The Steam Deals Thread v10

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Daily Deal:
Please check the Steam homepage.

Weeklong Deals:
Steam usually has week-long deals that change on Mondays at 6PM UTC. They mostly feature indie games, and may not run every week.

Sale summary lists:

Key:
⤷ indicates DLC, — specifies part of a pack, + shows alternative versions, ⚠ highlights things worth knowing, ♫ is obvious, and ... denotes a multi-pack.

Holiday Sale 2013 | 19/12/13 through 3/1/14:
Days 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-14.

Spring/Autumn Sale 2013 | 27/11/13 through 3/12/13:
All days.

Steam deals on other stores: (Related threads on CAG.)

Indie* bundle threads: (*Not always indie, nor always a bundle.)

Free stuff:
There are quite a few free games (mostly Free to Play) and mods available via the Steam platform, a comprehensive list of which can be found in this thread on the SPUF.
(NOTE: free games are not permanently attached to your Steam account like actual purchases would be. You'll need to manually download a game again from the website if you uninstall it.)

Past Steam Deals Threads:

 
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Syntax Error said:
Simply put, the Steam seasonal sales became "an event" so they don't need to try very hard any more. Everyone will show up anyway and assume they must be great deals because it's the Steam Winter/Summer sale.

Sort of like Black Friday.
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After seeing yesterday's (25th) and today's (26th) dailys... even this sale seems to have taken a turn for the worse while they kick in extra fleecing for post-xmas cash/gift-card laden gamers. My expectations for the next few days have gone from poor to dismal.

 
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Dr Sasquatch said:
All the new Killing Floor DLC is finally 75% off. If that is your bag, fill it up, muchachos!
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travathian said:
Just caught this as well, the Community Weapon Packs are never 75% off.
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And they'll be at 50% off within the next few hours if history serves as any indication.

The End said:
Hilariously, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition & Lost Planet 2 have had their discounts removed. They were at 75% off.
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:oldman:

 
FellOpenIan said:
The percentage off is completely up to the developer/publisher. Valve will ask and make suggestions but the devs/pubs have the ultimate say. So it isn't Valve or Steam that has some shitty discount but rather people like Bethesda and Capcom who are notoriously stingy with their sale prices.
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Yes and no. When other retailers are able to get better pricing, it's pretty obviously not purely the publisher's fault. Many posts from Tony has painted the picture of a two-way street between the vendor seeking discounts and the publisher deciding on them.

I do think that some publishers realized that regular 75% off sales weren't the best thing in the world for them. EA was famously castigated for daring to suggest this but I think other publishers have come to feel the same way even if they're less overt about it.

 
Does anyone know if Darksouls is actually "unplayable" as some people claim on steam?  I have it for 360 and I liked it a lot, and i want to try the dlc.  I have a gamepad so I won't have to deal with the controls a lot of people are complaining about with keyboard and mouse.

 
Mooby said:
You did miss them. It was probably Christmas 2009 or 2010. As I said, the new format is a sign of their rising popularity.
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The indie bundles were also around in 2011 I think. They were around for 2-3 years. Someone also mentioned the lack of developer bundles. Those were nice maybe, but they weren't sustainable. If you bought it last year, why are you going to buy it again a year from now? And when the later packs removed stuff, people complained then too.

The biggest letdown for me is the inclusion of the early access/in development games. They aren't finished products and they don't even have a broad base of reviews, functionality or gameplay.

 
Well there's also the fact that places like Amazon and GMG have their own negotiations and margins when it comes to selling Steam keys and then there's publishers like EA and Ubi who, of course, want you purchasing games from their own storefront and will undercut as needed.

Steam Sales are events and Steam is the big player when it comes to digital PC games sales so everyone and their mom is going to counter-program against them at this point. (which just happens to be awesome for us)

Kablasia said:
Does anyone know if Darksouls is actually "unplayable" as some people claim on steam? I have it for 360 and I liked it a lot, and i want to try the dlc. I have a gamepad so I won't have to deal with the controls a lot of people are complaining about with keyboard and mouse.
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DSfix is basically all that you need but there is a Nexus for other goodies.

