The STEAM Sales and Releases Thread

[Metro]

I can't believe they're still releasing DLC for Magicka. Does anyone even play it anymore? Last I heard the online community was basically dead.

 

[Metro]

Rage for $6 plus free shipping (guessing U.S. only) at Newegg.com. Good until the 30th (or they run out). Think I might bite on this, I don't see Steam putting it lower than $6 even during the Winter Sale.

 

[Metro]

According to the registry, Wanderlust: Rebirth will be launching on Steam soon (including a 4-pack) -- it's a retro arcade/action RPG (and up to 4 player co-op).



If their website is any indication it'll be $10.

 

[Turjan]

According to the registry, Wanderlust: Rebirth will be launching on Steam soon (including a 4-pack) -- it's a retro arcade/action RPG (and up to 4 player co-op).

If their website is any indication it'll be $10.

I got this in an indie bundle, together with 7 other games, for less than 7 bucks. Not that I ever tried it.

 

[Metro]

Yes, but it wasn't the Steam version so it doesn't count!

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Not particularly related to anything at all, but I downloaded Crysis 2 last night and got a wild hair up my ass to flip Steam to offline mode before launching it. It seemed to do first time setup shit perfectly fine. Maybe Steam games no longer need to be initially online for first launch any more, if that's the case then people could download and make backups of all their Steam games for the inevitable Gabenpocalypse when Valve closes down and still install and play their games in offline mode.

And I just checked by closing Steam entirely and launching via the game's executable that it DOES indeed require Steam. So either Steam's set up to phone home even during offline mode for game launches (Didn't yank my network cable and wasn't running a packet sniffer or anything to check what Steam was doing) or they improved that.

 

[Infinitron]

Anybody who bought Orcs Must Die during the Summer Sale must feel like a huge sucker now.

 

[Metro]

Anybody who bought Orcs Must Die during the Summer Sale must feel like a huge sucker now.

Yeah that's a nice kick-in-the-balls.

Another topic: Amazon is doing Borderlands 2 4-packs and offering an additional 10% off discount (stacks additively with the current 10%) to anyone who has ever bought Borderlands 1 GOTY from Amazon in the past. Basically it breaks down to $36 per copy.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Another topic: Amazon is doing Borderlands 2 4-packs and offering an additional 10% off discount (stacks additively with the current 10%) to anyone who has ever bought Borderlands 1 GOTY from Amazon in the past. Basically it breaks down to $36 per copy.

I'll try to wrangle a slot in one of those. Otherwise I'll probably just bite the bullet at 4 pack with Borderlands 1 discount on Steam for $40. $40 was my preorder range since I played the absolute shit out of the first.

 

[Metro]

I might have hosted an Amazon 4-pack had I bought the first via Amazon for the additional discount. I'd try to get in on one of those packs but I only have a $50 amazon gift code and apparently I can't just redeem it and create a smaller gift code with it so I'd actually have to pay cash money... f'dat. Or you could buy an extra slot for me + $10 Bank o' MHC Steam credits in exchange for my gift code~ Of course... you'd have to actually want $50 worth of Amazon stuff in the future to make that be of any value to you.

 

[Dexter]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...w_deep_discounts_really_affect_your_games.php

Valve's Steam sales have always proven a great time for consumers to score some cheap PC games, but over the past several months, there's been some debate over whether these promotions are good for game developers. Some have argued that the major discounts devalue games, and end up hurting the industry in the long run.

But according to a number of developers that took part in this year's Steam Summer Sale, that doesn't seem to be the case. The teams who've discounted their games during this or previous Steam sales have found that the promotions not only attract more sales, but also generate more revenue and breathe new life into aging products.

Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer, for instance, tells us that while it's been almost three years since his studio launched Torchlight, Valve's Steam promotions have helped the game maintain healthy sales to this very day.
"We find that we get several thousand percent increases in units and revenue on the days of the Steam sales, and unit sales are usually about double the normal for a few weeks after the sales are over," he says.
This year's Summer Sale (which ended July 22) was particularly noteworthy for Runic, as it helped Torchlight hit its second biggest day ever in terms of overall unit sales -- not bad for a game that came out in October 2009.

And Runic's case doesn't seem to be an anomaly; Supergiant Games' Amir Rao tells us that these Steam sales have proven more lucrative than his game's initial debut.

