Xbox 360 Summer Sale has started!

[The_Lost_King]

Aww, how cute, it's like Microsoft is trying to emulate Steam sales except hasn't gotten around to making good games cheap.

Maybe by next summer's sale they'll have figured it out. Winter this year if we're lucky.

I think they will get it on exactly the 30th of February. Seriously, saying Microsoft is willing to give big discounts on good games is like saying EA is willing to do that.

 

[Altorin]

I wish I had money today for them, but they run out the day before I get money.

I might be able to squeak out Borderlands 2 - that deal's sort of hard to pass up.

 

[smithy_2045]

Aww, how cute, it's like Microsoft is trying to emulate Steam sales except hasn't gotten around to making good games cheap.

Maybe by next summer's sale they'll have figured it out. Winter this year if we're lucky.

Valve don't have to compete with used games.

No, but they do have to compete with Green Man Gaming, Good Old Games, Gamefly, Amazon games, Impulse (GameStop's digital system), Origin, the publishers/developers themselves, and probably a few others I don't know about. Microsoft has to compete with used games and, to a certain extent, PSN and Nintendo eShop. You compete by making your prices lower than the competition or providing more value for the price.

As far as I understand, the publishers set the price, and any discounts can only be made with their permission. The publishers are less likely to discount on a system where they're losing a heap of sales to used games.

Valve don't have to compete with used games.

Corporate apologist, ho!

Steam has lots of competition in the digital distribution market nowadays. They still manage to have massive sales that knock the pants off of their competitors in most cases.

Gee, it's almost like offering customers real value for their money (instead of making excuses for why you can't) is a good way to earn their trust and to encourage them to spend money in your marketplace instead of your competitors'....

Corporate apologist? What the fuck does that even mean? The reality of the matter is that publishers will get a cut of every sale on Steam, whereas they lose a lot of volume on xbox to used games. The publisher compensates this loss of sales by charging a higher price and/or not discounting as frequently. Used game sales are 100% profit to brick and mortar stores, so any attempt by xbox live to reduce prices beyond an infrequent sale will just result in the stores undercutting them.

 

[viranimus]

Honestly I find this more interesting than a steam sale. But Just as honestly I would rather buy all that used physical copies than to buy "licenses" that can be dicked around later anyway.

Sadly, the prices technically are not too bad all things considering. But I saw nothing I either have not already played or never would to coax me into think of paying out. Really though these prices reflect the disparity of value for a digital copy over a physical copy anyway.

 

[Haefulz]

Aww, how cute, it's like Microsoft is trying to emulate Steam sales except hasn't gotten around to making good games cheap.

Maybe by next summer's sale they'll have figured it out. Winter this year if we're lucky.

Why criticize Microsoft for putting games on sale? People complain when they don't have any sales, now they finally have some pretty good deals and people criticize them for "trying to emulate Steam." I guess they can't win.

 

[WWmelb]

These are actually pretty good deals all things considering. However, it does wreak a little of desperation, and not kindness. But, baby steps in the right direction MS. Keep up with this and you may make up some of the ground you lost... eventually... though it will take a while.

 

[Gone Rampant]

Crysis is on sale for the entire week? Well, if I get an 800 point pack I could get the new Walking Dead DLC with it this weekend if I'm lucky... I have been putting off getting Crysis for a while now (Meant to last week, but Saints Row 3 went down from $70 to $20).

Prey's also pretty cheap. I think the trailers for the 2nd one are cool, but is the first worth getting?

And sadly, outside of Bioshock and MGS, nothing in this list is interesting/I already own it or a friend does I can borrow it off of.

(Note to self: Borrow Borderlands, buy Kreig+Level Up DLC/Other s**t and get back into Pandora).

 

[daveman247]

Crysis is on sale for the entire week? Well, if I get an 800 point pack I could get the new Walking Dead DLC with it this weekend if I'm lucky... I have been putting off getting Crysis for a while now (Meant to last week, but Saints Row 3 went down from $70 to $20).

