When did steam prices go to complete shit, and why?

Jesb

Jesb

Member
So I just picked up a few steam cards, but I didn't know it was this bad. Like holy shit, who's buying anything on this anymore? Literally every game is way more on steam. And it's not a few dollars more like twice as much or more.

Control $56.
Cyberpunk $80.
Dark pictures 4 game pack. $150.
Kena $48
The Medium $66.99. wtf. 😳
Robocop $65


These are just a few I looked at, but it's everything. It's all twice as much more or even worse. wtf happened to the best value in gaming? I might as well just get something that's the same price everywhere like balder gate 3 but it's not really my type of game. No idea what I can even get…
 
Those are just their normal MSRPs and the prices you are pointing are those extra bundle or ultimate editions, nothing to fuss about.

You can always wait for sale or buy steam codes.
 
Today OP discovered the regular prices on things because he actually looked at pricing when a sale wasn't happening

John Cena Mind Blown GIF
 
Got Control free on Epic Game Store, The new best value in gaming.
Control Ultimate edition on Steam is only 39.99, a bit more than free, but less than $56.
 
Jesb said:
Cyberpunk $80.
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This one is kinda fucked on steam for some reason, it's just the old 60+30 bundle price (so 90 in eur), they didn't adjust the price to the new ultimate edition SKU, it's still just the bundle.
This is why when it goes on sale for like 40% off, it's actually much less. They always "discount" the bundle but it's still ~83 eur here, 80 on GOG, EGS and humble and 70 on PSN where they actually adjusted the base pricing lol.
 
This reads like those posts when Netflix streaming was fairly new "I searched for Yojimbo but it wasn't available, then I searched for Mission Impossible 1 and then Gregory's Girl but they weren't there either. WTF?"
 
ReBurn said:
So why did you buy Steam cards before you checked the prices?
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I just didn't know it was this bad. Like I knew steam prices are not the same deal they use to be but I didn't think every game would be this bad. I should have looked, just didn't realize it was this terrible.
 
Jesb said:
Canadian dollars bud.
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Ah, I passed on a bunch of stuff during the holidays, I would like to buy 3dmark bench but it's currently way too expensive. it was super cheap over the holidays and I didn't bite at the time. Keep that stuff in the wallet for now and wishlist away till a sale hits.
 
Jesb said:
This isn't true. All other storefronts are cheaper. Literally every game. From what I've seen.
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Maybe in Canada. All storefronts in the US generally have the same MSRP and games go on sale regularly. It's a matter of timing to find the best deals on any platform.

Using Robocop as an example, the MSRP (for the regular and deluxe versions) is $10 cheaper on Steam than it is on Xbox.
 
Steamdb is a great resource for historical info on game pricing on the Steam website. A lot of big name games default back to their initial price when there aren't sales running on it.
 
Wait so Steam prices are higher than other non-sale prices on other stores? That's probably a currency thing, in the US for example cyberpunk is the same price on steam, epic, even GoG.
 
Magic Carpet said:
Ah, I passed on a bunch of stuff during the holidays, I would like to buy 3dmark bench but it's currently way too expensive. it was super cheap over the holidays and I didn't bite at the time. Keep that stuff in the wallet for now and wishlist away till a sale hits.
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Yeah sounds like the plan now. I'll have to wait on some sale event of something. But to me I think there's a lot of games that should be at permanent price drops. Like control, Kena another one. Like these are so old lol.
 
Since you limited yourself by getting Steam cards my only recommendation would be adding those games to your wishlist and wait until you get a message of a price drop.

Most of my steam library is from Eneba, CDKeys and Fanatical.
 
Shakka43 said:
Since you limited yourself by getting Steam cards my only recommendation would be adding those games to your wishlist and wait until you get a message of a price drop.

Most of my steam library is from Eneba, CDKeys and Fanatical.
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I discovered Eneba this morning from a student who said that's where he gets his codes. I was wondering about how legit they can be as I found some delisted Steam game codes listed on there.
 
There is currently a class action lawsuit against Valve claiming that a Steam is a monopoly. They probably don't want any evidence showing that they use their pricing power to price out competition.
 
Jesb said:
This isn't true. All other storefronts are cheaper. Literally every game. From what I've seen.
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Like Kacho Kacho said I think this is dependent on region, so I've made an assumption on your location in error.

My advice would still be to wait until the spring sale. Post Christmas/New Years prices are usually not too great, at least from my experience.
 
We've been complaining about Steam sales on GAF for nearly a decade now. It used to be ridiculous and a reason to buy a PC over a console -- games were just generally cheaper.
 
Steam pricing has sucked for like a decade now, sales used to be really good but there was an abrupt change at one point. Just go on DLCompare or some such site and and buy a key somewhere, stop giving Gaben money to do nothing but sit on his fat ass and rent-seek the gaming industry.
 
Zelduh said:
This is why PC gaming is a joke, you pay a premium to own nothing and you will like it
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You have no idea what you're talking about. You can get pretty much any game cheaper on day one from key sites.

Only buy directly from Steam when there's a sale or you want to leverage their refund policy.
 
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nikos said:
You have no idea what you're talking about. You can get pretty much any game cheaper on day one from key sites.
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Sure, and you'll own a digital key... to nothing! A loicense for permission from Gaben to use play a game if you're a good boi... no such thing as real physical games on PC, so nothing is really yours and you paid a premium for nothing so some fatass can buy their 8th megayacht and laugh at you for falling for nonexistent product that they can take away at any time
 
Zelduh said:
Sure, and you'll own a digital key... to nothing! A loicense for permission from Gaben to use play a game if you're a good boi... no such thing as real physical games on PC, so nothing is really yours and you paid a premium for nothing so some fatass can buy their 8th megayacht and laugh at you for falling for nonexistent product that they can take away at any time
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I knew that would be your response. Welcome to 2024, we don't own shit anymore. Read the EULA on any game you play, physical or not.

I've been on Steam for 20 years and never had an issue. If it all goes to shit one day, there are plenty of ways of obtaining the few games I might actually care about.
 
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I dunno.. I don't really buy a lot of newer games, but all the random old shit I've been picking up on Steam sales the last few years has been heavily discounted. I don't even buy anything on Steam unless it's at minimum 75% off, try to wait for 90%.
 
I literally haven't bought a single game off Steam since they killed the rotating timed flash sales. If you really wanted to pinpoint the time it went to shit, that was it.
 
Jesb said:
This isn't true. All other storefronts are cheaper. Literally every game. From what I've seen.
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You should check if the price displayed is in dolars, or if you're looking at the same version of the game. Control UE and Cyberpunk 2077 in the Epic store for example is also around the same price as you mentioned in CAD, while the MS store displayed the US$ price for some reason.

EDIT: Checked GOG and still the same price in CAD.
 
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I don't expect GAF threads to show journalistic integrity with sources and research, but post a few goddamned examples.
If you posted this with a Sony/Xbox slant the mods would have your ass.
 
Games still are cheap (and on Steam, even at MSRP). Everyone's just in denial about it, for one reason or another.
 
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