"A lot of times we judge the success of a game -- and predict its sales -- by looking at its launch day numbers. Steam sales have made that delightfully impossible. Our launch day [for Bastion], which we viewed as very strong, is only our fifth best day of sales ever on Steam due to the power of the promotions we've had the opportunity to participate in," Rao says.
According to indie developer and Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund McMillen, these promotions can increase sales to an almost staggering extent. His 2D dungeon crawler The Binding of Isaac, for example, saw sales multiply by five when it was marked down by 50 percent, and once it hit the front page as a temporary "Flash Deal" (for 75 percent off), sales multiplied by sixty.

Believe it or not, those figures aren't all that unusual. Valve's director of business development, Jason Holtman, says plenty of developers have seen their sales increase exponentially, giving them a very healthy boost in revenue.

"It's not uncommon for our partners to see [a] 10-20 times revenue increase on games they run as a 'Daily Deal.' Some titles really take off and see as much [as a] 70-80 times increase in revenue," Holtman said.
Is there a catch?
Despite the fact that Steam sales mark games down to just a small fraction of their usual price, the developers we spoke to don't think these promotions are devaluing games at all. Based on the data they've seen, Steam sales have only been a good thing for their business.

Sure, players will jump on the chance to buy a game for $2.50, but the developers have found that Steam consumers are still perfectly willing to pay full price for a game once the sales are over. The "race to the bottom" we've seen on the mobile markets just doesn't seem to be there on Valve's platform.

"While some may argue that [major sales] contribute to an industry-wide price deterioration problem -- where smartphone games have made people unwilling to spend more than $5 on a digital game -- [Steam sales] are a bit different," says Ken Berry, the executive VP of XSEED Games (Ys Origins, Ys: The Oath in Felghana).

"Rather than looking at it as a 'lost sale' when people wait for these Steam discounts, I think it needs to be viewed as reaching out to a new customer that never would have purchased your game otherwise."

Valve's Holtman says he's never noticed any negative consequences from these promotions. Instead, most games still see positive trends in their sales numbers well after the discounts are over. At the very worst, a game's sales will just revert back to what they were before the promotion began.

And of course, it's not only about generating more sales. Sometimes, you just want to make sure that people are playing your game in the first place, so they pay attention when you're building excitement for whatever comes next.

As Toxic Games' Daniel Da Rocha (Q.U.B.E.), puts it, "[When people] have the opportunity pick up a copy for next to nothing, this only grows the fan base around the game, so when we release new content or future games, we have a large community already there to market to."

For those still looking to reap the benefits of these sales, you're in luck, as Holtman says "there's no secret handshake a developer needs to know to get their title on the front page [during a sale]" – all you really need to do is put out a product that consumers want to play.

Oh yeah, also Borderlands GOTY is available for 3.99€ if you use following code on GMG and it activates on Steam: PARTP-ALCNO-TIESU
http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/de/de/pc/games/shooter/borderlands-game-of-the-year-edition/

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Hmm. Amazon dude said you wouldn't be charged until the Borderlands 2 keys are sent. Not sure I wanna hand my money over to a CAG and hope for the best on the person remembering I bought a key from 'em. I've had some experiences with some pretty dumbass people on there.

Might just try hosting a Steam 4 pack myself, $4 more but far less chance of a pain in the ass.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Orcs Must Die 2's demo is now live on Steam, if anyone's curious.

 

[Metro]

I'm wondering if they improved co-op in Borderlands 2. It was pretty stupid in Borderlands 1 in that everyone basically had to be at the same point in the story for it to be any fun. I dunno, it was okay but after all the fucking DLC I told myself I would wait on a GOTY edition of the sequel.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I'm wondering if they improved co-op in Borderlands 2. It was pretty stupid in Borderlands 1 in that everyone basically had to be at the same point in the story for it to be any fun. I dunno, it was okay but after all the fucking DLC I told myself I would wait on a GOTY edition of the sequel.

Yeah, no idea if they made co-op more elegant or not. I'm guessing not, but since I had my solo character I was fine making a co-op character so long as your co-op bros swear a blood oath not to solo so everyone stays the same level. That's par for the course for most ARPGs like this though.
And as for DLC, Gearbox is apparently already working on DLC after the game went gold. 'course, that might be the "Preorder DLC" which is that fifth character class (Mechromancer) so it might not be as shifty as its sounds. Still gonna milk the fuck out of it though I don't doubt.

