Has Steam become more expensive - i.e., less discounts?

[tortuosit 486]

Hi guys,

 

- over the years my observation is, that my wishlist items are rarely discounted. From what I remember there were way more discounts on my wishlist years ago.

- Also, when there's those crazy discount times (Helloween sales etc.), the old stuff is heavily discounted, but half way new stuff is discounted only very lightly.

- EUR 39 was more or less the max. price for bigger titles, now it's 49 or 59.

 

Do you observe the same or are my detectors broken?

 

Thx

[Janez 530]

On 5/24/2019 at 3:53 PM, tortuosit said:

Do you observe the same or are my detectors broken?

 

I'm afraid no, they are not broken. 60$ more or less became standard for AAA tittles (whatever that is supposed to mean anymore) around 2010/2011 with the likes of CoD Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield 3. Shortly after, that somehow translated into 60€.

At first, only retail stores bumped the base 40€ price up about 5 to 10€ but around 2013, when current gen consoles hit the market, digital stores like Steam set the prices to 60€ and now it's like that everywhere for tittles made in North America. EU tittles are often still 40 to 50€ on Steam.

[Janez 530]

Recently I noticed Steam requires you to fill in billing information even if you are using PaySafeCard or similar. They stated it's for legal reasons but it turns out its some sort of crackdown on VPN usage to purchase games. Basically, its hurting their bottom line. Here's a video representing a brief overview of the system in place that dictates regional pricing. One thing I would add is that there is a similar issue within EU, for countries that use Euro. For example, 60€ is obviously significantly more for someone living in the Balkans or eastern Europe then for someone living in Germany.

 

[gamemaniac13 1]

On 8/1/2020 at 10:22 AM, Janez said:

Recently I noticed Steam requires you to fill in billing information even if you are using PaySafeCard or similar. They stated it's for legal reasons but it turns out its some sort of crackdown on VPN usage to purchase games. Basically, its hurting their bottom line. Here's a video representing a brief overview of the system in place that dictates regional pricing. One thing I would add is that there is a similar issue within EU, for countries that use Euro. For example, 60€ is obviously significantly more for someone living in the Balkans or eastern Europe then for someone living in Germany.

  

Well, hope they realize this model basically gives pirates more justification... 

[zSCHIZOz 2]

Its not so bad in the States. I usually wait for a desired game to go on sale unless its a new release that I'm interested in. 

 

A recent release better not be more than $60 and an older game on sale better be on sale for around or less than $30 or I'm not interested.

 

 

[Janez 530]

Remember owning games?

 

Pretty comprehensive trip down the memory lane by Overlord Gaming on how Steam choose to do business, how the industry followed suit and what are the consequences today. I'm sure plenty of guys around here have keen memories on times when cheats were a reward unlock in single-player games for turning the game, rather then bottomless pit of microtransactions tied to a save game (autosave at that). So if you find yourself opposing carefully constructed marketing statement and some kid who never knew any better calls you a filthy cheater, calmly educate them on what is reasonable and what is not.

 

I would also like to point out that our beloved Bohemia Interactive held of with migrating completely to Steam all the way until the very last moment when GameSpy was shut down. Though, thanks to GoG.com - fellow slavic developers, we can often return to 2001 - when you clicked on an icon and 15 seconds later you were in main menu, ready to rock. No UWP or Denuvo trash taking two minutes to boot and eating away CPU, no servers unavailable at this time, no loosing access to a game when servers shut down.

 

 

[mr burns 132]

On 11/29/2020 at 7:55 PM, Janez said:

I would also like to point out that our beloved Bohemia Interactive held of with migrating completely to Steam all the way until the very last moment when GameSpy was shut down. Though, thanks to GoG.com - fellow slavic developers, we can often return to 2001 - when you clicked on an icon and 15 seconds later you were in main menu, ready to rock. No UWP or Denuvo trash taking two minutes to boot and eating away CPU, no servers unavailable at this time, no loosing access to a game when servers shut down.

 

Little known fact, it´s up to dev´s/publishers how their games on Steam are copy protected.

It took me one week of internet outage to find that the classic Mount & Blade .exe on Steam is unprotected.

And there´s more where that came from.

 

Yes, i do remember owning hard copies, and i do remember when steam sales & giveaways actually made you register on this dreaded platform.

I also realize how i would´nt have amassed sooo many games w/o steam being a thing.