What's a "big sale" to you?

[Zed Clampet]

You know, you see a game you are interested in on sale, and at that discount it's nearly an automatic buy. Does it matter how long it's been out?

For me, any game I really want that's 50 percent off or more is usually a buy, but for games I only kind of want, the discount has to be 75 percent or greater. So for me, a "big sale" under this definition as a nearly automatic buy, I would say 75 percent or more off.

 

[Zloth]

I try not to work that way. Ideally, I look at the game and the price and decide if it's worth it based just on that. If it is worth it, then I think about whether it's something I want to play between now and the next big sale. Pass both of those, and I buy. I stick to it pretty well, but not 100%.

 

[Colif]

You know, you see a game you are interested in on sale, and at that discount it's nearly an automatic buy. Does it matter how long it's been out?

I don't look at game sales but that can apply to almost anything. Something you want to buy gets a discount, its really a good chance to save. If you know its good based on reviews, why not. Provided you trust reviewers... some say everything is great which makes it hard to tell if they shills or real.

Also helps if its an actual discount and they hadn't changed prices before hand just to "reduce" them after to get you to buy at normal prices. Black Friday says hello.

Generally, good things don't go on Discount/sale right after release, though pre orders can. Preserve was 20% off when I bought it, but that was just a coincidence. Good things don't need the boost.

I have fallen for it twice this year... both times Headphones. One of them was $500 off, too hard to resist.

I did it 3 days ago when something I was saving for dropped in price. Not a discount but it stopped me waiting a few more weeks.

 

[Pifanjr]

The last time I bought a game just because it was on sale was Assassin's Creed: Origins (I think), which I could get for 5 euro when the full price was still 60. That was probably 5 years ago and I still haven't played it. I've been tempted by The Witcher III which was 3 euro at some point, but I had learned my lesson.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I created a spreadsheet (of course I did) containing all of my Steam wishlisted games plus useful information about them and then multiple functions to measure how good a sale it is.

This is a picture of the spreadsheet during the Steam Summer Sale. The grey italicised columns are inflation-adjusted using the Bank of England's historical inflation data. Time comes mostly from How Long To Beat. Historical prices come mostly from Is There Any Deal (excluding stores I consider dodgy, i.e. mostly everywhere except Steam, GOG, and Epic).

I don't only use the CALC metrics. They are a guide to streamline the functional side of things. There's also the measure of how eager I am to play a game, indicated by its Rank. Game #1 would not need to have as low a CALC to justify a purchase as Game #60.

What I don't do is just go off the raw percentage discount, because I think some games are over-priced to begin with. It's a classic scam to over-price a game so that you can make it appear like a better bargain than it is in a sale.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Well, this didn't work out as planned. 🙂

What I was wanting to do was start a "big sale" thread where we could alert the board to games that were on deep discount, and I was trying to find what that cut-off should be. I suppose I should have just posted it that way.

Good answers, though. Very interesting stuff.

 

[Colif]

Try again, we know now. You weren't clear enough. Its not obvious from your post.

 

[Brian Boru]

spreadsheet

Do you scrape the raw data, or input manually?

This post about getting my game libraries into Excel manually will either be a laugh or useful 🙂

 

[Frindis]

A big sale for me is anything from 75-90%off as it is rare to find more than that if it is not crap games. It does matter how long it has been out, so for example with a game like BG3 from Larian Studios, I bought it instantly because I knew it would be fantastic. If it is an old game, I won't pay much for it (if it is not a good enhanced/reworked/definitive or similar edition) and it kind of irritates me to see companies selling their older games for a full price and then throwing a 50% discount at sales like I am supposed to be impressed by that when the game is over 10x years! I understand it from the publisher's perspective, but for me as a consumer, it makes no bloody sense to buy the game.

I buy some bundles from time to time that often have deep discounts, but I have to be careful that the bundle is not just a regurgitation of games that rotate around in different bundles or that already have a deep discount on Steam making the bundle price not really that good if you don't like all the games. The "new trick" now with bundles that for example Fanatical is doing is to make bundles with different tiers so that you have to get so and so many games to get a better discount. This makes the bundles worse in my eyes, but obviously not for Fanatical.

Some preorder games got a 10-20% discount and I might jump on that if I am confident in the company. I have gotten burned on that before with Wolcen Studios BADLY developed Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, so I try to avoid getting too much on the hype train.

 

[neogunhero]

A big sale to me is whenever Sekiro goes below $29.99. I mean, ffs FromSoft, it’s been 5 years already, drop it below 50% already!

Aside from that, 60% off and beyond is a big sale to me. I have a few games sitting in my wishlist that won’t go beyond 50%, so I’m still waiting for a larger sale on those.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Any sale that's enough to nudge me into buying, but that varies widely on the game itself. Like, if there's a game I'm unsure about, it would have to be substantial -- over 50%. On the other hand, for something like American Truck Simulator DLC, all I need is a nudge.

 

[BeardyHat]

If it is an old game, I won't pay much for it (if it is not a good enhanced/reworked/definitive or similar edition)

I find this interesting because I subscribe to the same mentality, but I'm not sure if it's necessarily a legitimate way to look at things. For example, I don't own a Switch for the fact that I consider the games far too expensive, especially for older stuff like Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey.

Yeah, the games are old, but they're still good games right? Why does the value decrease just because they're a couple of years old? Simply because we're used to games going on sale as they age and we expect to get them for a certain amount? It's not as though old games come with problems like an old car, thus subjecting them to depreciation; that is to say, if it's 5 years old, it's probably going to run on your computer just fine and you're not going to have to fix it or maintain it or whatever.

Just a thought experiment, I suppose.

That said, a big sale to me is 75%-90% off and I'll have a hard time not buying it "just because." I recently bought Hunter: Call of the Wild for like $3 or something even though I have zero interest in hunting games and stalking through the Pacific Northwest to track a deer sounds dreadfully boring. I guess the thought is, I'll pay $3 to take a chance.; I know I won't like it, but for $3, maybe I'll find something I'm interested in.

 

[Colif]

As I said, I don't look at Sales. Generally, if there is something I want I will buy it as soon as I can, whether its on sale or not. Sure, I will accept the discount if there is one. But I generally don't window shop. I know what I want and don't get distracted.

That applies everywhere. Hence reason I don't want/need to see advertising as I know what I want from reading reviews or watching videos, its pointless other people trying to sell me crap as I don't want to know. Much of the time I actually don't want anything. I need to go back to that... last two years I bought too much stuff. Alas I don't see an end in sight. Need to stop adding things to list.

And given the types of games I play, its rare anything in the sales would really interest me. So few of them exist. I have all the old ARPG I really want now... and so few new ones (only one on wishlist).

 

[Frindis]

Yeah, the games are old, but they're still good games right? Why does the value decrease just because they're a couple of years old? Simply because we're used to games going on sale as they age and we expect to get them for a certain amount? It's not as though old games come with problems like an old car, thus subjecting them to depreciation; that is to say, if it's 5 years old, it's probably going to run on your computer just fine and you're not going to have to fix it or maintain it or whatever.

I agree that a lot of old games can still be mighty good, which is also why Morrowind is one of my favorite games of all time, even if it runs like shait without mods. That said, I think the value should decrease because of a few different reasons. The first is that a lot of older games do not get updates or support, which is something you would expect with a brand-new game these days. Whatever bugs the game had that were not fixed, will probably not get fixed if not with mods. Another point is that older games, especially when you look at 10 years or older games, often do not look or run that well. Not all, but a lot of them have what I would describe as wonky game mechanics.

Thirdly some games lose their online support or might not even work well on newer Windows versions so you have to rely on tinkering to get them to work. Another factor is that there are so many games out there to buy, so logically if companies do not lower their prizes you'll go to those who do, making it in everyone's interest that older games get discounted. It is also a great way to introduce new games in a series while at the same time cutting the prices of the older ones or even giving them away for free.

 

[Johnway]

When i was introduced to https://gg.deals/deals/historical-lows/ and isthereanydeal.com i've pretty much keep an eye on the prices and generally hold as long as i can before i splash the cash.

There's no specific discount % i would pull the trigger, but generally speaking, it has to be more then 60-70% ideally. half price for only games that never drop below that price (sekiro springs to mind), but its very much depends on the game and on feel tbh. if its a game that rarely discounts at all and suddenly gets a serious knocked down price on some non descript website, i'll go for it.

if i see it at its lowest price, chances are it will hit that price or lower eventually. With my large collection of games and epic sometimes just giving away games on my wishlist for free, theres no brainer to wait even more.

 

[Hveðrungr]

Do you scrape the raw data, or input manually?

This post about getting my game libraries into Excel manually will either be a laugh or useful 🙂

Not useful per se but I enjoyed reading it! When I first set up the time-tracking spreadsheet I copy-pasted the list from my Steam purchase history page because it had the dates. Since then I update the spreadsheet manually whenever I buy a game, it's no effort. Although since getting more into free Epic / Prime games I have mostly stopped adding those until / unless I actually play them.

For the wishlist, I likewise originally copied it from my Steam wishlist page, but now I update it manually. Part of why I update it manually is that I don't just go off the listed figures, especially for HL2B. There is always some scope for me to adjust things manually. And also I like the discovery process because I feel it helps me get better acquainted with the game and inform the buying process.

 

[Slasken]

I am proud to say I didn't buy any games on the latest Steam sale. I have bought way too many games that I will probably never play. I will buy the games when I want to play them.

 

[Johnway]

I am proud to say I didn't buy any games on the latest Steam sale. I have bought way too many games that I will probably never play. I will buy the games when I want to play them.

Same here. The prices were good, but i felt i could wait a bit longer. especially with my backlog, even so, this year i have got 49 more games. looking at my spreadsheet (yes i have one as well!) it looks like humble choice and freebies pad out my games. i could total up the amount spent and see the damage and how much i saved etc.

 

[red_5ive]

I agree with 75% off or more. I'm a sucker and will go on Steam buying binges, just to add a dozen more to the 3,720 titles that I'll probably never play.

 

[Brian Boru]

75% I'll look at.
90% I'll buy if there's a realistic chance I'll play it soon.

Otherwise, I wander thru this…

…and pick a candidate.

 

[Zloth]

You save more money buying a $60 game for 10% off than you do buying a $10 game for 50% off. Unless you don't end up liking the game at all, in which case you waste only $5 on the cheap game and $50 on the pricey game. And 90% off a $2000 game is still nutty. Sheesh. All this complexity from a number and a percent!?

Hveðrungr is wise to have all those columns!

 

[Brian Boru]

All this complexity from a number and a percent

No, no, it's simple behind it all—watch this 5m:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cF1LYlg5l4