Is it?
I have this crazy theory that the more games you have in your Steam Library, the more the sale sucks. It's like Steam is conspirating against itself... :rolling_eyes_again:
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+1 The good sales are still there, you just already own the games or are not interested in them.
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+a billion
Every sale for the last 2 years I've been trying to explain that people aren't noticing the "good" deals because they already bought them...
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I'm actually pretty satisfied for now, a lot of the indie games on my wishlist got good discounts :D
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The nominations for the first category sucked ... so basically just the mainstream stuff got nominated. I only voted for the 10 cents I got from that trading card. I still don't like the idea of voting for games I don't like.
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There's one of these every Steam sale, I've never not seen a sale where someone hasn't complained. So here's the question, if none of them have been good... how can any of them be bad?
Personally... wouldn't know, all my money has been spent on christmas gifts to others. I know, crazy right.
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I expected it. Kind of annoyed that the game possibly at the top of my wishlist is less discounted than during that last 'autumn' sale though. It's early access too. Strange approach.
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Can you elaborate on how winter sales were better previous years?
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Bigger discounts and the whole thing had some sort of fun element attached to it. Last few years have been quite poor and this one especially is quite meh. Better to wait and hope some weekend deal to get something discounted more than 33% or 50 %.
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they used to have flash sales with the games more deeply discounted that they no longer do because of the change in there refund policy.
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Like -75% and even more (even on AAA titles and newer games). For example (that is just one example), Euro Truck Simulator 2 was in 2014 cheaper than it is today (2014 is considered already a bit poor year, when it comes to winter sale). If you are interested, you can check from web.archive.org Steam store pages from previous years.
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From what I'm seeing, games are getting higher discounts while other don't or get less than before.
The more games you own through out the years, the more likely you was be disappointed in the next sale. It's a cycle I see happening all the time. Even when there were flash sales like jazon1 mentioned, there are people that feel disappointed.
It's not that there are less discounted these passed years, it's that people expected too much, own most games that is on sale, or are new games that are unlikely to get 75% or more off.
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Of course there are always the ones that are disappointed on one reason or another, but the fact is that discount values have gone down and the fun factor is also gone. Currently it is good, if a game has even 50% or 40% discount. People expectations are guided from previous sale(s) and, if the new one is not as good as previous one, then the disappointment is quite understandable. It is not about, how many games you have on your account (you still see those with discount numbers, when you browse the store), because new ones are coming out on a daily basis (~40% of current Steam library is published/added during 2016, the quality of games is of course completely another topic) and wishlists are also growing on a daily basis.
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Hmm my no. 1 still only 50%. I resisted it in July for this price hoping for a better price now.
Not sure if I can be this strong much longer.
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Same here i added $50 to my account just incase...guess ill be holding on to that $50 for awhile longer lol
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When I look at my wishlist I tend to agree with OP.
But then I randomly check discounts on titles that I already own they seem pretty solid.
So the sale is ok. It's even better this way, really. Maybe I will even have time to reduce my backlog instead of inflating it.
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yes the sales suck as usual i can pretty much get anything on sale on there site cheaper at most other sites any day of the year and just redeem it on steam.
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I was waiting for this sale, because I thought it will be better than all the other shitty sales of the year - I was wrong! It's even worse than the other sales. xD
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useless? almost my entire wishlisst (a bit over 200 games) is on sale! some have 90% discounts. I already got myself Costume Quest 1 & 2, Crimzon Clover, Brutal Legend and Iron Brigade. I'm satisfied.
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The time of year where Steam games almost go down to the price they should be already.
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As a STEAM developer, I have once made a sale, changed the game price and somehow ended up with a negative price.
You can't beat that :)
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No event = no sale.
This is just a mass discount thing...not a sale :P
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if that were a konrad award,it would send you a friend request while it burns
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Refunds, no flash sales, more sales year round, higher base prices for games, a large Steam userbase and a lack of any event to go with the sale. All of these things contribute to this being just another sale like any other which leads to disappointment for some people.
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Personally, I usually do not look for the big games during these sales. I usually load up on a bunch of indie games with the good sale prices. I happen to enjoy collecting RPGmaker games... so, I just added a BUNCH more. Not entirely bad at all. Might not be your preference. But I think I like it so far.
