Steam Sales Double [Again] in 2011

[SwishiestB0g]

I just wish that they would upgrade their servers a bit more. I used to be able to download at 10-11Mbits/s but now I'm lucky if I get up to 1Mbit/s ... :/

Count yerself lucky!
I used to have 600Kbits/s not I have 100-200Kbits/s

Oh and by the way it's Megabits per second, internet companies decided that if numbers looked 8 times bigger people would be impressed.

The steam sales really are excellent though, better than any other sale I've seen.

I beat you both, I have a 80kb/s speed. I'm so lucky.

Glad to see Steam doing so well, I had to restrain from buying so many games as I needed food... but food is SO overrated though right?

 

[A Satanic Panda]

Makes me wonder why EA decided to go on their own with Origin

sales in 2011 more than doubled the mark set in 2010, making it the seventh straight year of 100 percent growth.

Revenue decrease US$3.654 billion (FY 2010)[1]
Operating income decrease US$706 million (FY 2010)[1]
Net income decrease US$677 million (FY 2010)[1]
Total assets decrease US$4.646 billion (FY 2010)[1]

I just wonder.

This.
Made me feel like it was Christmas morning again.

 

[gigastar]

I wish Microsoft and Nintendo would adopt Steam, and that Valve actually released some freaking games. Team Fortress 2 with updates on Xbox 360 would be so awesome, as well as cross platform play.

It's a shame it's practically restricted to PC gaming, which I still find much more expensive than console gaming, though mostly a superior experience overall.

At this rate getting Team Fortress 2 into cross-platform play on the Xbox and PS3/4 would require a standalone release compatible with Steamworks. That and TF2's file size has quadrupled since its vanilla version back in '07.

And while its only slight so far, Steamworks has found its way onto PS3 in the form of Portal 2. And Counterstrike: Global Offensive is set to follow it up.

 

[gigastar]

Makes me wonder why EA decided to go on their own with Origin

sales in 2011 more than doubled the mark set in 2010, making it the seventh straight year of 100 percent growth.

Revenue decrease US$3.654 billion (FY 2010)[1]
Operating income decrease US$706 million (FY 2010)[1]
Net income decrease US$677 million (FY 2010)[1]
Total assets decrease US$4.646 billion (FY 2010)[1]

I just wonder.

Steam users must have picked up considerably when EA pulled out of Steam, then they fell victim to the holiday sales.

I have got to wonder what would come first though, EA going bankrupt/retreating from the PC market or EA admitting it was wrong and coming back to Steam.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Snip

Really? your complaint is that a sentence is too long to pay attention to?

No, it's that it's hard to read, aggressively dismissive and overly verbose; before we come into ideas such as commas and apostrophes. If you can't get your point across, then it will always be ignored - no matter how good.

That's why Steam's UI is so much better than Origin or Battlenet. Simplicity. You can hide a multitude of sins behind a pretty face.

What tends to show up behind an ugly face is the user not bothering to read who he's replying to.

 

[Tukadian]

I have personally repurchased several games that I already owned physical copies of during Steam sales, just because I like the convenience of having digital copies and a shared library between my various computers. I move around a lot as part of my job and you wouldn't believe how nice it is to be able to pack up all my old PC games and give them to my brother because I can access them at any time on my laptop while posted in Afghanistan.
Also, I've been a PC gamer for quite some time, as far back as playing lemonade stand on my apple 2c, or Sim City on my 486 after that. I have a certain attachment to PCs as a gaming platform, and a lot of genres that I have a deep love for, such as strategy, only seem to be widely available or done correctly on PC. Since the last generation of consoles, the area I live in saw a drastic reduction of PC games in their game shops. EBGames, Future Shop and The Source all cut their stock drastically, down to maybe a shelf of exactly what you could get on consoles, with the addition of The Sims and Blizzard's games. I simply could not find anywhere to buy my games for my system of choice; I even had to turn to Ebay on a couple occasions. Then I activated Civilization V on Steam, and was just blown away by the amount of titles I had been looking for, and at decent prices; especially once the Christmas sales hit shortly after that.
Since Steam I really turned around my stance on digital distribution as I saw how well it can be handled. I've bought games off of GOG.com, quite a few for my dad, which can't be found anywhere in physical form. I even installed Origin to check it out, give it a chance and buy The Old Republic. Not a big fan of Origin, just feels like a clunky interface and there isn't a lot to offer that I couldn't just get on a console, so I just set my TOR to open through Steam and bypassed it.
Sure there are a few beefs with Steam; like their offline mode could use some work, as I found out when I tried taking my laptop to game with while on a training exercise away from wifi. But I find overall the program to unobtrusive, you're not constantly bombarded by advertising if you just want to pop into your library and launch a game, the chat feature is nicely implemented, and of course the price is right.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Steam needs competition. This sort of monopoly can't be good for the industry.

