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Originally Posted by Neuro5i5 OK, now that the Steam sale is over I realize I want these games: Post Mortem Still Life Still Life 2 Of which each were apparently $2.50 during the sale and all but I think Still life were in bundles. The Gala Store currently has Sill Life and Still Life 2 in a bundle currently at $3.99. What are the chances of getting all 3 (in Steamable variety?) from Amazon at a reasonable price point of say $5-$8? I also realize that apparently I have no sense of things that are hot anymore as this is the third time in a month I have blistered the roof of my mouth on melted cheese.

Oh, it'd be mad cool if Amazon DVG sold a bundle w/ all the old Microids Games:
Post Mortem; Still Life 1; Still Life 2; Syberia 1; and Syberia 2.

Originally Posted by Idiotekque Being a smartass here, but basically "We can probably get more money for it from the stragglers who missed the sale last year", right? I get it, it's just pretty disappointing. It smacks of the Steam Winter sale, where they offered a lower discount on a lot of things (for example, 66% off on Terraria, when it's usually 75% off). I understand where you're coming from, I just don't connect "repeat sales at higher prices" with Amazon, I connect that to Steam. Hopefully this doesn't become a regular occurrence, because I can't say that's a nice sentiment to be tied to.

That is definitely an understandable, if incorrect, interpretation. A better boiled down version is thst I'm constantly negotiating promos with publishers and I'm less inclined to negotiate aggressively without a battery of data showing why it is a good idea.

Cheers,
Tony

Being a smartass here, but basically "We can probably get more money for it from the stragglers who missed the sale last year", right? I get it, it's just pretty disappointing. It smacks of the Steam Winter sale, where they offered a lower discount on a lot of things (for example, 66% off on Terraria, when it's usually 75% off). I understand where you're coming from, I just don't connect "repeat sales at higher prices" with Amazon, I connect that to Steam. Hopefully this doesn't become a regular occurrence, because I can't say that's a nice sentiment to be tied to.

The [US] economy could also play a factor.
Many retail stores had higher price points and lower discounts [as an average] on many consumer items. Many think it is because the [US] economy is improving, and consumers are loosening their spending habits, and willing to spend more.

In contrast, a year [or more] ago, the economy was much tighter, and in order to get people to spend money, they had to view the promotion as an excellent deal. I remember watching CNBC, and that "Kramer" guy talking about how retailers were expecting a lower than normal spending season, and they had to entice consumer to come out to the stores.

I know for me, when I got up at 5 am [this year] to hit the department stores on Black Friday, I saw many of the above first hand. Deals, when compared to the previous year, were not as good. HOWEVER, imo, that does not mean they were bad deals. There were many good buys at many stores.

Again, this is all Sunday Morning political/economics pundit talk, personal experience, and a combination of a few articles [and not necessarily fact]. Not trying to derail, and I don't even know if it applies to digital software, but I have a feeling this is how it played out in the physical retail sector.

Originally Posted by Amazon DVG Deals That is definitely an understandable, if incorrect, interpretation. A better boiled down version is thst I'm constantly negotiating promos with publishers and I'm less inclined to negotiate aggressively without a battery of data showing why it is a good idea. Cheers, Tony

I'm trying to better understand how your marketing works for future reference, so could you explain why offering something for $2 more a year later would be a "good idea" as opposed to the same price being a "bad idea", or vice versa?

Obviously if something sells just as well at $2 more than it did for $2 less, it's a "good idea" to sell it for $2 more from a business perspective. My smartass comment was basically just saying that.


@UW_Shocks: True, didn't think of that. Although I didn't know that the economy has gotten much better, lol.

Originally Posted by MysterD Oh, it'd be mad cool if Amazon DVG sold a bundle w/ all the old Microids Games: Post Mortem; Still Life 1; Still Life 2; Syberia 1; and Syberia 2.

Yeah, I could probably live with Syberia 1 & 2 being included. Why do I always see these things AFTER sales end?

