Steam's Prices could rise in the UK

[lAnimal]

Should do what the old Irish did, Kick the government out, If they refuse to go, Shoot them, Then get some good people in.

There isn't enough bullets in the world for that :/

 

[Kaapstad]

I think we should be asking why steam prices for games are so high anyway.

Pointing out that they have sales regularly is rather missing the point.

Steam don't have to worry about manufacturing, packaging, distribution, transport or any number of other costs - so why the high prices ?

 

[WYP]

I think we should be asking why steam prices for games are so high anyway.

Pointing out that they have sales regularly is rather missing the point.

Steam don't have to worry about manufacturing, packaging, distribution, transport or any number of other costs - so why the high prices ?

Steam do take a 30% cut out of everything they sell, they could easily reduce that and still profit.

The sad fact is that many games require steam to sell well enough on PC, and valve will take a lot of that money because of that.

 

[NeverBackDown]

What devs pretty much do is find a price they can earn profit from and then add 30% to the price just so they can still earn enough after steam takes a cut.

Steam can charge so much more because they have market control. Many games are sold exclusively on steam and they feel that incentive allows them to charge more than competitors.

 

[Kaapstad]

What devs pretty much do is find a price they can earn profit from and then add 30% to the price just so they can still earn enough after steam takes a cut.

Steam can charge so much more because they have market control. Many games are sold exclusively on steam and they feel that incentive allows them to charge more than competitors.

Sounds like the EU will be slapping a nice big fine on them at some point in the future, if the US government does not beat them to it.

 

[NeverBackDown]

They aren't breaking any rules by charging more. They are differentiating themselves from the competition by offering exclusive games and higher quality service(debatable) and by offering them they charge more. Its not like a monopoly and if it is they haven't broken any US laws(that we know of) as of yet to make them change their ways.

In the end higher prices still suck but since its not really effecting me( knock on wood) its not a big concern

 

[Kaapstad]

They aren't breaking any rules by charging more. They are differentiating themselves from the competition by offering exclusive games and higher quality service(debatable) and by offering them they charge more. Its not like a monopoly and if it is they haven't broken any US laws(that we know of) as of yet to make them change their ways.

In the end higher prices still suck but since its not really effecting me( knock on wood) its not a big concern

What devs pretty much do is find a price they can earn profit from and then add 30% to the price just so they can still earn enough after steam takes a cut.

Steam can charge so much more because they have market control. Many games are sold exclusively on steam and they feel that incentive allows them to charge more than competitors.

Your earlier post is a definition of a monopoly which is against the law in the EU and US, unfortunately these things take time to get investigated and dealt with.

I think what steam are doing here is a little bit more naughty than say Microsoft bundling IE with windows.

 

[Bartacus]

Does anyone remember when Steam was first being pitched, and we heard all this rambling about cheaper games because packaging will be reduced, blah blah blah?

In Canada a game on Steam costs me MORE (unless on sale) than buying a CD off the shelf. Recent example: Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. $59CDN in stores or $59USD on Steam, which is worse since our dollar stinks. I bought the CD. Why waste my own limited internet bandwidth AND get no manual? I'm not sure I buy into how much "value" Steam offers.

 

[SeekaX]

Does anyone remember when Steam was first being pitched, and we heard all this rambling about cheaper games because packaging will be reduced, blah blah blah?

In Canada a game on Steam costs me MORE (unless on sale) than buying a CD off the shelf. Recent example: Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. $59CDN in stores or $59USD on Steam, which is worse since our dollar stinks. I bought the CD. Why waste my own limited internet bandwidth AND get no manual? I'm not sure I buy into how much "value" Steam offers.

You got a limited connection?
The main point of steam is to not have a bunch of disks lying around, you can't blame them for your terrible connection. I got 198 games in Steam. I don't need to search for them, i don't need to hope that the disc isn't scratched and i don't need to store any discs.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Your earlier post is a definition of a monopoly which is against the law in the EU and US, unfortunately these things take time to get investigated and dealt with.

I think what steam are doing here is a little bit more naughty than say Microsoft bundling IE with windows.

Its not a monopoly.. if it is one then its simply because they are no competitors to take out market share. So they can do what they want as long as the prices remain within the price ceiling. Its not really a big enough deal to look into it.. its just a few quid.

