News E3: "Steam sales cheapen intellectual property"

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2012/06/07/e3-steam-sales-cheapen-intellectual-propert/1

 

It's what happens with physical copies of games, why shouldn't it happen when it comes to downloads?
I must admit the sales are sometimes pretty mental, but in the end that just means more people get to play the games, and are more likely to pay for it than just download, especially if they're not sure they'll like it.

 

EA/Origin need to wake up, their prices are far too expensive.

Steam > Origin..... simples

 

I've been avoiding the EA discussion for a long time now but I feel after seeing them at E3 that I must put my two cents in.

They're out of their minds to even try and take on the might of Valve's Steam with Origin, it's never going to get them anywhere fast. My origin account has 3 games on it and that's only because I don't have choice, I've never loaded up Origin on its own and gone out my way to check out content on their as I know it's over priced garbage. Steam on the other hand is so much more appealing because yes they have sales and it cheapens that IP in a way, it also acts as a catalyst to boost sales maybe in sequels or other franchises.

Steam will always be superior and to diminish it at something like E3 when everyone else is already hurting over the over-hyped and sparkly ********, is not the best way to go. Crytek and EA have just announced that the BOW in Crysis 3 isn't a default weapon in the game, you need to pre-order, which just highlights what EA stands for. Valve are releasing CS:GO for $15 on every platform NEW, do you know how well that game is going to sell?!?! EA needs to wake the feck up and treat its fans better before it tries to bring down its rival

 

steam sales capture the 'WHAT! YOU WANT 35! FOR THAT! section of the market. I just demoed dirt showdown and i'd pay £5-£10. its that or nothing.
Are you listeneing codemasters - Grimrock is worth more than Showdown!
You'll always get the full price on realease folks or the never pay anything always pirate folks too but steam sales get me to buy games i'd probably just miss because of the price

 

Not quite within the same timeframe however.

Steam will put a game on sale that's only been out for a month (although not at 75%), yet physical retailers often don't match this.

Like the article said, there are very few games now that i'd be willing to pick up at release price simply because i know if i wait for a month or so i can usually get it at a much better price on Steam.

Conversely, the shops will still be selling it at retail prices or maybe only knock £5 off of the price.

Some of their recent sales have been more in line with or better than Steam sales (imo).

Obviously this is only a few games, but i agree that in general given a choice between a game on Steam and a game on Origin i'd buy the former.

 

Valve and Steam do lower gams prices and that is as it should be. EA may complain about how hard the developers work etc. but here in Bulgaria there are a bunch of local studios that major game developers outsource work to and believe me - they work for scraps compered to they western colleagues. Every one in the industry know where the major share of game profits end up and it really piss me off when parasites like EA start complaining about how cheap, second hand or pirated games "damage the profit of the developers" while they let good studios go out of business.
In the end of the day what really matters is what we, the buyers, want. That's why I think that crowd sourcing will be getting much more important in the future.

 

"I know both sides of it, I understand it. If you want to sell a whole bunch of units, that is certainly a way to do that, to sell a whole bunch of stuff at a low price. The game makers work incredibly hard to make this intellectual propert... "y" is missing

steam all the way... EA's argument could just as easily be turned around and say, what if u do not cheapen the intellectual property and keep it at a certain price with units not selling, u will still go out of business.

 

They're out of their minds, looking for excuses to justify high prices. A prime example would be Sim City 2013, asking $79.99 out of spite I'm going to wait until it's $19.99 or bargain bin at retailers.

 

EA/Origin arent talking to the customers here, they're trying to appeal to the developers - Dont go to steam, cos their main interest is in quick sales, they're not fussed if customers pay a fair rate or not, they're just after money.
Origin are suggesting they believe the developers are worth more than that, and shouldnt lower themselves to 75% off sales just to flog copies, because what they're doing is encouraging the customer to wait for sales in order to make their purchase, and this alone is costing developers profit from sales.

Its got nothing to do with whats best for the customer, and dont kid yourselves that this is why Steam do discounts. This is nothing more than Origin trying to encourage developers to see Steam in a negative light, point out that while they may be selling tons of copies, they're doing it at their expense, and its also having an impact on customers approach to buying, where the emphasis is on waiting for the next sales and buying it at a notably reduced rate, rather than in years gone by paying the retail price. Origin is trying to keep the price point higher, which is better for the developers.
Yes, we the customers are getting screwed in that respect, but then Steam are screwing the retailers, and theres an argument that could be had for reduced sales having a negative impact on dev teams if they're not hitting their projected targets, resulting in budget cuts.

