Codemasters STEAM Pricing

Deanje said:
I'd say it does.
You posed the question "Why are you pricing them soo high?" in regards to the Steam pricing, the CR pointed out that they set the RRP and that the retailer decides on their price based upon this.

So, you should really be ranting about Steam and not Codemasters.
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What?

STEAM dont dictate ANY of the prices on the platform other than for their own products.
 
Antar Bolaeisk said:
With regards to games being more expensive on Steam than other retail outlets that doesn't really bother me as you're buying a service, and an excelent service at that, as well as the game. It's just up to the individual if that service is worth the extra cost over buying from other sources.
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Thats kind of my point though, Codemasters set the price. This is not about STEAM but ALL their digital distribution.

D2D will have the same price, where are the additional services there?
 
Valve do NOT set the prices on STEAM, why should I take it up with them?

Remember, when a STORE purchases stock, that stock then becomes the property of the store, the publisher have allready got their money when they shipped it to the shops supplier so baring any RRP contract, the store can do with the item what they wish price wise, either make a penny profit or £50 profit.

With digital distribution, the etailer will give the Developer/Publisher a percentage of the sale when it is made.
 
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Good post.

Factoring in a 50% Valve profit margin (unrealistic) on each sale, that still equals the same money some online stores will sell the item for yet STILL EVERYONE is making a profit when a game costs £15 despite all of the overheads.
 
The Developer/Publisher.

Valve cant just say "We will reduce COD World at war by 50% this weekend" as they will have a contract with Activision stating that Activision will get xx percentage from every sale.

Take COD - World at War, I am guessing that sales have dropped so Activision maybe contacted STEAM and said "Look, we need you to do this". What percentage increase in sales do you think that game got over the weekend compared to the weekend before? Better to sell 10,000 games at £15 than 2,000 at £30 (All hypothetical figures).

Think about all the independent games which have gained exposure on STEAM via the weekend deals, Valve dont do it out of the goodness of their hearts, they make money.
 
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Deanje said:
I highly doubt the publishers dictate the special offers
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LOL

So when you go into your local Supermarket and baked beans are reduced and just happen to be at the end of the aisle it is because the supermarket want to out the goodness of their hearts?

Dont talk soo daft.

The manufacturers PAY THEM to do it, it is called a "Promotion".

You have a weekend deal on STEAM, you got put on the STEAM homepage and pretty much the entire gaming community hears about it.

Deanje said:
I'd also say the Codemaster's CR confirms this by stating it's the retailer that decides the pricing after being guided by the RRP.
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Blimey, I thought you lot were more intelligent than this.

All the CR rep confirms is that "On Steam the official retail RRP is usually matched".

You quote a sentence from another post from which the rep is talking about "Bricks and mortart" retail which we allready know how that works.
 
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Sleepery said:
Again, how do you know?
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Owing to the obvious NDA's, developers/publishers will rarely talk about their contracts with Valve but there have been numerous articles with developers and Gabe Newell about the platform with reputable websites/publications.

If you piece these articles together, you get a slight insight into how the platform works.

The annoying thing is, and part of the reason why I made this post is that a LOT of these publishers will simply "Hide Behind" the platform thus allowing people to form the wrong conclusions (See this thread-lol) and they get away with it.

Deanje said:
There's also such a thing as shifting old/B-grade stock at reduced price. You know, not a "Promotion" but an excercise to free up space for new stock.
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None of the big supermarkets will (dare I say) EVER over order on baked beans because of A: Their long shelf life and B: Heinz do not often release new "faster" beans which make the old ones redundant, Nor will they have B-Grade ones they need to shift quickly :p
 
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Dark_Angel said:
To be honest, you sound a bit whiny on the posts on the CM forums
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Which bit specifically and please do not reply "All of it".

Killerkebab said:
I'm surprised they even humoured him, frankly. I hope he doesn't write such vitriol in his professional life.
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It was hardly vitriolic.

neoboy said:
They seemed to have answered it nicely actually
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Anyone can answer "nicely" but if the answer is incorrect, it makes the reply pointless does it not?
 
I did not know the answer, that is why I asked the question.

They have not answered the question yet, evaded the question, maybe.
 
Indeed.

My point is, surely Codemasters can see that the retailer selling it for £17 will sell more than the retailer selling it for £30 so why do they insist on their current pricing structure which means they sell less via a channel which could potentially give them BIG rewards. They could sell for £20 on STEAM and still maybe double their profit compared to the standard retail version.

