Valve says games cost too much

[kazgar]

Just after reading Vogels comments on the matter, and someone commenting how steam sales help with visibility.. (and was not useful enough for the steam sales thread)

http://www.next-gen.biz/features/valve- ... -expensive

Valve: Are Games Too Expensive?
Convincing results from pricing experiments on Steam say that just might be the case.


Some highlights

Although Valve was initially afraid that volatility or variability in pricing would confuse or anger its customers--or even cannibalize retail sales--Newell says that was not all the case.

In fact, it dramatically increased sales. Illustrating his point, Newell showed the results of a Left 4 Dead promotion Valve ran last weekend, which cut the price of the game in half to $25. The discount (and promise of new content for the game) rocketed sales of the game on Steam by 3,000 percent.

Still skeptical? Newell said that a weekend sale of one third-party title drove that game's sales up by 18,000 percent and units-sold increased 36,000 percent. It energized the user base, says Newell. When the sale ended, baseline sales were double what they were prior to the weekend discount.

And this doesn't even go into the wallet-rape that is regional pricing.

 

[MetalCraze]

In my region steam games now cost twice or thrice as less as in Kwa

Of course if they are not an overhyped shit that I don't care about like CoD

 

[The Ticktockman]

It's almost as if Valve have known this for 2.5 years, have taken the knowledge to heart, convinced many devs, and have been heavily discounting games on a daily basis, with huge sales every half year.
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Wait a sec!

 

[Gord]

Do games cost too much?

Outside of sales, games on Steam certainly do. After all, I can get most of them cheaper in retail...

 

[Gerrard]

Valve says games cost too much

The irony is strong in this one.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

So...people buy more of your stuff when it's cheaper?

 

[sgc_meltdown]

the cost of hats and other store items is just right though

 

[Metro]

That article is nearly three years old. Not that it doesn't still hold true.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

In my region steam games now cost twice or thrice as less as in Kwa

The price to pay? having to live anywhere near YOU.

 

[RK47]

So...people buy more of your stuff when it's cheaper?

Fuck! You may be on to something there...

 

[baronjohn]

Games... cost money?

 

[sser]

It doesn't take a genius. Six years ago 2k Sports sold NFL 2K5 for $20, severely undercutting the next Madden regurgitation. It so successfully cut into the market (also helps that it was a phenomenally good game that still stands up today) that Electronic Arts collectively shit themselves and 1) Cut the price of their own game that year (by $20) and 2) blew a wad of cash acquiring the NFL license so as to have no competition (that is, so they can just pump out roster updates for $60 a year and get away with this act of essentially printing money).


By the way, there has been a gradual transition to PC games costing $60 lately, even for digital copies. Games used to come packaged with a lot of material -- manuals, maps, things of that sort -- and now you get a flimsy two-page introduction the controls or worse yet, they just toss it on a PDF. Dark Souls, which I really enjoy otherwise, has a 5-page manual. Homeworld, which I bought in 1999, came with a giant manual and a long booklet, printed on fine paper no less, detailing the history of the world. That's the shit I miss, far more than I dislike the overpricing and regurgitated games.