Steam prices! Grey key sites! and the I love/hate developers thread - Enter if you dare!

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FoxEye said:
Mind = blown.

How can so many people say they don't care about the developers... who make the games they play?

I just can't comprehend it.

If you don't care about the people making your games then by extension you must not care about the games.

Unless by some feat of mental gymnastics you've managed to disassociate the games from the people who make them.
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The reason is this....

AAA games released on PC make up a small percentage of the total sales and ROI. console's make up the majority... Ask Taketwo.

Indy games, different kettle of fish... With AAA... we make up a much less percentage... we get them cheaper as well, 39.99-49.99 instead of 59.99
 
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drs101 said:
I know your affiliated with Ubi so understand the business better than most of us here but doesn't it just come down to more vs less profit?
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It's only a matter of more vs less profit if you are in the minority of game developers that turn a profit :) It can also be the difference between a small loss or a big loss.
 
Strudders said:
The reason is this....

AAA games released on PC make up a small percentage of the total sales and ROI. consol's make up the majority... Ask Taketwo.

Indy games, different kettle of fish... With AAA... we make up a much less percentage... we get them cheaper as well, 39.99-49.99 instead of 59.99
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Great way to encourage developers to release games on PC!
 
drs101 said:
I know your affiliated with Ubi so understand the business better than most of us here but doesn't it just come down to more vs less profit?
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Where do you think that profit goes? Champaign parties?

Perhaps most of that money gets spent paying wages whilst developing their next title?

It's like people think that profit = greed. Profit is required for the company to remain in business!

If /any/ company can only just break even, there is no reason that company to continue to exist. And it probably won't for very long.
 
FoxEye said:
How much of a problem is it that you can't resell your used Steam games?

Do you think games would be so heavily discounted in sale if you could?
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Im not overly fussed about selling my Steam games, as (a) most of them only cost me 20 odd quid anyway, and (b) I dont really need to sell games to put towards the cost of new ones, as the new ones I buy from (perfectly legal) CD key sites are reasonably cheap anyway.

I think if CD Key sites were abolished then it would price a lot of people out of gaming, as Steam prices are quite high, almost the same price as console games now, the only unfortunate aspect of Steam is you cannot sell your old games to put towards your new Steam games, so therefore if Steam was the only avenue then some people may not be able to afford them.

Saying that though, steam used to be a lot cheaper, so if CDKey sites were not around in the first place maybe steam prices wouldnt have increased! Interesting thought :)
 
FoxEye said:
And like I said, do you check out the prices of bread, cheese and other commodities in India or China or Brazil, then refuse to pay UK prices for those?
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It's not comparable. If it costs less to produce cheese in Brazil, then I'd expect to pay less for cheese in Brazil. However, by the time I've paid to ship it to England from Brazil, it probably won't be any cheaper. A steam key can be conveyed by email, and it's trivial whether it is sent from Brazil to Brazil or Brazil to England. There is no additional cost. It's not even like there are additional network costs, because the bits don't get downloaded to Brazil and then shipped over here.

FoxEye said:
Do you have Sky TV or Sky Sports? Have you written to Sky saying you will only pay the same amount it costs in China to watch the sport? (Hint, it's a lot less than we pay).
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OK, that's a better comparison. I don't have SkyTV, though, so I'll leave that to one side ;)
 
At the end of the day, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Globalisation means that physical goods get made at the arse end of the world for peanuts and we pay loads for them here. It also means that intangible goods being sold elsewhere are now available from the other side of the world with no problems. You can't have it both ways.
 
Jono8 said:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18689524

Why didnt you buy it full price to support the developer FoxEye? :p
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Re the MGS5 code. It was an nVidia code. Bought in the UK with a purchase of a UK graphics card.

It was actually more expensive than most of the games I've bought from Steam, being close to the £30 I consider full retail price.

Happy now?

Or is that the same as buying it for £10 from Brazil? I'm sure you'll say it is.

edit: nVidia would have paid Konami a decent chunk of money to bundle MGS5 with their graphics cards. I fail to see the problem with those codes being sold in the regions they were intended to be sold in...
 
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FoxEye said:
Where do you think that profit goes? Champaign parties?

Perhaps most of that money gets spent paying wages whilst developing their next title?

It's like people think that profit = greed. Profit is required for the company to remain in business!

If /any/ company can only just break even, there is no reason that company to continue to exist. And it probably won't for very long.
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profit is profit not running costs and i'm not arguing that company's should not make a profit, a fair price would be nice for a full game.

I admit its a complex issue.
 
FoxEye said:
Re the MGS5 code. It was an nVidia code. Bought in the UK with a purchase of a UK graphics card.

It was actually more expensive than most of the games I've bought from Steam, being close to the £30 I consider full retail price.

Happy now?

Or is that the same as buying it for £10 from Brazil? I'm sure you'll say it is.
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surely your money went to the seller on e-bay though right..?
 
FoxEye said:
Re the MGS5 code. It was an nVidia code. Bought in the UK with a purchase of a UK graphics card.

It was actually more expensive than most of the games I've bought from Steam, being close to the £30 I consider full retail price.

Happy now?

Or is that the same as buying it for £10 from Brazil? I'm sure you'll say it is.
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I really don not think for 1 second you have to justify your purchase history with anybody....

However

You buying a code from ebay, denied the publisher your potential sale.....

However I agree somewhat with your opinion on developers ROI's, Just not when it comes to AAA games.... Indy games should be given all our support...
 
drs101 said:
profit is profit not running costs and i'm not arguing that company's should not make a profit, a fair price would be nice for a full game.

I admit its a complex issue.
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For your first game you have to borrow money/ get investors.

The profit from your first pays wages for the next project, and possibly also interest on your loan, investors, etc.

Fail to make enough profit and you either need more investment/ loans or you go bankrupt. Profit is not always greed. You need to make back your costs and you need to make enough to reinvest into your business.
 
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