I'm worried games might be getting too inexpensive

[Fox12]

Valve is doing fine. Mot of the games on sale have been around for awhile, so they go down in price, or on sale... which is good business sense. There are also new kinds of games being produced. Blood Dragon was a cheaper, smaller game based on another games engine, so it didn't cost as much to produce. They were able to pass the savings onto the consumer. Valve is also doing well enough to produce hardware. Valve is actually ahead of the curve, which is why every other company, such as Microsoft, is desperately trying to play catch up. Unfortunately they're all too greedy to match Valves success.

 

[O maestre]

Besides focusing solely on steam, a more interesting discussion would be what prices are actually fair for games in this brand new digital age. Also if said price(s) could be global, I know a lot of countries would kill to pay "american prices" for games bought outside of steam. Regional locking has and always will be stupid, and only increases to be so as the market becomes more global.

The music industry has had to reinvent itself in regards to how sales and marketing is made, something similar should happen to games, despite the reluctance of publishers and in some ways the public.

I don't agree that steam sales should be the benchmark for game prices, and i certainly don't find the current status quo to be inexpensive, at least not in my region.

 

[Strelok]

I do a lot of PC gaming. I'm getting some good deals on PS3 but PC has gotten ridiculous. Maybe a little too ridiculous.

I'm mostly worried about Steam going out of business. I have more games than I can fit on my hard drive. I hear if Steam does go out of business, they's allow you to download something that will allow you to play your games anyway: but you probably need to have them downloaded to begin with!
Anyone know how well they're doing?

While I'm at it, I'd just as soon not see many of the games I've gotten in bundles displayed. Anyway to hide things I'm not playing in a Steam list? My other idea is to just open a new account so I'm seeing different games based upon how I'm logged in.

Is this post for real? Oh it may be, ok. Well lets look at Steam active accounts just to have a peek.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/30/valve-steam-65-million-users/
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/30/5045830/steam-65-million-active-accounts-6-million-concurrent-users

65 Million active accounts, now dwarfs XBox live accounts at 45 million, don't know if those include Windows Live accounts, I have heard that it does. PSN is the top with 110 million.

I wouldn't worry about it, and even if Steam did shut down I have been through one before, they released all my keys, and allowed me to get a small compressed loader to re-install my games. Was not many though, just Dragon Age 2 and Lost Planet 2 both bought on sale for less than $10. This was just from a company that was being bought out, and they were not sure the new company would support all the games. I would have a lot of downloading to do though, as my Steam library is over 600.

 

[OpticalJunction]

I hear you. I have more games that I have time to play them. Most of them are from humble bundles and other publisher packs. I had to go and delete a bunch of my steam library to clear hard drive space.

 

[Arrogancy]

Last I heard, Valve was valued at $6 billion. No, they aren't in danger of going out of business any time soon.

 

[Fireaxe]

Consider that at release Warcraft 2 Battle.net edition (one of the best RTS of its time) had a completely free multiplayer that still runs today (albeit with no ladder and few players), no DLC, 4 full length campaigns (13 levels a pop), a solid set of maps for custom scenarios, a simple (and quite good) world editor, and cost 50 bucks (maybe 100-120 in today's money).

An average single player game today with all the DLC (half of which is custom map packs that used to be damn well included!) you're probably looking at 100 bucks or more, so I'm not sure gaming has got cheaper.

 

[mrdude2010]

That's a new one

A

On one hand, I get great games for dirt cheap (Tomb Raider, Bioshock: Infinite, and Dishonored have all peaked their heads out at $20 or less). On the other hand, that CAN'T be good for the gaming industry or it's ability to support itself when I wait to get games that long.

The Steam sales are actually in general great for the game in question. That game usually goes on sale when people stop buying it, after which point the quantity sales make up for the lower prices, since a ton of people take advantage of steam sales. Remember, a game company doesn't actually need to spend any money to sell a digital copy as opposed to a hard copy (case, instruction manual, disk, resources to write disk, resources to move disk, etc.), so as long as their percentage from steam*total number of steam sales is greater than what they would have received from hard copies alone, then they've come out ahead.

 

[mrdude2010]

Consider that at release Warcraft 2 Battle.net edition (one of the best RTS of its time) had a completely free multiplayer that still runs today (albeit with no ladder and few players), no DLC, 4 full length campaigns (13 levels a pop), a solid set of maps for custom scenarios, a simple (and quite good) world editor, and cost 50 bucks (maybe 100-120 in today's money).

