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STEAM - announcements, updates and WIN

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Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Javaman said:
I remember the demo being very confusing. Are the trickier combat elements introduced slowly in the game or do you get thrown into the mix?

It's all trickled in, starts out very very simple and slowly your army and the ability to customize it grows.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
rohlfinator said:
I have to think the Steam sales are a net positive for publishers. In a brick & mortar retailer, most of those games would be straight-up gone from the shelves after the first month or two and completely forgotten. With the sale, they can at least make $10 off a bunch of people who would never have consciously tracked down the game after it disappeared from the retail spotlight.

For me personally, the ratio of "games I bought in a sale that I likely wouldn't have bought at all" to "games I would have bought full-price but didn't because I'm waiting for a sale" is something like 10:1. And with the games I skip at full-price, most of them I pick up later on sale anyway, so it's not a total loss for the seller.

There was an article about Steam sales a little while back...

Last weekend, Valve decided to do an experiment with Left 4 Dead. Last weekend's sale resulted in a 3000% increase over relatively flat numbers. They sold more last weekend than when they launched the game. WOW. That is unheard of in this industry. They beat their launch sales. Also, they snagged a 1600% increase in new customers to Steam over the baseline.

Worried retailers, fear not. The weekend sale didn't canabalize sales from retail. In fact, they remained constant. Well, constant isn't a 3000% increase, but it's still pretty good, right?

Looking at a third-party game, they saw increases of 36,000% with a weekend sale. Oh. Em. Gee. Okay, Gabe is starting to convince me that PC at retail is going to die very soon.

During the Holiday sales:

• 10% sale = 35% increase in sales (real dollars, not units shipped)
• 25% sale = 245% increase in sales
• 50% sale = 320% increase in sales
• 75% sale = 1470% increase in sales

At 75% off, they are making 15% more money than they were at full price.
 
Fragamemnon said:
Thing is that most game sales are frontloaded anyway, bought by the people that buy them as soon as or right after they come out. You rarely see a deal on a game that came out one or two months ago, instead you see it for games that have been out three or more months, when full price sales of a title are probably not going to be all that much greater.

Exactly, do people really think the Last Remnant was selling more than a few dozen copies a day on Steam before this sale? By putting it on sale at such an irresistible price, Square have pobably just generated an extra million dollars of revenue from a bunch of people that would have never purchased it otherwise. Its not just pocket change we're talking about here, being the top revenue driver on the largest single PC games retailer on the planet for several days isn't half bad for a near year old title.

Edit: A 36k% percent increase in sales for weekend deal featured titles! :lol

Well there you go, the evidence doesn't get much more convincing than that.
 

Mrbob

Member
Seeing TLR is topping the charts (which is based on revenue), this midweek sale is probably netting SE more money now than having it up on steam since launch. I don't think it ever cracked the top 5 before in daily sales. I know it was in the bottom half of the top 10 around launch.
 
Mrbob said:
Seeing TLR is topping the charts (which is based on revenue), this midweek sale is probably netting SE more money now than having it up on steam since launch. I don't think it ever cracked the top 5 before in daily sales. I know it was in the bottom half of the top 10 around launch.

Considering game sales are higher at this time of year than any other time, its not hard to believe. MW2 and Left 4 Dead 2 are undoubtedly selling in incredible numbers and yet the Last Remnant is now outselling both by more than 5:1. That's some serious revenue its generating.
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
I kinda want TLR just because it is 10bux, but I already have two meaty RPGs waiting in The Witcher and Mass Effect (which I can't play atm with my computer that is less powerful than your contemporary toaster).

There are a ton of games I have bought during weekend sales. Looking at the list of games I own: the only full price game I have actually bought off Steam was The Orange Box. :lol
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
If there was ever a compelling case for not jacking up game prices, this is it. But I guess the problem is that if TLR launched at 10 bucks, how likely would any of us be to buy it? :lol
 

Mrbob

Member
Archie said:
I kinda want TLR just because it is 10bux, but I already have two meaty RPGs waiting in The Witcher and Mass Effect (which I can't play atm with my computer that is less powerful than your contemporary toaster).

