Steam Winter Sale is LIVE!

Do it, you really can't go wrong with that selection of games for $50. Even if you don't like Batman, AA was a very neat game and very well done.
 
Quick silly question, if I wanted to get another copy of L4D to play on my second computer with my wife, all I have to do is create her a Steam account and we should be able to play fine, right?
 
Picked up.

World in Conflict: Complete
9.99 USD
Grand Theft Auto IV (US/AU)
7.49 USD
Star Wars: KOTOR
4.99 USD
Bioshock (NA)
4.99 USD
Braid
2.49 USD
Torchlight
4.99 USD
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
2.00 USD
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky (ROW)
4.99 USD

Subtotal
41.93 USD

Steam will save PC gaming.
 
microsoft needs to work out a deal with steam to provide the steam content inside the windows game explorer. if your steam games showed up in there, and the storefront as well so you could order with single clicking and all... man it would be nice.
 
Armoured said:
Picked up.

World in Conflict: Complete
9.99 USD
Grand Theft Auto IV (US/AU)
7.49 USD
Star Wars: KOTOR
4.99 USD
Bioshock (NA)
4.99 USD
Braid
2.49 USD
Torchlight
4.99 USD
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
2.00 USD
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky (ROW)
4.99 USD

Subtotal
41.93 USD

Steam will save PC gaming.
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I don't think developers or distributors can survive if this is the plan to save them
 
elleana said:
Alright, day of reckoning. To bite or not to bite on Eidos?
Not terribly interested in Batman, but at $50 with a bunch of other vaguely interesting games, I'm somewhat tempted...
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I would read up on Batman and see if you are interested. It's a GREAT game and the gem in that pack. Of course if you loved the Hitman series and don't have it on Steam, that's something too.
 
The Jackyl said:
I don't think developers or distributors can survive if this is the plan to save them
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Do you think they can survive if they sell 1000 games at $30++ compared to 20000 at $5?? You're fucking nuts if that's the case. We all know Steam brings in tons and tons and tons of money.
 
if all they are selling is 1000 at $30 and 20,000 at $5, yeah that's not going to work either

sure would be curious to see the exact sales figures for these holiday sales but most developers wouldn't break even if they sold a million copies at $5 a pop. Considering the average production costs for a AAA title is $30 million that would take 6 million copies just to break even on solely the production costs. That doesn't even include the post-production costs.

Not to say that it doesn't help a title that's already reached a profit or to push a struggling title into the black. But the idea that buying these titles strictly at deeply discounted prices would single handedly save PC gaming is a tad absurd. Companies need to be able to sell millions of copies at $40-$50 to be profitable and continue to put out the quality games we have come to expect.
 
The Jackyl said:
if all they are selling is 1000 at $30 and 20,000 at $5, yeah that's not going to work either

sure would be curious to see the exact sales figures for these holiday sales but most developers wouldn't break even if they sold a million copies at $5 a pop. Considering the average production costs for a AAA title is $30 million that would take 6 million copies just to break even on solely the production costs. That doesn't even include the post-production costs.

Not to say that it doesn't help a title that's already reached a profit or to push a struggling title into the black. But the idea that buying these titles strictly at deeply discounted prices would single handedly save PC gaming is a tad absurd. Companies need to be able to sell millions of copies at $40-$50 to be profitable and continue to put out the quality games we have come to expect.
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Yes and No. Short term this is quick cash for developers who may be suffering with their income streams. It doesn't take as much cash to just stay solvent vs. actively producing a game. And many of these titles are pre-recession or produced mostly during pre-recession period. They're sacrificing long term future revenue for a short term gain. If the alternative is to go out of business, they'll do it in a heartbeat. But it does mean pain in the future.

What may hurt the PC industry more is that if the economy recovers and people are still expecting firesales and there isn't very much product to take advantage of a recovered economy. PC gamers may leave for other platforms.
 
jpm100 said:
Yes and No. Short term this is quick cash for developers who may be suffering with their income streams. It doesn't take as much cash to just stay solvent vs. actively producing a game. And many of these titles are pre-recession or produced mostly during pre-recession period. They're sacrificing long term future revenue for a short term gain. If the alternative is to go out of business, they'll do it in a heartbeat. But it does mean pain in the future.