 
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Kablasia said:
Does anyone know if Darksouls is actually "unplayable" as some people claim on steam? I have it for 360 and I liked it a lot, and i want to try the dlc. I have a gamepad so I won't have to deal with the controls a lot of people are complaining about with keyboard and mouse.
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Plays just fine. You need DSFix ...solves everything. (except GFWL)

 
The only thing truly "bad" about the last few Steam sales is that they are no longer the go-to place for the best deals. Competition is fierce and GMG, Amazon, Gamersgate, and even the many bundles have driven down our price expectations. Having said that, I've checked ES quite a few times during the sale and many times games have been at their lowest-ever price. Not all the time, no. But those days are over. Pricing: B-

The "event" has been okay, at best. It lacks some of the fun that we all saw in early sales. However, most of those were abused pretty heavily, so I think some of the fallout can be attributed to those that abused the system. At the very least, these snowglobes have provided plenty of cash for those willing to put in the time to market them. Event: C+

Variety has improved considerably this sale versus those prior; excluding, of course, the first one or two sales. I can tell they've made an effort to get more games to the front page and not just AAA games either - there have been a few surprises. Yes, there are still repeats due to Flash/Community, but if you think back to last year it was literally the same small bucket of games in new spots on the front page. Variety: B+ 

Edited in: Inclusion of unfinished games, allowing for the fact that some games will responsibly reach a release state satisfactory to the consumer, while others will rot away on the fine and create loads of ill will. Inclusion of Unfinished Games: D

The biggest flaw I see in this sale is that it doesn't cater to me, specifically: the game I want, the price I'd like for it to be, and at a time I can conveniently view it on my screen. Me Factor: F-

 
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My friendslist activity wall thing has been flooded with people purchasing Pinball FX2 tables.

By my standards, that makes this sale a great success.

 
Syntax Error said:
Yes and no. When other retailers are able to get better pricing, it's pretty obviously not purely the publisher's fault. Many posts from Tony has painted the picture of a two-way street between the vendor seeking discounts and the publisher deciding on them.

I do think that some publishers realized that regular 75% off sales weren't the best thing in the world for them. EA was famously castigated for daring to suggest this but I think other publishers have come to feel the sam
e way even if they're less overt about it.
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Still comes down to the publisher setting the discounts here though. I rather think the publishers realized they don't really need to discount as much to still sell a ton on Steam.

 
Pheace said:
Still comes down to the publisher setting the discounts here though. I rather think the publishers realized they don't really need to discount as much to still sell a ton on Steam.
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Comes down to weak negotiation from Valve for sale prices. Because they don't need to try as hard.

 
Captain Urahara said:
Killing Floor DLC is already back to 50% off
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SONOFABITCH

I saw it at 75% and then came here to catch up and then 10m later see this and be reminded of that shit and confirm hopes deleted.

Every time! Changing back to 50% just discourages me from buying the DLC even when I'm flush with Steam wallet.

 
hal said:
The only thing truly "bad" about the last few Steam sales is that they are no longer the go-to place for the best deals. Competition is fierce and GMG, Amazon, Gamersgate, and even the many bundles have driven down our price expectations.
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I think the problem here is that it's not true competition where it matters. Yes, they tend to be cheaper when it comes to games that activate on Steam. Naturally, what else do they have to compete on when it comes to selling a Steam game? In the end however, they're still a Steam reseller, and the people using Steam will stay massive, which is the important part for them.

Where it truly matters is in different clients offering stuff we actually want, like Uplay or Origin, both which are lacking in comparison in my opinion, most particularly in that they offer nothing extra for a dev to help them make/publish their games, whereas Steam offers them a whole Steamworks kit with a ton of benefits. That's where they should be competing in my opinion, it would help all of us.

 
Valve also probably doesn't much care where you purchase your Steam keys or for how much as long as you are purchasing Steam keys and staying in their ecosystem.

edit: Pheace said it very well.

 
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Pheace said:
Still comes down to the publisher setting the discounts here though. I rather think the publishers realized they don't really need to discount as much to still sell a ton on Steam.
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Tony has mentioned several times about pitching sale prices and discounts to devs/pubs. While it is up to them to say yes or no, that doesn't necessarily mean that Valve isn't the one requesting lower discounts (in comparison to other retailers and/or past sales).

 
Pheace said:
Still comes down to the publisher setting the discounts here though. I rather think the publishers realized they don't really need to discount as much to still sell a ton on Steam.
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I would be shocked if these 70% and 55% numbers weren't coming from Steam. Of course it's hard to distinguish between Steam's influence and the publisher's 'realization' they don't have to discount steeply. It's part of the whole. Idea is that, on the margins the single consumer doesn't think much of 5% meanwhile Valve and the publisher is reaping tens of thousands of dollars in extra revenue. Personally this doesn't bother me. If there's a game I want then 5% isn't going to stop me but I'm still going to call things the way they are: the sales have objectively gotten worse. There's little denying that.

 
Valve gets no money from Steam retail keys (excepting Valve games, of course).  It very much matters to them whether you buy on Steam or not.

