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If I really want a game, I'll pay full price. Most of the games I buy on sales, I wouldn't buy for full price.
The only game I really wanted that I still waited for a sale was Trine 2, but that's because I don't have a job right now and can't afford to pay much for games. And I still paid $7.50. It got down to $3.74 during the summer sale, I believe.
>http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/174587/Steam_sales_How_deep_discounts_really_affect_your_games.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29
>
>Steam sales: How deep discounts really affect your games
>by Tom Curtis >Business/Marketing, Exclusive]
>51 comments
>
>July 25, 2012
>
>Valve's Steam sales have always proven a great time for
>consumers to score some cheap PC games, but over the past
>several months, there's been some debate over whether these
>promotions are good for game developers. Some have argued that
>the major discounts devalue games, and end up hurting the
>industry in the long run.
>
>But according to a number of developers that took part in this
>year's Steam Summer Sale, that doesn't seem to be the case.
>The teams who've discounted their games during this or
>previous Steam sales have found that the promotions not only
>attract more sales, but also generate more revenue and breathe
>new life into aging products.
>
>Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer, for instance, tells us that
>while it's been almost three years since his studio launched
>Torchlight, Valve's Steam promotions have helped the game
>maintain healthy sales to this very day.
>
>"We find that we get several thousand percent increases in
>units and revenue on the days of the Steam sales, and unit
>sales are usually about double the normal for a few weeks
>after the sales are over," he says.
>
>This year's Summer Sale (which ended July 22) was particularly
>noteworthy for Runic, as it helped Torchlight hit its second
>biggest day ever in terms of overall unit sales -- not bad for
>a game that came out in October 2009.
>
>And Runic's case doesn't seem to be an anomaly; Supergiant
>Games' Amir Rao tells us that these Steam sales have proven
>more lucrative than his game's initial debut.
>
>"A lot of times we judge the success of a game -- and predict
>its sales -- by looking at its launch day numbers. Steam sales
>have made that delightfully impossible. Our launch day >Bastion], which we viewed as very strong, is only our fifth
>best day of sales ever on Steam due to the power of the
>promotions we've had the opportunity to participate in," Rao
>says.
>
>According to indie developer and Super Meat Boy co-creator
>Edmund McMillen, these promotions can increase sales to an
>almost staggering extent. His 2D dungeon crawler The Binding
>of Isaac, for example, saw sales multiply by five when it was
>marked down by 50 percent, and once it hit the front page as a
>temporary "Flash Deal" (for 75 percent off), sales multiplied
>by sixty.
>
>Believe it or not, those figures aren't all that unusual.
>Valve's director of business development, Jason Holtman, says
>plenty of developers have seen their sales increase
>exponentially, giving them a very healthy boost in revenue.
>
>"It's not uncommon for our partners to see 10-20 times
>revenue increase on games they run as a 'Daily Deal.' Some
>titles really take off and see as much 70-80 times
>increase in revenue," Holtman said.
>Is there a catch?
>
>Despite the fact that Steam sales mark games down to just a
>small fraction of their usual price, the developers we spoke
>to don't think these promotions are devaluing games at all.
>Based on the data they've seen, Steam sales have only been a
>good thing for their business.
>
>Sure, players will jump on the chance to buy a game for $2.50,
>but the developers have found that Steam consumers are still
>perfectly willing to pay full price for a game once the sales
>are over. The "race to the bottom" we've seen on the mobile
>markets just doesn't seem to be there on Valve's platform.
>
>"While some may argue that contribute to an
>industry-wide price deterioration problem -- where smartphone
>games have made people unwilling to spend more than $5 on a
>digital game -- are a bit different," says Ken
>Berry, the executive VP of XSEED Games (Ys Origins, Ys: The
>Oath in Felghana).
>
>"Rather than looking at it as a 'lost sale' when people wait
>for these Steam discounts, I think it needs to be viewed as
>reaching out to a new customer that never would have purchased
>your game otherwise."
>
>Valve's Holtman says he's never noticed any negative
>consequences from these promotions. Instead, most games still
>see positive trends in their sales numbers well after the
>discounts are over. At the very worst, a game's sales will
>just revert back to what they were before the promotion
>began.
>
>And of course, it's not only about generating more sales.
>Sometimes, you just want to make sure that people are playing
>your game in the first place, so they pay attention when
>you're building excitement for whatever comes next.
>
>As Toxic Games' Daniel Da Rocha (Q.U.B.E.), puts it, ">people] have the opportunity pick up a copy for next to
>nothing, this only grows the fan base around the game, so when
>we release new content or future games, we have a large
>community already there to market to."
>
>For those still looking to reap the benefits of these sales,
>you're in luck, as Holtman says "there's no secret handshake a
>developer needs to know to get their title on the front page
>" – all you really need to do is put out a
>product that consumers want to play.
<--- It's the place to be.
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