Why is Steam so expensive with old games?

I dont get why Steam always sell games which are like 8 years for so much. I sometimes get bored and want to pick out a game from the past and lay the smackdown on it. But ffs games like Splinter cell and Max payne they wanna charge me £5.99! Am i the only who thinks steam charge too much for the old classics?

Then don't pay for them.

£5.99?

Steam does not decide what price a game has.

Overpriced they may be - I like steam for their stupendous game packs and sales, like right now they have the Rockstar collection for £30. Thats all Rockstar's PC for just £30 - bargain. (BTW I'm not trying to sell you it, its just my opinion).

I also find Steam is a great way to get games quickly instead of going to a shop or ordering off Amazon etc. but I do like having a physical disc as well.

Aventura54

I think with steam you pay for the convenience, the convenience of having your connection hogged for a few hours :D I think there's also a novelty tax. Download services are relatively new.

It's weird, I bought both left 4 dead and left 4 dead 2 from play.com when they came out because it was considerably cheaper than buying the games direct from the people who made them :S

Their sales are good but yes, the games are always overpriced.

I think with steam you pay for the convenience, the convenience of having your connection hogged for a few hours :D I think there's also a novelty tax. Download services are relatively new.

It's weird, I bought both left 4 dead and left 4 dead 2 from play.com when they came out because it was considerably cheaper than buying the games direct from the people who made them :S

Their sales are good but yes, the games are always overpriced.

-clippa-

I had the same experience. The Orange Box is still 30 euros here in Germany on Steam, yet it's 20 euros in-store (in fact, I picked it up for 10 pounds from the UK, converted to 12 euros because the value of the pound was rock bottom). So not only did I save 18 euros, I got a disc and a nice box. Even Portal alone costs more than I paid for the entire collection. Modern Warfare 2 is now 20 euros in store, but Steam are still charging 50 euros for it. The astonishing thing isthat, in spite of this huge discrepency, people are still stupid enough to buy directly from Steam. Honestly, why do they do it?

I think you can safely place the blame on your fellow Steamers. By putting up with the pricing policy they've basically ensured that publishers have no incentive to lower prices.

Prices don't go down for digitial items, because there is no cost to keeping them listed the way they are. In a retail store they need to get games off the shelf. They only have so much shelf space, and new releases are coming out every week. Popular games will stay on the shelves with high prices for a while. The "average" games only have a month max with high prices. Within a year if you can find it on store shelves it will be half price or less. With digital stuff, it doesn't cost anything to keep those games on "shelves". The most they need is a tiny bit of bandwidth for people loading the game's store page. As far as other online stores vs Steam, they probably buy the game licenses in bulk for half price. They can then price under the suggested price if they want, hoping their sales will be high enough to counter the lower price.

Good luck finding them anywhere else. Besides, Steam is very old game friendly. I bought Vice City for $2.50 and Halflife for $.99, you just have to find the right time.

For anything else there's always GOG(Good Old Games)

They sell old games exclusively, I got Fallouts 1&2 for $6 there.

Its funny you mention this because steam is selling max pay at 75% off right now for 3 hours.

Its funny you mention this because steam is selling max pay at 75% off right now for 3 hours.

bonafidetk

Prices don't go down for digitial items, because there is no cost to keeping them listed the way they are. In a retail store they need to get games off the shelf. They only have so much shelf space, and new releases are coming out every week. Popular games will stay on the shelves with high prices for a while. The "average" games only have a month max with high prices. Within a year if you can find it on store shelves it will be half price or less. With digital stuff, it doesn't cost anything to keep those games on "shelves". The most they need is a tiny bit of bandwidth for people loading the game's store page. As far as other online stores vs Steam, they probably buy the game licenses in bulk for half price. They can then price under the suggested price if they want, hoping their sales will be high enough to counter the lower price.

James00715

The reason game prices go down over time isn't due to stores needing to get them out the door (if that was the case the store wouldn't order any more of that game once the stock is gone). It's due to demand curves. Only so many people are willing to spend full price for a game. After a few months all of those people have already bought it (the exceptions are games where there's sustained high demand, like COD or Halo) so the publisher has to lower prices in order to keep the game selling since once at a lower price point more people will be willing to get the game. This keeps up until the game hits a floor price where the publisher can't lower the price anymore because the game would no longer be profitable. If the game stops selling at that price too then that's when the publisher stops making the game.

Because they give updates to the games and make it compatible with new OS. KOTOR anyone?

steam doesnt decide the price of the games, the developers do.......ferret-gamer

[QUOTE="ferret-gamer"]steam doesnt decide the price of the games, the developers do.......MrLions

Maybe some stores lose out or make minimal profits because of loss leaders? Valve is still making money from hard copies, but they probably make more money from a steam sale, because they are getting all the profits and can cut the middle man out. I buy from steam and never buy retail, it doesn't make me retarded. Maybe I don't live around cheap game stores, and maybe I'd rather have the convenience of buying a game on a whim, and downloading it in a matter of minutes or hours, to play right away.

The reason game prices go down over time isn't due to stores needing to get them out the door (if that was the case the store wouldn't order any more of that game once the stock is gone). It's due to demand curves. Only so many people are willing to spend full price for a game. After a few months all of those people have already bought it (the exceptions are games where there's sustained high demand, like COD or Halo) so the publisher has to lower prices in order to keep the game selling since once at a lower price point more people will be willing to get the game. This keeps up until the game hits a floor price where the publisher can't lower the price anymore because the game would no longer be profitable. If the game stops selling at that price too then that's when the publisher stops making the game.

gameguy6700

Yeah one store decides to start getting rid of old stock somewhere and all of a sudden they should just drop the RRP internationally. Doesn't work like that I'm afraid.

Steam does not decide what price a game has.

rzepak

which is why steam is only really worth it when there's a sale most of the time.

DJ_Headshot

the developers are retartedMrLions

Irony, there :D

Seeing as they frequently have sales on games new and old, i'd wait for one of the games you want to go on sale.

Or check out

gog.com $6 -$10 price range.

[QUOTE="DJ_Headshot"]

which is why steam is only really worth it when there's a sale most of the time.

Hewkii

I dont think that price is bad.

The reason game prices go down over time isn't due to stores needing to get them out the door (if that was the case the store wouldn't order any more of that game once the stock is gone). It's due to demand curves. Only so many people are willing to spend full price for a game. After a few months all of those people have already bought it (the exceptions are games where there's sustained high demand, like COD or Halo) so the publisher has to lower prices in order to keep the game selling since once at a lower price point more people will be willing to get the game. This keeps up until the game hits a floor price where the publisher can't lower the price anymore because the game would no longer be profitable. If the game stops selling at that price too then that's when the publisher stops making the game.

gameguy6700

That's true, but they still have limited shelf space. Like back in February there were tons of big sellers. I'm sure a lot of weak games from the previous month or two were reduced in price to get them off shelves and make more space for the new releases. If the game store has a choice between selling God of War 3 and some no-name game, they are going to choose God of War 3 the majority of times. On a service like Steam it costs them literally nothing to keep the game listed. Profit is probably anything over a few dollars since there is no shipping or shelf space limitations. The bandwidth required for low demand games is negligable. So you will see Half Life 2 a 6 year old game still going for $20 when Orange Box is only $30. Some people are still buying Half Life 2 individually, and it's almost entirely profit. It doesn't cost them any sales to keep it at that price. I would say that many retailers only sell 70% of their stock. Those old games eventually dumped in a landfill, because the cost of not selling them is nothing compared to the profit of selling new releases.