 
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Neuro5i5 said:
Tony has mentioned several times about pitching sale prices and discounts to devs/pubs. While it is up to them to say yes or no, that doesn't necessarily mean that Valve isn't the one requesting lower discounts (in comparison to other retailers and/or past sales).
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We recently saw an email about the discount request to a publisher. It was one of the sale leak images. That one was absolutely neutral about what sales percentage they wanted to put in, the only thing they said was that they wanted to have the same percentage from the fall sale to the Xmas sale because they were so close together.

 
Syntax Error said:
But if someone spends $100 at Amazon/GMG/GG/Gamefly/etc during a sale and $5 at Steam,
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Is this really happening that often though? Other than bundles, the only other site I bought from was Amazon, and that was just some cheap DLC to get EC credits. Most of my purchases (oddly enough) came from regional sellers on these forums, and then using my extra GabeN Bux for games whose regional pricing wasn't that much lower.

Of course, this is purely anecdotal data, but even then, GG/GMG/Gamefly/Amazon usually only matches steam sales, not undercut them... But then there are the coupons for GMG/GF, and the oops discount for GG, making it only marginally better than steam prices...

 
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Syntax Error said:
Valve gets no money from Steam retail keys (excepting Valve games, of course). It very much matters to them whether you buy on Steam or not.
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While that is in itself true, even when Steam keys get sold, it still benefits Steam, since it guarantees a certain patronage of their client, and to some extent store. Having a massive userbase gives them all kinds of benefits from play/purchase data to people to toss incentives at, not to mention all the extra things they add to have people 'participate' and still be spending money, like the Steam cards -> Market = money for both Valve and the Devs.

 
Syntax Error said:
Valve gets no money from Steam retail keys (excepting Valve games, of course). It very much matters to them whether you buy on Steam or not.
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Companies usually have to pay to have their games provided on Steam... so technically they already made their money on it.

Having people loyal to the Steam client is enough. It shows shareholders how many games have been activated, the number of users and in the end you are likely to continue to provide Steam/Valve/Gabe with more money.

 
Pheace said:
We recently saw an email about the discount request to a publisher. It was one of the sale leak images. That one was absolutely neutral about what sales percentage they wanted to put in, the only thing they said was that they wanted to have the same percentage from the fall sale to the Xmas sale because they were so close together.
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They also said they'd contact the publishers about special pricing (Dailies/Flash/C.Choice). Which would be where the negotiation would take place. Valve isn't going to haggle over the standard day-to-day sale prices.

 
Pheace said:
While that is in itself true, even when Steam keys get sold, it still benefits Steam, since it guarantees a certain patronage of their client, and to some extent store.
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They also get that when they sell it via Steam... plus, you know, the money from the sale versus just the warm fuzzies of knowing you'll use Steam.

It's a night and day difference.

 
zenii said:
Is this really happening that often though? Other than bundles, the only other site I bought from was Amazon, and that was just some cheap DLC to get EC credits. Most of my purchases (oddly enough) came from regional sellers on these forums, and then using my extra GabeN Bux for games whose regional pricing wasn't that much lower.
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For me, yes, it's happening. I buy from Amazon, GMG, GG, GameFly and GameStop throughtout the year and during the major sales. 95% of the time, I only buy from Steam on the major sales. And looking at my expenditures, that adds up to more spent everywhere else and less at Steam.

 
There's one elephant in the room that no one is metioning in this debate.

Card Monies / Gaben funbux (ill-gotten steam wallet gains)

How many times have CAGs posted in response to a good deal elsewhere:  But card monies..

 
BrolyB593 said:
Companies usually have to pay to have their games provided on Steam... so technically they already made their money on it.
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No they don't. Hosting on Steam is free as is retail key generation. Valve does it that way to make themselves a destination location.

From Valve's website:

"It’s free: There’s no charge for bandwidth, updating, or activation of copies at retail or from third-party digital distributors."

"Steamworks has a host of features and services that support your retail product and any digital copies, wherever they are sold. It’s free. There is no per-copy activation charge or bandwidth fee."

It's elsewhere that they mention key generation being free but I'm too lazy to hunt for it.

 
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Pheace said:
We recently saw an email about the discount request to a publisher. It was one of the sale leak images. That one was absolutely neutral about what sales percentage they wanted to put in, the only thing they said was that they wanted to have the same percentage from the fall sale to the Xmas sale because they were so close together.
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Only one piece of a larger 'conversation' I'm sure. Sorry, I can't believe publishers are inventing these 55% and 70% discounts. They're fairly bizarre/unique numbers for digital retail.