Prey's also pretty cheap. I think the trailers for the 2nd one are cool, but is the first worth getting?

And sadly, outside of Bioshock and MGS, nothing in this list is interesting/I already own it or a friend does I can borrow it off of.

(Note to self: Borrow Borderlands, buy Kreig+Level Up DLC/Other s**t and get back into Pandora).

I've been waiting for crysis to go on sale too


Its been a while since I played prey but I recommend it. Its really quite unique even if the game isn't that hard. Its nothing like what prey 2 was looking like though, so don't have expectation of that.

 

[smithy_2045]

Corporate apologist? What the fuck does that even mean?

It means you're eating up the bullshit spewed by major gaming corporations as the "real reason" why games can't be cheaper, instead of thinking for yourself.

I am thinking for myself. Unlike you, I actually realise that I'm not entitled to shit from gaming corporations.

The reality of the matter is that publishers will get a cut of every sale on Steam, whereas they lose a lot of volume on xbox to used games. The publisher compensates this loss of sales by charging a higher price and/or not discounting as frequently. Used game sales are 100% profit to brick and mortar stores, so any attempt by xbox live to reduce prices beyond an infrequent sale will just result in the stores undercutting them.

No, here's the reality of the matter:

1) Every game ever sold used was at one point sold new, thus the publisher did in fact receive money for it.
2) If used games did not exist, not all of these same people would rush out to buy the game new. In fact, many of them wouldn't buy the game at all, as used games are often a great way for people to test the waters in a franchise they haven't played before. Few folks buy a brand new $60 in a franchise they're not sure they'll like. The notion that every used sale directly steals a new sale from the publisher's wallet is a faulty presumption.
3) The frequency of discounts have nothing to do with used games. Never have, never will. There are sales all the time at stores, and in many bigger stores, games are thrown into the bargain bins the moment they stop selling. If publishers have frequent sales, the stores will "undercut" them, eh? That's hogwash.

You clearly have no understanding whatsoever of economics, nor the differences between a physical store and an online store.

On 1), no shit. The difference is that the publisher receives money from every online sale, compared to, say, 2/3rds of physical sales.
On 2), new sales get cheaper too. However, used games make discounting a new game significantly less profitable for the publishers, because the used game distributor pays a pittance for it and then undercuts the cost of a new game. Because of this, they leave the prices higher to make more money off the sales they can make.
On 3), a physical store will heavily discount games that aren't selling because it will limit their losses on the game. An online store has no physical inventory that it needs to clear, so sales to clear stock are unnecessary. As such, the physical stores will always have the economic motivation to undercut them.

And before all of this nonsense about how used games are ruining the industry, all of these exact same accusations were being leveled against piracy. Piracy, they said, was why we can't make games cheaper. Piracy was the reason we couldn't have nice things. And yet, when that excuse clearly fell through, they turned to a new excuse and resumed with spewing the same shit all over again.

Video game rentals were also accused of these same crimes, as I recall, at one point.

It's time to engage your brain instead of eating up their apologist nonsense. They're making excuses for themselves.

The real reason that they can't make games cheaper is because they overspend on their games, often to horrendous levels that can't be recouped no matter how good the game sells. And that is entirely 100% their own fault. A game that budgets and spends its money wisely will do well even if the sales aren't "amazing", whereas a poorly budgeted game (as many of these AAA games are, these days) will almost never recoup their development and advertisement costs because they spent far too much on a game that was never going to sell that well. This is why games like Dead Space 3 are a failure for not selling 5 million copies, but Dark Souls is a massive success at 2 million. It's bad budgeting on their part, not a failure to buy the games on ours.

Not relevant. This isn't about making games cheaper in general.

