Originally Posted by Idiotekque I have to agree to a certain degree. It's frustrating when you buy something and it is immediately put on a better sale month or so later. We buy some of these deals thinking, okay, Tony pushed and got a really good price on these games, and we buy them. Yet when a month or so later they're way cheaper? That begs the question of why they weren't just that price the last time. Obviously you win some you lose some, but that's kind of a surefire way to frustrate customers a bit. The same thing has happened to me a handful of times recently. It almost feels like we should just ignore every bundle deal Amazon puts together the first time, and wait a month till it repeats at a better price. That's kind of weird. (It would be nice if we could "price match" within a certain amount of time, but that's probably asking too much.)

Again, just curious what you think the time frame between promotions should be? Or if you're suggesting that we don't test out pricing to see what works?

I'm happy to alleviate customer frustration, and strive to do so regularly. Understand that feedback like this will absolutely result in fewer bundle deals getting re-run at better prices though.

It is something we absolutely discuss regularly.

Cheers,
Tony

I think a month is fine. This example just stands out more because generally when Amazon puts up older games on sale, you're discounting far more thant 50 percent. 50 percent is usually reserved for new titles (Max Payne, Sleeping Dogs, Spec Ops). I don't exactly see this sort of situation repeating that often given the unusual circumstances.

Originally Posted by Idiotekque I have to agree to a certain degree. It's frustrating when you buy something and it is immediately put on a better sale month or so later. We buy some of these deals thinking, okay, Tony pushed and got a really good price on these games, and we buy them. Yet when a month or so later they're way cheaper? That begs the question of why they weren't just that price the last time. Obviously you win some you lose some, but that's kind of a surefire way to frustrate customers a bit. The same thing has happened to me a handful of times recently. It almost feels like we should just ignore every bundle deal Amazon puts together the first time, and wait a month till it repeats at a better price. That's kind of weird. (It would be nice if we could "price match" within a certain amount of time, but that's probably asking too much.)

I will agree it is frustrating, but I don't think they are doing anything wrong. Your main regret is you wish you had waited. No company ever advertises planned sales far in advance, otherwise everyone would wait for the price to drop. It's pretty generous Tony advertises his sales in as far advance as he does sometimes.

You buy the game because the price advertised was worth it to you at the time, and part of that higher price you pay is the time you got to enjoy the game before the price dropped again. The prices fluctuate because it's still a business. They want to shift as many units as they can for most possible money. Sometimes this means dropping the price even further. It's not like they had the sale today for 50% off, and then tomorrow it was 75%. A month gap is a huge amount of time in game sales. I don't think Amazon is doing anything wrong, and those of us who waited get to benefit from it.

Hey Tony,

Don't know if you answered my question but can Amazon Price Match the current Gamefly sale on Noric Games? link

Would be great to get Spellforce on Amazon.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Amazon DVG Deals Again, just curious what you think the time frame between promotions should be? Or if you're suggesting that we don't test out pricing to see what works? I'm happy to alleviate customer frustration, and strive to do so regularly. Understand that feedback like this will absolutely result in fewer bundle deals getting re-run at better prices though. It is something we absolutely discuss regularly. Cheers, Tony

I totally disagree with what he said. People who don't like a price can wait and hope the price drops further (this is what I do usually, but in instances where I haven't I don't blame Amazon). A think you've waited at least a month before reissuing bundles at cheaper prices. I like how you are currently doing it.

Versus on Steam, where it takes months before a game goes on sale again. Personally I do not like that system at all.

Originally Posted by Scorch Am I supposed to avoid the holiday sales now because there's probably going to be a better sale a few weeks after?

You should pay the price you feel comfortable and happy paying. If that $15 then pay $15. If it goes cheaper later, at least you paid what you felt was good at the time. If you'll feel upset that you haven't even played it yet, don't keep a backlog and only buy games you're immediately ready to play.

I won't lie; I'd be disappointed if I bought something and saw it on sale soon after for less money. But I don't think you should hold it against the vendor.

Originally Posted by Amazon DVG Deals Curious what the general thought here is, should we not be promoting products within 2 months of each other?

