2008 in hindsight, Part 2 of 3

[MikeTheWookiee]

Don't forget that part of the increase in sales will come from the extra marketing as well as the reduced price. When there's a Steam sale, x million people worldwide get a big splash screen telling them

******GAME!!!!!! CHEAP!!!!!*******

That'll boost sales a bit, even if you don't actually drop the price, since people will have actually heard of your game.

[bert_the_turtle]

And also don't forget the negative sides of sales:
a) after the sale is over, people who were on the fence about your game and didn't get it during the sale are unlikely to pick it up any more.
b) future non-sale sales are likely to go down because many people will just wait for your game to be on sale sometime soon.

[Xocrates]

And also don't forget the negative sides of sales:
a) after the sale is over, people who were on the fence about your game and didn't get it during the sale are unlikely to pick it up any more.
b) future non-sale sales are likely to go down because many people will just wait for your game to be on sale sometime soon.

Actually, from what I see around the Steam forums those don't really happen. a) in particular doesn't really have any base to it, if someone who was on the fence didn't buy it during the sale it was their own fault so it's unlikely their position to change. b) is also not valid because what happens is that whenever someone asks when the next sale might be there are now roughly a bajillion new players who will tell the previous person to stop being a cheap ass and actually buy the game (case in point: The Orange box is still noticeably higher in the Steam sale charts than it was before the sale.)

Indeed, what seems to be happening is the opposite: Sales decrease before the sale, because anyone who might be on the fence will just wait for it.

[ynbniar]

I'm waiting for And Yet it Moves to go on sale...

...though I did "pay" for Glum Buster...

[bert_the_turtle]

I'm just describing here what I'm doing and extrapolating to others for b), pretty much every half-interesting game lately has been on sale one way or the other (even Braid) not too long after release. I therefore conclude that a significant portion of half-interesting games (right now, Zeno Clash and And Yet it Moves) are going to be on sale soon. Even though I may be willing to pay the full price for them, I'm not too eager to play them right now, so I'll just wait for them to go on sale and save some cache. If it doesn't happen, I lose nothing, I'll just either don't get these games at all (they're on the 'may be something for me' list) or just later.

And for a), I was considering getting L4D, then it went on sale, I considered it some more and didn't get it in the end (reason not being important). Now that the sale is over, I certainly won't get it because the 'felt' price after the sale is even higher than before. I admit that's less significant as yes, I'd probably wouldn't have bought it without the sale, either.

[Xocrates]

I'm just describing here what I'm doing and extrapolating to others for b), pretty much every half-interesting game lately has been on sale one way or the other (even Braid) not too long after release. I therefore conclude that a significant portion of half-interesting games (right now, Zeno Clash and And Yet it Moves) are going to be on sale soon. Even though I may be willing to pay the full price for them, I'm not too eager to play them right now, so I'll just wait for them to go on sale and save some cache. If it doesn't happen, I lose nothing, I'll just either don't get these games at all (they're on the 'may be something for me' list) or just later.

When was Braid on Sale? Also, you just made my point

EDIT: Wait, by "future non-sale sales" you mean any sales instead of just sales after the sale? In that case I agree.

[bert_the_turtle]

When was Braid on Sale?

Wasn't it on XBLA?

Wait, by "future non-sale sales" you mean any sales instead of just sales after the sale? In that case I agree.

I said 'future non-sale sale?'? So I dunno what you're inquiring about With ZC and AYIM, I'll very probably either get them when they're on sale or not at all (because other intersting stuff pops up), whereas without all those gazillion sale or special offer events lately, I may just have bought them right away. That's definitely money lost for them on average from me.