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[RedSwirl]

Honestly, just having the same sales during the whole sale is more convenient for me.

My only real problem with Steam sales now is that I buy less because I've gotten smart about buying games and then not playing them. Now when a game is on sale I ask myself "When am I actually going to play this game? Will there be another sale before then?" The only exception is if the game goes below like $3. A that point it's not even a question of how much money it's worth but rather a question of whether it's worth my time.

To be honest, the last time a major game sale caught me by surprised and made me spend a whole lot of money was last year's Black Friday digital PC game sales on Amazon as well as... GameStop and the Microsoft Store. For a while Black Friday sales had been mostly just for console games outside Steam but last year I was blindsided by 40% off sales of new games like Gears 4 and Forza Horizon 3 on PC. Hitman season 1 for $15 at GameStop on PC was out of nowhere.

 

[tmarg]

That's all true, but aside from that the best deals aren't on Steam anymore.

Since you used Street fighter as an example, there was a Capcom publisher sale on humble earlier this week that had better prices across the board than what's in the current Steam sale.

 

[Aaron D.]

I guess there's always a new way to complain about discounts not being good enough.

Gift horse in the mouth and all.

 

[Visualante2]

I used to be fine with 50% off when games were cheaper, launching at £30. But now they're £40-50 I wait longer, and it feels like it is taking more than a year for games to hit the prices I want. It's definitely not a case of "I own everything".

While I do lament the chance of a daily misprice, I did loathe the way I would habitually check Steam every 8 hours hoping for a deal on something I want. I would trade refunds for the current system anyway but I am not sure I'm conflating two separate issues here.

One thing Valve could do to improve the situation is launch their meta game a few hours before or after the sale prices go live. Then their servers won't get so hammered.

 

[CecilRousso]

Why do people even directly buy from steam? It's a rip off compared to most digital stores such as cd keys.

Sometimes they prices are the same, sometimes the difference is negligible, and when it's none of those, you at least have the possibility to use the refund function.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

I kinda miss getting TF2 hats for participating in sales.
I don't really miss the timed stuff that much, it became a chore of 'log in every 8 hours, get disappointed, vote for whatever, leave until 8 hours later, try not to miss anything or else I don't get cards.'

 

[ShockingAlberto]

The real trashy thing is publishers raising prices in order to advertise a bigger cut.

 

[Aikidoka]

As far as deals go, they seem to be pretty good this year, and I don't think it really makes sense to complain about a certain game being 50% discount because there have been different games at 75%. As far as new releases, 30% off seems great. Nier: Automata is certainly "worth" $41.99

 

[Aztechnology]

I haven't bought anything from a Steam seasonal sale in like three years for this reason. It used to be a lot more engaging.

 

[Freeman76]

I told to myself I won't buy anything unless there is at least an 80% discount. I'm checking my wishlist today and almost everything is 40-75%, nothing at 80+%. It's not even about new games. I'm pretty sure some of those were sold for less a few years ago. Too bad, another steam sale that I'm not giving them a single cent.

your rule is 80%, some are 75% and thats not close enough?

I dont even have a meme.....

 

[Decado]

What I don't get are indie games that never go below 50% off then wind up in the monthly humble bundle or a $1 tier bundle.

 

[Spiritwalker]

I lost interest years ago. Wish they still used the old system.

 

[Sarcastico]

The problem is we've been desensitised because of more frequent sales from a variety of sources and cheap ass launch prices from cdkeys and the likes.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

The real trashy thing is publishers raising prices in order to advertise a bigger cut.

The main reason I never bought GTAV within the first 18 months of its existence on Steam was because of their scummy "sale" prices. Now with them actively going after mods I may never buy it. :V

 

[Sarcasm]

Glad that I don't lose any more sleep than I do normally over having DD which were mostly trash anyways.

 

[Freeman76]

Thread title fail...

Should be

'My sad opinion of Steam sales'

Aint no truth here.....

