Steam Summer Sale 2011

orderoftheflame · 6 Jul 2011 at 13:57

CaptainRAVE said:
LOL - seems like Steam have run out of keys for Wings of Prey - idiots!

Why does that make them idiots exactly? :confused:

They don't just generate keys for themselves, they still buy them from publishers / developers and can only sell what they've been given.

If a publisher only supplied Valve with X number of keys to sell at sale prices, they can't sell on more than that exactly can they?

Mr Krugga · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:03

Is Clear Sky any good?

Am I likely to play it after I finish Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat?

I'm only considering buying it since I've got SoC on Games for Windows and fancy playing Call of Pripyat but it's £5 on its own.

CaptainRAVE · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:08

orderoftheflame said:
Why does that make them idiots exactly?

They don't just generate keys for themselves, they still buy them from publishers / developers and can only sell what they've been given.

If a publisher only supplied Valve with X number of keys to sell at sale prices, they can't sell on more than that exactly can they?

They buy them from publishers/developers? Quite an oversight by bother parties, and one that, if you are new to Steam, is greatly going to put you off purchasing future titles from them.

Evilsod · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:17

CaptainRAVE said:
They buy them from publishers/developers? Quite an oversight by bother parties, and one that, if you are new to Steam, is greatly going to put you off purchasing future titles from them.

They underestimated demand?

If 30,000 people suddenly decided to order the same game from Amazon you can bet they'd struggle to send them all out in the next couple of days. Yes its inconvenient but all they can hope for is Steam get more keys for the last day and put it back up.

adam_castell · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:31

imagine sitting in a meeting and deciding how many copies they should buy for the sales.... 1000, 5000, 20000, 100000... etc hard work

to little and they miss out on business, to many and they may be stuck with stock for some time..... stock is not good for the books

orderoftheflame · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:33

CaptainRAVE said:
They buy them from publishers/developers? Quite an oversight by bother parties, and one that, if you are new to Steam, is greatly going to put you off purchasing future titles from them.

What? How did you think they did it then? :confused:

Do you think that any company in thier right mind would give another company unlimited access to freely reproduce and distribute infinite stock of their product?

All thats happened is they've underestimated how much that title would sell, or they dont want more than that sold at that price.

I'm unsure how it's going to put people off buying from Steam. This is only second time I remember it happening in two or three years.

CaptainRAVE · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:33

Evilsod said:
They underestimated demand?

If 30,000 people suddenly decided to order the same game from Amazon you can bet they'd struggle to send them all out in the next couple of days. Yes its inconvenient but all they can hope for is Steam get more keys for the last day and put it back up.

Unfortunately this has happened with quite a few games over the last year or so.

Regardless of whether they "underestimated demand", it is still a very frustrating situation.

orderoftheflame · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:36

CaptainRAVE said:
Unfortunately this has happened with quite a few games over the last year or so.

Regardless of whether they "underestimated demand", it is still a very frustrating situation.

I remember it happening with Prey years ago, but no examples of games being pulled from the Store because of selling out of keys over the last year, let alone 'quite a few' times. :confused:

Mr Krugga · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:39

orderoftheflame said:
I remember it happening with Prey years ago, but no examples of games being pulled from the Store because of selling out of keys over the last year, let alone 'quite a few' times.

Don't think any games have been pulled out, only they ran out of keys which have happened on several occasions in the past.

Evilsod · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:40

Yeah I recall it happening with Prey but nothing else.

As order said we don't know the situation. Perhaps they did only want a limited number sold at that price (mostly thats inconvenient because we don't know there is a 'limited stock') or pehaps they just underestimated it.

CaptainRAVE · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:40

orderoftheflame said:
I remember it happening with Prey years ago, but no examples of games being pulled from the Store because of selling out of keys over the last year, let alone 'quite a few' times.

No, apart from Prey we always get the keys evetually. I think Tropico 3 was the last one that did this to me.

Prey raises up another problem though - why does Steam put up games that either aren't compatable with W7 (I thought they tested for this?) or a game that they are about to run out of keys with? Seems unprofessional for such a big platform now.

adam_castell · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:44

CaptainRAVE said:
why does Steam put up games that either aren't compatable with W7 (I thought they tested for this?) or a game that they are about to run out of keys with? Seems unprofessional for such a big platform now.

because there are millions of people using other OS?

and they need to sell the last of the keys?

Semiskimmed · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:45

CaptainRAVE said:
Regardless of whether they "underestimated demand", it is still a very frustrating situation.

i wouldnt call it frustrating, its inconvenient sure, but atleast you know youve paid a decent price for it and you WILL get the game for sure.
i a e-retailer ran out of stock all youd get is an email saying its gone and tough luck.

Mr Krugga · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:49

I don't see what the problem is, Steam often runs out of keys by the end of a decent deal when demand is high. They always sort out the issue within a day or two.

DJ_Martin · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:51

Antar Bolaeisk said:
Not that it's much help to you now but you should have tried verifying the game files first.

Well it sorted that problem either way, now I can get into CoD4 single player however not multiplayer. It still gets further than it did last time but now instead I get this:

It happens right after it comes up with the CoD4 thing in the middle of the screen, then it attempts to change resolution then goes back to original res and I get that.
How do I go about sorting the problem?

Frenzy · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:56

Why dont they assign keys on purchase instead of when you install the game?

DJ_Martin · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:59

OK worked it out, apparently I need something plugged into the mic...

orderoftheflame · 6 Jul 2011 at 15:00

CaptainRAVE said:
No, apart from Prey we always get the keys evetually. I think Tropico 3 was the last one that did this to me.

Prey raises up another problem though - why does Steam put up games that either aren't compatable with W7 (I thought they tested for this?) or a game that they are about to run out of keys with? Seems unprofessional for such a big platform now.

I didn't think Prey was on the store any more? Either way, I wouldn't expect them to remove half thier library just because a new OS came out. :confused:

They mark some games that aren't compatible already.

The keys thing doesn't bother me, no more than Sainsbury's running out of brand beans. It doesn't happen often enough to make a blind bit of difference. I certainly wouldn't say it's 'unprofessional'.

DJ_Martin · 6 Jul 2011 at 15:05

OK problem #3
When I refresh list of servers, none come up

Mr Krugga · 6 Jul 2011 at 15:08

Frenzy said:
Why dont they assign keys on purchase instead of when you install the game?

You wouldn't be able to purchase the game at the deal price if they did that.