Everything cheaper always forever. Just don't do it within the same sale like Steam does sometimes and you are fine.

Now hurry up and re-run a sale on Spec Ops.

i agree with the 1 moth or whatever the current strategy is. if you change it to 2 months, you run the risk of lost sales to other stores. you might also get complaints from people who then say "well i bought it 2 months ago".

Originally Posted by Syntax Error You should pay the price you feel comfortable and happy paying. If that $15 then pay $15. If it goes cheaper later, at least you paid what you felt was good at the time. If you'll feel upset that you haven't even played it yet, don't keep a backlog and only buy games you're immediately ready to play. I won't lie; I'd be disappointed if I bought something and saw it on sale soon after for less money. But I don't think you should hold it against the vendor.

I agree 100%. Very well put.

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Originally Posted by Amazon DVG Deals Again, just curious what you think the time frame between promotions should be? Or if you're suggesting that we don't test out pricing to see what works? I'm happy to alleviate customer frustration, and strive to do so regularly. Understand that feedback like this will absolutely result in fewer bundle deals getting re-run at better prices though. It is something we absolutely discuss regularly. Cheers, Tony

Well for example, the EA pack ran what, a month and a half ago? It was $13.49 I think. I (and obviously a lot of other people) people bought it then, because it looked like a really awesome price for those games. I certainly didn't think it would get cheaper a very short time later.

I'm not asking that you don't strive for better prices, but it's frustrating when those better prices come immediately after the first wave of buyers grabs the games at the first price. I thought you pushed hard and managed that $13.49 because it was the best Amazon could get. Those are all fairly older games, so why couldn't you have pushed for $9.99 the first time around?

I'd completely understand if 6 months to a year later the price gets better, because that's generally how the digital market goes. If something is $20 in the Steam Summer sale, it'll be $10 in the Steam Winter sale, for example. I think it's fine that Amazon does something different, but like I said above, how it's being carried out can be kind of frustrating.

My theoretical solutions are probably asking too much, but I don't know. It would be nice if we could get the price that's going to happen a month or so later the first time around. That would be the easiest, but may not be possible. It would also work if say, if a bundle sells for $13, and within a few months later it sells for $10, can everyone who bought it for the original price get a $3-5 coupon or account credit? That would still give early buyers an incentive to jump on deals the first time around, instead of waiting for the better price a month later. The same thing happened drastically with the big Paradox pack. It went from $20 to under $10 within a couple months. That hurt.

As it stands though, I'm not going to grab the Kalypso pack I've been anticipating for $12. Why? Because I know I'm probably going to see it for $10 in a month or two. If this pattern continues, a lot of people are probably going to do the same.

(And sorry if I seem rude or harsh at all, I'm just trying to provide raw feedback.)

Originally Posted by Idiotekque I have to agree to a certain degree. It's frustrating when you buy something and it is immediately put on a better sale month or so later. We buy some of these deals thinking, okay, Tony pushed and got a really good price on these games, and we buy them. Yet when a month or so later they're way cheaper? That begs the question of why they weren't just that price the last time. Obviously you win some you lose some, but that's kind of a surefire way to frustrate customers a bit. The same thing has happened to me a handful of times recently. It almost feels like we should just ignore every bundle deal Amazon puts together the first time, and wait a month till it repeats at a better price. That's kind of weird. (It would be nice if we could "price match" within a certain amount of time, but that's probably asking too much.)

Prices for games change sometimes every month, especially right after launch. You can't expect a great deal for a game that's just been released a month ago to be the same as a great deal for a game that's just released TWO months ago. Or four. Or six.

If you want the game right at launch (or right at launch on a new service), then you'll pay more. A month later, you could easily pay a lot less. It happens all the time.

The only way for you to really run through these scenarios and not get burned is to simply set yourself a price point for a given game at a given time. I know, for myself, I always say if a game's "regular" price that I regularly see it for is $59.99, then a great sale price is $20. If it's regular price is $30, I think a great sale price is $15. Etc. I factor in how long the game has been out, how close I am to Black Friday, is it Steam/Origin?, the publisher and their history of price drops (Squaresoft likes to drop like a rock, but Activision is stingy. EA is fast on the drop, but Rockstar can be slow yet hits the price drops hard when they hit them), and my overall desire for the game.

