It's a combination of a lot of little things:
The new return system and the death of flash sales removed a notable amount of really big sales. The community constantly bitched about a better return system. They got one. Now they are bitching about this. Flash sales and a lenient return system can't co-exist.
When you experience your first sale you are buying a lot of old AAA titles at 50%-75% and that gives you the impression that all AAA titles are 50%-75%. When next year rolls around and you only need to buy new AAA titles you say "why are these games only 25% off when I bought all these other AAA titles last year for much cheaper!?"
You've already gotten a lot of good deals from years previous. The same games you bought last year are likely on sale again at the same or less prices yet you say "this steam sale is a disappointment."
AAA titles will bottom out. There is only a certain loss that most developers are willing to accept. I wouldn't really expect a developer like Bethesda to ever lower any of their AAA titles below $10 yet people are expecting award winnings games from the industry leading studios to sell for peanuts simply because "they are old." For example I haven't picked up Bioshock: Infinite yet and it's $7.50. You really can't get much better than that and if you were expecting better than that you are simply just really fucking cheap. I'm also buying the first Tomb Raider again because it's 5 FUCKING DOLLARS.
Half of the "10%-20% deals" are games are really recent releases so the sale also acts as a way to promote them. Dark Souls III literally came out 2 months ago and is on sale for 25% off. How is that not a good deal?!?! Were you honestly expecting a 50%+ deal on a practically brand new game?
The other half of the "10%-20% deals" indie games. Indie studios actually need money as it is their only source of revenue. Compared to AAA studious who have other revenue streams via console bundle deals, sales on consoles, DLC, season passes, etc. and can afford to slash prices for a week.
PC gaming is getting more and more popular (which I assumed is what everyone wanted...?) and because of this there is no longer a huge incentive to aggressively discount games in order to make sales.
All of you reek of entitlement.
>>342779724
I was wondering about this, is it confirmed that all the sales arent going lower for dailys? Sorry if thats what you were trying to get by but I am not a smart man
>>342779790
hello, gabe
>>342779893
>is it confirmed that all the sales arent going lower for dailys?
For this summer sale at least, yes. Valve might try to do better next time if they get enough complaints, but they really could do nothing and get away with it at this point.
>>342780128
>wahhhhh I had 7 years to get a job now I can't afford digital games
>>342780508
If its true then I actually dont mind it. Imagine how hard steam must get bogged with refund requests from people who buy it one day, and it goes on sale the next. I like the idea of Flash and Daily sales, but with that in mind its hard to go about it.
Any ideas come to mind trying to appeal to both groups?
>>342779724
>Flash sales and a lenient return system can't co-exist.
Bullshit, it would be easy as fuck.
When you refund a game, you cannot buy it again for 1 week.
Boom, problem solved. Refunds are as speedy as they are now, but there's no "refund the game and buy it again because it's at a slightly lower sale price!" bullshit Valve is afraid of.
>>342779724
>Flash sales and a lenient return system can't co-exist.
Why? Explain to me why this can't happen.
>>342780859
affording games isnt a problem for me, and even if it were i could just pirate them.
i agree that the sale isnt terrible, but they definitely used to be better. i noticed a few games like fallout nv and wolfenstein tno that are more expensive than during the winter sale. flash sales were really what made the sales fun though.
>>342779724
That's fucking retarded and you should feel like a retard
>>342781273
why is she so perfect?
>>342781176
Easy, just don't put everything on sale at once. Make a game regular price again after 24-48 hours. Then they can still have the deep discounts.
>>342781207
Basically this. Make it 2 weeks so it lasts the entire sale.
>>342781273
Theoretically?
Steam's refund system lets you refund a game and rebuy it if it goes on sale, so games that are 20% off and then for a 6-hour window are 80% off, all those 20% off sales create a deluge of refund reqs to rebuy at the cheaper price
>>342781635
Nah, that's not even needed; flash and dailies last so briefly it wouldn't be worth it. Besides, better to give people the money back fast enough that they can re-spend it in the sale if they buy a game in the sale and decide not to keep it.
