[STEAM] You are dropping the ball!

[spamurai 3]

Who is responsible for managing the marketing of ArmA2 across Steam? Who ever you are, and sorry if I sound blunt, but you are dropping the ball!

One of the strangest powers Steam has is to get people to buy products they'd otherwise pass over because no one can pass up a bargain if the deal is sweet enough! Steam is a master temptress! Few can resist the luring power of a Steam Sale and right now, one of those whopper-of-a-sales is going on at Steam!

Is ArmA 2 cashing in on the attention?

No.

ArmA 2 is stuck at it's forever price of 49.99USD.

ArmA 1 is on sale for $7USD.... awesome, but why attract more attention into the deadend ArmA 1 instead of pointing them towards ArmA 2? ArmA 2 needs more attention from the casual non-niche crowd, but people are leary because they don't know if they should take the plunge for $49.99. A lot of buried treasure exists in ArmA2 for people to find... if only they were not so hesitant about picking up a shovel and digging into it.

With the arrival of Operation Arrowhead... what a great opportunity to sell copies of ArmA 2 by putting it on sale for a sweet price no one can refuse.

Make some sales! Wouldn't it be nice to at least make a 20$ sale instead of a never-will sale of $49.99 from potential customers?

ArmA2 is over a year old now... don't you think that your core fans who are going to buy ArmA2 have already bought it (and bought it for 49.99)? Isn't it time to go after those gamers who are sitting on the fence?

If Bohemia isn't responsible for the Steam version... then for the love of all things ArmA, put the screws to whoever is! It's your game, your heart and soul they're neglecting.

Edited June 27, 2010 by Spamurai

[S-M 10]

The steam people who are "on the fence" have probably tried the steam supplied demo (which is horrible)

May be harder to make the sale work?

[Dangerdog 0]

The sale on Steam runs through the 4th of July, but they may not be able to offer it for less on Steam because it would step on the retail version publishers toes so to speak.

[Korrak 10]

I think there will be a Daily Deal around the 29th, because of OA release.

[Pulverizer 1]

Bohemia Interactive clearly rather sell through other channels than Steam where possible. Hence the delayed release, abysmal support (botched updates, updates lagging over half a year behind) etc.

I suspect this is because they get less profit margin on Steam sales than via retail and especially Sprocket, and have to pay some kind of bandwidth costs for all downloads from Steam servers.

So no shit they are dropping the ball. There are a lot of people who pretty much buy all their PC games through Steam because of its convenience, my self included.

[sbsmac 0]

One of the strangest powers Steam has is to get people to buy products they'd otherwise pass over because no one can pass up a bargain if the deal is sweet enough! Steam is a master temptress! Few can resist the luring power of a Steam Sale

I couldn't agree more. I've bought 5 or 6 games in the last couple of months 'just to try' that I would never have bought at full price.

[spamurai 3]

I don't know if Bohemia is actually responsible for the Steam Version... I think it's ATARI and it's them who are asleep at the wheel and neglecting their marketing of ArmA 2 across Steam.

[TimRiceSE 10]

pretty sure theres already been at least one sale on steam for arma2... bought a copy for my brother then..

[Pulverizer 1]

BI CEO himself stated that they are purposefully delaying the patch on Steam so that everyone would rather use the much smaller incremental update than redownload the whole updated files.

[AnimalMother92 10]

It is really disappointing. OA doesn't even have a price or pre-order available on Steam, never mind a pre-load... :plain:

[steelblood 10]

$49.99 that's alot of money i'm guessing you just mean on steam ? Here in England it's only like £8 for ARMA 2 which is about $11 :O

[NightWarp 10]

Actualy arma became on sale ONCE that i know off.... and the no pre order thing for the xpack its beyond sad. its a missed opportunity as the OP said.

[Infam0us 10]

ArmA 2 has been on sale a few times in the past on Steam ...

