Steam Summer Sale 2015 Official Whatcha Gonna Buy Thread

[Aikouka]

You got me on games but I win on hours played.

I imagine that I will lose on that front quite a bit! :biggrin:

...unless I somehow include World of WarCraft in that list, and then there's no stopping me!! :twisted:

 

[JujuFish]

I'm only half as "bad" as Aikouka!

https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197980747088/?cc=us

 

[local]

I imagine that I will lose on that front quite a bit! :biggrin:

...unless I somehow include World of WarCraft in that list, and then there's no stopping me!! :twisted:

I don't know because then I could add World of Tanks/Warships, Warthunder (before Steam), SWTOR and DAoC.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I think the bolded is Steam's saving grace with the developers & publishers. While most of us are far less willing to pay full price for games, we also buy games we would never buy if their floor was $20 at target. If the money is the same, having a couple million copies sold beats a couple hundred thousand.

Most of the money to be made from games happens fairly soon after release. These Steam sales are a great way to milk extra revenue out of older titles by riding the momentum of excitement around the sale. You also often see sales on older titles when the newer sequels are released which is a great way to monetize the back catalog when excitement is high.

You have to figure that so many of these games on PC now are console ports, which means really the PC platform just needs to cover the money of the port since the consoles (with much larger volumes) cover most of the primary development costs. Because the consoles are basically x86 PCs porting is easier than ever, so why can't those savings be passed down to the consumer?

They can afford for gamers to expect to pay less for PC games because consoles exist. Console gamers don't have the distribution competition to lower their costs, so they pay more which creates a windfall for the PC world. In a way the fact that PC gaming is a secondary platform is a benefit if you are a patient consumer.

 

[Aikouka]

Because the consoles are basically x86 PCs porting is easier than ever, so why can't those savings be passed down to the consumer?

Keep in mind that the underlying architecture really doesn't matter that much unless you're coding in assembly. Most people use abstracted/higher-level languages (e.g. C++), which perform the compilation to the specified instruction set for you. However, the issue is that the consoles would use their own distinct development libraries, and these aren't a 1:1 with any sort of PC library.

If I were to call out anything for making porting easier, then it would be that the Xbox One uses DirectX. It doesn't magically make porting into simply changing a compilation flag, but it will definitely simplify any of the abstracted code.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Keep in mind that the underlying architecture really doesn't matter that much unless you're coding in assembly. Most people use abstracted/higher-level languages (e.g. C++), which perform the compilation to the specified instruction set for you. However, the issue is that the consoles would use their own distinct development libraries, and these aren't a 1:1 with any sort of PC library.

Sure it isn't 1:1. but at least the architecture limitations and such are the same. It isn't like porting a PS3 game where you have to take all this code meant for the SPUs and make it work on x86 cores with different limitations or bottlenecks.


AAAAAAnd I just bought Camera Obscura. I officially got hooked on buying games this week and I can't go cold turkey. So I just bought the cheapest thing on sale to try and slate the desire.

 

[Craig234]

Most of the money to be made from games happens fairly soon after release. These Steam sales are a great way to milk extra revenue out of older titles by riding the momentum of excitement around the sale. You also often see sales on older titles when the newer sequels are released which is a great way to monetize the back catalog when excitement is high.

Except when they train customers not to buy early releases, it reduces revenue.

You have to figure that so many of these games on PC now are console ports, which means really the PC platform just needs to cover the money of the port since the consoles (with much larger volumes) cover most of the primary development costs. Because the consoles are basically x86 PCs porting is easier than ever, so why can't those savings be passed down to the consumer?

They can afford for gamers to expect to pay less for PC games because consoles exist. Console gamers don't have the distribution competition to lower their costs, so they pay more which creates a windfall for the PC world. In a way the fact that PC gaming is a secondary platform is a benefit if you are a patient consumer.

Which makes consoles more profitable than PC, hurting the PC games.

 

[zinfamous]

It may sound crazy, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few on this forum with more games than me.

EDIT:

Here's my SteamDB report: https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197993298952/?cc=us

85% games not played!

 

[ControlD]

Except when they train customers not to buy early releases, it reduces revenue.

I'm not honestly sure that is the case though. I mean, look at sales of the PC releases for some big games like Witcher 3 or Dragon Age: Inquisition. I believe both those games sold quite well on release because people that want to play them now are willing to pay full price now. People that aren't willing to pay $59.99 for a new release probably wouldn't be laying that cash out anyhow. In the old days they would wait until the game could be purchased used. These days they wait for a Steam sale. There is zero revenue gained by the publisher when a game is purchased second hand. With a Steam sale purchase at least some money is being made.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Except when they train customers not to buy early releases, it reduces revenue.

For a lot of these AAA PC games they often get bundled with GPUs purchased around the time of their release. The secondary market of these vouchers plus pre-release sales make it so that being a zero day gamer doesn't necessarily mean paying full price.

The difference between the consoles and the PC is distribution, not conditioning. Unlike on a console where the only way to get a game is via disks or the network of the console maker, with PC games you have Steam, Green Man, vouchers, etc. These points of distribution compete which lowers costs. On the flipside the gaming maker pays a smaller amount in licensing on the PC platform so its all relative. They can afford to make less per game sold.

Which makes consoles more profitable than PC, hurting the PC games.

I think there is no debate that consoles are more profitable than the PC platform. It has been that way for a while and shows no indication of stopping this generation.

But I don't see how that "hurts PC games." This isn't a null sum game, console game sales are not always at the expense of the PC platform. It doesn't matter if the consoles are more profitable, it only matters if the PC platform is profitable enough to cover the costs of porting the game.

In fact I see the current console industry as a huge benefit to PC gaming. The console's profitability gets the games made, and the console's x86 insides make the ports easier to do. This generation we see games like Metal Gear Solid being released on the PC too. That simply didn't happen in previous generations, but for this gen the barrier to port is lower than ever.

The only way anyone can even possibly frame these developments as bad is if you like PC-only genres (which have to compete for dollars in a port-driven market), or you have some team master race mentality that demands to see consoles get crushed (#pipedream). In the scheme of things it has never been a better time to be a PC gamer thanks to console ports and Steam sales, and soon the innovation of Steam refunds will drive up the quality of ports as well.

It is a great time to be a PC gamer.

 

[IEC]

Lol, ouch

https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197974822128/?cc=us

 

[HeXen]

Mine: https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197993951795/
I don't have near the hours you guys do

I just noticed that the info for Mass Effect 2 is completely wrong. It says I played for 4 minutes at $19.99 per hour ratio lol...I played for at least 4-6 hours I know, Pretty sure I was at least halfway or so through the game before I quit. So that's odd. Also Arma 2 was not free, I paid for that one.

 

[ControlD]

https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197963093943/?cc=us

Hard to believe I put 124 hours into Far Cry 3.

 

[Harrod]

Mine is pretty depressing.

https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197970965411/?cc=us

Interestingly I don't ever spontaneously buy other stuff. I should write in my will that whoever plays and beats all that games that you can win at gets it all.

 

[MentalIlness]

Age Of Empires II HD Edition
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock 2
Grim Fandango Remastered
Max Payne 3

 

[lamedude]

There was a sale? I was too busy playing monster game. We lost a few rooms to the FU got mine trolls.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

There was a sale? I was too busy playing monster game. We lost a few rooms to the FU got mine trolls.

Hey, at least 98439223 is a rarer badge number than 100M.

 

[lamedude]

A constant reminder of coming up short.

 

[JujuFish]

I probably shouldn't mention that I was in three rooms that made it to 100 million before I quit "playing" the clicker game.

 

[lamedude]

Don't forget to join the club.