'Waaah, Steam sales devalues games,' says EA. 'Lol,' says game devs.

Graal

Graal

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Valve's Steam sales have always proven a great time for consumers to score some cheap PC games, but over the past several months, there's been some debate over whether these promotions are good for game developers. Some have argued that the major discounts devalue games, and end up hurting the industry in the long run.

But according to a number of developers that took part in this year's Steam Summer Sale, that doesn't seem to be the case. The teams who've discounted their games during this or previous Steam sales have found that the promotions not only attract more sales, but also generate more revenue and breathe new life into aging products.

Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer, for instance, tells us that while it's been almost three years since his studio launched Torchlight, Valve's Steam promotions have helped the game maintain healthy sales to this very day.

"We find that we get several thousand percent increases in units and revenue on the days of the Steam sales, and unit sales are usually about double the normal for a few weeks after the sales are over," he says.

This year's Summer Sale (which ended July 22) was particularly noteworthy for Runic, as it helped Torchlight hit its second biggest day ever in terms of overall unit sales -- not bad for a game that came out in October 2009.

And Runic's case doesn't seem to be an anomaly; Supergiant Games' Amir Rao tells us that these Steam sales have proven more lucrative than his game's initial debut.

"A lot of times we judge the success of a game -- and predict its sales -- by looking at its launch day numbers. Steam sales have made that delightfully impossible. Our launch day [for Bastion], which we viewed as very strong, is only our fifth best day of sales ever on Steam due to the power of the promotions we've had the opportunity to participate in," Rao says.

According to indie developer and Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund McMillen, these promotions can increase sales to an almost staggering extent. His 2D dungeon crawler The Binding of Isaac, for example, saw sales multiply by five when it was marked down by 50 percent, and once it hit the front page as a temporary "Flash Deal" (for 75 percent off), sales multiplied by sixty.

Believe it or not, those figures aren't all that unusual. Valve's director of business development, Jason Holtman, says plenty of developers have seen their sales increase exponentially, giving them a very healthy boost in revenue.

"It's not uncommon for our partners to see [a] 10-20 times revenue increase on games they run as a 'Daily Deal.' Some titles really take off and see as much [as a] 70-80 times increase in revenue," Holtman said.
Is there a catch?

Despite the fact that Steam sales mark games down to just a small fraction of their usual price, the developers we spoke to don't think these promotions are devaluing games at all. Based on the data they've seen, Steam sales have only been a good thing for their business.

Sure, players will jump on the chance to buy a game for $2.50, but the developers have found that Steam consumers are still perfectly willing to pay full price for a game once the sales are over. The "race to the bottom" we've seen on the mobile markets just doesn't seem to be there on Valve's platform.

"While some may argue that [major sales] contribute to an industry-wide price deterioration problem -- where smartphone games have made people unwilling to spend more than $5 on a digital game -- [Steam sales] are a bit different," says Ken Berry, the executive VP of XSEED Games (Ys Origins, Ys: The Oath in Felghana).

"Rather than looking at it as a 'lost sale' when people wait for these Steam discounts, I think it needs to be viewed as reaching out to a new customer that never would have purchased your game otherwise."

Valve's Holtman says he's never noticed any negative consequences from these promotions. Instead, most games still see positive trends in their sales numbers well after the discounts are over. At the very worst, a game's sales will just revert back to what they were before the promotion began.

And of course, it's not only about generating more sales. Sometimes, you just want to make sure that people are playing your game in the first place, so they pay attention when you're building excitement for whatever comes next.

As Toxic Games' Daniel Da Rocha (Q.U.B.E.), puts it, "[When people] have the opportunity pick up a copy for next to nothing, this only grows the fan base around the game, so when we release new content or future games, we have a large community already there to market to."

For those still looking to reap the benefits of these sales, you're in luck, as Holtman says "there's no secret handshake a developer needs to know to get their title on the front page [during a sale]" – all you really need to do is put out a product that consumers want to play.
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Source

They're not really telling us anything we don't know yet, but it should at least render EA a bit speechless for having all the shit they spew about Steam debunked.
 
It is a pity that the article is only backed up by opinions of smaller development studios or indie devs (i.e. this focus makes the validity of the counter argument not broad enough to actually say "Nyaa nyaa EA are wrong, or whatever").

It would have been nice to see some feedback from the likes of Bethesda, Rockstar, Gearbox or any other AAA title creator for that matter.
 
Strifehart said:
It is a pity that the article is only backed up by opinions of smaller development studios or indie devs (i.e. this focus makes the validity of the counter argument not broad enough to actually say "Nyaa nyaa EA are wrong, or whatever").

It would have been nice to see some feedback from the likes of Bethesda, Rockstar, Gearbox or any other AAA title creator for that matter.
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You don't have to get feedback from the other big companies, if they weren't interested or they weren't seeing large profit gains they wouldn't add their titles to the sales in the 1st place.
 
The Joker said:
You don't have to get feedback from the other big companies, if they weren't interested or they weren't seeing large profit gains they wouldn't add their titles to the sales in the 1st place.
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Wow, that's a pretty big assumption to make.

Fact of the matter is, without input from the bigger companies you cannot have a holistic view of the market. I would have expected that the EA-hate train would have run out of steam by now(lol, pun not intended), but clearly the citizens of the internet just loves to continue riding it.
 
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Graal this is old news :D

Steam and ea already responded to this... It's linked on escapist magazine (website) some where
 
Strifehart said:
Wow, that's a pretty big assumption to make.