[Big Dawg KS 6]

I do agree that BIS does not take full advantage of Steam with their products, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there are a lot of Steam haters in the community. Just take a look at all the OA threads, most people have expressed their intentions to buy phyiscal retail copies.

However, I do believe that Steam could very well help BIS bring in a lot new customers. You'd be surprised how many things people buy from Steam on a whim, or take advantage of even the slightest of sales. To be honest, I think we just need to be patient. I'm sure BIS will figure it out soon enough.

[Pulverizer 1]

It's not like making a Steam version proper would take anything away from those who prefer a boxed copy.

Console haters didn't stop BI from making a console game either, and those haters are far more numerous and the effort about a millionfold compared to making a Steam specific executable.

[bwc153 10]

While having STEAM drop prices is good to sell some games, they really need to increase their security before i (and many others) spend another penny there.

IE:

I stopped buying games on steam for a few (6-8) months now ever since some people started stalking my account in order to steal it from me whenever I buy a new game.

It's happened for the past 3 games I've bought there (Officers, ARMA 2, and Empire: Total War

Also, for the record... My password (ever since they hacked it the 1st time) has been the maximum amount of characters STEAM allows (35), as well as being very complex, and no password of mine for other things being even remotely similar to it.

[svo 10]

In a group I game with we bought 5 copies from STEAM of A2 several months ago when we heard about a sale. However, I couldn't pass up the Amazon opportunity to get the combined series together for an outrageously great price. So I bought A2 twice I guess, but now have a disk for about $7. The bad thing....like so many others nowadays, we want the game NOW. I'll have to be patient and pass the time the best I can.

[JojoTheSlayer 35]

Also, for the record... My password (ever since they hacked it the 1st time) has been the maximum amount of characters STEAM allows (35), as well as being very complex, and no password of mine for other things being even remotely similar to it.

It would probably be more secure if people didnt know the length you used.

"Set bruteforce for 35 characters..." :)

[sethos 2]

People and developers need to embrace steam, no matter how much they hate it - It's becoming or rather, has become a centric mantel piece through the PC-scene and is slowly bring the PC back up to snuff as a viable platform, instead of getting brushed aside constantly in such a console favoured generation.

Hate it, love it, it's here to stay.

[TimRiceSE 10]

arma2 is on sale on steam now btw...

[spamurai 3]

The peasants cry out.

The gods have answered.

Now, one question though.... typically on steam if you purchase of "package" of a game plus it's expansion... Steam often credits you an extra copy of games you already own in the package.

So... I already own ArmA II, so if I bought Combined Arms, does Steam grant me an extra copy to give away (or keep)?

Great way to spread the love of ArmA II around. Spent 10 extra bucks for Operation Arrowhead and give a buddy ArmA II.

[EDIT] No. The Combined Arms package on steam will not award you a second copy of ArmA II if you already own it. So essentially you are wasting $10 to buy Combined Arms to get Arrowhead. Seems like a missed opportunity to up sell Arrowhead and make an extra $10 off existing fans of the game while generating good publicity and expanding the player base. I buy, Combined Arms, Gift the extra copy of ArmA II to a buddy... buddy becomes a fan... buys Combined Arms... cycle repeats. Consumer base grows.

Edited June 29, 2010 by Spamurai

[Big Dawg KS 6]

So... I already own ArmA II, so if I bought Combined Arms, does Steam grant me an extra copy to give away (or keep)?

If you own ArmA II on Steam, and the package consists of ArmA II and OA seperately (as their individual app IDs), then yes, I'd say you'd probably get another copy of Arma II to gift away.

Don't hold me to it though. I'm just guessing based on other games...

[spamurai 3]

If you own ArmA II on Steam, and the package consists of ArmA II and OA seperately (as their individual app IDs), then yes, I'd say you'd probably get another copy of Arma II to gift away.

Don't hold me to it though. I'm just guessing based on other games...

No, sadly it doesn't work that way.... :sadpanda:

I would totally spend an extra 10 bucks if it meant I could give a buddy AmrA 2.