Valve Responds to Steam Sales "cheapen intellectual property"

[Hectic Glenn]

Valve's director of business development, Jason Holtman responded to EA's David DeMartini's comment from last month which said that Steam sales "cheapen intellectual property". Speaking at the Develop conference in Brighton, Jason said the opposite is true.

"Discounts serve a lot of functions. Highlighting serves a lot of functions. The qualities of the games serve a lot of functions. Everything we've seen, PC games and IP and all those franchises are more valuable today than they were four or five years ago.

"We do it with our own games. If we thought having a 75 per cent sale on Portal 2 would cheapen Portal 2, we wouldn't do it. We know there are all kinds of ways customers consume things, get value, come back, build franchises. We think lots of those things strengthen it."

"For instance, if all that were true, nobody would ever pre-purchase a game ever on Steam, ever again. You just wouldn't. You would in the back of your mind be like, okay, in six months to a year, maybe it'll be 50 per cent off on a day or a weekend or during one of our seasonal promotions. Probably true. But our pre-orders are bigger than they used to be. Tonnes of people, right? And our day one sales are bigger than they used to be. Our first week, second week, third week, all those are bigger.

"That points out that what's happened with those sales is, you've probably caught somebody and introduced them to a game when they haven't had it, and they've played it, and the next time the franchise comes out or the next move from that publisher, the next move from the partner, they've just become more avid gamers. The trade-off they're making is a time trade-off."

You can read more stats and comments from Jason over on Eurogamer. Speaking of sales, where is the summer one Valve!?

 

[bobtheskull]

Couldn't agree more! There are plenty of games in my account that I got in sales that I normally wouldn't bother about otherwise that became some of my favourite games. Now any new work from said devs/studios/franchises gets my attention, and most of the time, my money!

 

[Warped Dan]

Logic says you that some gamers will save money on several games while still being able to pre purchase the games they really want. Its a perfect model for those who can't wait any longer for a game they're dying to play

 

[Omnomnick]

Couldn't agree more! There are plenty of games in my account that I got in sales that I normally wouldn't bother about otherwise that became some of my favourite games.

Same for me - like Max Payne. And not to mention how I've rebought games like Bioshock 1 and 2 again on Steam for £5 a piece, when I already owned them back when they were new on the 360 at full price.

I'm not sure if EA can count but I'm pretty sure that increases the value of intellectual property.

 

[Edeslash]

Summer sale begins in 15 hours.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

I haven't played some of the games and bundle packs I bought on the Steam Sale, basically they got my money despite having no interest in that project.

 

[giannhs1984]

yeah lets make what ea was doing when they got their games in steam
5% deal in a game that costed 50 euros and it was prety much shit

how ironic is that.. thats why eventually companies like it will go down one way or another gamers will release that they are not a shit siphon

 

[Omnomnick]

Summer sale begins in 15 hours.

How convenient.

 

[Cuthbert]

Couldn't agree more! There are plenty of games in my account that I got in sales that I normally wouldn't bother about otherwise that became some of my favourite games. Now any new work from said devs/studios/franchises gets my attention, and most of the time, my money!

Exactly. I bought Bioshock 1 & 2 on Steam sales, and now I am a day 1 buyer for Bioshock: Infinite. Same with Tomb Raider. I bought Portal 2 on first day as well, eventhough I KNEW it will be much cheapers if I waited for half a year. And I really doubt any Half life fan will even think about waiting for a summer/winter sale , when they finally relase Episode 3.

 

[hakojo]

How ironic; without a Steam sale, not only would I never have come to possess a copy of Mirror's Edge, but I certainly wouldn't have cosplayed the main character, nor would I now be willing to shamelessly throw my money at a sequel, should one appear someday.