Fact of the matter is, without input from the bigger companies you cannot have a holistic view of the market. I would have expected that the EA-hate train would have run out of steam by now(lol, pun not intended), but clearly the citizens of the internet just loves to continue riding it.
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Well the EA hate train is still going strong and will continue to do so for many years to come if they don't change their ways.
I stopped buying EA games completely and I dare say many other gamers have followed this path.
 
Strifehart said:
Wow, that's a pretty big assumption to make.

Fact of the matter is, without input from the bigger companies you cannot have a holistic view of the market. I would have expected that the EA-hate train would have run out of steam by now(lol, pun not intended), but clearly the citizens of the internet just loves to continue riding it.
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You are confusing "EA hate train" with "EA said something stupid and was called out".

A week after the dude said how Steam sales were devaluing IP Origin had a big sale with lots of stuff 60-75%. So I guess either they no longer care about their IP or sales don't actually devalue IP.

Also you don't need to wait for people to release a statement when you can judge by their actions, if big publishers are constantly having sales of their big games it's a pretty clear indication that they think the sales benefit them and the franchise.
 
The Joker said:
Well the EA hate train is still going strong and will continue to do so for many years to come if they don't change their ways.
I stopped buying EA games completely and I dare say many other gamers have followed this path.
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I actually find myself buying MORE EA titles in the last couple of years than before, but to each their own.
 
Pr⊕phet said:
/reports ea support to the nearest MOD
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lol. I guess it's due to the fact that they actually have a pretty decent library of titles which I enjoy playing (Dead Space, Mass Effect, Battlefield). I'm not all too bothered about people's perceptions of the company itself, I'm just interested in playing the games at the end of the day. That's probably obvious, considering that I own the majority of the Mass Effect series on all 3 platforms at this point (I'm only missing the PS3 version of ME3).
 
Pr⊕phet said:
/reports ea support to the nearest MOD
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I've bought quiet a few EA branded game myself the past year or so.

Strifehart said:
lol. I guess it's due to the fact that they actually have a pretty decent library of titles which I enjoy playing (
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Strifehart said:
Dead Space, Mass Effect, Battlefield). I'm not all too bothered about people's perceptions of the company itself, I'm just interested in playing the games at the end of the day. That's probably obvious, considering that I own the majority of the Mass Effect series on all 3 platforms at this point (I'm only missing the PS3 version of ME3).
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I am the same, as long as the game is decent I dont mind who the publisher is.
 
Strifehart said:
It is a pity that the article is only backed up by opinions of smaller development studios or indie devs (i.e. this focus makes the validity of the counter argument not broad enough to actually say "Nyaa nyaa EA are wrong, or whatever").

It would have been nice to see some feedback from the likes of Bethesda, Rockstar, Gearbox or any other AAA title creator for that matter.
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It's not so much who are saying it as it is what they're saying. What they say pretty much applies to almost any game dev out there. Through Steam sales, they get sales on older games which have long since stopped moving copies, and they reach an audience they wouldn't otherwise have reached, thus expanding their audience for future titles or audiences.

I'd say three quarters of the games I buy on Steam sales are games I wouldn't otherwise have bought. Look at Torchlight, as an example. I had no interest in the game because I thought $20 was steep for an indie hack 'n slasher, then I got it for $5 on sale, now I've seen what a good game it is, I'm buying Torchlight 2 on release.
 
Darksiders, Borderlands and Fallout, three games I bought on cheap specials, games I wasn't really too interested in but decided to try out, and now they are among my favourites with their sequels being release day purchases.
 
Pr⊕phet said:
/reports to OmegaFenix22 ;)
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Oh_noes_fire.jpg


;)
 
Graal said:
Waaah, Steam sales devalues games,' says EA. 'Lol,' says game devs.
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EA Defends Origin From Hardcore Crowd
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118516-EA-Defends-Origin-From-Hardcore-Crowd

Steam Cheapen intellectual property
http://www.destructoid.com/ea-expect-discounts-but-no-steam-like-sales-on-origin-228991.phtml

Valve: If Steam Sales Didn't Work We Wouldn't Run Them
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118547-Valve-If-Steam-Sales-Didnt-Work-We-Wouldnt-Run-Them
http://www.destructoid.com/valve-if-steam-sales-killed-games-we-wouldn-t-do-them-231526.phtml

Steam deals don’t “cannibalise” sales, says Valve’s director of business management
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/16/s...-says-valves-director-of-business-management/


Another response I couldn't find now.
 
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People have different incomes and they get bored. Of course a game will devalue over time, the trick is in keeping that game in people's memory and offering it at various price points at the right time. Most games which are considered failures are games who tried to keep their premium price for too long. UT3 and Gears of War PC is an example of this. By the time the price came down the playerbase was already gone, which makes new players think twice about buying or even trying the game.
 
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Pr⊕phet said:
Steam deals don’t “cannibalise” sales, says Valve’s director of business management
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/16/s...-says-valves-director-of-business-management/
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This one made me lol. EA talks out of their asses, making broad sweeping claims about how the sales are devaluing IPs, and in swoops Valve with an economist to explain why EA is so wrong. :p

I absolutely love how EA always wants to cry about everything. When BF3 didn't even put a dent in MW3's sales, they wanted to snuggle up to Activision all out of the blue. When Origin didn't do nearly as well as they hoped, they wanted to point fingers at Steam and say 'but they had issues at launch too.' Well guess what, EA? Nobody gives a shit. You're going up against a service which has been out there for 9 years already, a service which has had time to mature and develop an expansive fanbase. Then you expect your service to do well when you don't even want to offer games at fair prices or your service doesn't even work as it should?
 
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