What may hurt the PC industry more is that if the economy recovers and people are still expecting firesales and there isn't very much product to take advantage of a recovered economy. PC gamers may leave for other platforms.
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If Batman AA, LFD2, or MW2 were selling for 5 dollars I might see that point. All of the games that were 5 dollars are either pretty old now or indie type games. The only "maybe" in the group is possibly GTA4 but lets be realistic here. The game sold very very well and the amount of work put into it to port over to the PC was very small.
 
it's shitty i'll have to miss out on World in Conflict pack and Killing Floor due to not having enough funds, but I did grab a bunch of other games, so I guess i can't complain too much
 
krupted said:
microsoft needs to work out a deal with steam to provide the steam content inside the windows game explorer. if your steam games showed up in there, and the storefront as well so you could order with single clicking and all... man it would be nice.
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Unfortunately not going to happen.
Microsoft likes to control their own shit (see also: Xbox Live Marketplace) and set prices as they see fit - Valve lets developers price whatever they want to price, with no restrictions.

Secondly one doesn't need the other to survive, and IMHO if Valve merged Steam with the GFW marketplace, Valve would be getting the short end of the stick.

Anyway I picked up the HL1 anthology for $11 something, figured might as well (can't find my copy of HL1 anyway). I wonder if they're going to take a break this week with no midweek or weekend sales. :D
 
Missed out on L4D2 and can't buy it from work. Anyone bought a 4-pack and still have an extra to sell? :)
 
I meant Steam will save PC gaming in that I admit I have a pirated copy of Torchlight however because of the sale I actually bought the full game because Steam makes it ridiculously easy to install>play.

I love steam's ability to hold games on your account and be able to download them from anywhere with virtually no limits unlike iTune's 5 maximum computers.

P.S - I am SYKED to play KOTOR. God I remember playing that on xbox but never finished it. Can't wait!!!!!!!!!
 
hahaha, you guys act like each new copy of a game on steam costs THEM money.... even if you just spend $5 on a game, since its steam youre just paying for the bandwidth to download it, thats all! it doesnt cost money for them to send you a copy of a game... theres no packaging, no cd's to press. this is why its brilliant for older games that have already made their money at retail prices. even the $2.50 games are bringing in revenue, trust me!
 
zero2dash said:
Secondly one doesn't need the other to survive, and IMHO if Valve merged Steam with the GFW marketplace, Valve would be getting the short end of the stick.
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youre probably right:( its my only gripe about steam though, i dont like the seperate app to manage games when windows has the same thing just different.
 
The Jackyl said:
I don't think developers or distributors can survive if this is the plan to save them
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Steam is one of the best things to happen for indie developers.

Unlike traditional distrubtion with Steam you do not have to go through a publisher who then goes through a brick and mortar store (which take a cut of the sale).

On top of this you can get your games out to an International audience with a large established userbase that steam has.

Also in regarding these sales, the last time they had this Gabe talked about it at GDC I believe and mentioned how the sales for some products increased over 3,000%

source:
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/6...009-keynote---gabe-newell-valve-software.html

"Valve decided to do an experiment with Left 4 Dead. Last weekend's sale resulted in a 3000% increase over relatively flat numbers. It sold more last weekend than when it launched the game. WOW. That is unheard of in this industry. Valve beat its launch sales. Also, it snagged a 1600% increase in new customers to Steam over the baseline."

Now can you honestly say these sales don't help?
 
Its revenue that helps. If a game costs $2 and they spend 70 cents on the transaction fee each time, then these guys are not making enough money to put food on the table.
 
Through this perspective, Gabe and Valve have observed the following:

* 30-year old songs with a little service (Rock Band, Guitar Hero) generate huge profits
* Pirates are ahead not just on price, but on service
* DRM appears to increase, not decrease piracy
* Privacy and transparency
* Shrinking distance to customer empowers content creators
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wow... my new hero
 
I don't think Steam will bring the golden age of PC gaming back necessarily, but I do believe w/o Valve/Steam the future of gaming on the platform would be much more bleak. Microsoft certainly hasn't shown it cares one iota about gaming on the PC, despite hollow statements otherwise.

Valve has been pumping out historically good games on the PC for over a decade, and is pretty much unparalleled with their support of the mod community. So despite the righteous objection a few still harbor toward Steam, Valve has established a huge pile of street cred with the PC gaming community. They were basically the only company out there that would would be accepted by both gamers and, eventually, game makers.

They are the kings of digital distribution on the PC, and frankly I'm very happy its Valve and not MS, EA. or some other conglomerate that has that mantle.
 
Low Roller said:
I don't think Steam will bring the golden age of PC gaming back necessarily, but I do believe w/o Valve/Steam the future of gaming on the platform would be much more bleak. Microsoft certainly hasn't shown it cares one iota about gaming on the PC, despite hollow statements otherwise.

