this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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It's beyond insane to me that a $70 "AAAA" game (kidding, it's AAA) dips down to the absurd price of $5. I've never seen anything like it. Wish the entire Sims 4 "collection" if you can call it that was $5 total, would be incredible, or Starfield.

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 130 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (8 children)

It happens all the time on Steam and physical retail. Especially when the game is critically panned or is old enough that it's not selling at the original price anymore.

Pretty funny to see the big budget "AAAA" games going from $70 to $5 in just a few months, while seeing an independent game like RimWorld never go on sale and have multiple DLCs that aren't much cheaper than the base game because the former loses interest hella fast, while the latter seems to keep gaining popularity.

[–] Mannimarco@lemmy.world 45 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Just fyi, Ludeon Studios changed their stance on sales some time ago, in fact it's on sale right now! Never more than a 20% discount though. Factorio however has still never been on sale. But your point still stands

[–] Dultas@lemmy.world 27 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Both are pennies on the hour investments though. Factorio Space Age has drawn me back in like the OG did years ago.

[–] papalonian@lemmy.world 24 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

No. Don't. Don't tell me this, don't do it to me, I'm trying to complete Satisfactory playthrough

[–] TheSaus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

But he right tho… the basics have been cleaned up a bit so the early game isn’t as slow, and every planet actually made me feel like new again

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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think part of this has to be related to the idea that you cant do good, creative, interesting things on e the number of cooks in the kitchen gets above a certain size, which might actually be quite small. I mean look at terraria and stardew valley. Microscopic dev teams with impact the size of asteroids in terms of total effect and the long term impact on gaming.

I think "good" in media is an extension of having a singular vision for what you are trying to do. Focus too much on crowd pleasing and you lose the plot.

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[–] grue@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago

Factorio has only ever gone up in price, and the new expansion costs more than the base game did.

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[–] irotsoma@lemmy.world 67 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Instead of lowering their prices over time and so sales are less significant of a percentage, they keep the original price indefinitely and just have lots of sales. This makes the percentage off much higher than if they had depreciated the regular price as it should. Pretty common these days.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 22 points 3 weeks ago

This also pleases the Steam Store algorithm god. A big spike will bump the game up in the charts, then the algo will serve it to more people in the store and more people will buy it. The more sales momentum a game has the more the algo will show it in the recommended sections.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 weeks ago

Luckily I started to only buy games after comparing on isthereanydeal.

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[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 65 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Rope people in with the base game discount and flood them with DLC is the EA way.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago

I bought Witcher 3 AND ALL dlc for like 8 dollars last year during this sale.

[–] DuckWrangler9000@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I was really tempted by the sale for BFV and BF2042 and a friend told me not to saying it's EA owned and that's bad 🥲

[–] TGhost@lemm.ee 16 points 3 weeks ago

Be aware of the kernel anticheat,

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[–] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 65 points 3 weeks ago

The steam fall sale is going on right now.

[–] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 55 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Pirate triple a and buy indie.
Its what both of em deserve.

[–] Tanoh@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Nah, just don't play the AAA bullshit. It is not worth your time to pirate

[–] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago

that one depends on ones opinion tho.
personally? all the ones i did try where dogshit.
But one womans trash is another man or womans treasure as they say.

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[–] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 42 points 3 weeks ago

They're showing their true value.

[–] jaschen@lemm.ee 40 points 3 weeks ago

I pirated the game and it included all the DLC. Then I played it for a few hours and was glad I didn't spend 5 dollars on it.

[–] _sideffect@lemmy.world 40 points 3 weeks ago

These are old games

The price regularly seen is just there to make them seem that they have more value than they actually do

[–] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 32 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Bro, it's the Autumn Steam sale...it says so in giant letters on top of the steam store page.

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[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 31 points 3 weeks ago

$70 price is for people who are really impatient and then sales are to capture price sensitive people over time. Not unusual. It's why I wasn't bothered by the $70 retail price, since I knew I'd never have to pay it. It's just a tax on the impatient.

[–] secret300@lemmy.sdf.org 25 points 3 weeks ago

Because recent AAA games are so trash noadays and also the main thing is that the price of the game isn't their main source of income anymore.

