The Steam Monster Game Sale Bait and Switch

[snekadid]

Hey all! I've had a bad morning and I wanna take it out on someone doing something sketchy.

Along side Steam being complicit in aiding criminals(price gouging is illegal in most states and many countries outside of the US so yes, its a crime) Now Steam is doing the old 'Bait and Switch', which to those not familiar with the term is where a storefront offers something at a certain discount and either changes the discount or changes the item entirely. An example would be offering steaks at 30% off and you get to the store and find only tatertots are 10% off.

How did Steam do this you ask? Well the monster game unlocks sales for the next day on certain games as the community progresses through it. One of the games unlocked for today was Shadows: Heretic Kingsdoms, a diabloesque action RPG in severe legal problems that even the Devs say not to buy due to the publisher going into debt. However, if you log into steam you'll see its not on the list. Thats because Steam replaced it with a game called Gas Guzzlers, a mediocre racing game.

Now you're probably saying, "Hey snek, you don't sound all that up on either of the games, why do you care?" and to that I respond, I had a mild interest in Shadows, wanted to see how it turned out and figured that it would atleast be worth a sales day purchase. Infact, I would have bought it at the listed 50% discount if this whole snafu hadn't happened. But the real reason I care is not that the game isn't on bonus sale, its that Steam is trying to censor people talking about it.

Fact remains, a Bait and Switch did occur, and now Steam is hiding any posts talking about that fact by putting them in the Games forum so that no one that didn't already know about the Bait and Switch finds out. Alot of the threads aren't even about the game, but that the sale that was unlocked is not what we got, and steam mods continue to hide posts. So I'm here, where Steam mods can't reach, letting you know to be careful around Steam, their current character is suspect and you should be wary. I wrote this post to inform, not to contend, and having read this you are now informed, so whether you agree or not, my purpose was served.

http://i.imgur.com/qY5LyIQ.png

Additional Reading:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/256030/discussions/0/598198356172330700/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/256030/discussions/0/598198356172776583/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/256030/discussions/0/598198356172754173/

 

[DoPo]

I was wondering what happened with it. I had a look at the milestones earlier and that caught my eye. I was looking forward to getting it but then it wasn't actually on offer.

 

[ffronw]

This makes me wonder if the publisher pulled permissions for Valve to offer it at that price point.

You see Valve, doesn't set the sale prices, the company that owns the game rights does, and if that company pulls the discount, Valve has to do the same. Seems odd for them to take a step like that, and even odder for them to not just own up to it.

Of course, maybe they just figure they have enough banked good will to do whatever they want.

 

[gigastar]

Shit as it was, i dont think for a second that Steam is the only culprit here.

I know there was a dispute between publisher bitComposer and developer Games Farm, but obviously i dont know which one pulled the sale to spite the other.

Censorship of discussion on the Steam forums is probably dev or pub moderators at work.

And when it comes down to it, itll probably be on sale again at the Autumn or Winter sales. Assuming you still give a damn about owning it.

 

[DrOswald]

This makes me wonder if the publisher pulled permissions for Valve to offer it at that price point.

I would bet real money that this is what happened. Valve has no incentive to do this. As the OP notes, the developers themselves have asked people not to buy the game. Likely they were told to pull it and Valve has to abide by that decision. The censorship is likely by the dev/publisher, they control the games forums, not Valve.

Also, they are not hiding posts, they are right there on the first page of the games forum. How is that hiding? So there really isn't censorship going on at all.

And finally, if there are legal issues involved, which is looks like there is, then whoever required the game get pulled likely cannot comment at this time for legal reasons.

P.S. And that price gauging thing? Maybe you should actually look up what was going on, basically all of the games that had their price raised shortly before the sale had completely legitimate reasons to do so and warned the community well in advance. Reasons such as coming out of early access, massive content patches that greatly increased the scope of the game, etc. Internet rumors are not a solid source of information.

 

[MonsterCrit]

The heretics one was off.. but it's not exactly bait and switch. These offers were basically freebies anyway. Not like you paaid to have access to them. I did notice there was one discount absent that day... but there were 8 others still there so... meh.


And most every claim of price gouging more or less comes down to people not reading the details properly. The big thing about this summer sale is that yolu have a lot of noobies to steam expecting Games like Wolfenstein the NEw Order and GTAV to be on super deep discounts...

 

[Something Amyss]

Unfortunately, the community doesn't stand on principle. It stands on whether the game in question is something they care about. See also: Shadows of Mordor.

The heretics one was off.. but it's not exactly bait and switch. These offers were basically freebies anyway. Not like you paaid to have access to them.

That's not how bait and switch works. That you didn't pay for the offers doesn't make it more legal.

 

[MonsterCrit]

Unfortunately, the community doesn't stand on principle. It stands on whether the game in question is something they care about. See also: Shadows of Mordor.

The heretics one was off.. but it's not exactly bait and switch. These offers were basically freebies anyway. Not like you paaid to have access to them.

That's not how bait and switch works. That you didn't pay for the offers doesn't make it more legal.