Maybe if the Steam storefront were separate from Steamworks? At any rate, this is simultaneously amazing and disturbing news, though hardly surprising.

Origin sent me a 25% off coupon for my birthday.

If I didn't already have 170 games on Steam, I might consider Origin. Steam didn't give me anything for my birthday.

(If anyone is going to quote this message to go 'BUT ORIGIN EATS CHILDREN AND WILL STEAL YOUR LIFE', don't bother. Pleaaaaaase don't bother.)

I think Steam's "competition" will need more than birthday discounts and child ingestion to truly stand toe-to-toe with the giant. An actual good service would be #1 on the list. Petty bonuses don't mean squat when the system itself is inherently sort of flawed (from a customer satisfaction standpoint, anyway).

 

[Magnus]

The thing is, who's fault actually is it that Steam has got where it is today? And the industry moans about a Monopoly, it's a textbook case of reaping what you sow!

 

[SirCannonFodder]

So, because you decide to be an ass, stir up trouble on the valve forums and claim that Gabe Newell looks like the fat illegitimate love child of Ellen Degeneres, Joe Walsh and a chicken and provide his personal email address for public view, they can should they so desire ban your account and nullify everything you spent all because you did something they did not like.

Actually, Steam and the Steam forums are completely separate, just because you're signed up for one doesn't mean you're signed up for the other. You might be referring to Steam Community, which is linked to your steam account, but could you please link to an instance of people having their account completely banned due to inappropriate behaviour?

 

[tzimize]

Makes me wonder why EA decided to go on their own with Origin and strip a bunch of titles from Steam. Hissy fit or not they must of seen a huge drop in their bottomline when they did that.

I've even logged on to Steam while I was overseas on a Christmas holiday to catch their sales and this year's Christmas sale actually surprised me on the number and discounts on recent releases (Deus Ex, Batman, Skyrim, etc). I managed to pick up a few AAA titles at 50% off that I was prepared to wait a year until they came down in price.

From the amount of uplayed titles in my Steam Account, I likely won't be buying anything for the better part of 2012.

Considering the amount of money the top-dog digital distribution service can make...it doesnt make me wonder at all.

What DOES make me wonder however, is how in the %&#/#¤/%& hell they expected to take a piece of this cake by releasing an INFERIOR system. Origin is worse than Steam in almost every single way. I can understand if they released a kick-ass product and people actually had a relevant choice. But as it is, you got the choice between a well-established, relatively cheap, functional, trustworthy service...compared to a new, expensive, non-functional and not especially trustworthy service.

How did they expect to break into the market with an inferior product!??!?! It boggles the mind!!!

 

[Omnific One]

See, look how profitable it is when you legitimize piracy. Now before you go breaking your mouse to hit the quote button to write an aneurysm inducing Wall of text post to "prove me wrong" understand that I already know those points. I accept those points, I look past them in order to see a bigger picture and make an assessment not based in seeing and supporting a more narrow view. Feel free to save yourself the energy because steam is actually worse than piracy as it is infinitely closer to theft than what we consider to be piracy ever will be. Only difference is that Steams form of legitimized piracy places the bulk of the "theft" more on the shoulders of the consumer than the developer. (though the consumers have a choice to buy the same thing cheaper elsewhere in many cases, but for developers especially indie developers they are essentially strong armed into accepting steams virtually monopolistic program as a delivery system or accepting that they will sell a microscopic fraction of what they would otherwise.

