Are steam sales ruining games?

[radical6]

Interesting question I heard the other day.
I mean, most people refuse to buy games during steam sales unless it's 75%-90% off. Another point was that with all these games being bought, it almost makes the value feel lost. Like, idk lets say back then you loved candy but you couldn't get it much. You got a candy bar once a month. Whenever you had it, you valued every bit of it. The same could be said for games tbh, there are certainly people like that who only had one new game to play and played it to death. But now with bundles and sales you probably have a lot of junk in your library. I guess like, if you got a chocolate bar more often than usual you wouldn't cherish it as much if you get what I'm saying? Others are saying that's whats happening to gaming.

I don't really buy bundles or games unless I really want them since I'm picky, so I don't have this problem. I mean yeah sometimes the sales push people into this "if it's not a flash/daily sale don't buy it" mentality, but you can't really blame them for wanting the best deal. In my opinion I don't think sales are hurting gaming overall. I've played pretty much every game in my library for a while (besides the indie pack my friend bought me+ sakura spirit bc tht was a joke) so I'm pretty content with my games so far. But I know others with like, hundreds and hundreds of games have this huge backlog of games to play. Games they usually never get to playing.

Sales are better than piracy at least, and some could argue it's better to have a game you will never play in your library than to never get it at all. I for one love sales, because I wouldn't have a chance to play games n the first place without them. Same goes for others.

What do you think about it?

 

[Alienfish]

Well, some are not justified to be on full price either. I get a lot are indie game devs but charging over 10 bucks full price for a game full of bugs? Nope.

 

[Astro0]

Im poor and i need to wait for the sales, i find i personally appreciate them more since im excited bc they werent $100 or $50, because for that price i want them to be amazing and perfect

 

[Alienfish]

Yeah I don't have endless money either..so I usually wait for sales because of that

 

[Hyoshido]

Valve release Half Life 3 -> "It's finally out!" -> Full price on Steam -> "Ehh, I'll wait for it to go on sale"

I love sales personally, they're gr8

 

[KarlaKGB]

lol no dont be stupid

 

[Alienfish]

+1 Hyogo.

But stuff like the new Civ in space is not worth 50 bucks so if I'll get it I will wait for a nice price drop.

 

[radical6]

Well, some are not justified to be on full price either. I get a lot are indie game devs but charging over 10 bucks full price for a game full of bugs? Nope.

the only indie games I see besides the popular ones are like those anime ones lmao. but yeah I get what u mean, like AC Unity is not worth 60 bucks. I love sales and it lets more ppl buy games but apparently to others it's ruining games?? idk lol. it apparently pushes that "games are disposable" mentality. cuz let's face it UR not going to play every title in ur library. it just collects dust I guess?

 

[Alienfish]

Yeah, I mean some of the animu games like Nicole and Always Remember Me.. Not worth 19 bucks lolol

 

[Tao]

I dunno.


There is this 'trend' where people are ONLY buying games when they're on sale. Like, a lot of people won't even touch a game until it's 75% off even if they really want it. I find that pretty 'cheap', especially when a lot of these people are the same ones who complain about people not supporting gaming.

It would be nice if there was an option to 'pay a little more' after the sale is complete. That way if I really loved a game and want to support a developer a little more for their work, I would have that choice. It seems like a really obvious feature to be honest and there's a few games where I would have easily given a little bit more.


But either way, I don't really ever buy stuff from the Steam sales. Every other digital retailer has sales at more or less the same time and a lot of them have better prices than Steam do.

 

[debinoresu]

i wouldnt have any games if they hadn't been on sale. the "less you pay for it, the less you value it" logic is kinda bull imo.

i do have some games in my gallery im never going to play but thats because i bought them in a humble bundle bc there were 2 or 3 games in the bundle i wanted. ill only buy a bundle if it has at least two games i want and is pretty cheap, i wont buy a bundle for one game alone.

id say if someones just buying tons of **** because its cheap and not because they actually want it thats their own problem, not steams problem. it doesnt really matter to me if people are cherishing/valuing the games they bought in sales, and all that matters to the companies is that theyre being bought.

if its someones legitimate fear that theyre going to start cherishing games less because they cant stop buying **** in steam sales then they should probably stop buying **** in steam sales

 

[Alienfish]

Well if a short animu games is over 10 bucks then yes I wait for reasons

 

[KarlaKGB]

i wouldnt have any games if they hadn't been on sale. the "less you pay for it, the less you value it" logic is kinda bull imo.

i do have some games in my gallery im never going to play but thats because i bought them in a humble bundle bc there were 2 or 3 games in the bundle i wanted. ill only buy a bundle if it has at least two games i want and is pretty cheap, i wont buy a bundle for one game alone.

id say if someones just buying tons of **** because its cheap and not because they actually want it thats their own problem, not steams problem. it doesnt really matter to me if people are cherishing/valuing the games they bought in sales, and all that matters to the companies is that theyre being bought.

if its someones legitimate fear that theyre going to start cherishing games less because they cant stop buying **** in steam sales then they should probably stop buying **** in steam sales

u underestimate the selling power of gaben

 

[LaceGloves]

Nah. Personally I don't have the money to buy games at full price, so I think sales are great.