No How bait and switch works is when you are offered one thing and given something else. This was a case of an offer being withdrawn.

 

[DoPo]

I did notice there was one discount absent that day... but there were 8 others still there so... meh.

No, all the 9 discounts were unlocked that day, only Heretic Kingdoms was replaced with a different game.

There was one less discount one one of the days after but this was different - simply, one of the milestones wasn't reached, this yielding one less discount.

 

[MonsterCrit]

I did notice there was one discount absent that day... but there were 8 others still there so... meh.

No, all the 9 discounts were unlocked that day, only Heretic Kingdoms was replaced with a different game.

There was one less discount one one of the days after but this was different - simply, one of the milestones wasn't reached, this yielding one less discount.

You sure? It was unlocked but when I looked at the deals, I only remember seeing 8. not 9. I just thought we didn't make the last one in time. Got a screen shot of that?

 

[Something Amyss]

This was a case of an offer being withdrawn.

This was a case of an offer being incentivised and then swapped out.

 

[DoPo]

I did notice there was one discount absent that day... but there were 8 others still there so... meh.

No, all the 9 discounts were unlocked that day, only Heretic Kingdoms was replaced with a different game.

There was one less discount one one of the days after but this was different - simply, one of the milestones wasn't reached, this yielding one less discount.

You sure? It was unlocked but when I looked at the deals, I only remember seeing 8. not 9. I just thought we didn't make the last one in time. Got a screen shot of that?

No, but that's exactly what this thread is about - the game WAS unlocked - the screenshot is in the OP, when it came time for the actual deal to be done, it was swapped with a different game - Gas Guzzlers. The OP and the linked resources all claim the same.

 

[Gorrath]

I don't consider this a bait and switch because there appears to be mitigating circumstances. It does not look like Valve offered the discount to draw people in and then pulled it for something else to dupe its customers. Part of what makes the bait and switch illegal is the intent to dupe people which it does not at all appear is what happened here. Offering steaks for 30% off and then only having tots for 10% isn't a bait and switch if the retailer fully intended to sell the steaks at that price but the meat delivery truck crashed into a retaining wall on the way over.

 

[DoPo]

I did notice there was one discount absent that day... but there were 8 others still there so... meh.

No, all the 9 discounts were unlocked that day, only Heretic Kingdoms was replaced with a different game.

There was one less discount one one of the days after but this was different - simply, one of the milestones wasn't reached, this yielding one less discount.

You sure? It was unlocked but when I looked at the deals, I only remember seeing 8. not 9. I just thought we didn't make the last one in time. Got a screen shot of that?

Actually, I found a thread on Reddit that lists the deals. Here you go:

Day 4 deals [https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/39tizc/steam_monster_summer_sale_2015_day_4_featured/] shows Gas Guzzlers, but not Heretic Kingdoms while Day 5 [https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/39xm8s/steam_monster_summer_sale_2015_day_5_featured/] has only 8 deals unlocked

 

[EternallyBored]

Maybe I'm misreading, but I'm failing to see the bait and switch here, when someone baits customers in and switches products on them, the unethical and/or illegal part is the intention to deceive, meaning the store owner is intentionally luring people in with a product or price they never had any intention to sell.

This case looks more like Valve posted the sale price with permission from either the developer or publisher, then took the deal down when the that permission was revoked, or controversy compelled them to withdraw it. I'm not seeing where Valve is purposely misleading people here, if you really wanted to push the bait and switch argument, the culprit is more likely to be the developer/publisher.

The forums are also run by the game developers, I have never seen actual Steam staff locking or hiding threads, the game devs get moderator status on the forums for the games they own, so I seriously doubt Valve employees are the ones moving the threads, it would be the developers of the game doing it.

Like I said, maybe I'm missing something, but right now it doesn't look like a bait and switch, it looks like the developer and/or publisher withdrew their sale price due to internal disagreements with each other and Steam honored the request. The developer may have done it on purpose to draw attention to the game without actually having to discount it, but it would be very hard to prove as you would have to show that was their intent from the beginning.

 

[Aerosteam]

Wait, I'm confused, did people buy a game but it turned out to be a different one?

 

[PinkiePyro]

not a true bait and switch

a bait and switch would be you paying for what you think is a bag shown to be full of cake and actually getting a identical bag full of dirt...

instead this is more like sorry we are out of cake how about pie instead?

 

[BarbaricGoose]

It's not really a bait & switch if it's an internet website, and there are hundreds of other deals available.

The point of a bait & switch is to get someone to enter your establishment that wouldn't otherwise be there, and hope they buy something else instead. The lure of a great deal attracts them, and then they settle for less. The Steam sale attracts people because hundreds, if not thousands of titles are discounted. Swapping out one of them isn't really a deal breaker for most people.

And if the publisher is going pout of business, and the developer warns not to buy it, it was probably shelved for legal reasons.

 

[Elijin]

Wait so, the devs said 'Dont buy this, there are serious complications' and then the game vanished from the sales, yet you are still insistent on blaming steam, and steam alone?

Okay.