@Jrodri86

The thing for me w/ most of these deals - I owned most of that BEFORE the EC sale EXCEPT The Walking Dead.
Most of those are great deals, IMHO.

Spec Ops: The Line for $2.49 is a bloody steal.

SR:TT - The Full Package's Steam price was matched by Amazon DVG at $7.49 in end of December; and you could've gotten it for $2.49, if you had a THQ $5 off coupon.

Of course, I bought TWD as soon as it hit $7.49 here during EC; which is my only EC purchase so far.

Originally Posted by Idiotekque Just a heads up, Vessel was in Humble Bundle 6, so you can probably find it for much cheaper on the trading thread (with 4 other games). The game isn't really worth more than a dollar or two by itself, since being in a HIB devalues it.

I actually played it to completion last month. Vessel is refreshing platformer/puzzler. I only ran into a few teeny little bugs. I can recommend it. Though I got it in HIB, I'd have been happy paying up to $7.50 in retrospect.

Originally Posted by Idiotekque Wait, the Dragon Age pack is $2 more than last year?

CamelCamelCamel (in my sig) is a great price tracker for Amazon. I recommend finding the ASIN on the product you want and searching the camel with that.

Originally Posted by KaOTiK Tony, Any chance we can see a sale on MX vs ATV Reflex ? It is a THQ game and I think the only title they have that I don't own and do want. Maybe they'd be willing to to do a deep sale on it since they never have before anywhere?

I'd buy that at a good price.

Originally Posted by asheskitty CamelCamelCamel (in my sig) is a great price tracker for Amazon. I recommend finding the ASIN on the product you want and searching the camel with that.

Nah, I know what price it is. I guess that Tony mistakenly listed the price for it (this year) for being $1 higher than what it was last year, and then corrected it to the current price shown ($2 more than last year).

It was $7 after coupon last year.

Originally Posted by Idiotekque I'm trying to better understand how your marketing works for future reference, so could you explain why offering something for $2 more a year later would be a "good idea" as opposed to the same price being a "bad idea", or vice versa? Obviously if something sells just as well at $2 more than it did for $2 less, it's a "good idea" to sell it for $2 more from a business perspective. My smartass comment was basically just saying that. @UW_Shocks: True, didn't think of that. Although I didn't know that the economy has gotten much better, lol.

Good question responding from my phone so sorry for typos.

You are only using two metrics to look at this:

Units sold
Money collected

Things like unique customers, new customers, etc. are other important metrics (and not the only ones). Additionally the goals for each specific promotion are often different.

Cheers,
Tony

Originally Posted by KaOTiK Tony, Any chance we can see a sale on MX vs ATV Reflex ? It is a THQ game and I think the only title they have that I don't own and do want. Maybe they'd be willing to to do a deep sale on it since they never have before anywhere? BTW, how did Toilet Tycoon do on sales?

I whole heartily support this, a deal on this and even Titan Quest Gold would be super awesome. Lol I totally missed the Toilet Tycoon sale, hopefully that will return lol.

I think what also might be a part of it might be how the split works between what Amazon gets and what the publisher gets. Selling it for more might mean a bigger cut for Amazon (as well as the publisher) that makes up for lost sales.

And, as much as people like to bemoan that it was cheaper elsewhere, it isn't cheaper elsewhere NOW.

Now, I'll take my turn for constructive criticism. This is actually my first year dealing with Amazon as a download retailer. It has been that way mostly because the offers didn't match up with what I wanted at the time.

My feeling with this promo is that I'm playing "Let's Make A Deal". Either I take what is presented to me up front, which are some good deals but nothing that would be on my wishlist. Or, do I wait to see behind the curtain to see if it is something I want more? Course, if I do that, it could just be the booby prize and I'm left holding a coupon that does me no good. I understand Tony is continuing to negotiate deals for sales, but the uncertainty might force me to pick up some lesser games to feel like I'm taking advantage of the deal.