The sale really isn't that bad. There are some really good bundle deals
>>342781478
But im saying that people will refund their games for the original semi-sale price, and buy them at the Flash price. Imagine all the work authorizing all that for such a dumb reason.
Or are you saying, dont put everything 'semi' on sale, have the summer sale only be Occasional Super Sales and not the normal sales with intermittent flash and dailys?
steam sales have been shit for years and it's only going to get worse. publishers are retarded and don't lower prices anymore beyond a certain point and it can take forever for the prices to drop now. the two things that have made sales worth it in the past are now irrelevant
steam games are still convenient to buy since the service is decent overall, but the point where they were really desirable is long gone ever since sales went to shit. i suspect piracy will end up increasing in the next couple of years because of that (unless denuvo really is the silver bullet drm for publishers)
as piracy increases, i hope they realize sales need to not be shit
I like umaru
The last good sale was the 2011 Winter Sale.
Prove me wrong.
ok who cares.. I just bought $2,000 worht of video games for like $500 ... im thriving
POST HAMSTERS
>>342784434
>Skyrim $40 after only a month
I can't
>>342784653
A couple of years ago you would have paid $200 or less
>>342782620
Publishers want to make money, and sadly, most are trending towards being concerned less with shipping units than they are with maintaining their products' value over a long period of time. Why? Because it's expensive to make new games, development cycles are longer than ever, and the market is growing.
I think the large publishers have adjusted to digital marketplaces now, and recognized that there's not the same time-sensitivity of new game sales that physical distribution had in order to avoid competition with resale (though you can argue they compete with piracy instead, which is largely written off). All the games are sold and shipped in new condition, and it's purely demand which decays over time. They're aware that a great many people are patient enough to wait for these sales, so they've become more patient in response, doubtless operating under the theory that every $9.99 sale they make now is a lost opportunity for a $14.99 sale they could potentially make by holding out another year.
>>342781408
>she
I still can't (outside of the whole neet loser love relationship) understand why this hamster looking retard is so appreciated.
>>342785735
Continuing just purely in relation to Steam, I miss the community interaction that there was in previous sale weeks; although the gamification of trading cards, collectibles and badges never really impressed me (considering all the improvements that the platform desperately needs), it's troubling now that it's just gone completely quiet on their end. There's no signs of any effort made to grab and hold user attention on a large scale recently, and that's a huge departure from type for Valve. I wouldn't be shocked to hear that they're just focus-locked into VR and other shit right now, though.
this sale is pretty good imo. ddda is still too much, maybe at wibter ill pick it up along with DOOM
>>342786184
It's a comfy show and even comfier manga.
>flash sales can't co-exist with returns
>but daily deals can
>>342786634
valve is incompetent and has been half assing literally everything they've done in the last decade or so. they're only doing this well because steam had already captured the market by the time they stopped doing anything with commitment
although it does look like they might do things right for vr. they see it as a mirror of the situation of digital delivery and steam, so they're going all out to make sure they'll become the standard vr platform as well. which i'm not sure if it will be good in the long run
valve has used their dominance with steam to basically sit on their asses and churn out garbage. steamos, steam controller, greenlight and so on were all half assed projects they didn't feel the need to really commit to due to steam being so dominant (there was a lot of stupid shit done in dota 2/csgo as well). now they want to dominate vr to sit on their collective asses as well. it's true that facebook is going to be even worse about vr, with ads and locking people to their platform, but i wish another platform would win the vr wars instead of steam
it's nearly impossible for another digital platform to replace steam at this point; if they win the vr platform wars, steam will probably never go away and valve dominating the market so hard will cause more stagnation and more problems in the long run (although, again, the alternatives we have right now all seem to be worse, especially facebook)
What if they just disable refunds during the Summer and Winter sales?
>>342779790
>Dark Souls III literally came out 2 months ago and is on sale for 25% off. How is that not a good deal?!?!
Because it was 25% off two months ago
I blame the euroshits who need their nanny state to hold their hand when making a purchase
Reminder that CSGO used to go on sale all the time for like $2.
the problem isn't just the sales being shit, it's that there's no alternative to steam besides piracy
>>342791916
There are better ways to get replies in order to bump a thread.
