I'm worried games might be getting too inexpensive

[Kilo24]

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.

 

[MCerberus]

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.

 

[drthmik]

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.

 

[kasperbbs]

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.

 

[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.