There are a ton of games I have bought during weekend sales. Looking at the list of games I own: the only full price game I have actually bought off Steam was The Orange Box. :lol

Could always pick it up now and just play it down the road. There is a small possibility it might go on sale for 5 or 7.50 in the future, but I don't know if this possibility is worth 5 dollars to you.
 

Rubezh

Member
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but I'll ask it anyway. I bought RE5 on Steam during the special one day sales. I'm only on my first playthrough but I'm finding all of the different unlocks rather overwhelming. I'm interested in the unlimited ammo unlock but I have a few questions. Wouldn't it be impossible to unlock unlimited ammo for every single weapon? The inventory space is very limited so you'd run out of room to carry all the weapons and their upgrades. Also, if you fully upgrade a weapon and drop it during a level, would rebuying it from the store keep all of your upgrades or would they be gone?
 

kuYuri

Member
Rubezh said:
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but I'll ask it anyway. I bought RE5 on Steam during the special one day sales. I'm only on my first playthrough but I'm finding all of the different unlocks rather overwhelming. I'm interested in the unlimited ammo unlock but I have a few questions. Wouldn't it be impossible to unlock unlimited ammo for every single weapon? The inventory space is very limited so you'd run out of room to carry all the weapons and their upgrades. Also, if you fully upgrade a weapon and drop it during a level, would rebuying it from the store keep all of your upgrades or would they be gone?

Here's the RE5 official thread :)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=353486

To answer your questions:

1. Unlocking unlimited ammo for all your weapons isn't impossible, but it will take quite a bit of time to acquire enough points to unlock them. Since inventory space is limited, you can only carry a number of weapons and items with you, the game was designed with limited inventory in mind.

2. As far as I know, if you sell an upgraded weapon, you lose it forever and would have to reacquire that weapon and upgrade it again.
 
Rubezh said:
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but I'll ask it anyway. I bought RE5 on Steam during the special one day sales. I'm only on my first playthrough but I'm finding all of the different unlocks rather overwhelming. I'm interested in the unlimited ammo unlock but I have a few questions. Wouldn't it be impossible to unlock unlimited ammo for every single weapon? The inventory space is very limited so you'd run out of room to carry all the weapons and their upgrades. Also, if you fully upgrade a weapon and drop it during a level, would rebuying it from the store keep all of your upgrades or would they be gone?

After each chapter you have an inventory to dump all your items and weapons you dont want to take with you :)
 
What would be good to see is a chart of the playtime in hours a month after a big sale.

See if people are actually playing all these cheap sale games each week or just buying it to own it in the hope that they might play it more than an hour or two some day.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Visualante said:
What would be good to see is a chart of the playtime in hours a month after a big sale.
I don't know if that is a good idea - probably see sales spike and hours played flatline as everyone adds it to their obscene Steam backlogs.
 

Spwn

Member
Visualante said:
What would be good to see is a chart of the playtime in hours a month after a big sale.

See if people are actually playing all these cheap sale games each week or just buying it to own it in the hope that they might play it more than an hour or two some day.

From the viewpoint of the seller it doesn't matter, so there's no way we're going to see such charts.
 

nyong

Banned
The Last Remnant - $9.99

I think the sale only lasts through today. I really, really need to stop buying games. Under $10 is my sweet spot for games I am somewhat interested in. $5 and I am usually too weak to resist.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
I asked my girlfriend if she'd like TLR as an early Christmas gift, as she was a huge PS2 RPG fan. She laughed at me. I guess it isn't too hot?
 