Spoiler: Other thought: Irrationality of people and steam sales.

Why do people revere steam for "steam sales"? It is an astounding case example of mass ignorance. Heres the proof. Even during the summer and winter steam sales events, their prices invariably are only equivalent to market averages. Let us look at a random title, though you can do the same thing with the bulk of steams catalog. Well choose LA noire.

Now we will ignore the argument that anti used advocates use that claims from the used games suffer no deterioration like anything else that is sold used, which typically justifies the reduction in price for buying something used. Though it is equally as valid to compare a used copy of a piece of software to a new one because as they say, essentially there is no difference, but I digress, were going to ignore that point in this because were not going to compare the differences between steam versions of a title vs console versions, even though it is valid, its not the point to be made here.

Now Steam sales will typically reduce the cost of a title by 33, 50, 66, 75 or in some extremely rare cases 80% off of the base price for a title. These sales can either come in the form of daily deal, mid week madness, Weekend deal, but the larger of those reductions typically are reserved for the summer and winter sales events. So using our case example of LA noire, and the recent winter sale price, the cost of LA noire was 12.50 USD or 75% off. However, if you look at the comparable game from Amazon.com you can find the digital download version of LA noire the complete edition for the every day low price of 12.49 USD. Any day of the week right now you can get the same game, in essentially the same format on amazon for what you would have had to have wait for the "sale" on steam, and even then, that price was only available for a total of 48 hours (once during the sale, and again on recap day) for 1 cent more, and otherwise the price is 50$

Also remember, you own NOTHING in steam. That totally awesome price you see during the inconv. sales window is not for a product. You dropping your money for a title you see on sale in steam grants you a license, not a product, and with such no rights of ownership are transferred. So, in their discretion for any reason they so chose, steam can block and ban your account, thereby nullifying ever cent you ever paid them on that account leaving you with absolutely nothing, no right to recompense because you agreed in accepting the TOS that you were not getting a product, you were exchanging money for a license of usage that confers absolutely nothing to you as the consumer. So, because you decide to be an ass, stir up trouble on the valve forums and claim that Gabe Newell looks like the fat illegitimate love child of Ellen Degeneres, Joe Walsh and a chicken and provide his personal email address for public view, they can should they so desire ban your account and nullify everything you spent all because you did something they did not like.

This is one reason why physical media is so important in this day and age, and people are ignorantly allowing companies like this to erode ownership rights and the alarming thing is that people are willingly allowing those rights to be eroded because they have been tricked into thinking steams prices are good, and accepting a reduced value for the same product. Thats why comparing a steam version of a game to a console version is insanely relevant because invariably the steam version will have less intrinsic value as it cannot be sold, and is not something you own, and can be taken from you with or without reason or recompense, whereas a used copy of a console title HAS ownership, CAN be resold, and as the anti used people will tell you there is essentially no difference between a new and used copy. Thus it has more intrinsic value than a digital download of the same thing, but typically ends up selling for even less "because it is used"

This is why the whole occupy movement is pointless, the same people protesting that corporations are wrongly using their power to influence government are the ones who are supporting these same sort of corporations by willing conceding their rights to them, or else we would not see valve having a 7 year streak of 100%sales figures. What point is there to protest corporate corruption when you willingly fund that corporation and give them the excess spending clout to manipulate the governmental controls designed to protect the people?

In short, this is really a very saddening news article.

About the LA Noire example: The $12.50 Amazon price is not the "every day low price." Don't mislead people. That is the digital sale of the week for Amazon and only came to be after the Steam sale.

See: http://www.amazon.com/Game-Downloads/b/ref=sa_menu_gdown9?ie=UTF8&node=979455011
Look at the top right.

 

[Beryl77]

To answer your question. People buy from steam because idiotic fan boys of steam/valve go onto various web forums and profess " I LOVE STEAM FOR ALL THEIR AWESOME SALES" and they inadvertently dupe the highly suggestible and ignorant who read that into thinking Steams sale prices are somehow better than other outlets which I already illustrated its not. So the answer is that a majority of people buy from steam out of sheer ignorance and mob mentality, not out of product research, selective shopping or reading terms of service.

