It Was A Record Year for Steam, Claims Valve

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I do not think Steam Sales hurt gaming because publishers know that good new games will be purchased at the price of around $50-$60 when launched and they can monitor the sales peek of a game. They can also boost sales with price cuts if needed.

You will notice on steam most games that are on sale on Steam are not new at all.
 
[citation][nom]Haserath[/nom]Bull's eye[/citation]

You're both tools, I pirate everything unless i enjoy it enough to pay the developer (which usually happens after I pirate it).
 
[citation][nom]Trueno07[/nom]Steam is Skyrim's DRM, even if you buy the physical edition it requires a steam activation, despite it actually installing the game from the cd. It's nice really, because then I get both![/citation]

Yeah I've got it on PC, I actually hate the fact that it's attached to Steam though. Launching Steam every time I want to launch Skyrim is annoying. I will say I like how I automatically have a digital copy of the game now though.

[citation][nom]jimmysmitty[/nom]I did because in a 900sqft condo you don't really have room for very many game boxes.As for the dwindling PC games section, thats because of the decline in sales of physical copies. Steam is just easier. You buy it, its there for good. No need to worry about you disc. Hell I wanted to play GTA III the other day and bam. Just install it and go. No looking for a disc hoping its not scratched.Then again I do have a pretty fast connection so that helps make Steam better.[/citation]

I hear ya, I've had to stash away some of my older game boxes for room. I disagree that "you buy it, it's there for good" though. It's quite possible in today's market that Steam is just a few years away from going under. I know it is not likely, but you never know! And if they ever go under, so do all your games unless you've backed them up.
 
[citation][nom]joytech22[/nom]$60? You have it easy..Try $89 for a new release here, most stores sell at that price for about a month or two.That is the only reason I switched to PC gaming and holy cr*p it was a fantastic choice!Better graphics, better prices.. Better experience.My 360 is now a DVD player in the lounge..[/citation]

89 bucks for games. god man where do you shop? i got forza 4 (360)for 45 bucks and assassins creed revelations (PS3) for 60. might want to switch stores
 
i have literally purchased every game that i wanted this year. it's gonna be almost no purchases this year. what with ea making origin and taking away some games that i was looking forward too. i refuse to move to origin. EA is a shitty company. i don't like giving money to people i think are shitty.
 
Picking up 15 games for under $200 is hard to beat. I've got enough entertainment for the next two years I reckon
 
I'm out of hard drive space due to all these sales. Damn you Steam!
 
[citation][nom]Zanny[/nom]It might be bad economics for steam in the long run. They are building a brand expectation that almost every game will hit the $10 price point that they stock, and the long term is that more people (myself being my main example) now plan to wait out purchases until they hit the systemic lows 3 - 4 years after release. I got Neverwinter Nights 2 for $5 over the sale, for example, after having bought the first one back in 2003.I mean, there is a natural trend of the cost of games towards $0 since the cost of reproduction is so low (thus the rampant piracy) and it seems Steam has proven that exponentially more people buy games at half the retail price outright. I think if they just launched games at $30 rather than $60 on Steam, they would have significantly more profits just because a lot of people that pirate new releases due to the insane $60 price point would buy the $30 one, along with a lot of people like myself who wait on the blockbusters to go on sale. For example, Witcher 2. I'm waiting for it to go below $10 (also, waiting on my new gaming rig this summer) because I know it will eventually go that low. If it launched at $30, I might have bought it back in March.[/citation]

Zanny, I don't think Valve is concerned at all about losing short term sales. Its a blessing for us PC gamers who are preoccupied with other games or don't have the money to buy all games when they released to pick up a game like Witcher for $20 this past holiday sale or Fallout New Vegas with all DLC for ~$15.

Witcher 2 was among the top selling games on steam during its initial month of release. Skyrim has been the topselling game on Steam nearly everyday since release (only been pushed to #2 or as low as #4 during the peak holiday sales (most of which were cheap $2.50 indie games that outsold it.

There will always be people that wait for a price drop, but the numbers don't lie, lots still buy games at full price on Steam.

By investing into Steams services, they are combating piracy and also pushing the PC gaming industry to a wider audience.

Bottom line is, if you want to wait go ahead and wait. You will take advantage of Steams loyalty to its customers by getting a bargain on the game you want later, but Steam and Valve is making an ecosystem that puts 'us' the customer FIRST, and you should appreciate that fact.
 
Having been a Steam user for the last 3 years I had a feeling games like Skyrim would have had atleast one Daily deal during the holidays (as every year since joining, even the top selling, top-rated, most anticipated games of the year always seemed to be part of the Daily deals).

I knew Skyrim was going to be a great game and eventually bought it at full price days after release, but you have to really appreciate what Steam and Valve did this holiday sale...putting it at 33% off, so ~ $40 USD or MW3 25% off @ $50 USD shows their appreciation to the PC community.

Skyrim dominated the sales charts (and still is) and them giving it away for $20 cheaper than retail knowing it still sells well shows Valve cares about their consumers.
 
Yeah, Steam is so addicting that once you buy that first great game for 5 or 10 bux, you're hooked. I check Steam every single day to see what's on sale, so now I have such a huge backlog of games I've purchased that I have enough games to play til I'm 90. It took a while to get over not having a nice shiny new box, peeling back that security label, opening that crisp instruction manual for the first time, but I have enough boxes piled up anyways. Thanks for everything, Steam.
 
Steam FTW! I only wish BF3 came out on Steam. It's a shame because Steam is so good at keeping your games up to date and its really hassle free. I don't like Origin so much and it really doesn't do much, I mean it only runs just to have BF3 run and it isn't used for anything else. Steam on the other hand is so much more complete.
 