Sell game cheap get em hooked on spending more money in game on used condom hats or whatever garbage they sell in their games

[–] LovingHippieCat@lemmy.world 24 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Because they're desperate to recoup some of their money for development and the game hasn't sold very well. Case in point: Suicide Squad is 3.49 or 4.99 for the deluxe edition. The game sold like trash so they desperately want to make some more money and hope people will go like "well it's only 5 bucks. I may as well."

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[–] Soleos@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago

There are people willing to pay $80 for your game, $60, $40, $20, $10, and $5. You might be able get someone willing to pay $10 to pay $15 with good marketing, but you will never get them to pay $60. So when you've gone through most people willing to pay $60 and $40, you might as well go through the rest of the market. It doesn't cost you that much more than you're already spending on servers, so why not make that extra money.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

It's funny I was going to buy it until I saw EA account required and Denuvo.

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[–] RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago

Because it's not just about money, that's why you hear about the number of copies sold more than gross revenue, it represents number of interested people that can buy another product at X dollars. Every now and then exec put up big sales, pump the numbers up before the big reports.

That's also why Nintendo games neeever go on sale.

[–] badbytes@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago

Also, some Steam sales are amazing. 90% off, is great, but not that rare.

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Because it's badly reviewed and sales have dried up...?

Also because it is loaded with microtransactions, so they can make that back and more if they get you hooked.

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 12 points 3 weeks ago

EA Game 🤮

[–] warm@kbin.earth 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

How is it insane? These games are made to take your money, so they quickly get cheaper until they no longer make meaningful sales. It's why you should never buy AAA games for the first 6-12 months (if ever honestly), they will very quickly be a lot cheaper after the publishers scam from the initial hype purchases.

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[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Exhibit A:

nfs games up to and including MW 2012

These are solid, enjoyable entries in the series. Peaked with Underground 2 and MW 2005, but the takeover/acquisition of Criterion pumped new life into HP 2010 and MW 2012.

Exhibit B:

nfs games released after MW 2012

These are dogshit. Heavy dlc, meh progression, horrible to play on a keyboard, stupid upgrade systems (cards? cards? are you retarded, EA?), always-online, shitty online servers, horrendous physics, so arcadey that they make actual arcade racing games look desirable.

You'll note that this game is in the second group.

I got it as a gift a couple weeks ago, they paid $10 for it, which I was holding out for >$5 to buy myself; it's actually better than the last iteration, but not by much. That game - heat - I thrashed on at launch and 6mo later, and when the premium or whatever edition dropped to like $1.25, I finally bought it (10h demo before) and honestly, I want my $1.25 back. Here, $5 for unbound is about right, near the upper limit.

If they hadn't killed Criterion (the reboot is in name only, the talent jumped ship with the forced merge), nfs might be awesome still. They have to do a metric fuck-load to save this series. I have almost every game, I'm a massive fan of the series... But for the past decade, it's fucking dogshit.

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Unbound was basically dead on arrival, its practically just heat with re-shade and barely any actual new content.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Because it's two years old?

[–] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 11 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

No it's the damn autumn sale right now. AAA games stay at full price for years when not on sale.

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[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 weeks ago

And because it was kind of a shitty game.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Because NFS Unbound sucks. Never in my life have I tried to refund a game so quickly. Couldn't make it past the first hour of the game.

The characters just won't shut up, I'm trying to drive not hear people yap about how the illegal street racers that cause millions in public property damage and multiple fatalities each race are so oppressed by the government.

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[–] Strider@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago

It's called idiot tax. (hint: not the discounted price)

[–] simonced@lemmy.one 8 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Lol, still too expensive for that garbage...

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[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago

Black Friday sales are crazy sometimes

[–] Joelio@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

Because most people won't/can't pay these stupid prices just for an average/poor experience.

[–] bruhsoulz@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

Because broke niggas like me can't afford 20$ for a legitimate skyrim copy even tho I got 1800 hrs in that game

[–] SatyrSack@feddit.org 5 points 3 weeks ago

The "sale" price you see here is effectively the "standard" price. Publishers know that most users will just wait for a sale to make their purchase, and that those too desperate to wait will be willing to pay any inflated "full" price they set.

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