Steam sale likely to hit today - but is it damaging for games? EA man says yes, Valve man says no...

How can it be damaging the industry if pre-orders and sales are going up? Eh? EH?

Words: Justin Towell on July 12, 2012

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ParagonT - July 12, 2012 7:41 a.m.

Heaven forbid that customers wants to pay less! Its called the market, people will tend to buy things where/when they are cheaper, welcome to the real world EA. People will pay what they think a game is worth. If not many people are buying your product on day one because they think they could get it cheaper some other time, then that means your starting price is too high. It's too high because the price should be worth the idea of having it sooner than later, or the content should be so amazing. Consumers are supposed to control the market, and I like steam because they allow us to. EA and other are just fuming because they want to control the price and distribution point of every product they sell, then hold the mindset of "If you don't pay 60 dollars, your never going to have it, so tough s**t." Games get older and lose value all the time, so whats their point exactly? Just because it's new doesn't mean it's worth sixty-dollars does it? I hope this model of sales continues so us the gamers can fluctuate the digital market, since its one of the hardest things to pin down law wise, regulation wise, and value wise.
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aberkromby - July 12, 2012 7:22 a.m.

I almost never buy games at full retail price. Unless it's something like Fallout 3, where it provides hundreds of hours of entertainment, it just isn't worth $60.
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wicko - July 12, 2012 7:26 a.m.

Not me - I buy quite a few games at retail price. I won't turn down a discount or anything, but I've played plenty of games for $60 that weren't hundreds of hours that were worth it. I play too many games to be worrying about how long games are these days. My backlog isn't shrinking, that's for sure.
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usmovers_02 - July 12, 2012 5:34 p.m.

For me to complete my backlog would likely take several lifetimes, lol. And like you, there are many game's I've paid $60 for and was very happy with them despite the game being short. Chronicles of Riddick Portal 2 King Kong Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - Two Thrones Dead Rising Okay... just went through my library of 200+ games that retailed at or above $50. Not counting sports games, racing games, or games with multiplayer that I played frequently, those 7 games were the only full priced games I'm satisfied with. Not good. Totally proved my original point wrong.
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SentientSquidMachine - July 12, 2012 7:18 a.m.

I would have gladly payed "sticker price" for Skyrim, but a lot of games aren't worth $60. People will still pre-order because they love the franchise or to support the developer. Hell, I pre-ordered Mass Effect 3 because, combined, I spent about $12(on Steam) for the first 2, and enjoyed them immensely so had no problem showing some love to Bioware with my wallet. last summer I got Grand Theft Auto 1-4(even though I owned a few on console already) for $13, as did a lot of other people, and if you think anyone doesn't believe that Rockstar is a top tier developer then you are misguided in you assertion. This is just more fuel for the EA hate fire.
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MadMan - July 12, 2012 6:42 a.m.

I swear there is just a bunch of clueless monkeys working over at EA. Their argument doesn't even make sense if you think about it.
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mockraven - July 12, 2012 6:26 a.m.

I see three big boons for Steam having the sales: 1.) Some people don't buy games at full price -- thus the used market gets huge. These sales allow for the people who either can't afford it or think "It's not $50-60 good" to still buy a NEW game at the discounted price so the money still goes to the developers, even if it's a smaller cut. 2.) It makes for some cheap advertising. How much money does EA (and other big publishers) blow on their TV advertisements for their big games? Smaller devs can't afford that, but Steam putting their games on sale for cheap for 1 day is a great way to get the word out, pique interest, and get the games in people's hands. This leads to word-of-mouth advertisement after the sale... Which leads to friends later buying the games at full price. 3.) Since a lot of their sales are bundles, some of these previously overlooked games get some attention, too. Maybe they're great but they look campy or the description and screenshots really don't capture the game's uniqueness and fun properly. So a previously slow or non-selling game suddenly becomes popular partly due to the bundled deal and later partly because of boon #2. (This one has happened a lot for me. A game seemed "meh" but it came with a bundle so I tried it out and I was surprised at how enjoyable it really was.) In the end, I think it boosts the low-budget developers quite a bit. P.S. -- In regards to EA's "it cheapens your intellectual property" spiel, why don't they lay in to HumbleBundle where you name your own price? I'm sure the charity side of that program doesn't mean blip to them, anyway.
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usmovers_02 - July 12, 2012 6:24 a.m.

I have SO many games that I NEVER would have purchased due to amazing STEAM sales. Alan Wake Alice: Madness Returns Trine 1 UT3 AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAA: A reckless disregard for gravity Annesia: The Darkest Decent Aquaria EAs very own Dead Space 1 and 2 Just Cause 2 L.A. Noire Metro 2033 Psychonauts The above games are all games I NEVER would have purchased if it weren't for a great STEAM sale. Now I'm hoping for sequels to ALL of the above games and many of them would be day one purchases for me (I'm looking at you Psychonauts 2). Heck I DID buy Trine 2 day one BECAUSE of the insane deal I got on Trine 1. And then there's the long list of games I originally bought on console but paid for a second time because of a great STEAM sale: The Chronicles of Riddick Far Cry 2 Flatout 1-3 GTA IV and SA Portal 1 Saints Row III Test Drive Unlimited 2 Tomb Raider: Underworld Bioshock 1 and 2 Doom 3 Dragon Age F.E.A.R. 1 and 2 F1 2010 Half Life 2 GRID Left 4 Dead Mirrors Edge Prince of Persia Series These are all games I owned originally on 360 but purchased again on STEAM when they went on sale. So... STEAM is hurting the industry EA? Yeah right. I've made the unfortunate mistake of buying games through Origin and everything about the service is garbage.
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usmovers_02 - July 12, 2012 6:26 a.m.