 
Another day of nothin I want. When are they gonna have an Assassin's Creed day so I can hope for 25% off AC Liberation pre-order, which will probably never happen? Give me Enslaved for at least 66% off, quit being a jerk Steam.

 
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asheskitty said:
There's one elephant in the room that no one is metioning in this debate.

Card Monies / Gaben funbux (ill-gotten steam wallet gains)

How many times have CAGs posted in response to a good deal elsewhere: But card monies..
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That is basically the only reason I buy from Steam now. Still have $40+ fake monies.

 
Mooby said:
Only one piece of a larger 'conversation' I'm sure. Sorry, I can't believe publishers are inventing these 55% and 70% discounts. They're fairly bizarre/unique numbers for digital retail.
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Yeah, how many times has Tony said he's (Amazon) is running a limited sale just to test the potential of either a title or discounts sales potential. Then using that data to plan future sales. Seems like this is a case of Valve looking at it's past sales data and saying we can cut discounts back 5%-10% and still sell just as much volume, but increase our profit margin.

 
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dfg said:
Every time! Changing back to 50% just discourages me from buying the DLC even when I'm flush with Steam wallet.
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I selected a couple of Killing Floor DLCs and purposefully left them in my Cart. If the 75% off remained I was going to make a purchase to say "thanks" for being reasonable with the DLC prices. If they reverted to 50% (which it did) then it would be clear that Tripwire were going to be assholes about the price and I would give them none of my money.

Mooby said:
I would be shocked if these 70% and 55% numbers weren't coming from Steam.
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I agree to an extent. While the publisher ultimately sets the price, I suspect that Valve has been providing plenty of data that help deliver maximum profit. A common tactic from retailers is to play tricks with prices.

When viewing prices, most casual consumers pay closest attention to the first few digits. For example: $7.99 becomes $7, psychologically. Very rarely do people make the leap to $8 in their heads. Therefore you just about never see pricing like this: $7.05. As a retailer, you're potentially leaving .94 on the table.

Therefore, I could see percentages going the same way. We, as consumers see 75% off... and it's very nearly as good in our minds as 70% off. Why give away the extra 5%? That's why you see Valve highlight the large percent off number, rather than the actual dollar amount.

 
Giving away a Lil Inferno Steam key

There is a song which has the word Inferno in it.  Do an image search using this song's name, and find the image with a pope and purple cups. 

First to post the image wins the key!

(sunasun's answer was not correct)

 
Syntax Error said:
They also get that when they sell it via Steam... plus, you know, the money from the sale versus just the warm fuzzies of knowing you'll use Steam.

It's a night and day difference.
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When you say that Valve doesn't get money from Retail sales, do you mean strictly physical copies? Because I'm pretty sure they at least get a cut from games activated on Steam. For example, there was a charity bundle recently that mentioned Valve waved their usual fees. My understanding is that keys are generated free for developers (who then give them to resellers and then Valve gets a bit when they are activated. Another supporting factor in this would be the demand for $1 minimums for Steam keys at Humble Bundle.

 
Syntax Error said:
No they don't. Hosting on Steam is free as is retail key generation. Valve does it that way to make themselves a destination location.

From Valve's website:

"It’s free: There’s no charge for bandwidth, updating, or activation of copies at retail or from third-party digital distributors."

It's elsewhere that they mention key generation being free but I'm too lazy to hunt for it.
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Hm, did not know that I always assumed there was a small fee for some reason.

Regardless though any site/organization with such a massive user base and return business looks AMAZING for investors and so on that front Steam is going to stay strong.

In terms of the sales, they do not ALWAYS get beaten by others and also not everyone knows the others exist. I mention GreenManGaming to my non-deal savvy friends and they look at me like I have nipples on my forehead. Plus as others have mentioned now that the inclusion of the Steam Wallet/trading/market, if I have $4 in wallet funds, and a game is $8 on Steam and $7.50 on Amazon... I am more inclined to just get the Steam one. Plus you can purchase Steam cards at most retailers now, allowing us to flip more effectively for that. Yes Amazon has been doing well as well and those cards can be purchased but we cant really get GOG or GMG or other GCs.

 
Football Manager 2014 was a headline sale of 50% off on Steam yesterday. I resisted.

Today it was 60% off (when including coupon) on GMG today which saved me a whole £3.49.

I are defeated Steam.

:whee:

Edit: are devs waiting until they've had a
"Big" sale slot on Steam before reducing their prices elsewhere? Case in point: FM2014 and Penny Arcade Thingy 4.
 
