Game store itch is having a big summer sale

MewnBase is definitely worth it, and due for another update soon given what the dev's schedule has been like so far.

Quoting: PatolaYou know, I would really really like to support itch because I think it's THE BEST appstore with its monetization and free policies. But it's very difficult, and these sales clearly show why - I end up swallowing the DRM-infested versions of steam games because their prices are much cheaper (regional prices for Brazil) and their sales much much better. I'll list the case here, for all these games:

Our currency is called "Real". A dollar is currently worth 3.75 reals. A fair approximation of our cost of life is to consider that we earn 1 real for each 1 dollar an US citizen earns. So ideally, a game that costs US$ 20 should cost R$ 20 if the cost of life is considered.

Do not forget that steams sale are starting in less than 48 hours. We'll have a good comparison if the same games get sales pricing.

MidBoss: US$ 14.99 regular price, US$ 6.74 sales price. Regular price in Steam is R$ 27.99, about 7.45 dollars.
Rise To Ruins: US$ 9.99 regular price, US$ 4.99 sales price. Regular price in Steam is R$ 19.99, about 5.33 dollars.
The Signal from Tölva: US$ 19.99 regular price, US$ 9.99 sales price. Regular price in Steam is R$ 36.99, about 9.86 dollars. Cheaper than 50% off on itch!
Haque: US$ 14.99 regular price, US$ 7.49 sales price. Regular price in Steam is R$ 28.99, about 7.73 dollars.
A Hole New World: US$ 9.99 regular price, US$ 4.99 sales price. Regular price in Steam is R$ 19.99, about 5.33 dollars.
All Walls Must Fall: US$ 9.99 regular price, US$ 6.99 sales price. Regular price in Steam is R$ 20.69, about 5.52 dollars.
Mewnbase: not on Steam, so I can't compare.

Maybe you (the reader of this post) don't agree with regional prices - but it is the strategy that works in "developing" countries. Otherwise people have too much of an incentive to pirate copies and don't pay for the games at all. It is very much like eternal sales for some unpriviledged people. And I realize that developers might not sympathize with the pressure to discriminate some buyers with some large discounts, and that this can also be exploited by people who just want to pay less. But this really really really hurts adoption of game distributors / shops here. I wish I could ask itch for fixing that, but I think they are smart enough to recognize the existence of regional prices.

Someone once said that living in a "developing" country like Brazil is live playing life on "hard difficulty". And it seems itch is not very fond of dialing down on this difficulty even a little bit.

I think regional prices are very necessary and a good thing for downloaded games. Extra sales of downloaded games have almost a zero marginal cost to the developer/distributer, so selling at any reasonable price is good as long as there are limited gray imports into other markets. I suspect that something that has a high cost of content like gold bars would be the same price if made in Brazil or the US.

However, it is strange how and when regional pricing is used. I live in the UK, where I guess our average salaries are somewhere around 50% of US average salaries, but we normally pay full US dollar prices for downloaded games. This may be because there would be a huge gray market if UK prices were half the US prices. The same is true with music CDs. I recently imported by post a new music CD by a Scottish band from a Florida outlet, as it was cheaper than buying it from a UK outlet.

I have looked at Itch, but have never found much that matches my interests. I do buy from Humble and GoG, but really love Steam sales.

Quoting: PatolaYou know, I would really really like to support itch because I think it's THE BEST appstore with its monetization and free policies. But it's very difficult, and these sales clearly show why - I end up swallowing the DRM-infested versions of steam games because their prices are much cheaper (regional prices for Brazil) and their sales much much better.

Same story as me in Malaysia. For example, 'The Signal from Tölva' regular price here is RM 38.00 or USD 9.49 or R$ 35.57. GoL readers from developing countries had no choices other than buying cheap that comes with DRM.

But, I'm buying on itch.io if the games really interesting to me such as Slipstream, Tacoma etc., at full price!

Additionally on sale: The Girl and The Robot, NullPointer, Jettomero, Slayer Shock, and Slaughter Drive Z (at 10 cents, does that even cover the processing fees? :O)

You have covered some of these games in the past. Maybe worth adding the bigger ones to that list?

Quoting: tonRSame story as me in Malaysia. For example, 'The Signal from Tölva' regular price here is RM 38.00 or USD 9.49 or R$ 35.57. GoL readers from developing countries had no choices other than buying cheap that comes with DRM.

But, I'm buying on itch.io if the games really interesting to me such as Slipstream, Tacoma etc., at full price!

Have you looked at GOG? It also has the games you mentioned, like The Signal From Tölva, Tacoma, Slipstream 5000 and others, all DRM-free and with regional pricing (at least in my country).

Wow what you have there is quite nice. Here people earn approximately a third of that what people earn in western Europe, yet we have to swallow all the 60 eur releases just the same, from all stores. Or USD, or whatever the store uses.


Last edited by dvd on 20 June 2018 at 5:59 am UTC

I will start using itch.io once they finally add tag filtering.
It is basically impossible to browse games on itch.io other than by browsing specific genres. The "top sellers" or "popular" tags are just filled to the brim with Visual Novels (which I don't like) and ... well... stuff that looks like it came from a games jam...
As soon as the store adds a way for me to easily add certain tags to a globally applied blacklist, I'd be happy to use it more. And there are already issues for this on Github - since months, however, and not resolved yet.

I was hoping for the OrangePixel games to be on sale in the itch.io summer sale :-/ Well maybe next time.
Edit: Wait, WHAT? They are!!! Nice. They weren't yesterday ... Space Grunts, here I come!


Last edited by fryk on 20 June 2018 at 10:21 am UTC

I will look at that list and see if I'm interested in some games. I'm sure I will.
Right now I bought MidBoss, Haque and donated some $ to Timbertales (I really hope It will have more sales in the future).

Quoting: Alm888Have you looked at GOG? It also has the games you mentioned, like The Signal From Tölva, Tacoma, Slipstream 5000 and others, all DRM-free and with regional pricing (at least in my country).

Yes, but all GOG games here are sell at full price without regional pricing.

I know GOG doing great job especially on DRM-Free policy but I'm love with itch.io 'Name-Your-Own-Price' model for buying games. For me, that's the best way to support indie devs.

For mainstream games, I buying on Steam. Let's be honest, Steam price in Malaysia among cheapest in the world. Just look at price for Rocket League on SteamDB.

EDIT: Forgot to mention SteamDB link is Rocket League game database.

Quoting: dvdWow what you have there is quite nice. Here people earn approximately a third of that what people earn in western Europe, yet we have to swallow all the 60 eur releases just the same, from all stores. Or USD, or whatever the store uses.

While game is cheap here, everything else especially houses are so damn expensive relatively to average salary. Average salary here is RM2,463 in 2017 according to research (I'm totally disagree with that). Spend 1/2 of your salary for paying house mortgage is normal here. Hell, some people I know had to combine salary with their spouse just to buy a flat/small apartment house.


Last edited by tonR on 21 June 2018 at 1:05 am UTC