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.Gorfias said:
I'm worried games might be getting too inexpensive
- Thread starter gorfias
- Start date
Which is awesome for Steam as it gets and keeps people using their service. This is a fairly standard business practice.Gorfias said:
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.
I thought people meant the whole brand.Vigormortis said:
If it's just the console itself, then I'm literally the least surprised person in the world right now.
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.
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.
This is actually really important.Macroplasm said:
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.
Actually that is incorrect, Microsoft apparently loses billions due to the entertainment division made up for by Android patent royalties apparently.Vigormortis said:
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
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.Directionless said:
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.Gorfias said:
Never viewed it as a bad thing. Games go on sale when either:
Market is so saturated with a popular product you have to put it on sale to push more sales
Or
Game is so poorly received you have to put it on sale to move product.
Both are examples of "anything is better than nothing". If 100 people will buy it at $60, you can bet 300 will buy it at $30, and 1000 will buy it at $15. In the end they still make more money than if they had done nothing.
Market is so saturated with a popular product you have to put it on sale to push more sales
Or
Game is so poorly received you have to put it on sale to move product.
Both are examples of "anything is better than nothing". If 100 people will buy it at $60, you can bet 300 will buy it at $30, and 1000 will buy it at $15. In the end they still make more money than if they had done nothing.
I never said they held sales to be nice, I just said they can afford it: i.e. they're not going to go out of business any time soon. And it also is very profitable for them, yes.Naeras said:
Good to know this stuff! Thanks! I'll play with the back up utility some more too. Though I was over-writing stuff before. I'd want to be able to remove something from the PC, have it backed up, and add to that back up without over-writing as I get new games. Can I restore only to the machine I backed up?Vigormortis said:
That may be a way easier fix if the above works fine. I think 3TB externals are out now.Zachary Amaranth said:
GTA, I got it for the PS3. I haven't heard about a PC version. My boy has a gaming class PC I built for him in his room, access to my game accounts, but insists on only playing PS3 and he (18) really wanted GTA5 so I got it for him. It is hard to write what PS3 game I've paid full price for since then. (PC: Bioshock Infinite... PS3? Before GTA5, might have been Black Ops 2).
I love the PS3 as well, but it can't keep up with my PC in terms of graphics and game sales. And ease of use (no disc swapping). My office chair is not as comfy as sitting on a recliner in my family room. PS3 has that on the PC.
PS3 sales can be nuts too, just not as crazy as Steam and Humble Bundle or occastional Gamestop download (which shows up on Steam). In buy 2 get 1 sales at Gamestop, I'm picking up some pretty good stuff, often 3 games for $10 total (Just picked up 2 Red Faction games. They're new to me, so, I don't care the games came out some time ago).
Yet, 2 days till PS4. As I wrote earlier, I am nuts. I'll likely get it soon and be paying $60 for at least a few titles to make use of it. Because PS3 games are going to keep getting cheaper for a while, I'll likely be doing a lot of buying in that area as well.
How is your internet there? Do you get the same prices as the US on Downloads? Are you able to download there?RhombusHatesYou said:
Nope. As I've written above, I buy games from a number of places but they show up in Steam. If Steam goes out of business, inspite of its own sales, that could be trouble. Many Gamestop and humblebundle downloads are from there. Steam goes, those downloads go too.OlasDAlmighty said:
Oddly, www.humblebundle.com is at least in part, for charity! I do think Steam gets a taste, however small though. I doubt they set the pricing though. I've paid as little as 20 cents for some stuff. That's a big part of what has me worried about the viability of the game industry in general and Steam in particular. Is there too much content, getting cheaper all the time. Will it crowd out new content?
In the long run though, this thread has convinced me that:
I better get a bigger drive (either internal, external or both);
Download and back up ASAP;
I should be able to edit my list to see only what I want to see and unhide as needed;
Steam is doing well. Don't worry so much;
As many people are as crazy as me, while I keep buying up bargains, I do think there's always going to be a title or two I can't stop myself from buying new. Others in my shoes won't resist either.
Several of the recent Sony sales were in line with the Steam prices.Gorfias said:
Again I point to the rather deceptive marketing of Steam as one of the big reasons people still seem to think it's this super deal.
To bring this back around to the topic, stores are expecting the biggest console launches ever to hit this month. That's part of the thing. Even if you're going to go for the cheapy PS3 games, the PS4 is going to sell like hotcakes. So's the Xbone. and games. Even PC games.