To me, the Steam sales don't de-value the game. It makes it better, since I rarely buy games anyways. It's like Christmas.

I would like to buy games at full price to support the creators and all that, but I just don't have the money.

 

[Dustmop]

I have a few small points to add.

1.) I only paid $3 for Fallout NV: Ultimate Edition.
But it's one of my most-played games at about 90 hours. Doesn't mean I enjoy it any less. That's not the fault of the price tag on the game, nor the size of my library.

2.) There's a lot of 'joke' games on Steam that you just can't justify paying full price for. Who the **** paid full price for Goat Simulator or Surgeon Simulator? I certainly didn't, lol.
On the flip-side, there are a lot of great indie games that are just too expensive for what they offer. Yes, To The Moon and A Bird Story were beautiful. But they were only 3 hours long and about an hour long, respectively. That's not worth $10 or $5 (respectively) in my book. I'm sorry.
I like to think in terms of $1:1hr.

3.) Cheap bundles have games with cards! You should idle in those and sell the cards, or make the badge and sell the emotes/background if that pays more. I do that to buy the games I actually want. I've bought bundles for $1 with a handful of games that had trading cards just to profit and buy something better later.

And who knows -- some of those games have been surprisingly enjoyable. Sometimes you find a hidden gem along the way! I'd never know about Oknytt if it hadn't come in a bundle of card-games. I had every intention of idling and then hiding it. Except I ended up loving the game, and crafting the badge all the way to level 5, lolol. Now it's one of my favorite point-and-clicks.

4.) And those steep sales and bargain bundles for Indie games are a godsend when you have PTSD.
I'm sure I'm more or less on my own with this one, but srsly, it's really hard to find a review on Steam that tells you anything about a game other than "____ simulator 11/10". Just finding one that touches on the issues I'd have with a game is near impossible.
If it weren't for steep discounts, I could never justify buying any game that I can't find a parental review on something like CommonSenseMedia before paying for it. I have a couple friends that are understanding enough to give me an idea sometimes, but they haven't played "everything" out there, and sometimes they suggest something that turns out to be bad.
So basically I'd be locked down to AAA games, mostly console ports, and very few at that.


tl;dr I have a backlog about several-years long and I'm sure I have a lot of junk in my library.
If it's junk, I'll idle in it for cards before hiding it, or I'll just hide it. Doesn't mean I enjoy my other games any more or less than I would have before.

 

[BlooBelle]

I don't think so. Steam sales probably bring in a ton of money from customers who otherwise couldn't afford the games.

I usually buy full price because of my impatience, but whenever there's a steam sale I pick something up that I otherwise wouldn't try. C:

 

[KarlaKGB]

"space" and games "gathering dust" isnt even an issue since you dont need to keep physical copies of games and cd keys lying around.

 

[SolarInferno]

I don't think so. I will typically not buy a game unless it is at least 66% off or unless the game is very cheap as it is, firstly because I don't have all that much disposable income to throw at a game (especially considering a lot of the AAA games will only give you maybe 10-20 hours of gameplay), and secondly I already have enough games that unless I think I will actually be interested in playing the game in the immediate future then there's no point in buying it now, since I can likely get it later at a greatly discounted price and I could spend the money I've saved on something more important or put it towards another game. Of course there are some exceptions, if I really like a game then I'll buy it pretty much as soon as it's released if I can afford it - I did that with Skyrim, but then I knew I could expect high quality and I could get at least 100 hours out of it.

I really don't think that it's that the sales ruin the games, I've had a lot of games I've bought on sale and I've got from bundles that I've played for many hours - it's more the quality and choice of games that ruins themselves, I wouldn't think too much about buying a bundle if there's one or two games in it that look decent and five or six that look like rubbish, obviously they still get a purchase but I won't value them because there's very little to value them for besides a +1 Steam game count or a bunch of trading cards I can sell. If I can choose between playing something original, well-designed and its creator poured their imagination into it, and something that's made a fairly poor copy of what a dozen other games have done that does pretty much nothing different then I think it's pretty obvious which one I'm going to choose, and why.

There's nothing bad about games going un-played in my opinion. There are only so many hours that I get to play games, and I have a limited amount of money I can afford to spend - I have the opportunity to choose what I want to play, if there's a game that's managed to find its way into my library through a cheap bundle that was a half-arsed attempt at a game, I'm not going to bother wasting my time on it.

 

[radical6]

actually shocked no one here has sided with the "steam sales R ruining games" cuz literally everywhere else I go ppl r complaining about other ppl not buying games unless it's 75% off. I can understand for AAA titles but for indies I feel more support so I think it's a bit harsh if they're not as popular U know

 

[KarlaKGB]

its not like waiting for games to get cheaper before u buy them is a new concept or anything...