Then I use that as a baseline to determine. Is the deal great enough to warrant my wallet opening? If it is, then I do not cry or whine or wail when the game is later (a month, a week, or a day, it doesn't matter) going for a lower price because I got a great deal on the games that I was fine with at the time when I got it and I'm content that the deal was worth it for me.

Knowing that with deals you will always win some and you will lose some, too, will keep you from going crazy. You have to start looking at your savings over the long term rather than worrying yourself silly over the individual sales. Remembering when Amazon sold me The Witcher 2 for $16 makes me fine with the fact I paid $10 for Saints Row The Third when Steam sold it the next day for $13 for it plus all DLC. Or a non-Amazon example, remembering Origin gave me BF3 for $12 makes me fine with the fact that I got ME3 for $12 when Amazon had a deal for ME3 DD for $20. Sure, these are different services, but the argument is the same. I could have been angry I didn't get the best deal, but the fact is the overall net effect of what Tony and deals in general do is great because I'm saving money. Maybe not always getting the best deal, but usually.

As long as you are paying what you feel is a great price at the time, you shouldn't do anything with future sales for the same game digitally except learn perhaps from the sales pattern with said publisher and/or said franchise and wait longer next time. If you can wait. Never underestimate how much having that game an extra month can be worth to some people. That's the reason many people pay $60 for a game when I will NEVER pay $60 for a game. Not ever.

You had those games a month. If the deal you enjoyed wasn't great enough, that's one problem and it's one you should learn from. You should wait for the deal that IS great enough that in the face of superior deals you're still fine with the deal you got. Comparing the deals you took advantage of in the past to the deals you see others getting now... well, that's going to leave you disappointed a lot of the time. And if deals aren't better in the future than they were in the past, then the deals won't sell because how many times can you run the same game at the same price repeatedly before you've got thousands of people skipping the same game and not going to your site because, hey, you won't drop your prices any lower? Is it fair to expect a guy who didn't buy the game a month ago because the deal wasn't great enough for them to keep getting the same deal over and over just to make things seem okie dokie to you?

TL;DR: Wait until the price is low enough that you won't be upset if a better deal comes along for every game you buy and you won't fret over the individual sales where you didn't get the best deal ever. Attain discipline and reap the rewards.

Originally Posted by Idiotekque Well for example, the EA pack ran what, a month and a half ago? It was $13.49 I think. I (and obviously a lot of other people) people bought it then, because it looked like a really awesome price for those games. I certainly didn't think it would get cheaper a very short time later. I'm not asking that you don't strive for better prices, but it's frustrating when those better prices come immediately after the first wave of buyers grabs the games at the first price. I thought you pushed hard and managed that $13.49 because it was the best Amazon could get. Those are all fairly older games, so why couldn't you have pushed for $9.99 the first time around? I'd completely understand if 6 months to a year later the price gets better, because that's generally how the digital market goes. If something is $20 in the Steam Summer sale, it'll be $10 in the Steam Winter sale, for example. I think it's fine that Amazon does something different, but like I said above, how it's being carried out can be kind of frustrating. My theoretical solutions are probably asking too much, but I don't know. It would be nice if we could get the price that's going to happen a month or so later the first time around. That would be the easiest, but may not be possible. It would also work if say, if a bundle sells for $13, and within a few months later it sells for $10, can everyone who bought it for the original price get a $3-5 coupon or account credit? That would still give early buyers an incentive to jump on deals the first time around, instead of waiting for the better price a month later. The same thing happened drastically with the big Paradox pack. It went from $20 to under $10 within a couple months. That hurt. As it stands though, I'm not going to grab the Kalypso pack I've been anticipating for $12. Why? Because I know I'm probably going to see it for $10 in a month or two. If this pattern continues, a lot of people are probably going to do the same. (And sorry if I seem rude or harsh at all, I'm just trying to provide raw feedback.)

