News E3: "Steam sales cheapen intellectual property"

Selling a lot of copies at a cheap price is bad for the developers? Well how do the developers feel about selling 0 copies? Reckon I'll be taking my money elsewhere, like Steam.

 

EA/Origin sour grapes. Announce to the world your prices will be higher and expect to storm the marketplace. Good luck with that.

Steam's way makes commercial sense. When I really want a game, I buy it full price - or even advance order it. If I kinda want it but don't feel desperate, I'll wait til it's a bit older and there's some reduction that feels about what it's worth to me personally. And then I end up buying games I'd never considered because it turns up at a great price in the bargain bin a year or two later.

Oh wait, isn't that what they do in shops too? I've been buying games this way for many years before Steam. What planet are EA on?

 

"What Steam does might be teaching the customer, 'I might not want it in the first month, but if I look at it in four or five months, I'll get one of those weekend sales and I'll buy it at that time at 75 per cent off'" warned DeMartini."

Or, in actual fact, had it not been discounted, I just wouldn't have bought it ever.

Hence the reason most of us have massive Steam back catalogues of games we've yet to play.

 

Meh. A lot of opinions here, from the forum replies right up to the EA mouth-piece himself.

Facts please... Figures please... Evidence to say one thing or another, rather than just hyperbole...

 

Steam is actually more expensive than the physical copies at launch on many occasions. And more expensive generally than Game or Amazon. I rarely buy there for that reason.

The sales they have however are in fact the only reason I buy on Steam at all. Clearly their sales work. Origin just won't be able to compete without doing similar. And the only reason they have 11m users, as was mentioned in the article, is because they force you to have it for Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3.

 

So a paper back book is about £5, an album is about £8 and a film £10-14 depending on format, and EA reckon £40-65 is a fair price for a game.

What makes the intellectual property of a video game so valuable? I appreciate a game costs more than a book or album to make, but I'd assume it's comparable to a film.

 

Well with a film they get to charge you twice. Once to watch in the cinema, and again to buy it on dvd/bluray. That works out at about £30. So I imagine that is part of why films are cheaper to see at the cinema as they can make up the rest of the money later. But I'm not really sure why tbh, just throwing out a guess.

 

I think Steam has the business case and data on their side though. They have quite a bit of evidence that the more you discount your product, at least selling through steam and in general, I am sure there are aberant cases that don't follow the general pattern, the more units you sell, and at a greater increase than the discount.

This isn't physical copies being sold. At worst a penny or two of data costs are involved in transmitting a couple of GB game to someone. So doubling sales has basically zero extra overhead, unlike selling physical copies. So if you discount 25%, but sell twice as many copies, that is a heck of a lot of extra profit.

I dunno, I'd rather be selling a really great game for $5 and it being called a cheap great game, than selling a small fraction of the number of games at $20 each and just being considered a good game. I like-a-the-money more than I care about how expensive my product is.

 

I pre-ordered Diablo III because I've been waiting for it for ages, Max Payne I really want to play but I'm just not prepared to spend £30 on a 15 hour shooter at the moment, but then I never played the original MPs and smashed Diablo II in for years.

Its the natural order of things; sometimes you're prepared to pay full price, others not.

 

What Cinema do you go to that charges £15 a ticket?

 

Was a rough approximation. But the ones in Central London are pretty steep.

 

Does EA not understand nobody likes them?

 

**** you EA your more likely to screw developers and customers than any other company. What have you actually done for gaming lately apart from suck the life out the same old titles. Your no different from the ass holes of 10 years ago. Go join Activision in hell

 

"What Steam does might be teaching the customer, 'I might not want it in the first month, but if I look at it in four or five months, I'll get one of those weekend sales and I'll buy it at that time at 75 per cent off'" warned DeMartini."

Hmmm, so Mr.DeMartini, what does charging for a DLC pack already purchased teach the customer? - 'don't buy it but wait for the 'premium' pack to come out and I get the discount instead of buying it twice.'

Oh, and rather than ripping your existing customers off, why not try getting Origin working properly and out of beta? Steam works and it works well, it also listens to it's users (developers and consumers).

 

I'm sure I read somewhere (maybe on BT, actually) that sales of any arbitrary title actually go up after the title has been on sale.

I think being forced prison shower style to install game management software/DRM cheapens IP. This includes steam as well, it just happens that most of us like it.

 

Cost me £27.50 in total to watch prometheus with my gf.......it was in 3D tho

 

Oh, Steam have got it right with pricing and selling in my book.

 

I love how EA is using previous accounts before Origin's launch to determine their number. I havent logged into my EA account since I reviewed BF:BC2 for VGChartz and I am considered an Origin user... love it...

 

I may have a Origin account but that only has BF3 on it and i can guarantee i'll never buy a game on it over steam.

 

I think the whole sale system works as in diablo 3 for example. I know that in a couple of months time or whatever it will be ~£25 but I thought it was an amazing game and was prepared to pay £45 for it. It works because the people who think the games are really good pay release price, which subsides the people who think the game is average, who buy it one a sale.