When, how, and why should a game be discounted?

[Frindis]

Inspired by recent posts, I'm curious. If you look at Activision Blizzard then you'll probably rarely gonna see anything discounted for more than 50%. if you look at GearBox Software, you will often find the Borderland series heavily discounted. Some games are rarely discounted, while others are. Some games go free for some time, and some never do. Is there any sense to it all?

 

[ZedClampet]

I guess it's all about money and sales philosophy. Maybe every game sells at different levels based on different levels of discounts. How aggressive the publisher is probably plays a role in it.

Bethesda's policy is usually pretty aggressive. I guess Activision's is not. Interestingly, they both seem to have continued with their usual strategies despite being owned by Microsoft now.

 

[Frindis]

It kind of annoys me also to see games being discounted with a high percentage, but when you look at the age of the game and what it sells for without the discount, it makes no bloody sense as the price is already ridiculously high.

 

[ZedClampet]

It kind of annoys me also to see games being discounted with a high percentage, but when you look at the age of the game and what it sells for without the discount, it makes no bloody sense.

If it annoys you because there is no consistency from game to game, that's because every game price is set by the publishers instead of by Valve. It's not like a brick and mortar department store where the store sets all the prices. Valve has no say over it. It's more like a flea market where everyone just shows up and starts selling whatever they have at whatever price they want to sell at.

You probably already know this, but a lot of people don't. They think Valve is setting the pricing.

 

[Frindis]

If it annoys you because there is no consistency from game to game, that's because every game price is set by the publishers instead of by Valve. It's not like a brick and mortar department store where the store sets all the prices. Valve has no say over it. It's more like a flea market where everyone just shows up and starts selling whatever they have at whatever price they want to sell at.

You probably already know this, but a lot of people don't. They think Valve is setting the pricing.

Thankfully, it does not seem that too many publishers play the consumers in the way that some AAA companies do though. So, I guess there are some (un)written rules out there as to what is a reasonable price and not.

 

[Zloth]

I've seen a few games not lower the price anymore because I don't think anybody at the company that owns the game cares enough to find out how to do it.

Dead or Alive 5 isn't on sale at all right now, but DoA 6 is. They've done that several times now. I presume that's because they want the player base playing the latest game. If they get divided up between versions, it will be harder to fine online matches.

What is strange to me is that the industry hasn't settled on a standard. This isn't a new industry anymore, yet some games get regular DEEP discounts, while others don't. It seems like they should have figured out what works best for a given kind of game by now.

 

[Brian Boru]

Here's an intro to many sources about pricing strategies:

Pricing strategies - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Colif]

One time when it happens is when there is a new game in series coming and they want to remind people the series exists. That can be Why as well

Its on a case by case basis as no two games are the same.

Its better that its a mystery as then people would be disappointed when it doesn't play out as they expected. There are too many factors involved.