Steam Sales

[DeltaBlast]

2) another thing I've been debating, whether to buy the boxed game so I have it to gloat over, or to get from Steam, and be able to play sooner, and give more of the money right to you guys. How much cash is lost in the process from the boxed version to you guys, compared to steam?
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2) We get about 2.5X the money for Steam sales, if I recall correctly.

Hmm... How about they make the game a little cheaper on steam (so they only get 2X the money) so that more people will buy it through steam and in the end make more money?

Wasn't steam supposed to be cheaper than regular stores anyway?

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

Hmm... How about they make the game a little cheaper on steam (so they only get 2X the money) so that more people will buy it through steam and in the end make more money?

Wasn't steam supposed to be cheaper than regular stores anyway?

Maybe its in the contract with the publishers that they have to charge the recommended retail price or something?

Because I cant imagine the publishers being all too happy otherwise.....

 

[Chris D]

Yeah, I think you're probably spot on there Mark.

I wouldn't be surprised if Vivendi still get a cut of the Steam sales too.

 

[iamaelephant]

Wow, thats a hell of alot more money for Valve. Makes you wonder why they don't discount the price a bit more on Steam.

 

[dscowboy]

did you read the posts above? they're probably contractually bound to a price so as to not undercut their publisher. not to mention that they need to recoup the investments they've made in Steam, that shit ain't cheap

 

[^Ben]

It's hard to keep it competitive for everyone(i swear i read it on the steam forums)

Lets say you charge $25 everyones like omg yay cheap! But then in the UK the game is £13, but usually how they charge in the retail channels is. Let's say the game was $35 the game would be £35 in the UK.

Weird dodgy and im tired at the same time

But usually (this is in the book and cassete trade, i work in the UK's largest book distrubutor) the original maker makes the book and puts a RRP of £14 on the book we directly buy from them for about %45 discount(thats what they pass on to us when we do special orders) so the original producer makes £7 of the money.

ACTUALLY WAIT! WTF AM I GOING ON ABOUT!

 

[guchi]

i would buy it through steam... if i got a box

ACTUALLY WAIT! WTF AM I GOING ON ABOUT!

i have no idea

 

[mortiz]

Nah, lets say the game is $35 off STEAM then when you put in your credit card number your credit card will be credited $35, the credit card company converts that into £ using the exchange rates.

I can't see it being the same price off STEAM as you don't get a box with the STEAM version. So you're getting less for the same money, that doesn't sound like good business to me and if they want customers to buy off STEAM they're going to have to lower the price.

99% of the people out there who will buy HL2 don't give a crap who gets their money once they've handed it over.

Like I said, if it is the same price over STEAM then VALVe's business sense leaves something to be admired .

 

[FISKER_Q]

Maybe its in the contract with the publishers that they have to charge the recommended retail price or something?

Because I cant imagine the publishers being all too happy otherwise.....

Yeah there's most likely an agreement between Vivendi and Valve considering steam. Would be stupid of Vivendi to trade off their income, or price themselves out of the market.

Vivendi does afterall help with cd-key issues through steam.

Anyways i would probably go for the steam copy. Valve has used up a budget almost as big as The Matrix(~50 million dollars). They deserve every penny, for bringing us all this stuff.

 

[mortiz]

Yeah there's most likely an agreement between Vivendi and Valve considering steam. Would be stupid of Vivendi to trade off their income, or price themselves out of the market.

Vivendi does afterall help with cd-key issues through steam.

Anyways i would probably go for the steam copy. Valve has used up a budget almost as big as The Matrix(~50 million dollars). They deserve every penny, for bringing us all this stuff.

I don't think Vivendi's really in the position to tell VALVe's what's what with STEAM though. Vivendi is looking for HL2 to revitalize its gaming division (which at the rate it was going at looked in very bad shape) and VALVe could have any publisher they wanted. Think of how much cash the boxed version's of HL2 will bring in alone.

 

[FISKER_Q]

I don't think Vivendi's really in the position to tell VALVe's what's what with STEAM though. Vivendi is looking for HL2 to revitalize its gaming division and VALVe could have any publisher they wanted. Think of how much cash the boxed version's of HL2 will bring in alone.

Vivendi owns the name Half-Life 2. Although Valve owns the game itself, i doubt they would let the atmosphere fall to the ground because of internal problems with Vivendi.

 

[urseus]

Pfft. Whod buy the real full game from steam anyway. Dont the levels download as you go up to them if you buy it through steam? So if the steam servers go down 2 days after release people will have to stop at the point their up to, while we true believers with our Gorden Collectors edition and a box we can sleep with will be laughing, laughing from the grave ha ha ha ha.

 

[Dirk Pitt]

That's not quite how it works, urseus. When you purchase a game off steam, a cache folder is created, and the entire contents of the game you buy are downloaded there in one shot.

So no, the levels dont download as you play.

 

[mortiz]

Pfft. Whod buy the real full game from steam anyway. Dont the levels download as you go up to them if you buy it through steam? So if the steam servers go down 2 days after release people will have to stop at the point their up to, while we true believers with our Gorden Collectors edition and a box we can sleep with will be laughing, laughing from the grave ha ha ha ha.

No, you download the whole game in one go. There might be an option for those on 56K where they can download the levels one at a time, so for instance while they are playing on one level the next level is downloading.

 

[urseus]

Still, you wont be able to fall asleep with the box gently stroking it.

WHOS SAD NOW!!!

 

[TMPer Tantrum]

Being outside of the US generally makes online purchases a damn site cheaper, depending on the currency exchange rate at the time. I got CZ over steam when it first came out and paid a little over $40 for it where as it was as much as $70 in the shops.
But that aside an online purchase should (in the same currency) at least a little less than a boxed version, but I don't know the difference in costs between running and maintaining a secure payment and download server (especially for something the size of HL2) against burning, boxing and distributing the same.

I would have thought that the online process would be a fair bit cheaper though.

 

[Epsi]

Yeh, the game can download as you play, and that's one of the strengths of Steam. Means you can play even if you haven't got time to download the whole game, e.g. if you're at a friend's house without your HL2 CDs and you want to have a quick game.

But it's not like it only downloads the very next level, as you go, that's just silly. The idea is to get as much of the game content as possible onto your HD as fast as possible. This might be the next level, but it's much more likely to be the 5th level off, or something. Of course, this is just if you haven't finished downloading the game yet, if it's 100% downloaded, of course it won't download anything else.

 

[clarky003]

Maybe its in the contract with the publishers that they have to charge the recommended retail price or something?

Because I cant imagine the publishers being all too happy otherwise.....

I want some money for being alive and able to purchase their game , without us they wouldnt have any money... argghh , I want HL2, but I also want to rebel against big buisness..

I think I'll settle for HL2 :smoking: