Steam Deals Thread V13 ~ Star Wars Empire at War $6.80 | The Legend of Korra $10.04 | Red Faction Guerrilla $2.99 |

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MrNinjaSquirrel

MrNinjaSquirrel

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Summer sale has come and gone; welcome to the Steam Deals Thread V13!
 
Stop: Before you go any further be sure you are using Enhanced Steam. It will save you a lot of time and embarrassment in the future.
 
Daily Deal
Star Wars: Empire at War Gold Edition - $19.99 $6.80

 
Yesterday's Deal

N/A

Midweek Madness
The Legend of Korra - $14.99 $10.04

Red Faction - $9.99 $1.49
Red Faction II - $9.99 $1.49
Red Faction Armageddon - $19.99 $2.99
Red Faction Guerrilla - $19.99 $2.99 
 
Thanks to EastX, Detruire, Psydero, and everyone else that has contributed to the thread!

 
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Eternal Session said:
Anybody know how to add a free game to your library on Steam without downloading it?
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Pause the download and then go back to your Library. Right Click on the entry, select Delete Local Content.

SeriousGeorge said:
When the TOS explicitly prohibits reselling keys, then yes, they are doing something wrong.
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A TOS is only as good as the laws behind it, which vary in many places.

Waggles said:
It's because dev's don't want the supposedly short term harm that bundling does to become long term, like with SatMRPG. For example, a Humble's two week run should be the end of the discount, but instead, resellers supposedly buy a bunch and keep prices low for an indiscernible amount of time. To devs that didn't know any better, that bundle just cost them a fuck ton of sales at higher prices.
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I don't resell keys, so I don't have a dog in this race, but follow the logic. How is that any different than buying up gift copies during a Steam sale (or glitch?) and then "trading" them?

If a key is for sale at X price, then that is the price for which they're willing to sell. The End. If they sell ten thousand keys in a one week window, or ten thousand keys in a four month window... what's the difference in the bottom line? If they don't want to sell more than, say, five thousand keys for X price, then they're going about it all wrong by putting it in a bundle.

Cynically, you might say that resellers are doing unofficial marketing. They knew the market would want more keys at X price and bought them up. If they're right they make a little. If they're wrong then they're stuck with them.

 
hal said:
I don't resell keys, so I don't have a dog in this race, but follow the logic. How is that any different than buying up gift copies during a Steam sale (or glitch?) and then "trading" them?
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The difference is devs earning pennies per bundle purchase versus earning $1 per 90% off steam purchase.

hal said:
If they don't want to sell more than, say, five thousand keys for X price, then they're going about it all wrong by putting it in a bundle.
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Precisely.

 
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Then why did the developer put their game in a bundle in the first place?  You put something for sale for pennies in a bundle that's what you've set the price of your game at.

 
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Mooby said:
Then why did the developer put their game in a bundle in the first place?
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Dumbasses.

Really, none of them seem to realize that unless they're AAA tier or hyped to hell, bundling usually only succeeds in destroying their games' value in the long term, especially games that roll out the gate in multiple bundles at once.

 
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Their problem is they're so desperate to get on Steam via Greenlight they agree to these Greenlight bundles and then don't understand why their game doesn't sell when it finally gets on Steam.

 
Mooby said:
Their problem is they're so desperate to get on Steam via Greenlight they agree to these Greenlight bundles and then don't understand why their game doesn't sell when it finally gets on Steam.
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Doesn't getting a single game through greenlight allow you to launch whatever you want afterwards? Or do you have to go through greenlight again? If it's the former, I don't understand why we don't see more of that happening. Exploit the Greenlight bundles with your crappiest efforts, then launch your shitty Shmup for full price!

 
Waggles said:
Doesn't getting a single game through greenlight allow you to launch whatever you want afterwards? Or do you have to go through greenlight again? If it's the former, I don't understand why we don't see more of that happening. Exploit the Greenlight bundles with your crappiest efforts, then launch your shitty Shmup for full price!
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I don't think it automatically means that you'll be able to put all your games up, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt your chances to get them on via a Valve contact.
 
Mooby said:
Then why did the developer put their game in a bundle in the first place? You put something for sale for pennies in a bundle that's what you've set the price of your game at.
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Which comes to the crux of the problem with this argument (by this argument I mean the last two pages of this thread).

The SMRPG dev did not say "Key resellers should be put in jail! This practice must stop!"

He said "I didn't know not to do this, and it cost me. Be careful in the future because it could cost you too."

It IS the developer's fault for not researching the way bundles work, which is why he wrote the article - so that other indie developers could learn from his mistakes.

 
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The dev in that article may have used some harsh phrasing but mostly it seemed like a cautionary tale, "I didn't think this out and it fuck-ed us. Think things through." The black market comparison may be extreme but I get it as far as price comparison and wrecking regular sales. He admits he didn't think about and is warning others.
 
Mooby said:
Their problem is they're so desperate to get on Steam via Greenlight they agree to these Greenlight bundles and then don't understand why their game doesn't sell when it finally gets on Steam.
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Those Greenlight bundles don't sell the same big numbers Indie Gala and Humble get - at most they get like 10,000 sales per bundle. And that's on a good bundle.

What really causes damage is giving Desura keys through bundles, those bundles getting Steam keys added, and then distributing another Steam key through Desura. Yes, that glitch a lot of people in this forum have mentioned using.

 
BobbyTastic said:
Yeah, but comparing all resellers to the black market seems unnecessarily insulting. Like they're doing something wrong by selling his game without his permission for next-to-nothing. Comes off as whiny to me.
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I'd just like to point out when we were talking on TS a few nights ago and I mentioned that I disliked that practice of selling bundle keys, and your reply was "I'm not going to argue that it's not wrong".

That is all.
 
I mean something is "wrong" just by the simple fact that when you purchase a bundle or a key or whatever you agree to certain Terms of Service and if re-selling is against those terms then you have gone back on your word/contract/agreement.

Now that's a totally different argument than whether doing so is morally wrong for any other reason, ie the devs are not getting "enough" money, the market is being devalued, etc.  

When you are dealing with IG bundles and happy hour, that's really the fringe of consumers.  People so cheap that we're willing to wait for an already cheap bundle to get down to 1 or 2 dollars before we purchase.  That's usually less than half of the total purchasers of an IG bundle (so let's say 15K out of 30K for a high selling IG).

And so out of those 15K sold that are HH bundles, let's be generous and say 5K are bundle resellers.  So at most you're being deprived of 5K in sales.  And that's making a huge assumption any of those people would even buy your game at full price (they wouldn't) or buy your game at all without seeing it for .50 or $1 from some trader.  The people buying the keys for $1.70 on ebay or other sites aren't really that big of a number.  Most of the keys bought float around trade threads.

So TL:DR - I don't really think devs are being deprived of much revenue if any versus the tiny amount of people who would pay MSRP and the 5K who paid .09 per copy to resell.  And they can get that revenue back by putting the game on sale and beating the reseller price if they wanted to.  That and SMRPG was free on mobile wasn't it?

 
Drabelincoln said:
Everyone should now take the time to go donate to Dr Bigfoots Exta Life fundraiser

for the kids come on.
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Thanks for the donation! Who wants these games:

Fairy Bloom Freesia
Retrovirus
Zack Zero
Space Pirates and Zombies
Mount & Blade
Dark Fall: Lost Souls
Exceed 2nd: Vampire Rex
Dead Hungry Diner
Star Wolves 3: Civil War
Call of Juarez
Face Noir
Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages
Magicka
Knights of Pen and Paper +1
The Showdown Effect
Oozi: Earth Adventure
Prime World Defenders

Donators (Drabe) get first crack, even if it's for an alt account or a friend.
 
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Dr Sasquatch said:
Thanks for the donation! Who wants these games:

Fairy Bloom Freesia
Retrovirus
Zack Zero
Space Pirates and Zombies
Mount & Blade
Dark Fall: Lost Souls
Exceed 2nd: Vampire Rex
Dead Hungry Diner
Star Wolves 3: Civil War
Call of Juarez
Face Noir
Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages
Magicka
Knights of Pen and Paper +1
The Showdown Effect
Oozi: Earth Adventure
Prime World Defenders

Donators (Drabe) get first crack, even if it's for an alt account or a friend.
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I'd like Prime World Defenders, thanks

 
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Dr Sasquatch said:
Thanks for the donation! Who wants these games:

Oozi: Earth Adventure

Donators (Drabe) get first crack, even if it's for an alt account or a friend.
Click to expand...
Would gladly take this off your hands (if Drabe doesn't want it). Also I need to go find your donation link and get myself into the exclusive donators club.
 
