Does Steam keep game prices artificially high?

Jolteh

Jolteh

Jolteh

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Apologies if this has been discussed before.

I'll admit I'm not a particular fan of Steam, I prefer to own the actual game discs and such. Putting that aside however, I've been looking recently to add to my rather sparce collection of Steam games (TF2/CS etc) with some new ones and was looking around for some bargains. Unfortunately, weekend deals aside, it seems that the majority of Steam titles tend to be sold for spot on the RRP, regardless of age. This seems to also have bled over to actual web stores that are pretty much matching the Steam price.

If memory serves, one of the advantages of PC games tended to be that they were always slightly cheaper than their console counterparts, but recently this doesn't seem to be the case. I've been looking at games that are 6mo+ old that I would have normally expected to start dropping in price, and they're still sticking with their original release price.

Should Steam be priced more competatively, especially considering they don't incur the costs of having to provide a physical product? Do you feel that Steam is having a negative effect on PC game costs for us consumers?
 
Because they dont have much competition in the download and play market they can keep the prices higher. If they keep the price of a game i want i just go elsewhere.
 
This has come up for debate before and I don't believe for a minute Valve/Steam sets any of the third-party publisher prices. I think publishers do keep download prices fairly stable, and unlike retail and online the reasons for prices going down, simply don't exist.

Tbh this isn't just an issue with Steam, but other download services too - even the console counterparts. I think that as the download services mature there is a chance that price competition or different deals become more frequent.
 
Timber said:
I think that as the download services mature there is a chance that price competition or different deals become more frequent.
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The problem with downloading games is you really only want to have one digital download program installed and running on your PC.

Even if there was a lot of competition, do people really want half a dozen different programs installed and running on their PC. I know some download stores allow you to download the original game and .exe, but I feel that any future competition to Steam will follow it's model and tie your games to your account.
 
Its the difference is sales method. For shops that sell boxed versions of a game, they buy the actual games and its theirs with a licence to sell on per box. With something like steam we can assume theres a similar licence but which will stay at a set price because there hasnt been a set quantity of the game provided. Steam will have an infinate amount of it they can sell, plus a keygen. In shops when you want to shift old stock you lower the price or do offers on it. This problem just doesn not exist for Steam so it doesnt come up.
 
I agree, although some prices do come down a bit, I have often just bought a boxed version and then tied it to the steam account, the most recent time being when I bought UT3, saved about 10 quid that way and now I have a physical copy as well as a virtual one.
 
Was there not also the issue of retailers becoming a bit narked if Steams prices were too low.
Rumblings about not stocking particular games, etc?

I really think the price should be a good bit cheaper due to the lack of packaging, no physical media and no transportation costs. Sucks.
 
Jolteh said:
Do you feel that Steam is having a negative effect on PC game costs for us consumers?
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Not at all. I've only paid full price for ~5 of my Steam games (Bioshock, Prototype, L4D - games that I want at release), and I have 92 paid for games in my Steam account.

Steam has some incredible bargains now and then :)
 
Steam's weekend deals are brilliant, you can pick up some great games and save yourself some cash.

Steam often don't set the price of their games. The weekend deals are what make steam.

Didn't they say their sales for Left 4 Dead was up 2000% on the weekend deal ? :p
 
Prices aren't that bad on Steam, except for brand new games but those prices are pretty universal for the first couple of weeks, and lets not forget the awesome weekend deals :P

My only problem with steam is that when you've had enough of a game you can't sell it on.
I really do like steam though, it's good having most of my games in one easy to use place instead of icons everywhere, one for single player, one for multi player etc etc :P

So yeah, the only kicker for me is the inability to resell games once tied to the steam account.
 
Games are usually about £10 more expensive on Steam. I just use Gamestracker instead to find where the cheapest place is and make my purchases based on that; I'm more than happy to wait a day or two for delivery if it saves me money.
 
Jolteh said:
Apologies if this has been discussed before.

I'll admit I'm not a particular fan of Steam, I prefer to own the actual game discs and such. Putting that aside however, I've been looking recently to add to my rather sparce collection of Steam games (TF2/CS etc) with some new ones and was looking around for some bargains. Unfortunately, weekend deals aside, it seems that the majority of Steam titles tend to be sold for spot on the RRP, regardless of age. This seems to also have bled over to actual web stores that are pretty much matching the Steam price.

If memory serves, one of the advantages of PC games tended to be that they were always slightly cheaper than their console counterparts, but recently this doesn't seem to be the case. I've been looking at games that are 6mo+ old that I would have normally expected to start dropping in price, and they're still sticking with their original release price.

Should Steam be priced more competatively, especially considering they don't incur the costs of having to provide a physical product? Do you feel that Steam is having a negative effect on PC game costs for us consumers?
Click to expand...

I am currently selling my steam account on gumtree (search for it), there are modern games and ALL of them have physical copies.
 
I think the biggest problem with Pricing on Steam is the Retail channel. I can imagine publishers being told that they won't stock certain games if they don't keep digital distribution artificially high to an extent... If Digital distribution was the cheapest option then I would NEVER purchase a physical copy from game retailers.
 
barmyllama said:
The problem with downloading games is you really only want to have one digital download program installed and running on your PC.

Even if there was a lot of competition, do people really want half a dozen different programs installed and running on their PC. I know some download stores allow you to download the original game and .exe, but I feel that any future competition to Steam will follow it's model and tie your games to your account.
Click to expand...

If I'm honest I was thinking about the console dowload services as well becuase they are so integrated into the respective platforms, when I wrote that. Even two days ago on XBLA I noticed SSF2T:HD (a relatively recent title) is being sold at 33% off.

However keeping it PC/Steam specific I guess complex, or overly large client software could be a barrier to entry - but another example - I've recently bought from the Blizzard online store without needing any software installed on my PC to do so.
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
Was there not also the issue of retailers becoming a bit narked if Steams prices were too low.
Rumblings about not stocking particular games, etc?

I really think the price should be a good bit cheaper due to the lack of packaging, no physical media and no transportation costs. Sucks.
Click to expand...

That sounds about right.

With retailers selling boxed copies they will generally reduce the pricing after a short while (if not before release) because it costs them money to have the boxes sat on the shelves/storeroom, Steam doesn't have that, and whilst publishers can set an RRP but not (as I understand it) legally enforce that RRP in stores, they can and will set the price on Steam etc at the RRP and keep it there to keep the retailers happy.

Personally I tend to buy cheapest retail, then tie to the steam account where possible.
 
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