Furthermore, the real reason that digital sales can afford to be cheaper than physical ones with so many sales isn't because of a lack of used games competition, it's because there are far less people that need to be paid to get that product in front of a customer. When devs want to put a copy of their newest game on shelves in a brick and mortar store, they have to pay a number of people to get it from their warehouses to that store's shelf. There's quite a few less people between their servers and the servers of Steam, and even less if they digitally distribute their own games, so the cost can afford to drop more often because the devs/publishers are getting a larger cut of the profits to begin with. This is why many companies that formerly just let Steam do this for them are starting to make a switch and are digitally distributing their own games, rather than letting Steam have a cut. It means even more profits for them, and they can adjust the frequency of sales on their own leisure instead of on Steam's calendar. Thus we had systems like Uplay and Origin which are directly owned by the publishers, thus taking away a portion of Steam's cut so they can keep even more of the game's profits. And as such, with less people to pay, they can afford to cut the price tags more often. It's simple cause and effect.

Put blame where it belongs: squarely on their shoulders, instead of playing corporate lapdog.

If digital sales can afford to be so much cheaper, why aren't they? Why is it that if I go into my local EB games, I'll find that buying a used console game is cheaper than buying a digital copy?

Inb4corporateconspiracy.

 

[TwoSidesOneCoin]

I came in here all excited and drooling at the chance to get a glimpse of steams summer sale list, but then I was met with disappointment and sadness when I re-read the title and noticed the "Xbox 360" portion of it.

WHY?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!

 

[daveman247]

WHY?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!

Maybe you need better glasses?

Sure the majority of people here are pc gamers, but not all.

 

[Gone Rampant]

The main games on sale today have changed (Done in Microsoft Points to avoid Pound/Dollar/Euro confusion). They are now:

Left 4 Dead 2 (Supposedly- still listed as 30 euro even though it's listed on sale): 2560 points (IE, they didn't knock the price down at all).

The Witcher 2: 840 Points.

Forza Horizon: 1240 Points (Makes sense- it did just come out last Winter).

Crysis 3: 1680 Points (See above- it was just released four months ago).

The Orange Box: 400 Points (TBH, anyone who'd want this already has it, but the price is low enough that you're practically robbing Valve).

Overall, it's mediocre. I don't have any points (Likely won't until Saturday, and I'm hoping for Crysis, as I said above), but Crysis 3's pretty expensive for a game on sale, even if it is pretty new. Forza's impressive, since it was a Winter release around the time of Dishonored last year, so kudos for lowering it that much.

Otherwise, all the other stuff mentioned- WWE 13, Far Cry Instincts, Red Alert 3, DA Origins, Divinity 2, Prey, Crysis 1, ME1, Bulletstorm and Perfect Dark Zero- are all still on sale.

 

[Something Amyss]

If digital sales can afford to be so much cheaper, why aren't they?

Are you disputing that they can afford to be cheaper? Seriously?

 

[DragonKhan95]

Okay guys, in the UK the Orange Boc is currently under £5.

Seriously 4 amazing games for the price of a Subway Meal. It's an awesome deal

 

[Gone Rampant]

If digital sales can afford to be so much cheaper, why aren't they?

Are you disputing that they can afford to be cheaper? Seriously?

At least on XBOX, yes. Darksiders 2, last time I checked, was about 50 euro. Dishonored was sixty when I eventually went screw it and bought a hard copy. On XBOX, games can afford to be a hell of a lot cheaper.

 

[Gone Rampant]

Okay guys, in the UK the Orange Boc is currently under £5.

Seriously 4 amazing games for the price of a Subway Meal. It's an awesome deal

I know. It's like a robbery from Now You See Me brought to games.

 

[daveman247]

Forza horizon was a little below £15. Im pleased

 

[daveman247]

Thanks for the tip, I just seemed like no one was talking about it over here, so I thought I would post this.

Were I live, I can't get Borderlands 2 for below £15 so £9 is an absolute steal. Loving It so far.

Borderlands 2 is one of those few sequals that manage to improve on just about everything.