Crappy Steam Pricing.

[old.Tohtori]

Special editions, box worth having(like a jagged alliance collection or some such), those i pay extra for.

I wouldn't pay extra for a digitally stored game on a system that doesn't quarantee that you can get it anywhere, anytime and as long as you want.

 

[cHodAX]

It is wrong, especially when you factor in the the costs of the box/media, distrubtion and profit margains for the retailer. You are effectively paying more than double to Valve for a game with no box/manual/media and at the same time you are killing the survival chances of high street retailers which in turn jepordises tens of thousands of jobs. In short Valve get rich, the consumer gets ripped and the retailer gets fucked in the ass.

 

[Raven]

Then the high street retailer needs to do something about it. Its not the consumers responsibility to keep the retailer in business. Most retail chains will go out of their way to make a quick buck, we have already seen the VAT reduction vanish into profit margin in most stores and that's just a few quid. I feel sorry for the staff who are affected, I couldn't give a toss about the companies themselves though, if they can't or won't move with the times they go out of business. Its not the consumers fault its the directors/managements who can't see beyond the next shareholders meeting that are to blame.

We live in a capitalist society and that's just the way it is, shitty at times but there is not a great deal we can do about it at the moment.

 

[Aada]

I wouldn't buy any new releases off Steam these days there is no point because of their pricing. £5 more in most cases for no dvd/box?

Get bent.

 

[MYstIC G]

In short Valve get rich, the consumer gets ripped and the retailer gets fucked in the ass.

*cHodAX has unlocked the following achievement: 10 points - Understanding the nature of business*

 

[Ctuchik]

The thing is, is it really that much extra anyway? Once you have factored in petrol, parking etc and on top of that the ball ache of actually having to go into shops.

yes, it actually is.


take ETW for example. the game now cost 50 euro on steam, and thats only for the ghetto game wich is £42. and the special forces edition on steam is 60 euro (£50.55), d2d uk charge £30 for the ghetto game and £34 for the special forces edition

it may not be that expensive for you UK ppl that can buy in £, but for us that are forced to use euro its a fucking ripoff of epic proportions.

so with that pricing, i can actually take my car, drive into town while taking a LONG arse detour, buy the boxed game, take the same longarse detour back home and still get away cheaper.

and this isnt the most insane price difference Steam has had, i picked this because i already had it written down.

 

[Tom]

Look, if you don't like it, don't use it. I don't give a shit about a fiver here or there, if its on Steam and I want it, I'll use Steam to buy it.

I can't be arsed faffing around with boxes and shit.

 

[Chilly]

Might be them doing it on purpose because their platform cant cope with the extra load? Maybe they are working toward a nice scalable delivery solution bfore they drop their prices round their ankles and bend over ready for the storm?

 

[Bahumat]

I always found if you want something which is not super popular on Play or Amazon you buy it, then it sits in "ordered" forever. I bought one dvd on there which said "Release on 28th February 09" and it was March. When I emailed them they finally told me they had none in stock and I cancelled my order.

 

[Bahumat]

I'm happy to pay a little more on Steam, however I realise other countries don't pay "just a little more" which sucks :-(

Get the game now.
Downloads are fast and you don't have to find them.
Don't have to wait on play.com to deliver or go out to get it.
Can use the Steam Friends thing whilst ingame to join others (yes I know this does not work on all games).

The only downside is if your pc is wiped, you have a whole lot of downloading to do!

 

[cHodAX]

*cHodAX has unlocked the following achievement: 10 points - Understanding the nature of business*

Wahoo, +10! Go me!

 

[Rulke]

The only downside is if your pc is wiped, you have a whole lot of downloading to do!

Steam has a pretty decent backup facility

 

[DaGaffer]

Then the high street retailer needs to do something about it. Its not the consumers responsibility to keep the retailer in business. Most retail chains will go out of their way to make a quick buck, we have already seen the VAT reduction vanish into profit margin in most stores and that's just a few quid. I feel sorry for the staff who are affected, I couldn't give a toss about the companies themselves though, if they can't or won't move with the times they go out of business. Its not the consumers fault its the directors/managements who can't see beyond the next shareholders meeting that are to blame.

