I'm worried games might be getting too inexpensive

[gorfias]

Valve make games cheap so that suckers like me will buy a bundle of $5 games and wonder where my money went. Don't worry.

Good to know. I've bought far more than I can play (I reference Steam in particular as, games purchased elsewhere, like gamestop, I access on Steam, so if they go, I'm in trouble.) But everyone on the thread appears to think the question ludicrus, so, I best calm down about it.

well as someone else pointed out they have 65 million users and are moving into manfacturing consoles now ontop of releasing their own operating system which are signs they are willing to take risks.. somehting comapnies do not do if they are in financial trouble

That is a big number. 65 Meeeelion *inserts pinky in mouth*

Just, with some of the sales I've been getting, sometimes it is hard to imagine buying a new game.

I would have a lot of downloading to do though, as my Steam library is over 600.

I thought I was nuts with about 130. Wait, I am nuts. You must be down right insane! 600 games?!?!?!? That would fill up a server farm.

I guess I just have to ensure I have downloaded somewhere my best/unfinished. (I actually have 3 home gaming class PCs. Could always put some on one system, others on another.)

 

[babinro]

I'm mostly worried about Steam going out of business.

- They have more online users than all of xbox live.
- They are the 'Walmart' of gaming digital download sites.
- They have IP's that can make them millions upon millions that just collect dust (namely Half-Life)
- They make boatloads off their own games and take a chunk out of every other game ever sold on their site
- They are an online only service which drastically reduces costs of operations and upkeep
- They are expanding operations into the console market

I wouldn't lose any sleep over your worries.

If you believe the baseless corporate PR, you'll be happy to know they claim to remove the DRM from their service should they go under so you can continue to play the games you bought. They aren't legally required to do this and it's really just something someone said months/years ago but that might make you feel better. I would hope all companies would want to follow this example but history has proven that's not the case.

 

[Robert Marrs]

You can categorize games on steam. Just click on a game and on the right hand side there should be a button that says set category. I did this to help organize it a bit more. Steam really is the devil. I have not even tried half the games in my library. If you google steamdb there is a website (totally safe btw) that lets you see how much money you would have spent if you bought all the games you own at full price. I come in at around $2,500 which really scared me at first until I realized it does not take sale prices into account.

 

[Mersadeon]

For everyone who says that these cheap Steam Sales can't be good for the industry - that's just not true. If Valve is offering these games for this price, they know they're gonna turn a profit. The games industry isn't led by developers (as nice as that would be artistically speaking) but by people in suits who won't ever let you drop the price unless they know it's going to work out.

Also, if we look at other media, we can see that we will be fine - this industry will adapt even more people start waiting for sales. And we won't even have to do it that horrible way Hollywood is doing it, by essentially saying "you have to go to this public place that costs a lot more to consume our product for the first few months".

 

[contagonist]

I'm mostly worried about Steam going out of business.

This might be a case of Calling the Titanic Unsinkable, but this is something I think we don't need to concern ourselves with in our mortal lifetime.

Judging by stock prices and reputation, EA is more likely to tank than Valve. Steam pretty much allows them to print money at this point, and when anything goes on sale it's probable that they've already made back dev costs and are just pure profit.

 

[gorfias]

If you believe the baseless corporate PR, you'll be happy to know they claim to remove the DRM from their service should they go under so you can

continue to play the games you bought.

I imagine I'd still need the game downloaded if the site goes away. One poster said s/he had 600 games! I think some of them would be gone forever.

You can categorize games on steam.

Tried that before didn't work. I'll try again, thanks.

For everyone who says that these cheap Steam Sales can't be good for the industry - that's just not true.

Yes... BUT... I've been buying games at stupid crazy cheap prices at humblebundle.com . Lotta crap, but some great stuff. As little as $1 can get you about four games... ACCESSED THROUGH STEAM. So, I need steam, but they aren't necessarily getting enough money to keep going, which is why I worry. A little.

People have been putting my mind at ease though. Steam appears to be doing fine, expanding even.

Judging by stock prices and reputation, EA is more likely to tank than Valve. Steam pretty much allows them to print money at this point, and when anything goes on sale it's probable that they've already made back dev costs and are just pure profit.

EA? I hope they do well too! Got a bunch of their stuff in a Humblebundle sale for Origin games.

Can game prices drop far enough and there be too much content to kill the industry at this point?

 

[Naeras]

I'm mostly worried about Steam going out of business.

So I'm the only one here who finds this completely ridiculous?

There is no possible way Valve can go out of business in the foreseeable future. They're an industry giant that is popular and has little competition in what it does.

Nope, I agree with you. The fact that they have so many sales means they're doing well, since they can afford to drop the prices so often.

Correction: they're not holding sales to be nice [http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/16/steam-deals-dont-cannibalise-sales-says-valves-director-of-business-management/], they're holding sales because it earns them ridiculous amounts of money [http://www.shacknews.com/article/57308/valve-left-4-dead-half] =p

And, no, they won't go bankrupt anytime soon.

