Using “sorry” with an assertion of “baseless bullshit” is a bit contradictory. Tone aside, the EGSale was a significant discount for many titles (e.g. every title that was $20, including recently released titles, was 50% off due to the $10 credit.) Although a $10 savings might not be worthwhile to some, it can make the difference in a purchase to others.
Are you saying that’s not related affordability or accessibility?
It is apparently contradictory, but I’ve been convinced that legowarrior is a nice guy, so I am sorry.
What I’m saying is that, even though it was once in a lifetime thing, supposedly, it’s nowhere near out of the ordinary. It’s only somewhat extraordinary for people who buy directly on Steam (including the big sale events since they changed a few years ago), otherwise, not really.
And this is where Epic is at its best. Less exclusives, more awesome sales is what we need.
Don’t grab popular titles last minute – help small devs who don’t have the means, and then some exclusivity makes sense.
Show that you’re pro-customer.
Free FEZ this week!
Inside is coming up free next. And Far Cry Primal is $4.99. (I don’t think I dare add that to the bargain thread though!)
It’s odd that Ubisoft games now have a “Steam Tax”. They are aggressively flexing against Valve and Epic’s the scapegoat, so Ubi’s going a bit unnoticed for it.
What do you mean? Higher pricing on Steam?
Is it a “Steam tax” rather than a “non-Uplay tax”? The base prices of old Ubisoft titles seem similarly inflated on both Steam and Epic.
There have been several sales in a row now where uPlay/Epic titles were discounted while Steam keys were either unavailable or full-price. This appears to be a direct result of Ubisoft no longer providing Steam keys to third-party retailers, but instead activating directly through uPlay.
The games are on uPlay no matter what, it’s just uPlay or uPlay/Epic (discounted) versus Steam/uPlay (full price). I noticed Far Cry Primal in particular because it actually interests me, but I don’t get any price alerts unless it’s a store that offer Steam keys.
I don’t have problems with Ubisoft or other devs lowering the cost of their games on platforms where they receive a larger cut. From a consumer point of view, that’s the reason to want this sort of competition. Steam can either lower their prices/increase compensation to devs, or they can compete by being more a of a premium service and not compete directly on price.
It’s definitely a smart move on Ubisoft’s part, but I expect that there is a backlash building. I’m sort of chuckling because to my poor perception of time Ubisoft is still struggling in the AA developer range like, say, THQ, against the giants like EA and Activision, think the short kid who really thinks he needs to prove himself, despite that not being remotely the case for years now.
The most recent Steam Sale of Far Cry Primal ended on July 9th. It was sold for $10. Before the current Epic Ubisoft sale, the last time Primal was for sale there was on June 18th, sold for $15. There have been six Steam sales on Primal this year, two on Epic.
So I just don’t see where this idea that it’s being discounted more often or more deeply on Epic than Steam is coming from. Of course it doesn’t help if they keys aren’t there, but I’ve never seen Steam not have Steam keys. Pretty surprising that Valve is allowing something like that.
The first game I checked (Watch Dogs 2) had a much higher base price on both Steam and Epic than on Uplay. But looks like that’s not universal.
Far Cry Primal literally is.
No, it’s not. The most recent Epic sale had a lower price than there’s ever been on Steam, sure. The most recent Steam sale had a lower price than the previous Epic low. Game sales percentages increase over time, that’s totally normal.
If the next Steam sale doesn’t happen, or has a higher price than on Epic, then you’d have a point.
Mate I find your argumentation disingenuous at best but you already made my point for me. I set the price alert, based on the historic low, during the last Epic sale, which started before the Steam Summer Sale, when Far Cry Primal was priced at $4.99 with the store-wide discount.
The one concrete claim you made was:
There have been several sales in a row now where
Play/Epic titles were discounted while Steam keys were
either unavailable or full-price.
I honestly don’t understand how that could be true when this is the 2nd Epic sale of Primal, and there have been none between this and the last Steam sale. Maybe you could explain it rather than resort to insults?
It was priced at $14.99. That’s the price that Ubisoft set, that was the price that was shown on the front page, and that’s the price that Ubisoft’s revenue from these sales was based on.
Now, to a customer that breakdown doesn’t matter, they’re just happy they got the game for cheap. To companies it does matter. And your initial post wasn’t phrased from the point of view of a customer. Instead you said that "Ubisoft games now have a Steam Tax” and that “they are aggressively flexing against Valve”. And that’s the part that I disagree with. As far as I can see Ubisoft has been running sales on both stores at a similar frequency, and has not been setting higher prices on Steam.
Just what is the tax? Ubisoft is imposing a Steam tax because Steam isn’t throwing money into a similar sale?
Have a nice day.
What are the other ones? Without knowing what games you’re talking about it is hard to agree or disagree with your statement. For Far Cry Primal, this is the first time it hit $5 on any platform - so that discount may trickle to other sellers now that is happened on UPlay.
Off the top of my head, I paid $2 more for Rainbow Six Siege Deluxe to have it on Steam, not to mention games that aren’t on steam in the first place!
Interesting! In Europe that’s right now 11.99€ in the Epic sale, the latest Steam sale had it at 11.99€. Is it different in the US? Or was there a cheaper sale on Epic at some point in between, and they’ve jacked up the price on Epic now?
Good thing that you’re not mentioning them, since exclusives have been discussed so much, and seem unrelated to this “Steam tax” idea :-P