Valve: If Steam Sales Didn't Work We Wouldn't Run Them

[The Wooster]

Valve: If Steam Sales Didn't Work We Wouldn't Run Them

Valve responds to EA's accusation that Steam's heavy discounts "cheapen" intellectual property.

While consumers adore Steam's discounts, EA seems less fond. The publisher's Senior Vice President of Global Ecommerece, David DeMartini, recently claimed Valve's habit of offering games at a discount "cheapens [their] intellectual property." Valve disagrees.

"If that's what we thought was happening, or that's what we saw happening, we wouldn't do it," Valve's director of business management, Jason Holtman, told PCGamer. "Actually, all the data is contrary to that. A promotion is not a policy; a promotion is just a feature to give people more value."

"It's not as if a 75% offer or a 50% off sale at some point in time cannibalizes a sale that would have happened earlier, it's just not true," he continued. "We're actually seeing both of them growing. We don't see one cannibalizing the other. If we did, we wouldn't do it."

According to Holtman, not only do temporary sales have no negative effects on sales, even giving away games for free doesn't seem to stop gamers from buying them when they're full price.

"We put Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2 on sale. If we thought that was killing our franchise, or hurting the value of games, or hurting the revenue we could generate as a company, we wouldn't do it," he said. "We've even gone so far as to give away Portal for free a couple of times. Whole days where it's not free for a day, it's just free. We looked at this amazing data afterwards. The day after the sales were exactly the same, if not more."

Source: PCGamer [http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/16/steam-deals-dont-cannibalise-sales-says-valves-director-of-business-management/]

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[lacktheknack]

"Actually, all the data is contrary to that. A promotion is not a policy; a promotion is just a feature to give people more value."

"A promotion is not a policy; a promotion is just a feature to give people more value," he continued.

Wut? Did he accidentally double-speak?

"We've even gone so far as to give away Portal for free a couple of times. Whole days where it's not free for a day, it's just free. We looked at this amazing data afterwards. The day after the sales were exactly the same, if not more."

OK, even I didn't see that coming. It makes me really happy to see, though.

 

[dragongit]

In short.

EA likes money, and thinks thing should be expensive so they get all the money. If a game is 60 dollars it must be 60 dollars. There is no compromise.

Valve also likes money, but so do developers and publishers. They may get less off these games during sales, but a lot of them are old games that have not had many salse in a long time to begin with. Valve figures out if they put them on sale for a limited time, it encourages people to buy them if on impulse alone, not only generating revenu for Valve but for the developers of these games.

Bottom line, EA is greedy as sin, where is Valve likes to get paid as anyone else,but they figure the long term gain outweighs the short term.

 

[dragongit]

Though I have to probably add against Valve in at least the obsessive compuslive consumers... hats. They love to make hats. And sell them for rediculous prices. Other then that, I love Steam and Valve.

 

[XavierAmaru]

One thing that the EA people just seem to ignore (or don't realize) is that the Steam sales builds customer loyalty (seems kinda obvious if you think about it too).

I would never have even downloaded Origin if I didn't need it for ME3. Now that my Origin and ME3 is having server issues, I wont bother playing it for a while and stay away from Origin as long as I can.

Whereas Steam, I actually downloaded and installed precisely because they were having massive sales. The fact that they continue this, makes me continue coming back and turns no sales, into actual sales. I bought more games then I have had time to play, but I keep getting them since they are such great deals and I am happy to support Steam.

EA is just lucky they had ME3, otherwise most people wouldn't have bothered with Origin. Honestly, the EA comment seems kinda business ignorant and shortsighted.

Meh

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

In short.

EA likes money, and thinks thing should be expensive so they get all the money. If a game is 60 dollars it must be 60 dollars. There is no compromise.

Valve also likes money, but so do developers and publishers. They may get less off these games during sales, but a lot of them are old games that have not had many salse in a long time to begin with. Valve figures out if they put them on sale for a limited time, it encourages people to buy them if on impulse alone, not only generating revenu for Valve but for the developers of these games.

