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Valve and game prices on Steam.
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wojtek88 Nov 18, 2016
Hi guys,
as most of you I buy many games that are released for Linux. I buy them mostly directly from Steam store or from Feral store. But I have to say that recently I started to feel that game prices are going high, really really high.
I started to see the problem when 3 games from Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II series were released. 7,6 and 5 years old games were priced for 20 euro each. For me it was the uh-oh moment.

But let's proceed.
Right now newest games on Steam are super expensive.
In my country (Poland) this starts to be a serious issue (at least for me and few people I know and that are buying a lot of games). About 2 years ago newest games were like 20 euros cheaper.

Let's take a look on a game that is on front page of store (it is not game that supports Linux, but is very good to show how ridiculous prices ar right now):
http://store.steampowered.com/app/292730/
Base version of game costs 60 euro, but "Deluxe version" is 100 euro. It's funny, the price of the game (in digital version) is almost the same as it is on PS Store, so a store of a games for a console...

But still, let's proceed.
I've just analyzed some mails from Valve and found out something really really bad.
I've added to wishlist Trine 3 some time ago. And what have I seen?
- 20.10 mail with sale:
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- 27.10 mail with sale:
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- 18.11 store price without sale:
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Sorry, but this is just terrible...

And last problem I see - quality of the sales.
I hope Valve will prove me wrong on Black Friday, but last 2 years I've seen same titles with prices even the same or almost bigger than it was last time. Of course few titles were attractive, but still - most of the time there is no super deal.

I'm not going to say I will stop to buy games on Steam store, but from now I will think multiple times before I buy a game.
What I wanted to do is to hear your opinion. Is it the same for your country? What do you think in general about current prices and sales on Steam?
manero666 Nov 18, 2016
On the second image the price refers to all 3 Trine games (Trineology bundle).

I saw the same for a dedaelic game and it looked way too high. Then I discovered that it was the price for the "Dedaelic Armageddon Bundle"
damarrin Nov 19, 2016
The issue I have is that getting the locally-published game in a shop for "PC" (which basically gets you the Steam key, right?) is much cheaper than buying it online, from the Feral store or Steam itself. For instance, ATM the new Deus Ex is some 35€ with a box and DVD, whereas it's 50€ from Feral direct and Steam both.

I want to show my support for Feral, but this is a serious challenge. :-(
wojtek88 Nov 19, 2016
Quoting: manero666On the second image the price refers to all 3 Trine games (Trineology bundle).

I saw the same for a dedaelic game and it looked way too high. Then I discovered that it was the price for the "Dedaelic Armageddon Bundle"
http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/721/
It does not cost 59.99 at all.
Quoting: damarrinThe issue I have is that getting the locally-published game in a shop for "PC" (which basically gets you the Steam key, right?) is much cheaper than buying it online, from the Feral store or Steam itself. For instance, ATM the new Deus Ex is some 35€ with a box and DVD, whereas it's 50€ from Feral direct and Steam both.

I want to show my support for Feral, but this is a serious challenge. :-(
That's also something that I am interested in - I assume such a product do not support feral, because it is Windows key. But maybe it should be changed - if someone buys a product on disk and activates it on Linux and plays on Linux it should be treated in a different way.
damarrin Nov 19, 2016
I don't think there is a way to change it.

When you buy through Steam, Valve gets the money and gives it out to people based on where the game was bought from and where it was played on (allegedly). In case of the aforementioned Deus Ex, that would be Square and Feral, or perhaps just Square with a note that some of it is due to Feral.

When you buy it in a shop, the money goes to the shop. The shop had previously bought the game from the local publisher, who remember was publishing a Windows game, or a local distributor, who probably got the money way in advance of you buying the game and activating it on Steam. The chain from you to the publisher to Square is completely broken here and there is no way to track the sale as a Linux one.
damarrin Nov 19, 2016
Here's another case: I just went to an actual brick and mortar shop and here's Tyranny special edition (a nice box with soundtrack and artbook, I have no idea how the contents relates to the versions available online), for the equivalent of less than 34€ (the euro is expensive today). It actually comes with Linux system requirements on the box and is published by a local company.

The price on the Paradox site is 42€. Should I buy or should I not?
wojtek88 Nov 20, 2016
Quoting: damarrinHere's another case: I just went to an actual brick and mortar shop and here's Tyranny special edition (a nice box with soundtrack and artbook, I have no idea how the contents relates to the versions available online), for the equivalent of less than 34€ (the euro is expensive today). It actually comes with Linux system requirements on the box and is published by a local company.

The price on the Paradox site is 42€. Should I buy or should I not?

That's not trivial question. The easiest answer would be: don't buy. But as you said, you can buy more interesting content with lower price.
In this case the answer is not so obvious for one reason - Linux version of the game is not done by a 3rd party. So even if you buy Windows key you support the same publisher, so there is not problem of "money goes to wrong company" like it is when you buy a Windows key of game published to Linux by Feral/Aspyr/VP.

On the other side - as it was written before - this probably won't be counted as Linux sale, and because of that Linux copies number will be lower. Lower Linux copies amount -> lower market -> less titles available on our platform.

I just hope that Steam will start to bring to companies some stats of what platform is the game played on for last month / year or whatever and how long do those players play. It would make our lives better for sure.
damarrin Nov 20, 2016
Yeah, but then, like I said, it lists Linux on the box.
slaapliedje Nov 20, 2016
Interesting discussion. And as the example, I bought Pillars of Eternity at Wal-Mart, oddly it didn't have any of the penguin love on the box, and yet it also was cheaper than buying it on Steam. Sadly physical copies are going away, and you'd *think* that digital copies would be FAR less in price, since you don't have to count in printed manual, case, artwork, etc. Yet a brand new game is $60 USD everywhere, more if you want sound track / digital maps, etc. Which... once created is zero cost to the developers. It's like the included DLC on the CD that has to be unlocked for extra $$.

While I love Paradox for porting all their newer games over to Linux, they are one of the worse for doing DLC...

But as the original post said, there is the issue of charging 20 for games that are 5+ years old. The thing is, they're not old for Linux users, and there is also the problem of Steam's 'Buy once, run everywhere' which is AWESOME for consumers, crappy for porting houses that release older games.

I'm thinking they mostly just get paid by the original publishers in the hope that they'll get more sales. Guess one of the Feral guys would have to chime in here. I mean if I had the Dawn of War games forever via humble bundle or wherever I got them, but haven't played them yet, but then fire them up on Linux, will they get paid for them?

Or do they just get a lump sum? I would guess they were released for Linux to bring some new users to be excited for Dawn of War III, hopefully that gets a port as well.

For the record, I was suckered into buying the higher tier of Pillars of Eternity, more to give Obsidian / Paradox more money to make more games!
ziabice Nov 21, 2016
You can check the site SteamDB to verify if the prices are really low or high.
Julius Nov 23, 2016
Hmm, maybe they changed regional pricing for Poland, or you were switching to a German ISP or such? Shouldn't prices in Poland be displayed in Zlotys?

The higher prices you mention look like the regular German/western European prices... you guys in eastern Europe are just lucky that you can get games really cheap on Steam (basically subsidized by German gamers :p ).

In some other countries it is even more crazy, for example in the Philippines every game is basically 75% off all the time, and during sales you get an additional discount like everyone else (so top quality games often only cost less than a 1€). The downside is that some games are region locked, so you can only used them if you log into your steam account in south-east Asia. And before you ask: no it has gotten pretty difficult & risky to fake being in a cheap country via a VPN/proxy or such (in the Philippines you need to link your account to a local mobile phone for example).
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