As for what I want, the only real want I have for this deal is Crusader Kings II for $10 before coupon. I appreciate the Paradox packs, but I didn't have much interest in most of the games in those packs.

Originally Posted by Idiotekque Nah, I know what price it is. I guess that Tony mistakenly listed the price for it (this year) for being $1 higher than what it was last year, and then corrected it to the current price shown ($2 more than last year). It was $7 after coupon last year.

That's just the devaluation of the USD. ^_~

Originally Posted by MysterD @Jrodri86 The thing for me w/ most of these deals - I owned most of that BEFORE the EC sale EXCEPT The Walking Dead. Most of those are great deals, IMHO. Spec Ops: The Line for $2.49 is a bloody steal. SR:TT - The Full Package's Steam price was matched by Amazon DVG at $7.49 in end of December; and you could've gotten it for $2.49, if you had a THQ $5 off coupon. Of course, I bought TWD as soon as it hit $7.49 here during EC. My only EC purchase so far.

I got the Tantalizing Medley with the THQ coupon mostly because of S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Space Marine, no regrets there. I was just hoping for the same deal on the SRTT stuff on January .

I got Spec Ops as well (so far Amalur, TWD and Spec Ops for me).

Originally Posted by jrodri86 Dark Souls $17.99 - ($12.99 after coupon). I would had picked up this game for $10 but i think the reason why this game didn't went for that price on the January sale was because it was on sale for a higher one on the last days of December. Would be picking it up later for cheap, it's not a great port and comes with GFWL included.

DSFix makes the PC Dark Souls by far the best on any platform, by a few miles. Plus you get all the DLC released up to this point.
True 1080P rendering
Anti-aliasing or whatever nicer graphic effects you want
All DLC
Texture Replacements
Framerate problems fixed, run at a solid 60+fps

Though yeah I agree that GFWL sucks.

Originally Posted by jrodri86 I got the Tantalizing Medley with the THQ coupon mostly because of S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Space Marine, no regrets there. I was just hoping for the same deal on the SRTT stuff on January . I got Spec Ops as well (so far Amalur, TWD and Spec Ops for me).

Amalur's pretty good. Though, the Dead Kel DLC is great!
Spec Ops: The Line is probably my favorite military shooter in 2012.
STALKER: SOC is great. SOC and Call of Pripyat are my two favorites in the STALKER series.
SR:TT is just insane - and a blast. I haven't touch any of the DLC yet.
I'm on TWD: Episode 3 - and it's been a great adventure game, so far.

Man, you can't go wrong w/ any of those games.

Originally Posted by Neuro5i5 Yeah, I could probably live with Syberia 1 & 2 being included. Why do I always see these things AFTER sales end?

+1 to this, I'm in the same boat!

Not sure if you still want sales feedback (and hope it doesn't violate post #2), but here:


I thought Hotline Miami is a great price after coupon. I bought it without hesitation.
Walking Dead is also a great price, considering I paid more for it not that long ago.
Spec Ops, Desert to Sea, The Darkness 2, Crazy Action Pack are pretty good deals as well.

Most of the newer games, I'm not interested in getting for much. The problem is that I basically got Assassins Creed 3 with a t-shirt for $20 from BBY. So there's basically no way I can spend more than that on a PC version that can't be traded in.

Dark Souls is just on the border for me when it was a couple dollars cheaper. I bought it, but I probably could have waited for a price drop.

Borderlands 2 is an ok price, but slightly high, IMO. Like Assassins Creed 3, I had this one on PS3, though two copies on PC is much more enjoyable (thanks Tony).

The MMOs I'm not buying at any price.

I think the most disappointing about the sale is two things:
1) Prices being as cheap during the previous month, or same price without coupon (such as Saints Row 3), and
2) Very few cheap niche games like Hotline Miami.

I would have liked to have seen a slighly cheaper price after coupon than the previous vanilla sales, even if it was only $0.50 or $1.00 less.