Seems extremely unreliable, honestly. Why not wait a few more months for it's inevitable $8 dollar price drop? In fact, why buy anything? Amazon has been known to have free game promotions.

Ideally, you would get as low prices on as many items as possible within reasonable spacing. More so than trying not trying to avoid customers getting buyer's remorse over other people getting a better deal.

Originally Posted by Idiotekque As it stands though, I'm not going to grab the Kalypso pack I've been anticipating for $12. Why? Because I know I'm probably going to see it for $10 in a month or two. If this pattern continues, a lot of people are probably going to do the same. (And sorry if I seem rude or harsh at all, I'm just trying to provide raw feedback.)

This is exactly what you should do. If the price doesn't seem good enough to you, don't buy it. But there are plenty of people that will buy it at $12 so they can enjoy the game right away rather than wait.

One month is fine for me to start to see those MAJOR price cuts (50% or more) - especially when companies are often pushing (often overpriced) DLC out at a crazy rate.

As a rule of thumb - I nowadays do like to wait until a game hits EITHER...
$10 or less (especially true on major expensive titles);
OR at 75% off (on any title - Indie, Triple-A title, whatever).

Sometimes, VERY hard for me to do so - i.e. Mass Effect 3 ($30 from Amazon in Retail Box b/c I was fiending for it so badly).

Originally Posted by HisDivineShadow Prices for games change sometimes every month, especially right after launch. You can't expect a great deal for a game that's just been released a month ago to be the same as a great deal for a game that's just released TWO months ago. Or four. Or six. If you want the game right at launch (or right at launch on a new service), then you'll pay more. A month later, you could easily pay a lot less. It happens all the time. The only way for you to really run through these scenarios and not get burned is to simply set yourself a price point for a given game at a given time. I know, for myself, I always say if a game's "regular" price that I regularly see it for is $59.99, then a great sale price is $20. If it's regular price is $30, I think a great sale price is $15. Etc. I factor in how long the game has been out, how close I am to Black Friday, the publisher and their history of price drops (Squaresoft likes to drop like a rock, but Activision is stingy. EA is fast on the drop, but Rockstar can be slow yet hits the price drops hard when they hit them), and my overall desire for the game. Then I use that as a baseline to determine. Is the deal great enough to warrant my wallet opening? If it is, then I do not cry or whine or wail when the game is later (a month, a week, or a day, it doesn't matter) because I got a great deal on the games that I was fine with at the time. You win some, you lose some. As long as you are paying what you feel is a great price at the time, you shouldn't do anything with future sales for the same game digitally except learn perhaps from the sales pattern with said publisher and/or said franchise and wait longer next time. If you can wait. Never underestimate how much having that game an extra month can be worth to some people. That's the reason many people pay $60 for a game when I will NEVER pay $60 for a game. Not ever. You had those games a month. If the deal you enjoyed wasn't great enough, that's one problem, but comparing the deals you got in the past to the deals you got now... well, that's going to leave you disappointed a lot of the time. If deals aren't better in the future than they were in the past, then the deals won't sell because how many times can you run the same game at the same price repeatedly before you've got thousands of people skipping the same game and not going to your site because, hey, you won't drop your prices any lower?

I completely understand the "you win some you lose some" and that waiting is always best ideas. You're completely right, I agree.

Tony asked for feedback on how they're doing it though, and I'm just speaking my mind. It's one thing for a game that was just released and went on sale for $40 to suddenly go on sale for $25 or $30 a month later, but that doesn't typically happen for bundles. When Amazon started putting up these bundles, I thought they were deep discounts that were pushed hard for. I guess they were, but these are some extremely short timeframes for discounts on the same bundles.

If it is what it is, that's fine. But I, as well as probably a great deal of other buyers, are going to recognize this pattern and just wait for the second time these bundles go on sale. It's an extremely short wait, and we'll save money. That's a fine solution if that's what it takes, but giving early buyers a bit of an incentive in the way of coupons/account credit may be a good idea both to the buyers and to Amazon, since those coupons will encourage buyers to buy MORE! That's a good thing, right?

