https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-06-david-demartini-origin-wants-to-be-the-hub
tl;dr version: They are just jelly because Steam is so successful and makes so many Steam sales.
And money, all the good money
Some guy from GOG.com also said that a while ago.
Honestly, they do have a point there. Constant sales do skew the consumer’s view of a game’s value, and while it has been proven time and time again that those sales really are very profitable for the game companies in general and indies in particular, it does implant the notion on the gamers’ mind that games are never worth their normal price.
Of course, there’s the point that games are too expensive on release anyway.
unless your game is some top of the line, fine-tuned, matte finish shit you better reconsider selling it for anything over 40 bucks
It’s not that I don’t think they are worth the money. I prefer buying new things at full price. I really do. I just don’t have the money to do that right now. Maybe after I am finished paying off my car…
yeah. do you want a large amount of people of diverse wealth to experience your creation and be inclined to purchase further publications, or do you want 400 thousand more dollars per day
During the Holiday sales:
10% sale = 35% increase in sales (real dollars, not units shipped)
25% sale = 245% increase in sales
50% sale = 320% increase in sales
75% sale = 1470% increase in sales
Lets see here… Valve is super successful and everyone loves them
EA is super successful and everyone hates the living shit out of them.
I guess it’s just down to whether you want people to like you or not.
But sales often result in purchases which would otherwise have never happened.
If I see a game for $10 which I would never have otherwise bought, I may well buy it because of the price.
Anyway, EA is full of shit. If they sell a game for $50 the devs get $5. If they sell a game for $10 the devs get $1. I’d like to see how much profit goes to publisher and how much goes to developer.
Te point they’re making is that some gamers will no longer perceive the normal price as acceptable and will always wait for the big sales.
Well, I wait for sales on games that I’m not sure if I want, and I buy games at full price if I want them/Respect the developers (Colonial Marines/Skyrim).
EA doesn’t trust sales because EA doesn’t have good games. The only reason I didn’t buy Max Payne on day one was because I just bought a massive computer. I’m a cheap, cheap bastard and I still buy stuff at full price if it is worth it to me.
Well I’ve always been thinking that the release price is way to high. Some games here sell for around $90(699SEK) in todays course. Though the majority of games have a price of 599SEK($80) on the release day. Sale or not, I always wait some time before I buy a new title.
It all comes down to how much you think your product is worth, which is highly debatable.
I haven’t bought a game at full price since The Orange Box came out, and even then, I got the pre-order discount. Games are too expensive; perhaps if publishers like EA wouldn’t vampire all the profits off the top, developers would be able to sell them for less.
EDIT: In fact, now that I’m thinking about it, I can’t remember ever buying a game at full-full price. I got HL and HL2 for christmases, Ep1 and OB with preorder discount. All my Bethesda games on sale. All my indie games in bundles. Bioshock: sale. Borderlands: sale. L4D and L4D2, Portal 2: sales. Back in the day, all the SIM games I played were gifts. Bought C&C: Worldwide Warfare (a box set with the original C&C and C&C: Red Alert and all expansions for both) used for $20. Penumbra Collector’s Edition Bundle. Thief Bundle. Deus Ex HR: Sale. Bastion: Sale. Witcher: Sale. Batman AA and AC: Sales. ME and ME2: Sales (and I actually waited a long and painful time for ME2 to go on sale.) On and on and on and on…
Now that I think about it, I may have bought Garry’s Mod for full price. All $10. But I hardly think that counts.
I tend to buy games at full price to support the developers, if there’s a great sale though I’m not going to turn it down and if I’m skeptical of a game I wait for a sale. In no way does that fact “cheapen intellectual property”. It’s still the developers and it’s a great way of getting your IP out there for the public to see, which if they like can and in many cases do then buy your next game or others made by you at full price!
Yeah, but Valve has instant data on all these things and can track if they’re causing any kind of devaluation long-term.
So far it’s not clear at all that these sales are devaluing or changing the demand curve for games at launch. I’d imagine if it were, Valve would change strategies.
Like, what EA is saying is true for most products, but digital games don’t seem to follow those same models.
The thing is, David doesn’t get it, the reason why steam games are cheaper than console games is because they require no manufacturing, console games require a lot more manufacturing, like cases, box art, discs and even shipping, whereas with steam games, it requires none of that. Sure some steam games start at console prices, but not all.
So they’re saying Valve is spoiling us, and that’s a bad thing?
Yeah, screw any company that thinks its competitors are treating their customers too well.
This kind of outlines the strategies of the two distribution giants; Valve has always been about making as much money as possible by treating their customers well in hopes of making profits off their return patronage (which has worked out remarkably well), and EA’s strategy is about putting profits before customers, and using whatever means necessary to have consumers buy their games for as high a price as possible (removing Origin games off Steam, draconian DRM schemes, etc). Unfortunately, this strategy has proved remarkably successful as well.
I get the argument, but it’s kind of an oxymoron seeing this argument come from EA
All that stuff together costs them maybe 3$ off each unit? That part of a game isn’t expensive. Console games typically cost more because Microsoft and Sony take a $12 cut off each game sold. There is no cut on PC. Unless you count steams cut but that’s for distribution.