PSA: Be Wary of "Pre-Steam Sale" Markups

[Steven Bogos]

PSA: Be Wary of "Pre-Steam Sale" Markups

One of the most popular tactics of physical retailers (marking up a product and then putting it on sale for the original price), is starting to plague Steam.

Steam's frequent, massive sales, like the current reddit [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141121-Valves-2015-Steam-Summer-Sale-Has-Begun] have noticed that quite a few publishers are taking advantage of the sale, utilizing an old retail trick known as the "pre-sale markup".

Essentially, what retailers (especially fashion retailers) would do, is take a product that normally sells for, say, $20. They would mark it up 100% to $40, and then immediately have a "50% off sale", during which the product is "on sale" for its regular price. It looks like Steam is no stranger to this, as Gaijin Entertainment [http://steamcommunity.com/app/236390/discussions/0/], among others, have raised the price of their games only to discount them during the sale.

There's also some shady stuff going on with Rockstar and GTA V [http://store.steampowered.com/app/271590/], in which the game appears to be on sale, but is only actually discounted when purchased together in a bundle that contains some in-game cash (essentially making the game "full price but with some free in-game cash").

The legality of this kind of tactic varies from country to county, but I think we can all agree that even if it is not illegal, it is still a dick move.

If you're interested in seeing which titles have changed price recently (in advance of the sale, specifically), be sure to check out the Steam Prices tracker [https://www.steamprices.com/us/tracker].

Source: Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/39ckjx/some_companies_are_raising_prices_on_their_steam/]



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[Pirate Of PC Master race]

While it is dick move initself, GTA 5's case is - unintentional or not - more sinister, considering that buying the "discounted" bundle (that comes with GTA online currency) prevents steam refunds.(because it counts as micro-payment)

 

[Pyrian]

...take a product that normally sells for, say, $20. They would mark it up 50% to $40, and then immediately have a "50% off sale", during which the product is "on sale" for its regular price.

Going from $20 to $40 is actually 100% markup. Math is hard.

 

[Steven Bogos]

...take a product that normally sells for, say, $20. They would mark it up 50% to $40, and then immediately have a "50% off sale", during which the product is "on sale" for its regular price.

Going from $20 to $40 is actually 100% markup. Math is hard.

Math is hard. That's why i'm a writer guy and not a math guy.

 

[STENDEC1]

Well here in Australia it IS illegal, and as such they should be held accountable. Not that I expect anything to come of it of course.

Publishers who pull this crap can go f*ck themselves, especially 2K since they inflate the price for Australians on Steam to start with. $75 USD for GTA V as a starting price? Get f*cked.

 

[Paragon Fury]

They probably started doing this because developers and publishers HATE the Steam Summer Sales discounts, so they push their prices up so that when discounted by Steam it still doesn't cost them that much.

 

[shintakie10]

Well here in Australia it IS illegal, and as such they should be held accountable. Not that I expect anything to come of it of course.

Publishers who pull this crap can go f*ck themselves, especially 2K since they inflate the price for Australians on Steam to start with. $75 USD for GTA V as a starting price? Get f*cked.

Its not illegal because they didn't actually mark up the price of the game. If you look, the game is still 59.99 (or whatever it is in Australian money). The only discounted thing is the bundle with the shark card.

Its still shady as fuck, but its the legal kind of shady, not the illegal kind of shady.

 

[Janaschi]

Typical scumbags. They pull this crap all the time here in Tennessee, during the all-too-popular "Liquidation Sales!!!"
(add as many more exclamations as you feel are appropriate)

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

Typical scumbags. They pull this crap all the time here in Tennessee, during the all-too-popular "Liquidation Sales!!!"
(add as many more exclamations as you feel are appropriate)

Ah, classy tactics. I recall the name of Finance raising book in the Masquerade. "Always Be Closing", was it?

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Thanks for the heads up Steven, that price tracker should be really useful as the sale goes along.

 

[Colt47]

Just when I thought I might start buying from steam again since they finally have a refund policy. Oh well, back to letting humble bundles and kickstarter eat my wallet. At least in the case of those two, one is going towards something positive and the other is helping fund projects that I'm interested in playing.

 

[LazyAza]

I honestly thought this was a steam glitch. Like I know for a fact the original gta5 full price was way lower. I never actually thought companies would pull this kind of shit. Like god damn I might not ever buy gta5 simply on principle now. Cause this is messed up.

 

[Zontar]

They probably started doing this because developers and publishers HATE the Steam Summer Sales discounts, so they push their prices up so that when discounted by Steam it still doesn't cost them that much.

If they don't want to partake in the summer sale, why not just avoid it entirely instead of shooting their PR in the foot while also potentially opening the door for lawsuits?

 

[Erttheking]

But GUYYYYYYYYYYS! Don't you know? They're a business! It's a business' jobs to make money

-Twats.

Seriously, fuck off Rockstar. Instead of pulling stunts like this, maybe you could be making GTA Online less tedious?

 

[Erttheking]

They probably started doing this because developers and publishers HATE the Steam Summer Sales discounts, so they push their prices up so that when discounted by Steam it still doesn't cost them that much.

If they don't want to partake in the summer sale, why not just avoid it entirely instead of shooting their PR in the foot while also potentially opening the door for lawsuits?

I think it's long since been established that high ranking executives don't live in the same world we do.

 

[Zontar]

They probably started doing this because developers and publishers HATE the Steam Summer Sales discounts, so they push their prices up so that when discounted by Steam it still doesn't cost them that much.

If they don't want to partake in the summer sale, why not just avoid it entirely instead of shooting their PR in the foot while also potentially opening the door for lawsuits?

I think it's long since been established that high ranking executives don't live in the same world we do.

Still, Rockstar seemed to be relatively savy about their audience and market until now.

 

[wulfy42]

This is becoming way too common sadly. Even my local grocery stores have been doing it (safeway for one). They mark up their (say tri tip roasts) then have a sale with the marked up price. Everyone seems to be doing this.....probably because over all it works....too many people don't notice it and sales of the items go way up. It makes me very angry though.

 

[MonsterCrit]

Meh.. it's a moot point. I never look at the percentage in these cases I look at the price. If the price is not something I feel like paying I couldn't care if it was a 95% discount. So again this is the sort of strategy that only catches impulse buyers with a crippling fear of reading the entire price tag.

 

[Janaschi]

Typical scumbags. They pull this crap all the time here in Tennessee, during the all-too-popular "Liquidation Sales!!!"
(add as many more exclamations as you feel are appropriate)

Ah, classy tactics. I recall the name of Finance raising book in the Masquerade. "Always Be Closing", was it?

Exactly. That bullshit is illegal in many states, but one always sees them cropping up here on a consistent basis. And since a precedent has been established, I bet you can imagine how hellacious our Black Fridays are in regards to base price adjustments.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I hate this tactic. A grocery chain in my area used to inflated prices by a few percent, then if you had a membership card (free at least) the prices on most things dropped down. "You saved $6 with your membership card" To quote my dad, it's more like "You didn't get screwed out of $6."

(Then, they got bought out by a worse chain that kept the prices high and swindled most of the employees because "fuck you, working America.")

They probably started doing this because developers and publishers HATE the Steam Summer Sales discounts, so they push their prices up so that when discounted by Steam it still doesn't cost them that much.

If they don't want to partake in the summer sale, why not just avoid it entirely instead of shooting their PR in the foot while also potentially opening the door for lawsuits?

They probably didn't want to look like tightwads that didn't want to participate in the sale and figured no one would really notice the price hike. Too bad for them someone is looking at and archiving information, and news on the internet spreads fast.