🚀 go-pugleaf

Spalls Hurgenson  <spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Apparently tomorrow (June 22nd) we'll see the start of the annual
>Steam Summer Sale. Am I the only one who feels a lack of excitement
>about this news?
>
>In part, it is because I feel a bit "saled out". Between GOG, Humble
>Bundle and BundleStars (not to mention the occasional specials on
>UPlay and Origin), it feels not a week has gone by in the past few
>months that there hasn't been one or more seasonal sales. I suppose
>all this competition for my hard-earned cash is a good thing, but the
>main emotion I feel these days when I learn of another sale is "Oh
>god, another one?" and not "Oooh, I wonder what goodies I can get this
>time!".

I not very excited but more for different reasons.  While I did drop $90
on GOG.com during their summer sale, it's my huge backlog of games that
keep from getting too excited by any sale.

>But it doesn't help that Steam sales have been so disappointing over
>the past few years. Back when Steam was still working to position
>itself as the premier PC gaming storefront, they would offer some
>significant discounts to draw people in. You'd find games for
>outrageously low prices that you'd only see during these seasonal
>sales. These days, the discounts aren't any better than you'd find
>during their regular weekly sales - there are just more games
>discounted.

I don't really notice any difference in the discount percentages, but
I think the base prices they're being discounted from aren't as low as
they used to be.  It's taking longer for games to reach a $20 regular
price, that after a 75% discount becomes $5 during a sale.  I think
even I've seen a few games creep up in price, like the Falout Vegas:
Ultimate Edition.  You're right that the discounts that the games get
from time to time during the rest of the year are the same as during
the sale, but I think that's mostly because the discounts outside the
big sales have gotten bigger to match.

>I wonder how much of this is a concern to Valve, though. Do they worry
>that they are losing their grip on their customers, or are they secure
>in their Walmart-ian dominance of PC game sales? I guess if we get
>another uninspired sale, it's evidence of the latter.

I think this is going to be model for at least the near term.  My guess is
that Valve determined the flash sales and activities and things weren't
really working.  Also, for some reason this year's summer sale seemed
to have gotten more press coverage than the summer sales usually do,
so the hype around the sales doesn't seem to have died down.

>Well, who knows; maybe I'll pick up one or two games this sale. But
>I've no expectations in that direction.

I might get Shadow of Mordor: Game of the Year Edition, but chances are
I wouldn't get around it playing it before the next Steam summer sale.

-- 
 l/  //	  Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo]  rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
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