Quote:
Yes, but it STILL costs something to distribute!

Without copyright, consider the costs of P2P distribution. On a per copy basis (assuming the game is reasonably popular), it approaches zero. SimonForsman posts were made under the assumption: "without artificial supply limitations".

Quote: Original post by rip-off

Quote:
Yes, but it STILL costs something to distribute!

Without copyright, consider the costs of P2P distribution. On a per copy basis (assuming the game is reasonably popular), it approaches zero. SimonForsman posts were made under the assumption: "without artificial supply limitations".

It might be very small, but it is Not zero. Someone pays for your internet connection eventually. Even in a torrent style system someone still had to pay for their internet to seed the files, and everyone else still needs to pay for their internet to keep things going. This cost is Not zero, and should not be regarded as zero.

Yeah, just had to pop back in here and say I bought the following for $17 on Steam yesterday:

- Deus Ex
- Deus Ex: Invisible War
- Hitman: Agent 47
- Hitman 2
- Hitman: Blood Money (not sure, this might be a different Hitman game...)

Definitely a deal if you are into older (good) PC games. Deus Ex was one of my first PC games so it brings back some memories and the price point was cheap enough.

I'm sure it could be argued that steam took longer to develop than a box, and maybe not as many physical resources, but certainly higher equivalence in mental resources. I for one support them. The sheer ease of installing and managing a game library has much improved.

Quote: Original post by dpadam450
When you cut out the distribution and packaging, you save a lot of money though. Even a $5.00 price cut would not hurt profits.

Um, wouldn't it hurt profits by 5$/per sale ?

Quote: Original post by dpadam450
Remember last year when they did some games at 50% off? I think 90% of people agree games are too expensive to buy.

Then games would be cheaper, basic supply/demand, if a game costs 59.99 that means there are a number of people that are willing to pay that price, otherwise it would be less. It also means that by their estimate, if they drop the price by 5$ that would not generate enough new sales (that they can't get by lowering the price later) to cover the 5$ drop in each previous sale.

So basically, if people didn't want to pay such prices, they would be lower :)

I will only buy PC games from Steam. Amazon may be a few bucks cheaper for new games, but then you have to wait for shipping. I had Batman: Arkham Asylum downloaded and installed in under three hours from Steam.

Steam also has ridiculous deals. I purchased the Eidos Collectors Pack for $49.99 with the following games:

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Battlestations Pacific
Battlestations: Midway
Conflict: Denied Ops
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Flora's Fruit Farm
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
Hitman: Blood Money
Hitman: Codename 47
Infernal
Just Cause
Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
Mini Ninjas
Project: Snowblind
Rogue Trooper
Shellshock 2: Blood Trails
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Tomb Raider: Legend
Tomb Raider: Underworld

Not to mention I don't have to keep track of physical media, and I never have to switch discs. Moving games during OS reinstall is also a breeze since Steam allows me to backup my games to an external hard drive so I don't have to download them all again on the new OS / computer.

I have even purchased PC games on Steam that I already owned so I could throw away the DVD versions.

With over 80 games purchased from Steam, my only complaint is it doesn't work for my consoles. [grin]

Yep, I'm the same as you; I only buy my PC games on Steam (or Impulse, but mostly Steam); heck I don't even have to back them up on OS installs as my Steam directory lives on another drive: just download the steam installer, install to the old location and BAM! all my games are found and just needs the pre-install step to run before I'm back up and going again.

Steam is a big bundle of awesome, and when you can pre-load games it just makes the bundle even better [grin]

Quote: Original post by Cromulent

Quote: Original post by Sirisian
Probably caused by game companies and not Steam. I just bought SupCom 2 for 45.99 and also I got Bioshock 2 for the same price. I'm guessing that companies set the price. Especially since for console developers they don't want a gamer to do "wow I'm getting ripped off with this console. Could have bought the game cheaper if I invested in a computer."

Steam is so overpriced its a joke.

Napoleon Total War on Steam = £24.99
Napoleon Total War on Amazon = £17.71

Supreme Commander 2 on Steam = £29.99
Supreme Commander 2 on Amazon = £24.99

Dragon Age Origins on Steam = £29.99
Dragon Age Origins on Amazon = £14.99

Plus you get the advantage of the DVD if you get it on Amazon so no long arse download either.

Ah interesting. Long download? I use a fiber line so it takes a few seconds, but I can understand the difficulty. Also that DVD is pointless especially for SupCom 2. The first patch was massive I heard and that's the thing. It's almost as pointless as getting a disk for an MMO game. I have my Planetside disks and I still just downloaded the game since it's faster than using the disks then patching :P

I have to say that I usually get all my PC games on Steam as well. However Amazon isn't bad either, since if you pre-order a game not only do they give you a $10 credit, but they often ship the game in advance so that it's delivered on the release date.