Why are Steam games so expensive?

saguy

saguy

saguy

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The whole concept behind game distribution via Steam is a good one, but why does it have to more expensive than the same retail versions. Take for example Quake Wars which I am going to order online for £18 and on Steam it works out about at £30. To be honest I would have paid a bit more to get it on Steam because it would have been nice to play over the weekend, but £12 extra, no ways.

Even their own Valve games are more expensive, take the Orange Box which is about £5 pounds more. This applies to just about every game on their catalogue, except the very old ones, can be bought for less new. I just do not get it, why do people pay more for these games when digital distribution should be cheaper.
 
Partially due to retailer clout, especially in America. If retailers find out brand new games are to be significantly cheaper online than retail, they sometimes refuse to sell them in thier shops, and at the end of the day, Valve want to make money, which they can't make on the retail market if shops are refusing to stock thier titles. I believe Walmart is meant to be pretty bad for this...
 
I find them rather cheap but have seen a few titles for ridiculous prices
 
Alexrose1uk said:
Partially due to retailer clout, especially in America. If retailers find out brand new games are to be significantly cheaper online than retail, they sometimes refuse to sell them in thier shops, and at the end of the day, Valve want to make money, which they can't make on the retail market if shops are refusing to stock thier titles. I believe Walmart is meant to be pretty bad for this...
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Is that right?

I'm with the OP.

I bought the original HL2 on DVD.
I did however, buy Episode 1, and The Orange Box from Steam.

Other games I've wanted to buy, like Bioshock for example, I checked Steam first, then went and ordered from cheaper online stores. Worth the wait for delivery, for the savings.

If it's due to US stores, then they should really set up a Euro store, and we can buy games for $20 instead. If Bioshock was around $30, I'd have bought it the instant I'd seen it for sale... and why shouldn't it be? None of the ordinary things like shipping, store costs, packaging, and all that crap to pay for. I'd much rather do my PC games shopping from Steam, if they'd just price sensibly.

Another thing actually. We're always going on about rip-off Britain. If the games on Steam are being kept artificially high to keep US stores happy, then what's the cost of games over there then? More expensive than here? Do they get cheaper hardware, but more expensive software?

Ah well, doesn't matter, just thinking out loud. Guess I'll continue to order media from online stores for the forseeable future.

V1N.
 
Alexrose1uk said:
Partially due to retailer clout, especially in America. If retailers find out brand new games are to be significantly cheaper online than retail, they sometimes refuse to sell them in thier shops, and at the end of the day, Valve want to make money, which they can't make on the retail market if shops are refusing to stock thier titles. I believe Walmart is meant to be pretty bad for this...
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Thanks for the expanation on the price gap, but why do people buy their games on Steam. I would expect someone that uses Steam would also be reasonably internet retail savvy.

I would be interested to see a break down of sales between high street retail and online retail. Another thing I cannot figure out is why this price gap is larger for PC games than for console games. On release day 360 games are almost the same price in-store and online and very often a bit cheaper at my local Sainsbury's.
 
V1N said:
Is that right?

I'm with the OP.

I bought the original HL2 on DVD.
I did however, buy Episode 1, and The Orange Box from Steam.

Other games I've wanted to buy, like Bioshock for example, I checked Steam first, then went and ordered from cheaper online stores. Worth the wait for delivery, for the savings.

If it's due to US stores, then they should really set up a Euro store, and we can buy games for $20 instead. If Bioshock was around $30, I'd have bought it the instant I'd seen it for sale... and why shouldn't it be? None of the ordinary things like shipping, store costs, packaging, and all that crap to pay for. I'd much rather do my PC games shopping from Steam, if they'd just price sensibly.

Another thing actually. We're always going on about rip-off Britain. If the games on Steam are being kept artificially high to keep US stores happy, then what's the cost of games over there then? More expensive than here? Do they get cheaper hardware, but more expensive software?

Ah well, doesn't matter, just thinking out loud. Guess I'll continue to order media from online stores for the forseeable future.

V1N.
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I think it is a bit cheaper for them because they do not pay the tax, I may be wrong. I too in moments of weakness have bought from Steam, the Orange Box, and to be honest I should have waited because it was over so quickly anyway.
 
Large games retailers get anything from a 40 to 60% discount off the Rrp from distributors - at least that used to be the case when I used to work in a retailer.

So it's quite easy for them to cut their margins to the bare minimum and bank on volume of sales to compensate for smaller profit on each unit.

To be fair Valve and the others charging £30 for ET:QW are only charging the RRP , it's not as if they are price gouging you when you have the choice to go else where for a product.
 
saguy said:
Thanks for the expanation on the price gap, but why do people buy their games on Steam. I would expect someone that uses Steam would also be reasonably internet retail savvy.