Whoops! Stupid first line typo changed the meaning of my entire post :( The first line SHOULD read: "I have SO many games that I NEVER would have purchased without amazing STEAM sales."
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SGTCOOL - July 12, 2012 9:52 a.m.

But...That sounds suspiciously like PROFIT!!! I've also re-bought several of those games after I got into pc gaming, and of course I wouldn't pay full price for them again. But they were on sale. So regardless of the fact that they were maybe 75% off, Steam and the publishers still got money they otherwise wouldn't have had. Same goes for if I decide to wait on a new game to go on sale. They're all making money eventually. It doesn't cheapen intellectual properties, EA just doesn't like the word "cheap." That's why I'll probably never buy one of their overly expensive Battlefield 3 expansions. So no money from me in any form.
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Malakie - July 12, 2012 6:23 a.m.

This EA spokesperson has no clue. They wonder why they do not have sales like they want? It is idiotic comments like this guy made. There are a number of games I chose STEAM over Origin for due to price. And I will continue to do so. Until game developers release games WITHOUT bugs that are game stopping, I will never pay full price. Additionally this new scheme of selling us partial games then charging us for DLC content that should have been part of the original game is also an issue for me and it is only going to get worse until we gamers stand up and say no more.
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abetterplayer - July 12, 2012 6:22 a.m.

yeah this article shows us how out of touch EA are...
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Hydrohs - July 12, 2012 6:06 a.m.

I just recently bought Serious Sam 3 on Steam at a 75% discount, only because it was so cheap. I enjoyed it, so I decided I wanted to play the rest and bought First Encounter, Second Encounter and Serious Sam II at full price. They made money from me they never would have made otherwise.
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Tronto13 - July 12, 2012 6:05 a.m.

...and that's exactly why I don't buy games on origin. They are way too expensive for a lot of games that came out a long time ago. If I want a game and it is an Origin exclusive (the only time I use Origin) I buy it boxed, its cheaper. If I'm really excited about a game I will buy it on release I don't think I know anyone who cannot wait for a game but then says "actually, I'll wait 6 months and get it on a steam sale..." To be honest due to the sales like we get on steam I have bought a lot of games that I never would have bought otherwise, therefore giving those studios business and getting me more interested in their future projects.
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Mooshon - July 12, 2012 5:56 a.m.

You can understand why giant publishers wouldn't want to rock the status quo but they're swimming against the tide. The huge amount of games out there means that users really want to consume everything. The £40/$60 game + DLC model is a barrier to the vast majority of gamers and ensures the EA/Activision's of the world stay on top while the smaller studios go to the wall. There's a pretty good reason why the largest industry explosions in recent times have been the used/trade in market, discounted digital distribution and F2P gaming (with paid content). As proven, cheaper gaming actually leads to increased sales. EA will just have to learn to share the market a little more.
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Scuffles - July 12, 2012 5:38 a.m.

Yeah the same EA that said these "going out of buisness sales" are essentially poison for the industry and did they not less than two weeks later have like an 80% off sale on a bunch of their own games.....
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Shadow Of Death - July 12, 2012 5:37 a.m.

If it really does start today, then I'm going to miss out on the Saturday sale, since I'll be away (and probably nowhere near a computer with internet, let alone wifi). Saturday would probably be the biggest sale as it is. I can hope it gets reprised on the final day though eh?
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abetterplayer - July 12, 2012 6:16 a.m.

get the steam app on your phone pretty sure you can buy stuff through that and it will be sitting in your library waiting to be downloaded when you get back ;)
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TheMcFinder - July 12, 2012 9:35 a.m.

So what martini guy is assuming is that every single user of the steam service has the money to buy a brand spankin new game at launch which just isn't the case. I mean, sure, there are gonna be people who are just going to wait for the sale, but that person probably wasn't as interested in the title to begin with, so that's their business. The point is, he shouldn't just assume that everyone is some cheapskate who's lookin for some cheap games. We work just as hard for the money to buy these damn games as developers do making them. So screw you rich EA dude.
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Bloodstorm - July 12, 2012 5:34 a.m.

F*** you EA! I'm a poor college student, and if I'm incredibly lucky I can afford 4 or 5 new releases a year. Usually, however, I get 2-3 on average. That leaves tens of games each year I usually miss out on. If it weren't for these sales I still never would have gotten to experience games like Dead Space 2, Arkham City, Deus Ex human Revolution, Bioshock 2, LA Nior, or Metro 2033. Those developers would have never gotten my business, and some of those franchises would still be at the back of my mind. A Steam sale gave me the chance to become a potential day one customer on future titles on some of these franchises. If all goes right, Metro Last Light is definitely on my day one list, and the franchises I'm already invested in I'v now been caught up on and can consider the next game in that series for day one purchasing as well. I no longer have the 'well, I haven't played the last one' excuse. So, stop being greedy, industry destroying trolls EA. This is one of many reasons why I'll never give Origin the time of day for my PC gaming experience.
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