Also, according to their research, a 75% off sale on steam increases sales by around 3000%. So putting things on sale actually makes you more money.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

So EA's policy of fucking over consumers to make publishers happy was wrong? Nobody saw that coming.

I've said it before but I love that EA is wearing their policy on this like a badge. "We're better than Valve because we won't give you cheap games." As a developer EA is brilliant and they make great games, but they really have no fucking clue how to maintain a consumer base other than "give them more games".

 

[FogHornG36]

Valve, you don't need to defend yourself, you have made your point...

 

[s_h_a_d_o]

So, given EA's disinterest in cheapening their IP franchises (and, you know, selling product), I hope Valve saw fit to exclude any and all EA titles in the Summer Sale.

 

[DarkEyedBlues]

I hope Valve saw fit to exclude any and all EA titles in the Summer Sale.

if i remember correctly, EA took as many of their games as possible off of steam when Origin launched.

Imagine how much money they would be making if Mass Effect 3 was 50% off.

 

[Orange12345]

you dont need to justify yourself valve, EA is just trying to defend their archaic business model that has no place in the present by trying to appeal to the new consumer responsibility fad. Remember this is the PUBLISHER that said they wanted to be INDIE

 

[s_h_a_d_o]

if i remember correctly, EA took as many of their games as possible off of steam when Origin launched.

They only held back on certain (newer) titles - there's still 134 EA titles hosted on Steam.

 

[Dfskelleton]

"We've even gone so far as to give away Portal for free a couple of times. Whole days where it's not free for a day, it's just free. We looked at this amazing data afterwards. The day after the sales were exactly the same, if not more."

Was this a live interview, or just written? I'd really like to watch the video, just to see the guy from EA jolt backwards and hiss at the mention of the word "free"

OT: I don't see why this is nessescary. Besides, how can ANYONE think that the sales don't work when the amount of comments across the entire internet about people's wallets mysteriously disappearing after each sale?

 

[Strazdas]

while i agree with Valve on this id like to pont out that now Arma combined operations bundle is only 20 euros and add a free dayz mod to that and you get best survival horror game ever made. so go get that.

 

[oldtaku]

I love it when Valve can fight EA's empty crap with actual sales data.

EA, your sales models are just wrong, though I realize your suits have to imagine rainbow unicorns farting $70 fairies. Here's how it works for normal people:
1) I assign a game a value in my head.
2) When it gets at or below that value I buy it.

Steam currently has Call of Duty: Black Ops for 50% off. I'm not buying it because even at 50% off the mediocre single player game isn't worth $20 to me. Spec Ops: The Line hit $33 today... sold! Borderlands 2 I will preorder at full price.

Unfortunately, once we hit the really rabid fans, you get rainbow unicorns farting monthly subscription fairies, so I'd focus your efforts there, big boy.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Eh. Like any schoolyard bully, EA thrives off of attention to make up for its own crippling self-confidence issues; paying attention to them just validates them and their decisions to set cats on fire. Let them continue eating paste and hammering nails into their head, and they'll eventually kill themselves off.

The difference between the two companies is night and day; Valve treats its customers well and has become a popular, successful company. EA treats its customers like criminals while its CEOs sneer at their competitors - while trying to copy their business model, by the way - and is becoming increasingly loathed while their stocks nosedive. I'm not one of the baying sheep that thinks everything Valve does is kissed by every god at once, but for every company that gets its ass handed to it by the policy of "Hey, let's not treat our customers like shit", the world is a slightly better place in this increasingly exploitative, money-grubbing society we're shitting ourselves into. Valve at least pretends to like the people that give them money and seems to realize that consumers that are treated well will buy well, and perhaps actually be kind of happy along the way. Companies like EA act like they think of us as ATMs, and berate us when we don't perform our desired function, like the malfunctioning machines we're considered to be. I'm getting fucking fed up with it, and it's nice to see not everyone subscribes to it.