I would be interested to see a break down of sales between high street retail and online retail. Another thing I cannot figure out is why this price gap is larger for PC games than for console games. On release day 360 games are almost the same price in-store and online and very often a bit cheaper at my local Sainsbury's.
Click to expand...

The problem with online retailers is postal strikes or otherwise unreliable postal service, if I can't get something delivered to my work then it's unlikely I'll get it anytime soon without a card through my door, even when ordering single DVD games. I then have to wait until a Saturday morning to get the item from my local depot or post office.

With Steam I don't have to wait too long before I get my hands on the latest game even if a bit more expensive than retail stores. Also, once you factor in travel costs for most people the price difference isn't that much if going to high-street stores.

There have also been issues with copy protection in some high-street retail games that haven't been in the Steam releases so in some ways Steam is more convenient for me.
 
I love Steam for the fact that I can uninstall and reinstall games to my hearts content, without ever using any space on my main storage drive :)

Though, I can't believe I got stung for tax when buying Bioshock on Steam - I mean, what kind of tax is it? Import tax? On a digital delivery system?

Does anyone know why we get taxxed buying games on Steam?
 
So far i have Half life 2, episode 1, episode 2, portal, Cs:s and TF2 on my steam account, all for about £35, not bad at all, plus i got to play the TF2 beta a while before the actual game came out, that is unbeatable in my eyes,

And i can uninstall-re-install to my hearts content, just takes about 15-20 mins to download
 
It's not as well, since they dont have VAT.

You get taxed because it's treated as if you were buying the product from a UK store. If they didn't tax you in this way, in this day and age of air mail, internet shops and home delivery, nobody would buy anything from the UK, the government wouldn't make any money, people would lose jobs, children would starve and nuclear defences in generations to come will fail due to a lack of staff replacing their forefathers.

Do you want the country and everyone you love to melt in nuclear inferno?

no. Buy from steam.
 
afraser2k said:
The problem with online retailers is postal strikes or otherwise unreliable postal service, if I can't get something delivered to my work then it's unlikely I'll get it anytime soon without a card through my door, even when ordering single DVD games. I then have to wait until a Saturday morning to get the item from my local depot or post office.

With Steam I don't have to wait too long before I get my hands on the latest game even if a bit more expensive than retail stores. Also, once you factor in travel costs for most people the price difference isn't that much if going to high-street stores.

There have also been issues with copy protection in some high-street retail games that haven't been in the Steam releases so in some ways Steam is more convenient for me.
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My experience varies greatly from yours. I buy a lot of games and not once have they been lost, just through the door and when I get home there it is. You are talking as if postal strikes are a common thing. 2 Days every 5 years is hardly an issue. As far as waiting you get games quicker on pre order, a day before release, where as Steam (apart from Orange box) you only get it day of release. I remember just the other day all the steamers moaning that they could not play Bioshock where as the rest of us were already on our 5th big daddy.
 
SuBsTaNcE said:
So far i have Half life 2, episode 1, episode 2, portal, Cs:s and TF2 on my steam account, all for about £35, not bad at all, plus i got to play the TF2 beta a while before the actual game came out, that is unbeatable in my eyes,

And i can uninstall-re-install to my hearts content, just takes about 15-20 mins to download
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Not that great if you already have HL2 and EP1 so £19 to just to buy EP2 by itself is very poor value considering it is about a third in length for a full game which on average retails less than £25. I like hl2 games but the whole episode thing is a way for Valve to milk a cash cow. On principle I will not be getting EP3 at full price. I would rather wait a year and pay what it is really worth.

What, 15 to 20 minutes to download, you gotta be joking. Even free services like Gamers Hell are faster than Steam. The fastest I get is about 350-390. You do know that you can also uninstall-re-install to your hearts content with Cd's a lot faster than downloading it every time.
 
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The postal service will vary with each location and my service from RM has been very poor, even before the strikes started (not including items "lost in the post"). So personally Steam is a much more reliable service to use than buying from online stores.

Also, part of the problem is that my address didn't officially exist on the RM database until 3 or 4 years ago until I got in touch with their head office to sort it out. A lot of online retailers still don't have my address on their "find post code" service so it can be a real pain ordering online. Even with this "sorted" I still get problems with RM. :o

:)
 
afraser2k said:
The postal service will vary with each location and my service from RM has been very poor, even before the strikes started (not including items "lost in the post"). So personally Steam is a much more reliable service to use than buying from online stores.

Also, part of the problem is that my address didn't officially exist on the RM database until 3 or 4 years ago until I got in touch with their head office to sort it out. A lot of online retailers still don't have my address on their "find post code" service so it can be a real pain ordering online. Even with this "sorted" I still get problems with RM. :o

:)
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That makes sense, if I was in the same situation I would do the same.
 
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