Originally Posted by UW_Shocks Usually you have to buy the Bundle to get it at that price. However, I'm also interested in knowing whether the individual games will get some sort of discount.

Yeah hopefully.

If anyone is interested in splitting up the Batman pack, I'm only interested in Arkham Asylum, let me know.

Wish I got to use that code on the EA Bundle.

Hey Tony. Any plans on doing a horror-game bundle this month? I think it would be a awesome idea

Originally Posted by BernardoOne Hey Tony. Any plans on doing a horror-game bundle this month? I think it would be a awesome idea

That does sound like fun. Too bad they don't have Steam keys for Capcom games. Dead Rising 2, DR2: Off the Record, RE5, DMC3, these would all be good. Or Silent Hill Homecoming, even.

They do have Dead Space 1 and 2, though.

Originally Posted by Idiotekque I completely understand the "you win some you lose some" and that waiting is always best ideas. You're completely right, I agree. Tony asked for feedback on how they're doing it though, and I'm just speaking my mind. It's one thing for a game that was just released and went on sale for $40 to suddenly go on sale for $25 or $30 a month later, but that doesn't typically happen for bundles. When Amazon started putting up these bundles, I thought they were deep discounts that were pushed hard for. I guess they were, but these are some extremely short timeframes for discounts on the same bundles. If it is what it is, that's fine. But I, as well as probably a great deal of other buyers, are going to recognize this pattern and just wait for the second time these bundles go on sale. It's an extremely short wait, and we'll save money. That's a fine solution if that's what it takes, but giving early buyers a bit of an incentive in the way of coupons/account credit may be a good idea both to the buyers and to Amazon, since those coupons will encourage buyers to buy MORE! That's a good thing, right?

You've every right to speak your mind. I'm not telling you to stop. I'm offering a counter point because I think that feedback is best when considered in total, not just with the side that seems to be the most unhappy. Too often, people consider opinions only when they're angry or upset with something rather than along with the people who are happy and content with the way things are or perhaps are merely satisfied with the overall balance of the way things are handled.

I think your argument runs the risk of being hyperbole when you believe one set of deals implies an overall pattern for the entire site. I remember when I missed the Mass Effect 3 deal ($22 for the standard, $30 for the DD) back in May. I kept poking/reminding/begging/promising away firstborns to Tony to repeat the deal, but he couldn't. Not for months and I waited. Once I threw in my undying admiration, he put up a better deal... after Origin offered a deal I decided was my threshold. Oh well.

Thing is, I wouldn't say that the overall deals at Amazon were defined by that one experience or how I missed it because it was a one day thing and I should have been hyper aware of deals on a site when they were easy to miss. I'd say that was one deal that I wanted badly that just didn't go the way I wanted it to at the time when I wanted it to.

The overall experience is how you define something, not just the one time it went a way you didn't like.

PS:

Tony,

Sleeping Dogs for $22.50 was too good to pass up. I just finished Saints Row The Third and I was ready for some more open world shenanigans of a different sort. Thanks!

OK, well here is where I would stand:

1. People complaining about a 2-4 dollar price drop on an insane bundle - just get over it. Either price was freaking amazing.

2. Scorch, I feel your pain, but my policy is I only buy what I am going to play or anticipate playing immediately at a higher price. Everything else I just wait. Almost every PC game will eventually hit $5 and with these bundles lately (indie and amazon) I find myself getting awesome AAA games for $2 or less sometimes! So unless I absolutely want something I just wait. Especially if I had a bandwidth cap.

Overall, I'm fine with the strategy. I buy at the price I am comfortable at. I bought Darkness II at $9.99 and turns out I might not be able to play it as soon as I though. Heard a $5 Halloween sale might be possible - great. No complaints here. I paid what I wanted when I wanted. I think a month is more than enough time between promoting the same game at a lower price. If you didn't play it within that month you need to adjust your strategy of buying games and wait until the $5 price point or lower for games that are getting into the backlog.

Also, I am hoping for a cool Halloween themed sale. Selection is probably limited and I likely have everything that'll be on sale, but Halloween is my favorite holiday so I love anything Halloween themed.