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How Valve Just F*#ked Up the Steam Sale

How Valve Just F*#ked Up the Steam Sale

Valve made a rather striking decision when it came to the Steam Autumn and Winter Sales. Brace yourself, because it’s bad. There won’t be any Daily or Flash Deals this year. Valve dictated it , and developers and publishers confirmed it .

Usually, every Steam Sale has timed deals every day. Each 24 hours, a handful of titles are highlighted with lower-than-usual prices. Also, every Flash Sale usually lasted at least four hours. It encouraged people to keep visiting Steam throughout the sale, but now it’s gone. Instead, Valve has dictated that every game will hopefully be at its lowest possible price for the entire duration of the sale.

This move sucks primarily for consumers. Why? Because developers and publishers can’t afford to keep a game up for 70-90% off for the entire duration of a November 25 to December 1 Steam Autumn Sale or December 22 to January 4 Steam Winter Sale. It’s fiscally irresponsible. The reason it’s possible for such deals to exist during a sale is because they are so fleeting. The developers and publishers know it’ll be difficult for everyone to jump on the game for that lower price, and that those people who missed it may settle for the other sale price on another day. This change could result in games that are 30-60% off since they’ll be forced to be at that price the entire sale, which isn’t good for customers.

This change will be bad for Steam too. Not knowing what price drops would be available every few hours or day pulled people to the distributor. People would keep coming back, which meant there was a greater chance of impulse buys when something new appeared. Removing Daily and Flash Deals from a Steam Sale takes away any reason to keep returning. You go check the Steam Database once, know immediately what’s there, and don’t have to return. The thrill of the hunt is gone, as is the drive to buy.

Reportedly, the Valve mandate that went out and was obtained by Eurogamer said, “It’s not a major change, but it does make the sale a lot more valuable for customers.” This is wrong. It is a major change. The whole point of a Steam Sale was to check regularly to get something really good. Now, it’s the same as any other online retailer. The thing that made a Steam Sale unique is gone.

How Valve Just F*#ked Up the Steam Sale

Whether it will make the sale more valuable is yet to be seen. It certainly will be more convenient to only have to visit once. But forcing developers and publishers to pick one low price for an extended period of time will likely result in smaller price drops than usual. Fire sale tactics can’t work without Daily and Flash Deals.

This year’s Steam Autumn and Winter Sales seem like the start of what could be an unprofitable experiment. Daily and Flash Deals made Steam Sales special. It meant we could get fleeting, ridiculous deals. Forcing prices to stay at a specific point for an entire sale means companies will have to go with deals they can afford, rather than hype-building drops. And removing the motivation to keep visiting could mean fewer sales overall. We’ll know for sure how this works out in a few days, but it doesn’t sound promising.

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