You have to ask yourself WHY a company will go out of it's way to force customers away from a more profitable channel thus REDUCING its bottom line, especially when it has shareholders?

Maybe it is the retail channel causing the problems, who knows. In the meantime, they obviously have their own agenda.
 
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Good post.

If they were keeping prices high to appease retailers, could that be classed as price fixing or against some other law? Can you be anti-competitive against yourself? Keeping your RRP high as to sell your digitally distributed games at a price not to upset the traditional retailers? (I know nothing about LAW so that maybe totally wrong).

Also, being honest, YES, I do feel sorry for the independents trying to make a living but we all know that game sales on the high street are DOMINATED by 1 maybe 2 companys at a push. Maybe they have a hold over the publishers which itself would be wrong and in nobodys interests as you have to question what else they are upto were this to be the case?

Or, maybe it is just that the publishers are greedy but they cant be as they would make more bottom line profit if they reduced their digital distribution prices so it can not all be about the profit.

Either way, something just does not seem right.
 
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That is exactly is how I feel.

Shelf space for PC games is becoming smaller and smaller which I imagine indicates that PC games only make up a small percentage of their overall sales, right?

In which case, surely they no longer have a right to moan about publishers plying their trade elsewhere instead of the apparent situation of them holding them at gunpoint?

Sure, if they had loads of shelves with PC games to sell and the MAJORITY bought their games at retail then fair enough but (I dont have exact figures), I guess the majority of PC game sales are now via digital distribution or etailer.

Digital distribution is big business nowadays, it is not just some new technology in it's infancy yet I feel some companies are afraid to fully embrace it for one reason or another, Codemasters being one of them.

Also, the "RRP, Recommended RETAIL price" takes into account the entire supply chain to get an item from developer to store. How is it fair that a digital copy of the game is automatically slapped with the same RRP when it has none of the overheads? Codemasters admit this is their current policy.

Just posted this on their forum:

Gimpymoo said:
The Recommended RETAIL price is what you recommend all retailers, including bricks and mortar retailers sell your item for, for which I assume in return will give a reasonable profit margin.

This price WILL factor in the cost getting the said item from the developer to the store and covering the associated overheads.

How is it fair that you admit to AUTOMATICALLY tagging on this same RRP to digital distribution when it has NONE of the overheads associated with the traditional RRP? You are making these customers pay for additional costs which are NOT present.

So, should it not be the case that maybe there are 2 different "RRP's", one for digital distribution, taking into account its own LOWER overheads and one for traditional retail taking into account its HIGHER overheads?

The profit margins on both can be the same but the two prices should be different.

A response would be appreciated.

Thank you.
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Aloreth said:
I have read this thread through several times and I really dont understand some of the arguments here.

Why on earth would steam choose to lower their prices when they don’t have to?
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If you have read the thread several times, you will understand that VALVE do not make the decisions to lower the prices, that is down to the publisher. VALVE may SUGGEST to a publisher but ultimately, it is at the discression of the publisher what prices they sell their games for.

Valve take a % of the sale regardless of how much the publisher wishes to sell it for.
 
Will try and find some info for you.

The thing to remember is that it is a totally different system to the "Traditional" method which people have burned into their brains, this is why they work soo differently.

First of all, there are "Unlimited" copies on STEAM, unlike traditional retail where you are governed by the number of "units" you have.

There are no "tangible" assets for Valve to distribute so how would it work, do Valve buy "10,000" downloads from the developer at a certain amount? Of course not, that would be silly.

The developer gets their money as soon as their game is sold, Valve obviously take a percentage as their cut, that is how they make their money.

This gives the Developer/Publisher MUCH MORE CONTROL over their product compared to retail.

If they want, they can even (For a fee I assume) give their COMPLETE game away for a weekend if they want, VALVE can not say "Hey, lets give someone elses work away for free".

If an item is not selling too well for a publisher or they have released a MAJOR patch which fixes game breaking bugs and they want people to try the game, half the price for a week, why not?

With the traditional retail method, this cannot be done as the retailers have allready paid for the stock and the publisher cannot tell ALL their retailers, "Hey, forget about your profit margins, half the price of this game", the stores cannot as they have their own overheads to consider, plus has mantioned, they have allready paid upfront for the item.
 
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LeJosh said:
as far as I'm aware you have to install after downloading in steam aswell it just does it automatically and still takes its time.
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As far as I know, STEAM does not "install", the files are simply downloaded (uncompressed) and placed directly into the folder.

One of the reasons why I like STEAM.

STEAM with a fast internet connection = WIN.
 
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