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In indie front, or in the less popular genres (so basically excluding shooters, survival games) there are really nice deals indeed - for 10€ one could indeed easily get 3-5 really nice games. :)
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This is the first sale that I'll buy nothing having money enough to spend or wishlisted games enough to buy...
Looks like Steam is really changing their costumers behavior on sales. :)
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People who say this sale is the same as any Steam sale in the past are just kidding themselves.
The refund system killed most of the deeper discounts of Steam sales past.
The removal of the flash sales alone is evidence of that. Valve had their hand forced into a refund system, and it's no longer financially viable for them to promote "impulse buys" with deep discounts when those buyers will just turn around and refund.
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I wish I had saved a link to it, but in a previous thread I went through the frequency of high discounts on front-page deals (I limited to front page deals because that was what I could easily find information about, and it tends to mostly be games that are good, rather than card-farm fodder), and and major discounts are more frequent these days, even in a post-refund world. It's not the sales that are worse, it's the things surrounding them that makes them look worse. You've got a bigger library, big steam sales are more frequent than ever, and we're more used to high discounts these days.
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Just browsing my Steam front page quickly (my wishlist section), I found several "older" games that had much better discounts in sales 2+ years ago. CSGO is a perfect example of that. $3.74 in the 2013 Christmas Sale, and $10.04 in this one (and $7.49 in the last sale IIRC). AoE III, Papers Please, and Morrowind all followed the same trend, and that's half the wishlist section of my front page ....
Obviously I had to use "older" games that had a history past the beginning of the refund period and removal of the flash sales. I also chose some of the more "popular" older games that seem to sell well every sale out of the 8 shown from my wishlist, as opposed to the "flash in the pan" (referring to longevity) games that get deeper discounts simply because they're not selling anymore (i,e, games that are typically only good for one play-through). I'd be willing to bet that all of those lowest prices for all four games occurred during flash sales. Also worth noting - 5 of the 10 "featured" sales today are multiplayer games that require deeper discounts to maintain a decent player-base. I'm curious how the rest of the sale will play out and if that will remain a theme on the front page. I also wish I had access to sale front pages from a couple years ago, to compare the variety and types of games on offer.
Personally speaking, I believe Valve is just doing what they can with some smart marketing to try to make us believe the sales are the same. Just my observations, of course. If you do find that thread, I'd like to read it to compare your findings.
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. CSGO is a perfect example of that. $3.74 in the 2013 Christmas Sale, and $10.04 in this one (and $7.49 in the last sale IIRC)
CSGO is also one of the games that we know why they're not putting on big discounts anymore. I don't think that it's fair to use that as an example in this case because of that. TES & Fallout games have not had big discounts since Bethesda changed their pricing policy for those two series.
I'd be willing to bet that all of those lowest prices for all four games occurred during flash sales.
Flash sales were not better than the regular 1 (later 2) day discounts that happened during the same sale for those games, with a very very small handful of exceptions. In reality they were just another chance at getting those games at the highest discount.
Also, are we getting different front page deals this sale? Because out of the ones I see, only 1 is a pure multiplayer game. Because if so, any comparisons with the current sale are going to be very hard to do. All I can really say is that during the last summer sale I went through the list of front page deals (mostly from lists on Reddit), and compared the numbers, and thus got hard numbers showing that at least for front page deals as they were then, which were not limited to multiplayer games, the frequency of high discounts had steadily gone up. There were exceptions, obviously, where games had lower discounts, but the trend was clear.
Also, in regards to the examples you used, at least one of them seem to be due to an issue with the price tracking site. AoW III has never actually been on a discount that good. What it seems to show is the deluxe edition DLC on its own, and its lowest historical price, if even that.
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Discounts look okayish - I just hope they'll make a twist around the topic of the Steam awards, it would be if there would be achievements linked to those games and should get them while the sale last for a special badge, or something. I don't even care about SAM cheaters, it would be just so good to have an active topic, that's more than click one vote then press next 26 times in your queue to get your cards. I like to dream about it.
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I really waited for it but it is a let down. The discounts aren't as good as previous years' and it seems that the sale is getting worse every year... :(
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