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zenii said:
Is this really happening that often though? Other than bundles, the only other site I bought from was Amazon, and that was just some cheap DLC to get EC credits. Most of my purchases (oddly enough) came from regional sellers on these forums, and then using my extra GabeN Bux for games whose regional pricing wasn't that much lower.

Of course, this is purely anecdotal data, but even then, GG/GMG/Gamefly/Amazon usually only matches steam sales, not undercut them... But then there are the coupons for GMG/GF, and the oops discount for GG, making it only marginally better than steam prices...
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20% isn't marginally better than steam prices...

 
Amazon has been doing really well I think but I always have to remind myself that they charge tax so whatever the advertised sale price is I have to then add another 8% on top of that and weigh how it then compares to everywhere else which doesn't charge me tax.

 
hal said:
I selected a couple of Killing Floor DLCs and purposefully left them in my Cart. If the 75% off remained I was going to make a purchase to say "thanks" for being reasonable with the DLC prices. If they reverted to 50% (which it did) then it would be clear that Tripwire were going to be assholes about the price and I would give them none of my money.
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I am inclined to support Tripwire by buying DLC, but this crap drives me nuts. Is it really them, though, or Valve? I'm gonna see if I can't get an answer out of that Tripwire employee on the Steam forums.

 
dfg said:
SONOFABITCH

I saw it at 75% and then came here to catch up and then 10m later see this and be reminded of that shit and confirm hopes deleted.

Every time! Changing back to 50% just discourages me from buying the DLC even when I'm flush with Steam wallet.
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This is annoying to me too. I get the most recent DLC being more expensive, but all of it? I don't care for DLC, especially cosmetic ones, but my habit was to buy any and all DLC for games/devs I want to support if it hits 75% off. I've fallen way behind on my KF DLC because of this.

hal said:
The only thing truly "bad" about the last few Steam sales is that they are no longer the go-to place for the best deals.

The biggest flaw I see in this sale is that it doesn't cater to me, specifically: the game I want, the price I'd like for it to be, and at a time I can conveniently view it on my screen. Me Factor: F-
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Isn't having the best price the only point of a sale? So if they don't, it's basically a failure? This isn't a brick and mortar where they can count on lazy people not wanting to drive to another store or wait in line elsewhere. I can just go to another URL just as easily.

And how many people does it need to fail in the "me factor" before it starts being a more general failure?

 
dfg said:
I am inclined to support Tripwire by buying DLC, but this crap drives me nuts. Is it really them, though, or Valve? I'm gonna see if I can't get an answer out of that Tripwire employee on the Steam forums.
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I am inclined to support Tripwire... usually. I appreciate their business model of releasing free updates and providing cosmetic DLC to support their efforts. Developing isn't free, I understand.

What I don't like, though, is when they bundle their complete versions - or offer them for sale cheap - and then don't give early adopters a chance to get a good deal as well.

My guess is that the extra percentage off was applied incorretly to the datatbase by Valve. Tripwire requested it be corrected. They could have at least been cool enough to let it go for this short duration. I've seen other developers do just that.

 
BrolyB593 said:
In terms of the sales, they do not ALWAYS get beaten by others and also not everyone knows the others exist. I mention GreenManGaming to my non-deal savvy friends and they look at me like I have nipples on my forehead. Plus as others have mentioned now that the inclusion of the Steam Wallet/trading/market, if I have $4 in wallet funds, and a game is $8 on Steam and $7.50 on Amazon... I am more inclined to just get the Steam one. Plus you can purchase Steam cards at most retailers now, allowing us to flip more effectively for that. Yes Amazon has been doing well as well and those cards can be purchased but we cant really get GOG or GMG or other GCs.
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Well, you've just helped explain why Steam's sale pricing is getting progressively weaker :D

I'm not blaming you directly, of course. But Steam has found other ways to entice consumers to stay in their system even with sub-standard sale pricing. Cards are genius. I buy a card from you for $5.25 and Valve takes 25¢ of that and gives you $5 in credit. Which you use to buy a $5 game. Valve just made 25¢ over the sale price of the game just by flagging a cheap .jpg image to Account B instead of Account A. And you think you got a "free" game so you love it and some other chump has... a badge.

(prices and percentages for illustration purposes)

 
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BrolyB593 said:
In terms of the sales, they do not ALWAYS get beaten by others and also not everyone knows the others exist.
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Can you please illustrate with an example? I'm genuinely curious if your statement is true. I'm not trying to be confrontational, [customspoiler='but...'](It has already been established that you have presented hearsay as fact.)[/customspoiler]

 
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