 

[fantomena]

 

[Marcel]

Removing dailies pretty much sucks all the excitement out of Steam Sales. I buy less stuff as a result now.

 

[Jangowuzhere]

Valve has already said that way more people are buying games with this type of sales model instead of the previous way more complex method.

The daily/hourly deal thing did not work. The idea was to get people to impulse buy, but it only catered to the people checking in every few hours. It resulted in people waiting around for deals instead of just buying games.

Personally, I do not miss the big event stuff. I always thought that stuff was fucking lame. Why? Because most of it was just Valve's way of trying to get you to interact with their horrible steam trading cards or profile leveling bullshit.

 

[Stumpokapow]

This sale has a fun metagame. You get stickers and make cool scenes with them!

 

[inky]

Yeah, sales used to be fun events. But I also bought a lot of garbage I never played.

Could probably trim around 75% of my current library if we are counting games I actually played and enjoyed instead of just bought during a steam sale craze.

Honestly, the worst part for me were the currency and gifting changes alongside. I get cheaper indie games, I don't care for bigger, overpriced ones from scummy pubs, and I can't share a gift with friends overseas anymore.

 

[Halabane]

1-3 were unavoidable, but really shame is #4. Valve themselves doesn't really put in the effort to make this the event it was, and doesn't engage developers enough in it. That's something that can be fixed, if they really want to.

Bingo. It really seems they have stopped trying to make these things events. Its been slowly getting this way. Guessing they don't feel they need to try any more.

 

[StereoVsn]

Steam Sales are actually worse then PSN sales now which is batshit crazy. Phantom Pain is $10 on PS4 right now vs $16 on Steam. What!?

 

[Jawmuncher]

Yep. The sales just aren't quite the event like they used to be. You get a good sale or two and then it's nothing for the rest the sale period.

 

[Kevin]

Once Valve became king of digital, they stopped caring about anything but their profits. They abandoned game development, their sales have been terrible for years (better prices elsewhere) and completely took away the fun aspects of the sales. I'm not sure they could have become anymore of a boring/predictable company if they tried.

Valve use to put effort into making you feel like they actually cared about you the consumer but that all disappeared.

 

[ghibli99]

Steam is often not the cheapest place to buy Steam games anymore. Like today, I bought Dead Cells for about $11.78 with Bundle Stars' sale and promo code. It's almost $3 more on Steam, and that's the summer sale price.

 

[Shredderi]

Yeah I don't really buy things from steam sales anymore. Part of it is that I got a LOT of what I wanted years ago. One is that I stopped waiting for games to go into sales to buy them. I kind of got perspective on it. If I really want to play something now, I buy it now, sale or not. I'll have fun with it right now because I want to play it now. I don't wait half a year for a game to drop 10euros to play something I want to play NOW. By the time the sale comes I'll no longer have the itch to play it. And for what? To save the small amount of pennies I use with impunity in my day to day life on some other utterly unnecessary shit. If I'm itching for a game now that is 29e I'm no longer waiting for the price to drop to 19e to play it.

 

[outunderthestars]

Does this mean we can stop hearing about Steam sales as some sort of mythical unicorn of absurdly low prices that only PC gamers could obtain?

 

[ViolentP]

After I earned my golden potato and got to play Portal 2 early, there were really no other kingdoms to conquer.

 

[Human Trashcan]

How are you gonna complain that the impulse buy effect isn't that strong because they removed the exploitative "check back every day" discounts. When did the act of buying the thing become more important than the thing you are buying?

 

[Bahorel]

I used to buy a lot more when the sales were timed and exciting. I wonder how many other people were like me and if stopping the timed sales has made purchases go down during the sale season

 

[tmarg]

Does this mean we can stop hearing about Steam sales as some sort of mythical unicorn of absurdly low prices that only PC gamers could obtain?

Prices are still lower than consoles, it's just that steam's big biannual sales aren't actually special anymore.