 

[veloper]

Valve wouldn't even go out of business even if all new games sold for $5. Many game publishers and developers might possibly go bankrupt in this hypothetical scenario, but Valve still would not.

Reason: Valve would still make a profit, as they take a percentage and don't have any development costs to recoup, except for the few games they develop themselves.

The thing to always remember here is that there's an INFINITE supply. Selling data not like producing a toy or another physical product where you have manufactoring costs and material. Any sale is a good sale, for the digital distributor.

It even works in a lesser extent for the publishers too, because they simply sell more games and recoup their investment that way.

 

[aozgolo]

Steam won't be going anywhere. Indie developers who release games on Steam tend to sell the game at the same price as a DRM-Free copy despite having to give Steam a cut... why is that? Well they sell WAAAAAAAAY more steam copies than DRM-Free copies so they're making more money than they would have anyway. It's ultimately the holders of the game's copyright that decide how much to sell it for or whether it's involved in a discount. Unlike other platforms like console markets which are designed to recoup losses in the hardware manufacturing, Steam actively encourages and promotes sales. This isn't a bad thing for the industry, and I'll bet my first born child that Valve is more profitable now than they've EVER been in their history.

 

[GameGuyMan]

Well if your a console gamer like I am, then you have to pay 60$ for new games. Most PC games are cheaper when they first come out. Steam is a much better online game buying service than PSN or Xbox live. Especially when Steam summer sale is going on.

 

[Macroplasm]

It should be noted that games make more money when distributed digitally.

 

[Vigormortis]

I'm mostly worried about Steam going out of business.

Considering Valve has consistently doubled it's profits from Steam every year for at least the past five years, I'm going to go ahead and say Valve/Steam "going out of business" in the near future is a non-issue.

I have more games than I can fit on my hard drive.

Then you should do the responsible thing and either get a large drive to store them in or create a library of discs.

Steam comes with an extremely handy backup and restore feature. You can create backups of any game currently downloaded and store those backups to any drive or form of media you want; be it harddrives, DVDs, Blurays, etc. Then, even while in Offline Mode, you can reinstall those backups directly to your Steam client and play the games.

This is what I do every time I make a purchase on Steam. As soon as the game is purchased, I download it on the spot. Then, once downloaded, I create a backup of the game to one of my external harddrives.

Really, not downloading a game just purchased from Steam is the equivalent of buying a game disc from Gamestop, then asking them to keep it there behind the front desk until some unknown date when you may or may not return to pick it up.

While they may be "technically" obliged to keep it for you, they aren't necessarily responsible for it's safe keeping. That bit's on the buyer.

I hear if Steam does go out of business, they's allow you to download something that will allow you to play your games anyway: but you probably need to have them downloaded to begin with!

While they won't be able to provide the ability to download the titles indefinitely, should Steam close down, they can provide that ability for some period of time after. As well, they can patch out the login-checks for the client-side of Steam, thus allowing users to play their games in offline mode indefinitely.

They have contingency plans in place for both instances.

Anyone know how well they're doing?

Exceptionally well. In fact, I'm more worried they may start making too much money, thus letting their power and influence within the industry go to their heads.

While I'm at it, I'd just as soon not see many of the games I've gotten in bundles displayed. Anyway to hide things I'm not playing in a Steam list? My other idea is to just open a new account so I'm seeing different games based upon how I'm logged in.

You can tag every title into either a preset sublist or one of your own. You can also "favorite" a given title, which will move it to the Favorites list as well as display which titles are displayed in general; for example showing only installed titles.

The list itself can be shifted into different views. A basic list, extended info list, or an icon grid.

There is also Big Picture mode, should you prefer a more "console-like" UI. And, you can adjust which windows are prioritized by selecting your favorite "tab" in the options menu.

 

[Vigormortis]

Microsoft may be losing money on Xbox (which I doubt, or they wouldn't continue it), but Nintendo certainly isn't. Seeing Valve's recent expansions, I doubt they're hurting either.

Believe it or not, Microsoft has been consistently losing money on their Xbox brands. They cost more to make than they gain from selling them.

However, Microsoft easily recoups it's losses through licensing fees, hosting fees, and software sales through the Xbox brands.

Many hardware producers/providers utilize this method.

 

[gorfias]

Valve wouldn't even go out of business even if all new games sold for $5. Many game publishers and developers might possibly go bankrupt in this hypothetical scenario, but Valve still would not.

Reason: Valve would still make a profit, as they take a percentage and don't have any development costs to recoup, except for the few games they develop themselves.

The thing to always remember here is that there's an INFINITE supply. Selling data not like producing a toy or another physical product where you have manufactoring costs and material. Any sale is a good sale, for the digital distributor.

It even works in a lesser extent for the publishers too, because they simply sell more games and recoup their investment that way.

I agree that $5 for a game that came out in 2009 and no one is buying anymore anyway is good money. But 2 things:
1) I use steam for more than games sold by steam, including Humble Bundle. Lots a crap, but some great stuff too averaging about $1 in cost.
2) At that cost, I can't see often paying even $20 for a newer game. And I now have 127 Games on Steam! When will I have time? And if no one has time for new games, that has to be a bad thing.