An average single player game today with all the DLC (half of which is custom map packs that used to be damn well included!) you're probably looking at 100 bucks or more, so I'm not sure gaming has got cheaper.

Warcraft 3: TFT still has ladders =D

 

[Directionless]

Valve make games cheap so that suckers like me will buy a bundle of $5 games and wonder where my money went. Don't worry.

Exactly/ I don't think you realize that, without physical media, it all depends upon how many units you sell; not at which price you sell each one.

Valve don't put things on sale out of the kindness of their heart. They're a business, and i am 100% certain that their (and by extension the developers) profit increases significantly due to frequent sales as opposed to keeping a game full price for a year like console games.

 

[lapan]

The thing is that they are selling you digital copies. All they haave to pay for those is licencing costs, thus making it possible for them to sell them at very low prices and still make a profit

 

[Directionless]

I do a lot of PC gaming. I'm getting some good deals on PS3 but PC has gotten ridiculous. Maybe a little too ridiculous.

I'm mostly worried about Steam going out of business. I have more games than I can fit on my hard drive. I hear if Steam does go out of business, they's allow you to download something that will allow you to play your games anyway: but you probably need to have them downloaded to begin with!
Anyone know how well they're doing?

While I'm at it, I'd just as soon not see many of the games I've gotten in bundles displayed. Anyway to hide things I'm not playing in a Steam list? My other idea is to just open a new account so I'm seeing different games based upon how I'm logged in.

PSN is the top with 110 million.

.

Just a little OT post, but how in god's name does the PS3 have more than double the amount of online accounts than Xbox? Is it because They only take into account XBOX Gold accounts? If so, that's an incredibly misleading number. If not, WTF?

 

[Fireaxe]

Warcraft 3: TFT still has ladders =D

Not surprised, I think all the non-DOS era Blizzard games actually do still get ladder refreshes (I know the Diablo 2 one got refreshed a while ago too) -- Warcraft 2 being DOS/3.11 era (despite BNE coming along later) doesn't though.

The Warcraft 2 Ladder does apparently still exist but no new seasons.

 

[Amir Kondori]

Valve is making money hand over fist right now. They are a private company and don't have to report earnings but estimates put their revenue in the billions.

Don't worry bro.

 

[Doom972]

People should stop worrying about corporations, as they are very capable of taking care of themselves. As benevolent as Valve is, it's still a powerful corporation and they know how to make money.

Discount sales benefit everyone, since once a game is cheaper, it sells way more copies, which leads to huge profits. Nobody is losing money over this. Remember that digital copies don't need to be manufactured and exist in unlimited quantity.

We should care a lot more about consumer rights, needs and wants, because these tend to be neglected when it comes to the video game industry.

 

[HardkorSB]

Yeah, all those poor multi billion Dollar corporations. They're just barely making ends meet.
Yesterday I donated half of my life savings to McDonalds because I'm worried about them not making it through the fiscal year.

 

[SecondPrize]

i just deleted this because can't into quoting today

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

I'm mostly worried about Steam going out of business.

So I'm the only one here who finds this completely ridiculous?

There is no possible way Valve can go out of business in the foreseeable future. They're an industry giant that is popular and has little competition in what it does.

Nope, I agree with you. The fact that they have so many sales means they're doing well, since they can afford to drop the prices so often.

 

[Orekoya]

I'm mostly worried about Steam going out of business.

So I'm the only one here who finds this completely ridiculous?

There is no possible way Valve can go out of business in the foreseeable future. They're an industry giant that is popular and has little competition in what it does.

I agree as well. My first thought was, "How often do extremely lucrative companies spontaneously go out of business?" I mean Forbes [http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2012/03/07/valve-gabe-newell-billionaire/] just reported last year on how the company's value was over three billion dollars and Gabe Newell half of that. And that it had 70% market domination going on, something isn't likely to change any time soon without something extremely drastic happening.

 

[lacktheknack]

I read somewhere that sale numbers before and after a major sale don't actually change that much, and sales often act as sudden rushes of income because people fall for the mindset of "IT'S CHEAP SO I MUST HAVE IT".

They wouldn't do the sales if they weren't profitable in the long run.

Microsoft may be losing money on Xbox (which I doubt, or they wouldn't continue it), but Nintendo certainly isn't. Seeing Valve's recent expansions, I doubt they're hurting either.