Codemasters STEAM Pricing

feedtheram · 8 Oct 2009 at 18:47

probably already mentioned but if a games maker set prices on STEAM lower or even the same as they get sold at the shops then they would soon have a lot of angry retailers knocking on the door asking why they have been undercut.

STEAM wont have competative prices until the majority of games are delivered via download, which wont actually be that far in the future for PC games anyway.

Tefal · 8 Oct 2009 at 18:51

drunkenmaster said:
As Satine said, and as others in this thread have said, go buy the game cheaper, add the game to steam, get the support, downloads, updates for free, and then where is the issue?

only these games can be added to steam for full support

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-wusf-3601

just because a retail game is on steam doesn't mean you can add it to steam for full updates etc.

it would be a terrible business model for steam as they would get nothing from the retail sale and then have to spend money supporting a game they had nothing to do with.

Skeeter · 8 Oct 2009 at 19:45

Convenience is a crock of ****

There are ZERO production and distribution costs to a digital download game compaired to a physical disk, therefore the price should be lower.

Tefal · 8 Oct 2009 at 19:55

Skeeter said:
There are ZERO production and distribution costs to a digital download game

Yeah because terrabytes of bandwidth and hundreds of servers are free these days.

Kenai · 8 Oct 2009 at 20:01

Tefal said:
Yeah because terrabytes of bandwidth and hundreds of servers are free these days.

Steam is actually run entirely off an old Dual Pentium III server in Gabe Newell's shed, did you not know?

FlukeRogi · 8 Oct 2009 at 22:38

drunkenmaster said:
You keep saying Valve don't set their prices on steam, yet you have entirely no evidence to back that up.

Valve don't set the prices - check out the forums for Trine. The developers publicly said that Steam was the only place where they had control of the pricing.

Actually, found the quote:

FB_Lauri: "We tell Steam the pricing, but as Trine has also PSN and retail PC versions which are handled by our publisher, we have to follow the retail/PSN pricing at least at some level."

So they say that although they have to generally match the retail prices, it is up to them, not Valve.

Calneon · 8 Oct 2009 at 23:01

Skeeter said:
Convenience is a crock of ****

There are ZERO production and distribution costs to a digital download game compaired to a physical disk, therefore the price should be lower.

Convenience is a service that Valve are offering. AFAIK you have to pay for services...

chaparral · 9 Oct 2009 at 00:22

Gimpymoo said:
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..

Some steam games also install/place files in other folders

Like Fear 2 on steam has put these files in my Documents folder

Fens · 9 Oct 2009 at 09:33

drunkenmaster said:
You keep saying Valve don't set their prices on steam, yet you have entirely no evidence to back that up.

Likewise you're ignoring a few vital things, when you buy a game from HMV, how much support do they offer you exactly? Do they let you get a copy of the game whenever you want, do they let you get disc's with updates from them, do they answer e-mail support for the specific game and help you get it working if its not working? no. Steam does all the above, they aren't a dev(for games they didn't make obviously) but they do support games, they are involved with support of all games working through their client, and they have to make updates compatible with their steam versions of games aswell as making games steam compatible in the first place.

Yes, they don't have the cost of media, but your average store you buy a game from, doesn't offer any support, downloading, updates and the rest of it.

Its very very very very clear you've made up your mind about how it all works(incorrectly it would seem) and won't accept anyones replies that don't agree with you and your(incorrect) assumptions.

As Satine said, and as others in this thread have said, go buy the game cheaper, add the game to steam, get the support, downloads, updates for free, and then where is the issue?

I was going to reply to this but Tefal and FlukeRogi pretty much sewed it up. It would seem that Gimpypoo's 'incorrect assumptions' about pricing were actually correct. Perhaps you should check things yourself before coming off all sanctimonious ?

Briton · 9 Oct 2009 at 10:01

Skeeter said:
Convenience is a crock of ****

There are ZERO production and distribution costs to a digital download game compaired to a physical disk, therefore the price should be lower.

Spot on. They have other costs of course but their prices should be more comparable to the online retailers. The cost of buying (is it really buying in the true sense?) a game on Steam is far too high.

dirtydog · 9 Oct 2009 at 10:18

I agree Steam pricing is too high. The only games I've bought on Steam were the same price retail anyway, or weekend deals. One exception, I paid over the odds for GTA IV just to get it a bit quicker on its release (and later wished I hadn't bothered).

Gimpymoo · 9 Oct 2009 at 10:31

drunkenmaster said:
You keep saying Valve don't set their prices on steam, yet you have entirely no evidence to back that up.

Steam does all the above, they aren't a dev(for games they didn't make obviously) but they do support games, they are involved with support of all games working through their client, and they have to make updates compatible with their steam versions of games aswell as making games steam compatible in the first place.

Its very very very very clear you've made up your mind about how it all works(incorrectly it would seem) and won't accept anyones replies that don't agree with you and your(incorrect) assumptions.

As Satine said, and as others in this thread have said, go buy the game cheaper, add the game to steam, get the support, downloads, updates for free, and then where is the issue?

Maybe I understand their business model and how their system ACTUALLY works unlike yourself who is totally deluded by anything you read online.

You say:

they have to make updates compatible with their steam versions of games aswell as making games steam compatible in the first place.

STEAM do NOT make ANY updates for third party games.

Sure, they may provide assistance to any devs who are struggling with their SDK but that is far from "MAKING" them.

Developers are given the STEAM SDK and do this work themselves.

The developer will make an update then using the STEAM SDK, port it over to a STEAM compatible version.

When the developer is finished, they upload the files to Valve. I am unsure if Valve "slipstream" the updated files into the current build OR if the developer simply uploads an entirely new build for the STEAM content servers.

Developers get paid by publishers, it is up to the publisher to commision a STEAM patch, if the publisher do not pay the dev, it is unlikely to get done, regardless of how relatively simple the process is, saying that, there would be a certain amount of testing/Q&A involved although there has been instances where developers have made patches off their own back if the publisher is refusing to commission one.

Likewise, Valve DO NOT "MAKE GAMES COMPATIBLE IN THE FIRST PLACE", again, the developer does this using the STEAM SDK then upload the files to Valve.

Fens said:
I was going to reply to this but Tefal and FlukeRogi pretty much sewed it up. It would seem that Gimpypoo's 'incorrect assumptions' about pricing were actually correct. Perhaps you should check things yourself before coming off all sanctimonious ?

Meh, some people are just full of themselves.