We live in a capitalist society and that's just the way it is, shitty at times but there is not a great deal we can do about it at the moment.

They are doing something about it; cutting back on the number of PC games they stock, thereby reducing choice. My local Gamestop now has about half a bay of PC titles and GAME one full bay. Yes you can still go online for a boxed game but ironically boxed games bought online is the least immediate experience. If you just fancy buying a game to play today, then Steam (and a few other dl sites) is becoming your only real choice as high street guys follow the money and fill their shelves with pre-owned console games. In the long-run the customer will be the loser.

What we really need is a couple of credible online rivals to Steam.

 

[Tom]

These stupid boxes are garbage anyway. I remember going to the computer shop in Bury and buying the latest Mastertronic tapes for £1.99 (or £2.99 for the good stuff). Things like Chiller, Falcon, etc.

 

[dysfunction]

I got Left4Dead at a bargain price via steam. It was much cheaper than anywhere else.
Not that ive played it yet

I think with steam you sometimes have to wait a bit and they will at some point have a
special offer going...

Steam has a pretty decent backup facility

Yes it does. When I installed Windows 7 I backed my steam games reinstalled steam and restored my games and all was well!

 

[MYstIC G]

Not that ive played it yet

Foolish mortal! L4D is awesome!

 

[Jimmy]

you could always use games download to own section
Buy and Download PC video games on Game

granted limted at the moment not sure how long they have been doing it

works alright for me

 

[Nate]

I got Left4Dead at a bargain price via steam. It was much cheaper than anywhere else.

L4D is a Valve game though so that explains the better price.

 

[MYstIC G]

L4D is a Valve game though so that explains the better price.

Actually it was on sale, I bought it at the same time. Retail shot itself in the foot anyway, it was £20 on pre-order then jumped to £30 which made me get it in the sale on steam.

 

[ECA]

Hi ECA,
Thanks for your email.

Yes we’re aware of this. However this is something that we as a game developer cannot directly affect as this is something that’s agreed between Paradox (our publisher) and the distributors (steam, amazon...).

Best wishes,
Jussi

Reply from nitro games about east india company.

 

[dysfunction]

Reply from nitro games about east india company.

So write to Paradox and see what they say...but I bet you they won't resolve this issue...I would bet that this originates from the Publisher rather than Steam...

 

[Ch3tan]

BBC NEWS | Technology | Alarm sounded over game futures

Ties in to what we are talking about, developers need to go the digital distribution route to make money.

 

[DaGaffer]

BBC NEWS | Technology | Alarm sounded over game futures

Ties in to what we are talking about, developers need to go the digital distribution route to make money.

Its not as simple as that though; the problem for publishers and developers is platform proliferation, so they have to develop for half a dozen formats, but at the same time they have to keep retail sweet while they contribute the lion's share of revenue, so they can't come up with new and sensible pricing models for downloads. Consoles get around by using the Marketplace model; bits of value add that don't threaten core retail, but rarely a "full" game that could compete with a box copy version (putting aside the fact that a full game wouldn't go onto the harddisk; there are ways around that). PC struggles a bit with that model because the market has different expectations (PC gamers expect more free shit basically), but the publishers still try. Only Valve has really tried to push the online only route amongst big developers, and even they had to go back to EA for box distribution in the end.

What's needed is real online competition; PC only has Steam and a couple of also-rans, XBox Live is a closed shop and so is PSN to all intents and purposes. Until you get real competition in each category, you have no model, and no incentive for growth and genuine price competition. The model is there, its called retail and it needs to be replicated online. The good news is that at least in the US, Amazon are making some inroads, its only points and subs vouchers right now, but maybe it has the makings of something more compelling.

Most worrying is if retail collapses and we're just left with a series of platform-owner related stores (XBL, PSN, Apple App Store etc) with no real competition within them. Funnily enough if one console dominated the market, monopolies rules would kick in to stop it.

 

[Embattle]

It has and always will be a case of shopping around, Steam or no steam.