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

[bafrali]

Valve, i am disappointed in you. You just don't feed the trolls. That is what they are; filthy, pathetic trolls. They would sooner burn down an orphanage than admit they are wrong. Sooner you get out of this pointless discussion, the better.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Spec Ops: The Line hit $33 today... sold!

Really?

(Checks Steam)

Well another $33 to Valve and 2K!

 

[ZephrC]

Valve, don't feed the troll.

Feed the troll fire, or in this case Facts. It kills em!

Didn't you know that trolls have immunity to facts? It's true! Facts have no effect whatsoever on a troll.

 

[Scyla]

Well I got Portal for free from a steam deal and bought Portal 2 full price....
...I guess it works!

And it's another indicator that Valve gets it and EA doesn't. Thats why we love Valve (good job gabe).

 

[Orlake]

I feel as if EA may be using the term "intellectual property" in congruence with "artistic integrity" or "artistic value." Yes the steam sales are LITERALLY cheapening the IP cost wise, but does nothing to damage the artistic value of these games. If anything, steam is making them more accessible to players who would have not otherwise bought them. Most of these games have had their release periods, the good folks at Valve are just reviving them for an encore.

 

[AwkwardTurtle]

Valve doesn't even need to respond what with EA being completely batty nuggets.

Escapist Article Date: June 6 EA Vice President claims that Steam sales "cheapen" intellectual property.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117725-Origin-Boss-Says-Steam-Sales-Cheapen-Intellectual-Property

Escapist Article Date: June FUCKING 18 EA "cheapens" intellectual property on Origin with Steam-like sale.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117950-Origin-Cheapens-IP-With-Deep-Cutting-Sales

I am unable to take anything EA says seriously in any manner whatsoever.

 

[Rednog]

Spec Ops: The Line hit $33 today... sold!

Well another $33 to Valve and 2K!

I honestly lost faith in the steam community when Spec Ops hit like #5 of top sellers on the North American client. Amazon had it for $25 and no one bought it. People are head of heals for steam that they'll willingly pay more to buy it directly from them than save a handful of money.

 

[Rednog]

Most of these games have had their release periods, the good folks at Valve are just reviving them for an encore.

The problem with this is that Valve/Steam isn't throwing up just games that have had their sale periods come and gone. When you throw up something like Max Payne 3 or any new game the question that no one has data on is whether or not people are realizing that hey X game is released near the steam winter/summer sale, if I wait like 2-3 weeks I will save at least 33-50%. That is a huge drop off in price for such a little time period. And I really think that does cheapen the product because it really just tells you that hey that product really wasn't worth the initial asking price if they are willing to knock off the price this fast.
The question remains whether or not the discounted price is teaching consumers to just wait for the big discount and eating into full price profits. And I really do think EA is correct on this point. I don't think the points stands for games that are older.

 

[Anach]

What companies like CDProject Red, Bethesda and Valve (and Bioware before EA), is that they had a lot of respect from gamers, and this helps to drive sales, through word of mouth, and good will sales. You get good service and don't feel ripped off, then you are more inclined to return and purchase. Whether this is cheap sales, lack of DRM, free content, continual bug fix patches or all of the above. However, companies like EA and UBI on the other hand, continuously try to milk their customers for everything they can, force them into services they don't want and drop support for their games as soon as they stop making enough money.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Spec Ops: The Line hit $33 today... sold!

Well another $33 to Valve and 2K!

I honestly lost faith in the steam community when Spec Ops hit like #5 of top sellers on the North American client. Amazon had it for $25 and no one bought it. People are head of heals for steam that they'll willingly pay more to buy it directly from them than save a handful of money.

Amazon can be really finicky with downloads if you don't live in the US. An attempt to download a soundtrack turned into a series of loops that ended with a "sorry this service isn't avalible outside the US."

 

[Clearing the Eye]

Is this the third article on this site within a week or so containing more or less the exact same information?

Is Valve paying you guys to run stuff about them or something? We get, we get it; they're better than EA. Let's stop talking about this like it's current or relevant. You can only say the same thing so many times and the comments are always copy pastes of the previous ones.

 

[Legion]

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.

This plus Valve realise that if you do something nice fr your consumers every now and again, they will remember it and be more likely to want to buy from you in the future.

EA on the other hand are like petrol stations. They know they can treat their customers like crap, because people want their product and many will buy it anyway. The only difference is that they actually have competition, whereas with petrol, you are forced to buy where you can.

 

[JCrichton]

Is this the third article on this site within a week or so containing more or less the exact same information?

Is Valve paying you guys to run stuff about them or something? We get, we get it; they're better than EA. Let's stop talking about this like it's current or relevant. You can only say the same thing so many times and the comments are always copy pastes of the previous ones.

Valve hasn't released this data previously as far as I know.

I have no problem with Steam/Origins/Uplay/Whatever getting positive or negative press.

Or just a quickie news item like this.

 

[Doom972]

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.

Plenty of EA products in the summer sale. Even Crysis 2, which was the first game to be pulled from Steam to promote Origin (and returned last month) had a 75% discount sale. That couldn't have been done without EA's approval.
EA knows sales work better, they just don't like to admit it.

This summer sale makes it really hard to resist the impulse to buy so many games.

 

[The Human Torch]

Spec Ops: The Line hit $33 today... sold!

Well another $33 to Valve and 2K!

I honestly lost faith in the steam community when Spec Ops hit like #5 of top sellers on the North American client. Amazon had it for $25 and no one bought it. People are head of heals for steam that they'll willingly pay more to buy it directly from them than save a handful of money.

Amazon can be really finicky with downloads if you don't live in the US. An attempt to download a soundtrack turned into a series of loops that ended with a "sorry this service isn't avalible outside the US."

Type in a fake U.S. address. I am from the Netherlands, and they didn't even correlate my credit-card information with the address I've given them. Bought Spec Ops for a good price.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Spec Ops: The Line hit $33 today... sold!

Well another $33 to Valve and 2K!

I honestly lost faith in the steam community when Spec Ops hit like #5 of top sellers on the North American client. Amazon had it for $25 and no one bought it. People are head of heals for steam that they'll willingly pay more to buy it directly from them than save a handful of money.

How does that make you lose faith in Steam's community? If anything, I think it is telling that people are more willing to pay extra cash and put up with Steam than save money, because the service works so well.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

...But didn't they already come out against these stupid comments (made primarily by EA)?

That's what I was thinking. It seems like every time I've come to this site for a while, there's been another news article or feature about Steam and the words said by EA. I've no idea how accurate they are--you know how "reliable" reports are when it comes to quotes.

It almost feels like the Escapist is just trying to make news at this point, harping on about whatever the current trend in the forum is at the time.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Spec Ops: The Line hit $33 today... sold!

Well another $33 to Valve and 2K!

I honestly lost faith in the steam community when Spec Ops hit like #5 of top sellers on the North American client. Amazon had it for $25 and no one bought it. People are head of heals for steam that they'll willingly pay more to buy it directly from them than save a handful of money.

Amazon can be really finicky with downloads if you don't live in the US. An attempt to download a soundtrack turned into a series of loops that ended with a "sorry this service isn't avalible outside the US."

Type in a fake U.S. address. I am from the Netherlands, and they didn't even correlate my credit-card information with the address I've given them. Bought Spec Ops for a good price.

Really?

You'd think Amazon would check something like that.