I would have also liked to have seen more "impulse buy" items in the sales for $2.00-$5.00 after coupon. Games like Deponia, Unwritten Tales, and Drakensang (all of which I already bought, but just giving examples).

New releases are very hard for me to buy at $30 even, because I often would have to buy two copies on PC vs one on console, so it ends up costing more. But I'm sure I'm a special case in that regard.

Edit: Oh, and Amalur's a great price, but I already bought it when you had a sale on it awhile back.

I've seen Tony post replies to people about upcoming discounts later this month like The Run, Alice and Far Cry. Are these getting compiled into a list somewhere? There nothing in the first post and I'm sure I've missed some in this giant thread.

And I'm perplexed how Xcom could be as low < 20 at places but Fall of Cybertron never went below 30. I feel like I'll be waiting for the summer sales, but I'll hold on to my coupon as long as I can just in case it makes the list.

Originally Posted by xRidley DSFix makes the PC Dark Souls by far the best on any platform, by a few miles. Plus you get all the DLC released up to this point. True 1080P rendering Anti-aliasing or whatever nicer graphic effects you want All DLC Texture Replacements Framerate problems fixed, run at a solid 60+fps Though yeah I agree that GFWL sucks.

Does the 60 FPS fix work right, though? I heard it messed things up and could get you banned from GFWL.

Originally Posted by KaOTiK Tony, Any chance we can see a sale on MX vs ATV Reflex ? It is a THQ game and I think the only title they have that I don't own and do want. Maybe they'd be willing to to do a deep sale on it since they never have before anywhere? BTW, how did Toilet Tycoon do on sales?

Originally Posted by monkeyz I whole heartily support this, a deal on this and even Titan Quest Gold would be super awesome. Lol I totally missed the Toilet Tycoon sale, hopefully that will return lol.

I would also buy the MX vs ATV game if it went on sale for a decent price. It's one of the few THQ that I still don't own.

I did notice Toilet Tycoon made it into the top 10 casual games on Amazon for a while. It never got up to number 1 or anything but I think it hovered around 8-10 for a bit.

Apparently the Mumbo Jumbo stuff is kicking everyone else's casual ass.

I feel like those Casual games are a whole different world that never gets talked about here unlike the core games or even the F2P stuff.

Originally Posted by TheLongshot My feeling with this promo is that I'm playing "Let's Make A Deal". Either I take what is presented to me up front, which are some good deals but nothing that would be on my wishlist. Or, do I wait to see behind the curtain to see if it is something I want more? Course, if I do that, it could just be the booby prize and I'm left holding a coupon that does me no good. I understand Tony is continuing to negotiate deals for sales, but the uncertainty might force me to pick up some lesser games to feel like I'm taking advantage of the deal.

I'll be honest, I took the presented 9 copies of Hotline Miami for free only for a very limited time instead of waiting for what's behind the curtain.

I remember my parents telling me years ago when they would come back from Atlantic City with very minor winnings that their philosophy is quit while you're ahead.

The EC stuff has been pretty meh for me overall. (am I allowed to say that now?) A lot of that is because I have a ton of games already to be sure, but there were some other factors.

EA in particular did some really eyeroll worthy stuff in raising the prices of their games just as the EC $5 promo hit by about $5 or so over what they had been around Christmas time or Black Friday. I kind of felt like 'Really? You didn't think we would notice?'. Sort of defeats the whole purpose of the $5.

They might as well had just not put those games on the EC list and then just ran them at the price they wanted rather than doing some stupid shell game of making you think you're getting an extra $5 off.

The Command and Conquer pack is an excellent example:

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Command-C...uct/B009IR1SR0



So Black Friday it's $24.99. December 15th it's $24.99 again. Then suddenly January hits and it's $30. Really?

I don't care if they want to sell it for $25 but call a spade a spade and don't trick us into feeling like we are getting a better deal than we really are.