see if it goes on sale more then 20%. I'm not trying to save every dime I can...and that game looks fun.