Sipowicz

Banned
Lyphen said:
I asked my girlfriend if she'd like TLR as an early Christmas gift, as she was a huge PS2 RPG fan. She laughed at me. I guess it isn't too hot?

it's excellent, and pc version is supposedly ten times better

she'll love it unless she's into the rpgs with more sissy characters
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
She's knee deep in Dragon Age, some hundred+ hours. I know it likely won't live up to that, but from the videos I've seen, at the least the combat system looks fresh. Eh, I'll pick it up for her. 10 bucks isn't much to ask, and we'll see who's laughing then.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
LovingSteam said:
Yes. It would be my advice to not purchase any game/package over $20 for the next week and half, unless you HAVE to have it.

Didn't basically every Valve game go on sale as a package for a total price of $5 a while back? Maybe that was last year's holiday sale, there was some unbelievable deal a while ago.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
I'm totally loving The Last Remnant, it's a great JRPG imo, loving the battles, although at points they feel a tad random and luck based, but at least they're fun, which is what gaming is all about.
 

Tim-E

Member
Minsc said:
Didn't basically every Valve game go on sale as a package for a total price of $5 a while back? Maybe that was last year's holiday sale, there was some unbelievable deal a while ago.

Orange Box was $10 a few months ago.
 
Why are commandos: behind enemy lines and commandos: beyond the call of duty not on sale when it says all games?

Is ceville worth it? Did it turn out disappointing?

I'm thinking broken sword II+III and tropico reloaded...
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
Lyphen said:
I asked my girlfriend if she'd like TLR as an early Christmas gift, as she was a huge PS2 RPG fan. She laughed at me. I guess it isn't too hot?
She must have been turned off by the bad reviews the console version got. The PC version fared much better then the console version. Even, earning a decent 8.0 from GS.

bathala said:
is last remnant GFW?
Nope, but it has native 360 controller support.
 

Brashnir

Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Why are commandos: behind enemy lines and commandos: beyond the call of duty not on sale when it says all games?

I was wondering that as well. I ended up just getting Commandos 2.
 
bathala said:
don't hate me but
... I want the achievements :S

You'll be playing a significantly lesser game to do it. Besides the whole of technical problems the 360 version has, it also lacks the gameplay changes made for the PC version such as fixing the leveling system and not forcing you to use generic soldiers.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
bathala said:
don't hate me but
... I want the achievements :S

There are a lot of very significant changes to the gameplay systems in the PC version that make it a far superior version. Seriously, screw your EPeen and get the best version of the game.
 
Sinatar said:
There are a lot of very significant changes to the gameplay systems in the PC version that make it a far superior version. Seriously, screw your EPeen and get the best version of the game.

Care to elaborate ? I just bought the game on impulse but won't be able to play it before a while. Please fill me in on the awesomeness. :D
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Holy Order Sol said:
Care to elaborate ? I just bought the game on impulse but won't be able to play it before a while. Please fill me in on the awesomeness. :D

They revamped the leveling system, added turbo mode to combat (a godsend) and most importantly removed the limit on how many leaders (aka interesting characters) you can have in your unions.
 

alistairw

Just so you know, I have the best avatars ever.
LovingSteam said:
Yes. It would be my advice to not purchase any game/package over $20 for the next week and half, unless you HAVE to have it.

This can't be said enough. Steam holiday sales are legendarily good. I can't waaaaaaaaaaaaait.
 

52club

Member
bathala said:
don't hate me but
... I want the achievements :S

In recent posts I've seen people paying more money for a game to get chievos now a decision is being made to play a lesser version of game. The power of chievos amazes me.
 

Alucrid

Banned
bathala said:
don't hate me but
... I want the achievements :S

Not worth it. I'm picking this copy up despite getting 950 in the one on the 360. Achievements aren't worth it, period.

edit: Also, a bit off topic, but is there a way to make it so steam doesn't use internet explorer for everything?
 
Alucrid said:
Not worth it. I'm picking this copy up despite getting 950 in the one on the 360. Achievements aren't worth it, period.

edit: Also, a bit off topic, but is there a way to make it so steam doesn't use internet explorer for everything?

Nope. Currently, Steam only supports the Trident engine, which powers IE. They have been toying around with the idea to support other engines, but they are hesitant to do so since they would need to package in the other web engines with Steam.
 
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