 

[ViolentP]

Does this mean we can stop hearing about Steam sales as some sort of mythical unicorn of absurdly low prices that only PC gamers could obtain?

Even Steam got outsteamed in regards to sales, so don't expect lauding of game prices to go anywhere.

 

[Waddle Dee]

The biggest problem with most sales to me is that the companies are too greedy now. If I didn't buy a game within it's launch week, then that probably means I'm not terribly interested and I'll only give it a shot if it has a really huge price drop.

Anything $10 or more is often far too much for me to impulse buy something.

 

[Raging Spaniard]

You make a giant assumption with the "most of us" stuff. I dont love steam sales because they condition the market to be cheap and not buy very good products at fair prices, especially hurting indies ... but for the most part, most people dont own hundreds of games on steam.

 

[Imbarkus]

It's an old model. The new model is to give games away free to get people on your platform.

The super-secret new-new model is to get people to pay a subscription for an immediate library and rotate out their library without their choice. That way, you remove the threat of a large backlog from preventing a future purchase or continued engagement with the platforms and its new releases.

Steam is actually way behind on all this, having been distracted with hardware efforts and microtransaction gambling for a while.

 

[McLovin]

Yeah this sale was ass

 

[Dark Ninja]

Im already being tempted by MVC3 being on sale.

 

[StereoVsn]

Prices are still lower than consoles, it's just that steam's big biannual sales aren't actually special anymore.

This is actually not even correct anymore. Often PSN or Live sales beat Steam.

 

[Aaron D.]

How are you gonna complain that the impulse buy effect isn't that strong because they removed the exploitative "check back every day" discounts. When did the act of buying the thing become more important than the thing you are buying?

100%

I'm glad 8-hour Flash Deals are gone.

Talk about Pavloving your consumer base.

F that noise.

 

[Mohasus]

Only the first point applies to me.And I'm not sure if I'd call that smart.

For example, I'd buy Assassin's Creed 2 and Far Cry 3 at 75% off, but now I ended up buying neither.

 

[The Cartographer]

You guys are strange, it's like you want to give in to some sort of consumerism lust.

Being a smart shopper and buying the things that you actually want to play is the correct way to take part in those sales.

 

[Jangowuzhere]

I wonder how many other people were like me and if stopping the timed sales has made purchases go down during the sale season

The opposite has happened. People are buying more now that timed sales are gone

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...e-steam-summer-sale-2016-more-money-than-ever

 

[Eaten By A Grue]

I personally never want to go back to flash or daily sales. I do not have the time to check every hour or every day for a week. It was a pain in the butt for me.

Also something something never pay more than $20 for a computer game. That is a rule I live by. If something is too much for you then just do not buy it and wait for the day it eventually does go down in price.

 

[epeternally]

Why do people even directly buy from steam? It's a rip off compared to most digital stores such as cd keys.

A lot of smaller indie games just aren't available on third party sites. That's where the Steam sales remain useful for me. Also Ubisoft games can only be purchased on Steam if you don't want to get a uPlay key. Same with Witcher 3 and GOG.

 

[Htown]

maybe they aren't that amazing anymore, but at this point I already own more than 1100 games on Steam, so it doesn't bother me so much

 

[ViolentP]

My first thought when reading the thread title was a sweatshop where children were forced to program something.

 

[Ferrio]

Oh no, I have 2 whole weeks to decide instead of impulse buying everything due to time limits! How will I ever fill up my backlog that I'll never touch at this rate!?

 

[tmarg]

This is actually not even correct anymore. Often PSN or Live sales beat Steam.

Yeah, but PC's best sales aren't on Steam.

Compare Humblestore, bundlestars, etc. to PSN and PC still wins easily.

 

[Baleoce]

Biggest thing for me is that they're not fun anymore, like you pointed out. Could be due to the fact I have a big library, but I think a big part of it is the event themselves are no longer interactive or fun, and the trading card system is dull. So come sales season, I don't feel any incentive to do any of that.