@ Zanny: I dont think that it's a bad practice, because if a person don't buy a title at launch by $60.00, probably they wont buy it at any time anyways, so when they sell it by 10.00 way beyond the launch date, its 10.00 of profit.
I hope I made my point clear, and sorry for the bad english.
 
[citation][nom]beardguy[/nom]It's quite possible in today's market that Steam is just a few years away from going under. I know it is not likely, but you never know! And if they ever go under, so do all your games unless you've backed them up.[/citation]

Is it any different from games on DVD? I have so many PC DVD games that are scratched, lost or so old that they are unable to install on Win7 64bit, that I cannot play them unless I buy them again.. usualy on steam for 1-2 €
 
I've been a Steam user since it's release & while I won't say that I love it I will say that it's very nice to have. I've personally picked up quite a few games on sale through Steam sales but backed WAY off on purchases this year. A small part of that due to repeat sales but mostly due to a promotion that required me to work 3rd shift 7 days/week for quite a while. Not much time for games on that schedule & now I just mostly play The Old Republic when I have time to game. I don't use Origin though, just use the launcher. Steam is definitely where it's at for PC gamers. :)
 
I originally did not think much of Steam but I am now a convert. Good selection of games at a good price such as Air Conflict Secret Wars that I would never have seen let alone played otherwise. Another advantage is the patching system. No more trawling the net looking for the latest patch. It pays to back up your games to a RAID 1 array. GTA 4 alone was 15 GB and once a few purchases have been made they can add up to a huge amount of gigabytes.
 
[citation][nom]beardguy[/nom]I went in Best Buy last night and was saddened by the TINY section of PC games left. I personally don't like where this is headed.[/citation]

Its because Steam and the other digital distributors have taken over as the PC gaming have evolved from the old retail, now if Valve and the publishers only would show the worlds the real numbers. I think alot of people would be stunned how kicking PC gaming is rather than the pictures the retailers try to make by showing "their" poor sales in the retail stores. All that in hope to fool people into getting platforms where they sell well. So i hope Valve + Publishers starts to show the real picture rather then the skeved retailer one....
 
and please steam get rid of the region locking you will sell even more if you get rid of it ... I love steam and it's because of those darn blasted Steam Holiday sale 50% to 75% sale on games isn't really that bad.
 
From a huge pirate and nothing to hide, I currently have 314 titles on my digilibrary according to Steam >.< Its insane the damn Steam syndrome. I honestly dont have a freakin'g clue on how this has happened to me anymore. I give up..
 
[citation][nom]Zanny[/nom]It might be bad economics for steam in the long run. They are building a brand expectation that almost every game will hit the $10 price point that they stock, and the long term is that more people (myself being my main example) now plan to wait out purchases until they hit the systemic lows 3 - 4 years after release. I got Neverwinter Nights 2 for $5 over the sale, for example, after having bought the first one back in 2003.I mean, there is a natural trend of the cost of games towards $0 since the cost of reproduction is so low (thus the rampant piracy) and it seems Steam has proven that exponentially more people buy games at half the retail price outright. I think if they just launched games at $30 rather than $60 on Steam, they would have significantly more profits just because a lot of people that pirate new releases due to the insane $60 price point would buy the $30 one, along with a lot of people like myself who wait on the blockbusters to go on sale. For example, Witcher 2. I'm waiting for it to go below $10 (also, waiting on my new gaming rig this summer) because I know it will eventually go that low. If it launched at $30, I might have bought it back in March.[/citation]

If a game is on my highly anticipated list i dont care what the price is. I bought Portal for a bit of a discount by buying with a friend but i still paid way more than it was on sale for this holiday season.
 
Not bad for an adware and data mining driven company.
now who cares about their forced DRM as long as their clients are happy.
 
[citation][nom]walter87[/nom]Having been a Steam user for the last 3 years I had a feeling games like Skyrim would have had atleast one Daily deal during the holidays (as every year since joining, even the top selling, top-rated, most anticipated games of the year always seemed to be part of the Daily deals).I knew Skyrim was going to be a great game and eventually bought it at full price days after release, but you have to really appreciate what Steam and Valve did this holiday sale...putting it at 33% off, so ~ $40 USD or MW3 25% off @ $50 USD shows their appreciation to the PC community.Skyrim dominated the sales charts (and still is) and them giving it away for $20 cheaper than retail knowing it still sells well shows Valve cares about their consumers.[/citation]
That's not Valve though. That's Bethesda being nice telling Valve to put it at 33% off
 
[citation][nom]Zanny[/nom]It might be bad economics for steam in the long run. They are building a brand expectation that almost every game will hit the $10 price point that they stock, and the long term is that more people (myself being my main example) now plan to wait out purchases until they hit the systemic lows 3 - 4 years after release. I got Neverwinter Nights 2 for $5 over the sale, for example, after having bought the first one back in 2003.I mean, there is a natural trend of the cost of games towards $0 since the cost of reproduction is so low (thus the rampant piracy) and it seems Steam has proven that exponentially more people buy games at half the retail price outright. I think if they just launched games at $30 rather than $60 on Steam, they would have significantly more profits just because a lot of people that pirate new releases due to the insane $60 price point would buy the $30 one, along with a lot of people like myself who wait on the blockbusters to go on sale. For example, Witcher 2. I'm waiting for it to go below $10 (also, waiting on my new gaming rig this summer) because I know it will eventually go that low. If it launched at $30, I might have bought it back in March.[/citation]

Doesn't matter to them, they don't pay for in advance and stock physical media. They make their cut of it no matter what... and people like me (and maybe you) wouldn't even buy half the games we do if it weren't for steam.
 
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