I think it’s fair to say that I’m a big fan of PC gaming. The PC is my primary only gaming platform and while I have a few problems with Steam, the platform has become my go-to for acquiring and playing PC games. However, something that I’ve been thinking about for some time (you’ll see later in this article how long that has been) is why the original prices of games on Steam are hardly ever reduced outside of sales.
Interestingly, this question has been on my mind for a long time. I recently remembered that I complained about this very issue in a letter I had sent to Total PC Gaming (anyone remember that magazine) and, after a little bit of searching, I managed to find it in the December 2008 copy! Close to 13 years ago! It actually amazes me to realise how long I’ve been pondering this issue but, thanks to a few recent news stories and a very helpful website, I finally feel capable of tackling this issue.
First off, it’s important to note that I used to go to stores such as Game and GameStop when I was much younger (hence the mention of the retail stores in the letter) and I would see the prices for games drop permanently over the course of its lifetime as the store tried to clear out their stock. Some may argue that Steam, being a purveyor of digital goods, doesn’t have this issue and should, therefore, not have to reduce prices to clear goods. While that’s true, the PC market has another issue, that of clutter. Instead of having to move stock for others, the PC market, particularly Steam, should be looking at the dilemma of moving stock when so many other games both bought and lying dormant within libraries vie for attention. As of this article, searching specifically for games on Steam brings up a results list numbering an impressive 55,795 and you would think that companies would want to reduce their prices in order to compete in this environment.
Instead, it seems like most game prices remain static, only dropping during sales. A very helpful website named “Steam Database” contains a plethora of information regarding the various games that have been released on Steam. One of these is price tracking where it not only displays the pricing of games in every regional market it’s available in and the lowest the price has been in those territories but also a very helpful graph depicting the pricing of the game over time. If you examine the chart below, you’ll notice that Dark Souls III has been priced at €59.99 since its release on the 11th of April, 2016. Since then, there have been some pretty sharp sale discounts with the lowest being 83% off but it always returns to the original price tag.
As you might imagine, I find this quite boggling to my mind. However, what I find even more boggling was a recent announcement from NIS America that they would be increasing the price of some of their PC games near the end of July. As someone who’s argued in the past that Japanese publishers should be more aggressive with pricing on Steam, you can imagine how surprised I was by this move.
While no reason is provided as to why NIS America is doing this, after doing some research and hearing what other people have to say, it seems quite likely that NIS America is doing this because residual sales are so low that they would like those few people buying at full price to pay more and/or so that the discount percentage is higher in future sales without actually reducing the price more. This last point was quite interesting to me and I have to wonder if this applies to many other publisher’s reasoning as well. Does a game that was €60 and is 83% off (€9.99) seem more appealing to a consumer than if the game was €20 and 50% off? The answer is probably.
This is something that fascinates me and I would love to hear what you think of why the original prices of games on Steam are hardly ever reduced outside of sales, whether you believe that store prices should be reduced as a game grows older and demand wanes, whether you think that it’s better for game sales if a game remains high priced but has steeper discounts, your thoughts on NIS America raising the price of some of their games and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.