Rapier
135dc1ac1cd9763dfc8ad52f4e880d2ac058a36c.jpg

Steam
Blade Symphony Trading Card

A rapier is a slender, sharply pointed sword, ideally used for thrusting attacks, used mainly in Early Modern Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. 
 
Dr Sasquatch said:
Thanks for the donation! Who wants these games:

Fairy Bloom Freesia
Retrovirus
Zack Zero
Space Pirates and Zombies
Mount & Blade
Dark Fall: Lost Souls
Exceed 2nd: Vampire Rex
Dead Hungry Diner
Star Wolves 3: Civil War
Call of Juarez
Face Noir
Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages
Magicka
Knights of Pen and Paper +1
The Showdown Effect
Oozi: Earth Adventure
Prime World Defenders

Donators (Drabe) get first crack, even if it's for an alt account or a friend.
Click to expand...
May I spoder Juarez, pl0x.

 
Cheaplikeafox 3.0 said:
I mean something is "wrong" just by the simple fact that when you purchase a bundle or a key or whatever you agree to certain Terms of Service and if re-selling is against those terms then you have gone back on your word/contract/agreement.

Now that's a totally different argument than whether doing so is morally wrong for any other reason, ie the devs are not getting "enough" money, the market is being devalued, etc.

When you are dealing with IG bundles and happy hour, that's really the fringe of consumers. People so cheap that we're willing to wait for an already cheap bundle to get down to 1 or 2 dollars before we purchase. That's usually less than half of the total purchasers of an IG bundle (so let's say 15K out of 30K for a high selling IG).

And so out of those 15K sold that are HH bundles, let's be generous and say 5K are bundle resellers. So at most you're being deprived of 5K in sales. And that's making a huge assumption any of those people would even buy your game at full price (they wouldn't) or buy your game at all without seeing it for .50 or $1 from some trader. The people buying the keys for $1.70 on ebay or other sites aren't really that big of a number. Most of the keys bought float around trade threads.

So TL:DR - I don't really think devs are being deprived of much revenue if any versus the tiny amount of people who would pay MSRP and the 5K who paid .09 per copy to resell. And they can get that revenue back by putting the game on sale and beating the reseller price if they wanted to. That and SMRPG was free on mobile wasn't it?
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Well, it's also worth noting that from the screenshots in the article the dev seemed to be specifically talking about sites that act as resellers and sell devalued keys directly on their storefront, not people who pick up a couple extra bundles to see keys on the side. If you're buying a few hundred happy hour bundles to stock your website store... that seems pretty ethically shady and also has very little to do with the activities of the people in this thread.

 
Drabelincoln said:
i request that spoder gets nothing

give me his Prime World Defenders
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Shoot, too late... I like the idea, though!

sweeetja713 said:
Could I have knights of pen and paper please
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Sent

Mooby said:
May I spoder Juarez, pl0x.
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Consider it Spodered.

Waggles said:
I h8 u

Hey, Sas, if no one else asks, I'll take Exceed 2nd off your hands for you.
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Thanks so much for taking it off my hands! ;D

asheskitty said:
Thanks! In order of preference.
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You got it!

CarnivalMadness said:
I'd like to get Zack Zero, thanks Doc.
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It's all yours.

 
Dr Sasquatch said:
Thanks for the donation! Who wants these games:

Fairy Bloom Freesia
Retrovirus
Zack Zero
Space Pirates and Zombies
Mount & Blade
Dark Fall: Lost Souls
Exceed 2nd: Vampire Rex
Dead Hungry Diner
Star Wolves 3: Civil War
Call of Juarez
Face Noir
Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages
Magicka
Knights of Pen and Paper +1
The Showdown Effect
Oozi: Earth Adventure
Prime World Defenders

Donators (Drabe) get first crack, even if it's for an alt account or a friend.
Click to expand...
Call of Juarez? THX!

*didn't catch the mooby spoder
 
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