Valve has been pumping out historically good games on the PC for over a decade, and is pretty much unparalleled with their support of the mod community. So despite the righteous objection a few still harbor toward Steam, Valve has established a huge pile of street cred with the PC gaming community. They were basically the only company out there that would would be accepted by both gamers and, eventually, game makers.

They are the kings of digital distribution on the PC, and frankly I'm very happy its Valve and not MS, EA. or some other conglomerate that has that mantle.
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Microsoft has begun to experiment with games on demand for PC and it works similar to Steam, and actually pretty well. So its unfair to say they don't care, they are just treading very carefully after Vista's Games for Windows LIVE disaster.
 
RangerXML said:
Microsoft has begun to experiment with games on demand for PC and it works similar to Steam, and actually pretty well. So its unfair to say they don't care, they are just treading very carefully after Vista's Games for Windows LIVE disaster.
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What disaster was that?

i don't remember anythign bad happening with it?

only thing i remember is i started to get achievements with my FO3 game..
 
RangerXML said:
Microsoft has begun to experiment with games on demand for PC and it works similar to Steam, and actually pretty well. So its unfair to say they don't care, they are just treading very carefully after Vista's Games for Windows LIVE disaster.
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Oh, they might care a bit now, because they now see an opportunity to make some $. After all, they have had the luxury of watching Valve's rise as a digital distribution powerhouse, while they sat idly by lifting nary a finger in effort help the PC gaming community during very difficult times. Now that it been demonstrated there might be some profit potential in this area after all, MS is displaying more interest.

You know, MS's motus operandi: innovate as little as possible, just emulate somebody else and use corporate inertia to dominate a market, and then milk whatever is left to oblivion.


My future game purchases will be through Steam, so, no thanks MS.
 
Thank god... spent way too much on games I wasn't even all that interested in just because they were cheap and had a decent score... like pretty much everything in the Eidos pack. Only real reason I picked that up was due to Batman and it's reviews, along with the Hitman games. I figure for $50, I can give it a shot; though I did pass on GTA4 and Riddick due to DRM concerns and GTA just not quite being the type of game I'm really into.
 
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[H]ydra;1035140190 said:
Game Over
See you next winter :D
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no kidding.. aside from GRID2 and maybe one or two others, no way in hell am i buying a game at retail price again!:p
 
krupted said:
youre probably right:( its my only gripe about steam though, i dont like the seperate app to manage games when windows has the same thing just different.
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Are you talking about Vista and 7 having the "games" folder, or GFW Live?

GFW Live is of course it's own app with it's own friends list and marketplace...which uses their redundant "MS Points" current. Poo poo on that...I hate having to trade greenbacks for "Points" to buy shit on Xbox Live especially when half the time you have to buy more points than you need and you end up with leftovers that you can't spend on jack except avatar clothes and background wallpapers. Double poo poo. :mad:

The "games" folder is nothing...it's a folder. It puts the standalone installer game shortcuts in 1 folder.

Either way they're not deal breakers for me. IMHO PC gaming is best done through Steam regardless, because everything is there...your games, friends, messaging, chat. I once was a "rather have a retail physical copy" kind of guy, now I'm turning into a Steam devotee. :)
 
One of the things to keep in mind about the steam sale is that not every purchase during the sale equates to a lost purchase during a non-sale.

At $60, I am willing to buy 0 copies of game X. At $50, 0 copies. At $20, I'm willing to buy one copy. At $10, I might buy 4 and gift 3, taking care of Xmas gifts and enabling me to have co-op with friends I already know.

While that last scenario is a little far fetched, it's much more likely than me buying 4 copies at $60 and gifting 3--at that price, I'd rather put an extra payment on the car. But some revenue has got to be better than no revenue, and there are plenty of games I wouldn't have purchased at full price that I did buy at $5 or $10.
 
zero2dash said:
Are you talking about Vista and 7 having the "games" folder, or GFW Live?

The "games" folder is nothing...it's a folder. It puts the standalone installer game shortcuts in 1 folder.
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well thats not true though. the games explorer is a manager, it keeps track of game updates and provides details too for those games. i agree, gfw live marketplace is crap though... i was just saying i wish the steam storefront was integrated into windows (at least by 3rd party addon). i see why its not though, its just like hulu and windows media center. microsoft wants their own 'internet tv' to succeed, problem is if you dont have the content then you dont have the content
 
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