Steam charges them on par with the physical copies, which are overpriced as fuck. The main reason for this is that Steam doesn't have to be a competitive service.
There's no legit reason to suspect Steam will go down. Also, Humbe Bundle mostly offers DRM-free versions. Some do require Steam (or Origin) but most do not.
Yes, but Steam doesn't run Humble Bundle. Steam gets good PR out of it, which means they probably take very little, but it's still PR.
I don't know, was there five years ago? Ten years ago? I mean, there's been a ton of content for a long time. And if you want older games you can get them with pocket change. Why isn't the industry dead yet?
People want new stuff. They want shinier graphics and new maps and all that stuff.
and, I mean, people will always want older stuff, too. There's a reason backwards compatibility is an issue, why remakes and ports are desired/demanded, etc. It's not going to harm the current gen any more than sales are. The things that harm new games are numerous, but these are not an issue.
Keep in mind Saddam Hu...I mean, Gabe Newell claims exponential growth every year. Since he's not accountable to anyone, I suppose he could be lying (The Americans have NOT taken Baghdad!), but it seems odd they'd try and expand more if they weren't at least doing well. Steam Machines are a risky venture, something you would expect a solvent company to do. Not something you would expect someone who is being ruined by their own sales undercutting their profits to do.
Those seem at odds with one another.
Which is part of their model. You buy up dozens fo games, many of which you may never play. Even my more moderate purchase habits leave me a couple of games behind my list most of the time, though honestly, I prefer to have a couple more games than I've played as it gives me something to move to.
If corporations, develops or publishers aren't able to take care of themselves, then really, they shouldn't be in the industry.
I wouldn't worry; it anything, it'll root out develops who can't handle their money against the ones who can.
I wouldn't worry; it anything, it'll root out develops who can't handle their money against the ones who can.
http://hitboxteam.com/dustforce-sales-figures
This here might be of interest to this thread.
EDIT: to do with the reinvigoration and sales spikes that deep-discount sales bring to games.
This here might be of interest to this thread.
EDIT: to do with the reinvigoration and sales spikes that deep-discount sales bring to games.
"Trust but verify". Steam is likely fine, but I shouldn't be in idiot: ensure I have backups just in case.Zachary Amaranth said:
Which is part of their model. You buy up dozens of games, many of which you may never play. Even my more moderate purchase habits leave me a couple of games behind my list most of the time, though honestly, I prefer to have a couple more games than I've played as it gives me something to move to.[/quote]
I like variety too. I have about 15 pinball games. Fun to jump on one for a bit. Then jump back into an FPS. Then play some Skyrim. Then Limbo.
What isn't finished far out numbers what I have finished.
If developers and publishers really were losing money on Steam due to sales (ie, being too inexpensive), you can bet nobody would distribute through Steam.
Which is to say nothing of Valve themselves, who are doing just fine.
You really should have elaborated on it yourself though; bring some of the points to the fore.
Like the major boosts to their revenue due to sales after launch.
(which completely flies in the face of sales devaluing software)
Which is to say nothing of Valve themselves, who are doing just fine.
That actually is worth reading.Pink Gregory said:
You really should have elaborated on it yourself though; bring some of the points to the fore.
Like the major boosts to their revenue due to sales after launch.
(which completely flies in the face of sales devaluing software)
You don't create a single backup of your Steam account. The backup utility built into Steam makes individual backups for each game. It essentially creates a disc image of the game files from which you can reinstall.[footnote]You may, however, have to create your own backups of settings and saved game files. But a simple copy/paste job of the requisite files is all you need.[/footnote]Gorfias said:
Once you have the backup, you can store it wherever you want. And, when you're ready to install it in the future, you can install it to any computer. Provided you can either login to your account online or the computer in question has your account credentials stored locally.
I was actually already aware of much of that. However, I take issue with the first article you linked.Strelok said:
A lot of the assertions made by Mr. Sherlund include a few too many instances of "probably".
Not that I'm of a mind that those assertions are impossibly false, I'd just prefer more solid evidence than a 3rd party analyst saying, "probably".
[sub]As a side note, it really doesn't surprise me that the Android division is making them the most money.[/sub]
I'm pretty sure Valve's swimming in cash right about now. These sales just mean more people buy the game, generating income that never would have been generated otherwise. These guys are huge corporations, they know what they're doing, and if Valve was leaking money because of Steam sales, they'd cut them out in an instant. As much as I like Valve, they're not putting on these crazy sales out of their kindness of their heart like most people seem to believe, they're doing it because it gives them Scrooge McDuck levels of money.