Steam sales prices are not even competitive with other outlets everyday prices.

Please stop generalising things which you can't proof at all. It makes you look ignorant.
You couldn't be more wrong about the prices on Steam in my country, Switzerland. Just to give you an example of how Steam saved me money. Let's see, Skyrim, big AAA title, costs about 50? for me on Steam. In Retail, it costs 80CHF. 50? are roughly 60CHF with the current exchange rate. So if I bought a game on Steam like Skyrim now, I would save about 20CHF.
On the last holiday sale it was 33% cheaper. You'd never see something like that in Retail so shortly after the game's release. The price was 33,49?, that makes about 42CHF. I bought it and I paid nearly only half the price I'd have to pay if I bought the game on retail in the next few months.
I bought it because it was the most cheapest and most convenient place to buy the game, not because of some mob mentality that you seem to think is the reason why everyone buys games on Steam.

As a side note, you can insult Gabe as much as you want on the Steamforums, they won't ban your Steam account. They aren't the same, they're two different accounts, not linked with each other.

 

[UltraXan]

There's some dick at my school that keeps saying PC gaming is dead. Reading this just makes me smile. Heck, one of his arguments is "Those games go on sale because no one wants to buy them!" Well, a simple rebuttal is "It's on sale because it's Christmas, and important time of year, you dolt. And besides, if no one wants to buy them, why are they STILL being bought by dozens of millions of people all over the world?"

I'm going to keep this tab open if he decides to bring it up again, just so I can show him this and tell him to shut his shit.

 

[Delicious Anathema]

I wish Microsoft and Nintendo would adopt Steam, and that Valve actually released some freaking games. Team Fortress 2 with updates on Xbox 360 would be so awesome, as well as cross platform play.

It's a shame it's practically restricted to PC gaming, which I still find much more expensive than console gaming, though mostly a superior experience overall.

Yeah I wish valve released games. Those constant updates to TF2, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Dota2 and all that business with Half-Life, on top of running a billion dollar distribution agency as well as a cybercafe program and a game engine must be so, so easy.

When I said release some games I meant games for the consoles, as in ports. Also, they must have dedicated people to Steam and people dedicated to developing games, just a wild guess.

 

[kebab4you]

I wish Microsoft and Nintendo would adopt Steam, and that Valve actually released some freaking games. Team Fortress 2 with updates on Xbox 360 would be so awesome, as well as cross platform play.

It's a shame it's practically restricted to PC gaming, which I still find much more expensive than console gaming, though mostly a superior experience overall.

Yeah I wish valve released games. Those constant updates to TF2, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Dota2 and all that business with Half-Life, on top of running a billion dollar distribution agency as well as a cybercafe program and a game engine must be so, so easy.

When I said release some games I meant games for the consoles, as in ports. Also, they must have dedicated people to Steam and people dedicated to developing games, just a wild guess.

About those updates that PC get frequently and not console, it's because Microsoft doesn't let Valve do it that way, if they want to released big patches(say the ubermedic update) then it would need to be handled as a DLC. If I understood it correctly.

 

[noobium]

Man I have so many game in my library I just sit in front of my computer and stair.

EDIT: LONG LIVE THE PC

 

[Gmans uncle]

Makes me wonder why EA decided to go on their own with Origin

sales in 2011 more than doubled the mark set in 2010, making it the seventh straight year of 100 percent growth.

Revenue decrease US$3.654 billion (FY 2010)[1]
Operating income decrease US$706 million (FY 2010)[1]
Net income decrease US$677 million (FY 2010)[1]
Total assets decrease US$4.646 billion (FY 2010)[1]

I just wonder.

Just be happy that EA is losing money, I sure am.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

So much rage, if you don't like Steam, don't use it, simple.

I got 4 games this year, plus a bunch of DLC, all for a discount.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Just be happy that EA is losing money, I sure am.

I must admit getting a shiver of delight when copying that.