Also just talked to Mr Shifty Gray Market Contact over Steam, and he's saying he'll probably have Borderlands 2 copies for sale during the first week of August, he's guessing at $38. Since ruskie Borderlands 2 preorders seem to be $18, either he's doing a fuckhuge markup (Possible) or he's getting his cheap copies through some other means. Since I haven't had issues with his shit and seemingly no one else has either, I'm thinking I'll grab one from him.

 

[Dexter]

Also just talked to Mr Shifty Gray Market Contact over Steam, and he's saying he'll probably have Borderlands 2 copies for sale during the first week of August, he's guessing at $38. Since ruskie Borderlands 2 preorders seem to be $18, either he's doing a fuckhuge markup (Possible) or he's getting his cheap copies through some other means. Since I haven't had issues with his shit and seemingly no one else has either, I'm thinking I'll grab one from him.

Steam UK: http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=uk got Borderlands 4-Pack at £90, with the discount of already owning Borderlands that's down to about £80, splitting that amount to 4 people it would be £20 a copy or rather $31 a copy, just saying

 

[Metro]

Careful -- I've heard they're clamping down on the Russian gifting thing.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

PM me if you want the Deus Ex HR code that came with my graphic card. I'll give it to the first person.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Free Borderlands GOTY weekend.

Ahh why not, if I don't get bored in the first day of playing I might have to apologise to MHC for doubting him on game playability lore recently

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Also just talked to Mr Shifty Gray Market Contact over Steam, and he's saying he'll probably have Borderlands 2 copies for sale during the first week of August, he's guessing at $38. Since ruskie Borderlands 2 preorders seem to be $18, either he's doing a fuckhuge markup (Possible) or he's getting his cheap copies through some other means. Since I haven't had issues with his shit and seemingly no one else has either, I'm thinking I'll grab one from him.

Steam UK: http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=uk got Borderlands 4-Pack at £90, with the discount of already owning Borderlands that's down to about £80, splitting that amount to 4 people it would be £20 a copy or rather $31 a copy, just saying

I haven't got a UK bro, though.

And that's damn good of you HHR!

 

[Humanity has risen!]

And meltdown gets it.

Hope it gives you plenty of emotional engagement.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Free Borderlands GOTY weekend.

Ahh why not, if I don't get bored in the first day of playing I might have to apologise to MHC for doubting him on game playability lore recently

In my own defense low level Borderlands is probably the worst Borderlands. Levels start having less of a dramatic impact as you go along and the combat starts feeling better. Still, if you don't like it AT ALL it probably wouldn't be worth pressing on.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

And meltdown gets it.

Hope it gives you plenty of emotional engagement.

It certainly will, thank you very much for the gift Mr HHR. It even has the explosive mission pack!

These codexian generosity events are so much better than the game giveaway scrimmages in reddit with 600+ random hopefuls lining up for the raffle.

bros in the interest of full disclosure I used the PM subject title "I'm asking for this", I think it gave me a metaphysical edge there

Still, if you don't like it AT ALL it probably wouldn't be worth pressing on.

Yeah, I have less patience for games that you need to play for hours to 'get to the good stuff' these days. I imagine you can have the same luxury with your collection being what it is.

 

[felipepepe]

Jumping on Humanity has Risen's bandwagon, I have a spare Supreme Commander Steam gift...PM me if you wanna it.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

What the devil. Jagged Alliance Back in Action is trying to tell me 7.62 NATO is different from 7.62 WP. I think it's just making shit up to make me mad!

Got 7.62 WP coming out the ass but I want 7.62 NATO for this M-14 I found which is going to be my snipin' rifle once my scope gets here from Bobby Ray's. Already placed my order though so fffffffffffuck.

Edit: Oh shit, fuck that M-14. Found an anti-material rifle up for sale. Range 110 as opposed to the M-14's 33. If my calculations are correct, that's a bigger number. Killing everyone at such a distance they can't even fire back sounds agreeable to me so I'll pay out the ass for .50 cal.

Edit 2: Anti-material rifle worked well until I came up against cannibal farmers wearing body armor and using axes. THEY JUST RUN AT ME. THEY'RE COMING OUT OF THE GODDAMN WALLS. One farmer got too close and axed 4 mercs to death before I took him down.