Huh. If they do that for price variations over time and not just regional adjustments, that would be amazing. Like you buy a game and the next day it goes on sale, and they automatically refund? Hell yes.
Ok this is good.
Apparently they still do not have regional pricing in effect in some of the larger markets. I saw on Reddit someone (I think from India) mentioned that Exodus had been showing as $15 on Steam for them but showing $60 on Epic Store.
Afaik there is no hard set limit. Valve reserve the right to deny generating more keys if they suspect something suspect is happening, but that’s all.
Plus this is how all the stores such as GMG, humble etc operate AFAIK.
Apparently developers don’t like regional prices. [quote=“TurinTur, post:434, topic:131364”]
Steam developers speak: Maximum profits for Valve, minimum responsibilities
Valve likes to take a cut of sales, but it doesn’t like to be responsible for the store
A very interesting article from Polygon.
I say ‘interesting’, because some parts are insightful not only in bad things done by Valve, but also how some developers are ignorant of how Steam works.
[/quote]
Or at least that’s implied. So which is it, is this a service devs like or are they horrified their games are that cheap somewhere?
edit: not sure where i messed up on this quoting from another topic piece.
Indeed, what a great sentiment! Or?
Let’s look at the price for Metro: Exodus here in Europe:
Steam: 59.99€
Epic store: 59.99€
Man, you can almost feel the savings!
It’s $49.99 on epic, $59.99 on Steam in the US.
So, yes, the system works. Not for you though.
Well, I guess I would be annoyed.
Minor edit: Anyway, Sucks to be you @Bateau
Hahah you have to be joking. Beautiful.
edit: Nice stealth edit.
I can’t talk about other regions, but here in the US, it seems like we are getting a deal.
Let’s see how it all shakes up.
As for Steam Keys, my concern is that companies are happy to give away almost anything to get you locked in. It’s when they don’t have competition, that they close all the doors. Sure, a lot of companies can sell Steam Keys, and not have to give a cut to steam, but only because steam allows it and there are stories about Valve going after companies that try to go around them.
What’s an extreme case? Who knows?
Besides, I still don’t have Half Life 3. So, Fuck Valve.
We have a 15+ year history of Steam to look at, much of which you can argue there was little to no competition and they’re still wide open as ever.
Also, that article does a pretty good job of explaining what they consider an extreme case. There were a lot of asset flips abusing Steam key policy. Obviously they aren’t going to give exact guidelines because bad faith developers will push out asset flips that are just on the right side of the line, then cry foul if Valve does anything.
You could have gotten even better deal in US before the epic exclusivity. You could have bought Metro under 50 bucks on Razer store for example.
And for steam keys, I checked and you can request as many as you need, although it is checked by Valve.
For legit, reputable developers, that number is basically infinite. Like e.g. Bohemia Interactive are selling steam keys on their own store for years.
And yes, you may think they will become horrible tomorrow. But in 15 years steam has existed, nothing indicates that to become true.
And exclusivity doesn’t mean that the world is ending tomorrow since we’ve had exclusivity on Steam, Uplay, Origin, and Impulse already.
So, if Steam isn’t horrible, and Exclusivity isn’t horrible, I guess nothing is all that horrible and we are all just getting worked up about nothing.
The way they pulled Metro last minute was shittastic. Not the end of the world, but that was not the right thing to do.
And nobody is claiming that the world will end tomorrow. And exclusivities on Steam, Uplay, Origin and Impulse have been for first party games only. When for third party, that was due to choice of dev or publisher, not because they got bribed for it. That is the difference.
Another difference is when a game is exclusive to great platform with lot of features (steam) or unique selling points and good features (gog), or barebones platform (epic).
Still, preferable would be if games were available everywhere and we as customers could choose where to buy. I don’t see why this is a controversial standpoint.
Wait, Valve create Civ 5 and 6?
Read my post again.
No, the real point is that the prices are what the market is willing to pay. Just the distribution of the money changes.
Oh, you equating paying for exclusivity with being a bribe. I guess you could see it that way. Some could say that’s the cost of doing business, but then you sound like a mobster.
Considering that this action is neither illegal nor immoral, I don’t see it as a bribe. There isn’t any morality I know that involves the sale of a video game, even if does cause you a small amount of inconvenience. The goal of the company is to make money and get an audience (in order to make money but also because you want people to play the thing you made). As I see it, the guarantees at least some income for the developers upfront and a larger percentage of profits on the back end (since they are taking a risk with this deal). Isn’t that the rational decision to make?
If someone came to me and offered me a signing bonus to start at a new firm, and higher wages, would you consider that unethical or a bribe? I mean, my boss and supervisor would be upset, as would my colleagues, and I don’t want to do that, but would I be wrong to take that offer?
In the short term, there might be some growing pains, but the more stores that compete, the better the product and service I will get on a fair playing field (which, it’s not, since Steam has been the dominate force for so long, and I have a lot of games on steam).
Even if it means dealing with exclusivity, it still means a better deal for us, because games are elastic. If I have 40 dollars to spend, and there a 3-4 games I want, I’ll buy the ones that best fit my budget and my needs. So, if Exodus’ price stays to high, or if Epic Games is a piece of shit, I just don’t buy it. I buy something that has more value.
Epic Games, even if they have exclusives, still have to compete on price and service, and publishers and developers will know this as well. I can buy something else from somewhere else. Walmart usually has cheaper prices, but Amazon is more convenient. Target is a nicer place to shop. Aldi has better prices. All these places compete, and some of them have products I can’t get anywhere else. But that still doesn’t mean the prices for those items goes through the roof because a lot of things are elastic in nature.
And that isn’t the only benefit. Customers are not the only ones competing. Steam will need to compete with Epic to get developers on board. Maybe their services are enough for now, but getting a bigger part of the pie certainly is tempting for developers who might prefer Epic. Especially if they don’t really use the Workshop all that much.
The bottom line, stores compete for customers, getting us a better deal, but there also compete for developers, giving them a better deal. It is part of the market (which I believe should be free, but regulated because free markets tend to end in monopolies). And I for one would like to see developers paid more.
Iit’s not an isolated incident of Epic being shitty either, lest we forget the Fortnite / PUBG kerfuffle. It was certainly within their rights, but if they’re willing to throw such a large partner under the bus, what about small fry customers like me?