 

[Kaapstad]

Its not a monopoly.. if it is one then its simply because they are no competitors to take out market share. So they can do what they want as long as the prices remain within the price ceiling. Its not really a big enough deal to look into it.. its just a few quid.

On the contrary you are describing a monopoly again and judging by the prices they charge it is not a healthy one.

 

[SeekaX]

On the contrary you are describing a monopoly again and judging by the prices they charge it is not a healthy one.

Steam is no monopoly, there are lots of smaller competitors like gog, origin, etc.. Even normal game shops and online shops are competing with steam.
It just so happens that Steam is the most popular of these vendors, which is legally completely fine.
If you don't want to pay 60 euros for a game then just wait for it to go on sale, it's going to happen sooner or later.

 

[Kaapstad]

Steam is no monopoly, there are lots of smaller competitors like gog, origin, etc.. Even normal game shops and online shops are competing with steam.
It just so happens that Steam is the most popular of these vendors, which is legally completely fine.
If you don't want to pay 60 euros for a game then just wait for it to go on sale, it's going to happen sooner or later.

I also have a problem with that whether it is Steam, Origin or someone else where one of these companies are the only one you can buy a particular game from at a hefty mark up.

Anyone know where I can get Titanfall from for a reasonable price ?

 

[SeekaX]

I also have a problem with that whether it is Steam, Origin or someone else where one of these companies are the only one you can buy a particular game from at a hefty mark up.

Anyone know where I can get Titanfall from for a reasonable price ?

Depends on what you consider a reasonable price. I found keys for 30 euros at trustworthy shops. Even though i would't pay more than 5 euros for Titanfall anyways.
CSGO is exclusive to steam and you can get that game for less than 5 euros at least 10 times a year. Portal 2 wasn't expensive either.

 

[notcool]

George Osbourne has no power whatsoever he is just trying to play politics. He is also the man that has almost doubled the UK's national debt to a cool 1.4 trillion. Google, Amazon and all the others aren't obliged to pay corporation tax in the UK. Nigel says it all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9IuMEO9sNM

 

[Dicehunter]

I'm betting come the next major election the tories wont have enough votes and ukip will form a coalition with the tories seeing as firage is an ex torie himself and then the country will go from the current sorry state it's in now to even worse.

The UK needs to get rid of all these public school boy bastards, They ruin the country and keep blaming each other i.e labour, torie, lib dem.
All need to be strung up.

1 thing that has always bothered me about english governments, Why do they always go to war on the ordinary person ?

 

[jamesriley94]

George Osbourne has no power whatsoever he is just trying to play politics. He is also the man that has almost doubled the UK's national debt to a cool 1.4 trillion. Google, Amazon and all the others aren't obliged to pay corporation tax in the UK. Nigel says it all:

You do realise there are large lag times between policies being implemented and those policies translating into results don't you? The national debt is still rising because of policies/issues that happened several years ago. Just because it's rising now doesn't mean whatsoever that good old Gideon isn't doing his job.

Also, the national debt is still increasing because we're still running a budget deficit - ie, the government spend more than they receive in taxes.

This is again down to the previous labour government spending so much that the current government couldn't just say 'right government spending is going to be halved immediately' as the country would be in turmoil.

Anyway - this is pretty much completely off topic - if you want to talk about politics you're better off making a proper thread.

 

[WYP]

You do realise there are large lag times between policies being implemented and those policies translating into results don't you? The national debt is still rising because of policies/issues that happened several years ago. Just because it's rising now doesn't mean whatsoever that good old Gideon isn't doing his job.

Also, the national debt is still increasing because we're still running a budget deficit - ie, the government spend more than they receive in taxes.

This is again down to the previous labour government spending so much that the current government couldn't just say 'right government spending is going to be halved immediately' as the country would be in turmoil.

Anyway - this is pretty much completely off topic - if you want to talk about politics you're better off making a proper thread.

Agreed, results always take a large amount of time to develop. Just become money is still being lost doesn't mean the tide isn't turning.

And if you complain about the mainlands Government, just think how inefficient Northern Ireland's government is when it is more or less a continuous cross party mess of disagreement.

As James said if you want a discussion on this start a new thread, we are dangerously off-topic here on a thread related to game prices.

 

[Dicehunter]

The UK needs a very bloody revolution *will never happen as the english like tugging the forelock too much*, Hang all the public school boys who have not got a clue what real life is about and make Steam 50% cheaper, Problems solved