I hear you. I have more games that I have time to play them. Most of them are from humble bundles and other publisher packs. I had to go and delete a bunch of my steam library to clear hard drive space.
I'm worried games might be getting too inexpensive
- Thread starter gorfias
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Consider that at release Warcraft 2 Battle.net edition (one of the best RTS of its time) had a completely free multiplayer that still runs today (albeit with no ladder and few players), no DLC, 4 full length campaigns (13 levels a pop), a solid set of maps for custom scenarios, a simple (and quite good) world editor, and cost 50 bucks (maybe 100-120 in today's money).
An average single player game today with all the DLC (half of which is custom map packs that used to be damn well included!) you're probably looking at 100 bucks or more, so I'm not sure gaming has got cheaper.
An average single player game today with all the DLC (half of which is custom map packs that used to be damn well included!) you're probably looking at 100 bucks or more, so I'm not sure gaming has got cheaper.
The Steam sales are actually in general great for the game in question. That game usually goes on sale when people stop buying it, after which point the quantity sales make up for the lower prices, since a ton of people take advantage of steam sales. Remember, a game company doesn't actually need to spend any money to sell a digital copy as opposed to a hard copy (case, instruction manual, disk, resources to write disk, resources to move disk, etc.), so as long as their percentage from steam*total number of steam sales is greater than what they would have received from hard copies alone, then they've come out ahead.tippy2k2 said:That's a new one
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On one hand, I get great games for dirt cheap (Tomb Raider, Bioshock: Infinite, and Dishonored have all peaked their heads out at $20 or less). On the other hand, that CAN'T be good for the gaming industry or it's ability to support itself when I wait to get games that long.
Exactly/ I don't think you realize that, without physical media, it all depends upon how many units you sell; not at which price you sell each one.Evil Smurf said:
Valve don't put things on sale out of the kindness of their heart. They're a business, and i am 100% certain that their (and by extension the developers) profit increases significantly due to frequent sales as opposed to keeping a game full price for a year like console games.
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?Strelok said:
Not surprised, I think all the non-DOS era Blizzard games actually do still get ladder refreshes (I know the Diablo 2 one got refreshed a while ago too) -- Warcraft 2 being DOS/3.11 era (despite BNE coming along later) doesn't though.mrdude2010 said:
The Warcraft 2 Ladder does apparently still exist but no new seasons.
Valve is making money hand over fist right now. They are a private company and don't have to report earnings but estimates put their revenue in the billions.
Don't worry bro.
Don't worry bro.
People should stop worrying about corporations, as they are very capable of taking care of themselves. As benevolent as Valve is, it's still a powerful corporation and they know how to make money.
Discount sales benefit everyone, since once a game is cheaper, it sells way more copies, which leads to huge profits. Nobody is losing money over this. Remember that digital copies don't need to be manufactured and exist in unlimited quantity.
We should care a lot more about consumer rights, needs and wants, because these tend to be neglected when it comes to the video game industry.
Discount sales benefit everyone, since once a game is cheaper, it sells way more copies, which leads to huge profits. Nobody is losing money over this. Remember that digital copies don't need to be manufactured and exist in unlimited quantity.
We should care a lot more about consumer rights, needs and wants, because these tend to be neglected when it comes to the video game industry.
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.Twenty Ninjas said:
I agree as well. My first thought was, "How often do extremely lucrative companies spontaneously go out of business?" I mean Forbes [http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2012/03/07/valve-gabe-newell-billionaire/] just reported last year on how the company's value was over three billion dollars and Gabe Newell half of that. And that it had 70% market domination going on, something isn't likely to change any time soon without something extremely drastic happening.Twenty Ninjas said:
I read somewhere that sale numbers before and after a major sale don't actually change that much, and sales often act as sudden rushes of income because people fall for the mindset of "IT'S CHEAP SO I MUST HAVE IT".
They wouldn't do the sales if they weren't profitable in the long run.
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.
They wouldn't do the sales if they weren't profitable in the long run.
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.
Sales don't cost Valve money. Sales gain Valve money. They make less money per sale, certainly, but since the only cost per purchase to Valve is bandwidth the vastly higher quantities sold often make up for it.
And even if they don't, the other big component of the sales is that suddenly a hell of a lot more people are playing that game. They may talk about it, they may not; but because you can always look at what your friends are playing that guarantees Valve another form of free advertisement. If seeing your friends play it and investigating is enough to convince you to buy the game immediately, they got a full-price purchase from that initial discounted purchase; if it isn't, there still may be a seed of interest left in you for when the game comes up for sale again.
Steam's success is built on ludicrously cheap sales in a way no physical store can match. I wouldn't consider them at risk of collapsing from that model any time soon, but Steam's monopoly might be bad for the industry if Valve starts getting complacent. Happily, though, I haven't seen signs of it yet.
And even if they don't, the other big component of the sales is that suddenly a hell of a lot more people are playing that game. They may talk about it, they may not; but because you can always look at what your friends are playing that guarantees Valve another form of free advertisement. If seeing your friends play it and investigating is enough to convince you to buy the game immediately, they got a full-price purchase from that initial discounted purchase; if it isn't, there still may be a seed of interest left in you for when the game comes up for sale again.
Steam's success is built on ludicrously cheap sales in a way no physical store can match. I wouldn't consider them at risk of collapsing from that model any time soon, but Steam's monopoly might be bad for the industry if Valve starts getting complacent. Happily, though, I haven't seen signs of it yet.
Valve is making so much money that they can give away indie games (most indies on steam will give you a free steam key if you buy the direct, DRM-free versions from the source) and are trying their hardest to not make any money from hats(you can allocate Steam's 'cut' to sites like polycount, oh and hat makers get payed btw)... and they're still making too much.
It's easy to see why OP, you want to buy so much stuff you're worried you're eating into the profit margin of the people you're buying from.
It's easy to see why OP, you want to buy so much stuff you're worried you're eating into the profit margin of the people you're buying from.
Valve has stated publicly that if steam sales didn't work they wouldn't do them.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.382354-Valve-If-Steam-Sales-Didnt-Work-We-Wouldnt-Run-Them
remember it's all digital, thus it costs them almost nothing to sell more copies but they earn lots of profit from those extra copies sold, both for themselves and for the game developers.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.382354-Valve-If-Steam-Sales-Didnt-Work-We-Wouldnt-Run-Them
remember it's all digital, thus it costs them almost nothing to sell more copies but they earn lots of profit from those extra copies sold, both for themselves and for the game developers.
I seriously doubt that valve is going out of business, unless they somehow mess up big time with those new consoles of theirs. And no, i'm not that eager to fill the pockets of large corporations with all of my money. If they stopped having deals and bundles i would stop using steam, because only then their pricing for my country makes any sense. For example Saints row 4 now costs 49.99 euros on steam and i can get it for 31.57 or 19.98(russian version) on some random Lithuanian online shop.