You dont have to like what people say for it to be true. What Origin is saying is true, and fair. Shame is it sucks for the customer who has a bit of restraint and will wait a few of weeks for a bargin.

 

How can you argue to your target audience that more expensive games are the way forward.

Get a grip and stop taking punts at more successful platforms.

Yes, and E3 is the best place to do that. /Sarc

 

EA/Origin QQ about Steam sales?

Steam has huge variety of games and companies behind them. EA/Origin has only.....1?

 

Does Valve need the publishers/devolopers say so to put one of their games on sale?

 

If I am rigth steam must talk to the developers and they must agree to these sales which flaws the plan of EA's idea, then you get the specials:

eg: Phyconaughts when it came out at £1 pushed a developer no one had heard of to one almost everyone owned and it was a fantastic game

EA: I like their games but I cannot justify 30-50 (depending on game) for a title which looks good but is a sequal to something that just plays like the previous version

Also I find it strange that EA moan about all this and yet Steam are listening to the community and just giving us (the paying customer) what we are requesting where as EA are trying to decide and push us in a certian direction

Just my 2 cents

 

"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'"

I think this is true and is the mindset that, well, pretty much everyone here, has adopted. Firesales do work, but the rate at which Steam does them isn't healthy for the overall economy.

 

So EA/Origin are trying to convince people that paying a higher price for the same product is a good thing?
yeah I can see that working out well for them, lol.

 

Suppose it depends where Valve get their products keys from.

Who knows, they might grey import them lol.

Being serious I'd hazard a guess and say if Valve are buying a certain number of keys at said price, developers aren't going to be all that bothered what they shift copies at. As long as it's not tuppence.

 

What a load of utter garbage!

Steam's system makes a lot of sense with phased pricing for different user groups.

1 - Slight discount on pre-orders to draw in the crowd and tip a few over the edge on their purchase decision.
2 - Launch price for those willing to pay full price to be first.
3 - Discount after some time for volume sales on those willing or forced to wait.
4 - Major discount as product nears end of life sales trickle to boost volume once again.

This hits all the demographics from rich kids with everything to people being careful with their finances. It opens a much bigger market and audience over time and keeps new and old 'stock' moving.

I know there are games I have which I would have never bought without this system and others that I have migrated to from disc. EA really are a greed machine who are unable to see the big picture.

Hundreds of small sales are better that one large one. This has been shown time and time again. Some of the most successful businesses in the world are built on volume. EA is treating games like a luxury item, not the commodity they have become.

Welcome to the modern world EA, you are not a luxury goods E-tailer.

 

The issue here is the wholly different outlooks on it. While Valve and EA are both in it for Profit. Valve rakes in a fortune just from Steam alone. The fact that even after all this time; things like the Original Portal and Half-Life 2 still sell is also a statement about the reach of Steam (And the fact they're awesome games.), Valve seem to believe that, on the whole, games will sell well at a slight price-decrease, the occasional sale jumping sales up by a fair margin. EA, on the other hand, seem to believe that if enough people buy it at full price; they'll work out more or less the same as twice the people buying it at half the price.

I can understand the logic behind both, but sales are an important marketing trick. If you get a little-known game out there, not selling well, you dump it on sale, a load of people pick it up and have a look; suddenly it can take off, you'll sell an absolute truckload of copies shortly after as word of mouth spreads your games. EA, with it's big triple A Blockbuster titles doesn't seem to feel the need to subscribe to this theory. I won't deny that some games on Steam are overpriced when they're not on sale, especially in relation to the prices you can get them for from traditional retailers or other online sources, but the Sales are what made Steam so popular. It may have started off as DRM, but now there's some quantifiable benefit to having it on a PC.

 

The only people that cheapen Intellectual Property are people like EA. I can't quite back that statement up with a perfect argument, so I'm going to spit things like 'Battlefield 3 Premium' and use strings of expletives to express my dissatisfaction with them using, what should have been the awesome successor to Battlefield 2, to do nothing but garner profits like a cheap two bit whore.

Stuff like that weakens/cheapens IPs, not making sure that people who may not have bought it ever actually get hooked on your work.