ITMT: they still got me for $60 for GTA5. And plenty of people are telling me Steam is doing fine.

 

[Something Amyss]

Yeah, but you still need to have them downloaded. I'll likley pull the trigger ASAP and buy a 2 T drive. Then I have to rebuild the whole bloody thing. Unless I can steer steam into loading the games onto the 2T set up as just a storage device.

I have all my games installed to an internal 2 TB HDD added after I created my computer. I'm not sure what the problem would be.

 

[Something Amyss]

I agree that $5 for a game that came out in 2009 and no one is buying anymore anyway is good money. But 2 things:
1) I use steam for more than games sold by steam, including Humble Bundle. Lots a crap, but some great stuff too averaging about $1 in cost.

Which is awesome for Steam as it gets and keeps people using their service. This is a fairly standard business practice.

2) At that cost, I can't see often paying even $20 for a newer game. And I now have 127 Games on Steam! When will I have time? And if no one has time for new games, that has to be a bad thing.

ITMT: they still got me for $60 for GTA5. And plenty of people are telling me Steam is doing fine.

Well, you've already pointed out the flaw there. You can't imagine paying full price for a game. Unless you can. Which you have. Or will...Is GTA V even announced yet for PC?
The thing is, most of the major sales are for old games everyone's already played. One of Steam's dirty little secrets is that many of these prices are what you'd expect to pay if Steam depreciated more naturally like a physical service. They go down after the demand, or they do it to promote games of questionable quality. I can't tell you how often their daily sales are for games flooded with complaints about them being broken and unplayable BEFORE the sale hits.

People psychologically feel more drawn to these sales because of the timer, which seems to supersede common sense.

If you wait, fair enough. So do I. I've been trained to wait for price cuts. But games are still doing big bank day 1.

 

[lacktheknack]

Microsoft may be losing money on Xbox (which I doubt, or they wouldn't continue it), but Nintendo certainly isn't. Seeing Valve's recent expansions, I doubt they're hurting either.

Believe it or not, Microsoft has been consistently losing money on their Xbox brands. They cost more to make than they gain from selling them.

However, Microsoft easily recoups it's losses through licensing fees, hosting fees, and software sales through the Xbox brands.

Many hardware producers/providers utilize this method.

I thought people meant the whole brand.

If it's just the console itself, then I'm literally the least surprised person in the world right now.

 

[Olas]

This thread a joke?

If Valve was making too little on each game... wouldn't they just raise the price of their games?

Do you think they charge so little out of charity? They charge those prices because they think it benefits them to do so, whether in the short run or long run. And they aren't in trouble financially by any indications.

 

[Fireaxe]

It should be noted that games make more money when distributed digitally.

This is actually really important.

You can distribute digitally and sell cheaper while still making the same profit, production and transport costs for physical medium are expensive and you can probably start losing money if you make too many discs (an issue a digital platform doesn't have); the effort that goes into lining up forecasts and actual physical disc distribution by film distributors is quite significant and I can imagine that the same occurs with video games.

 

[Strelok]

However, Microsoft easily recoups it's losses through licensing fees, hosting fees, and software sales through the Xbox brands.

Many hardware producers/providers utilize this method.

Actually that is incorrect, Microsoft apparently loses billions due to the entertainment division made up for by Android patent royalties apparently.

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-earns-2-billion-per-year-from-android-patent-royalties-2013-11

In fact one of the investors that wants to dump XBox and Microsoft games was just given a seat on the board.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/31/microsoft_valueact_ballmer/

The new CEO candidate Stephen Elop is rumored to not exactly be an XBox fan as well.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/8/5080192/microsoft-ceo-candidate-stephen-elop-bing-xbox-rumors

Just a little OT post, but how in god's name does the PS3 have more than double the amount of online accounts than Xbox? Is it because They only take into account XBOX Gold accounts? If so, that's an incredibly misleading number. If not, WTF?

No idea, could be a lot of reasons though, just because XBox is big in North America, does not mean it is big elsewhere. I believe Microsoft is still struggling breaking into Asia, but this would only be guesses. I am multi-platform for many years, PC + Sony's system. Pretty sure that Playstation is popular amongst PC primary, console secondary gamers, also just a guess. The article is active accounts so signed in once a week or bi-weekly, so that includes everything.

I thought I was nuts with about 130. Wait, I am nuts. You must be down right insane! 600 games?!?!?!? That would fill up a server farm.

I guess I just have to ensure I have downloaded somewhere my best/unfinished. (I actually have 3 home gaming class PCs. Could always put some on one system, others on another.)

Yeah, I abandoned physical media years ago, now I only get them if there is collector's edition I want, last one was Skyrim which activated on Steam anyway. If you are concerned about it, buy an external drive, copy all your license keys and you will be fine. Steam has the option to backup all your game files and you can just load them onto external drives. Come Black Friday or Boxing day Best Buy and other electronics stores sell them cheap. You will be playing old games long after Steam is gone, don't think you really need to worry about that either though.