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173 Comments
- Po0py, on 02/19/2009, -1/+155Please don't ever write that sentence on the internet again.
- Kakumeikeahi, on 02/19/2009, -22/+111Amazing, this is proof if a game a priced less then the game company games even more money.
- Kordras, on 02/19/2009, -1/+75I love Steam weekend deals. :D
- neonoodle, on 02/19/2009, -1/+51No, this is just proof that sales work. The perceived value of the game is, say, 60 bucks. If they lower the price to $30 for a short amount of time, people will think they're getting a huge bargain because the value of the game is still $60 in their mind. Now if all games lowered their price to $30 as a baseline, then the perceived value of the game will be $30 and you'd probably see slightly more sales because more people can afford it, but it won't be that big of an increase as to make it worth dropping the price by half.
This sale just made L4D a better choice to purchase than the competition that's still at regular price. - magness, on 02/19/2009, -1/+45This is such an amazing game. I was skeptical at first, but this game has almost perfect gameplay, totally relying on teammates to complete missions, appropriate difficulty, and replayability with good achievements.
I convinced over 10 of my friends to purchase this game over the weekend and it's resulted in a good many hours of gameplay so far. Good job Valve, put it on sale again! - zinc6471, on 02/19/2009, -1/+42had to buy it for a friend because he didn't have enough money (ya i know $25)....
Furthermore, Valve has hired an experimental psychologist to maximize the excitement of Steam sales and other marketing opportunities. According to Newell, one suggestion by the psychologist was to provide one free copy of a Valve game to every 25th buyer of Left 4 Dead.
gaming + lottery = win - fallingdamage, on 02/19/2009, -1/+38Maybe Adobe can take a lesson from this.
- Ytse, on 02/19/2009, -0/+32"...beat the title's original launch performance." Wow. I had a few friends buy it that weekend; so I'm not surprised. I'm almost tempted to say I wish I had waited, but I've been really enjoying the game for a few months already. ;-)
- ArcadeJunkies, on 02/19/2009, -0/+29Gabe also says games cost too much:
http://digg.com/pc_games/Valve_Are_Games_Too_Expen ...
Sorry for the plug, but you have to be a power user or cheat to get anything noticed on Digg these days. - AntFoolish, on 02/19/2009, -1/+29Dammit, why couldn't there be a front page article about this BEFORE the sale?
- Lasereth, on 02/19/2009, -1/+26Cool game but I don't think the replayability is anywhere near Team Fortress 2. I do want to give major credit to Valve for keeping TF2 and L4D updated and releasing free huge updates with it every couple of months. Not many developers do that...and if they do, it's usually only once. But Valve has kept TF2 fresh for longer than I ever anticipated and I hope they do the same with L4D.
- sexybobo, on 02/19/2009, -2/+2475% sale = 1470% increase in sales
That means selling the game at a 75% discount gave them a 15% increase in profits.
Also in case Gabe ever reads this loose some weight we need you to be around for a long time to come. - yoshifan, on 02/19/2009, -0/+21Someone went to business school!
- commyostrich, on 02/19/2009, -0/+20uh... http://digg.com/pc_games/Left_4_Dead_Is_Half_Off we tried. All 16 of us.
- FurtThePirate, on 02/19/2009, -1/+20***** Adobe, how about HP and their ink.
- inactive, on 02/19/2009, -1/+20They are awesome!
Steams the only place I buy games - Greengoo, on 02/19/2009, -0/+14I met Gabe Newell one time. He's a genuinely nice guy who really ***** cares about games. Say what you want, Gabe is awesome.
- Nick5309, on 02/19/2009, -1/+14Interesting point. Photoshop is the single most pirated piece of software on the internet, if they made is reasonably priced, the majority of people who pirate it would probably purchase it, and their sales would go through the roof!
- M4NiC5, on 02/19/2009, -1/+13this made my day
- kjax82, on 02/19/2009, -2/+14Game game, ga-game game game.
- Po0py, on 02/19/2009, -1/+12So thats why all the servers were laggy as hell over the weekend.
- linksus, on 02/19/2009, -1/+12I actually lolled
- shotgunefx, on 02/19/2009, -1/+12Worked for me. Best 25 I ever spent. The game is awesome
- CrimsonTide1190, on 02/19/2009, -2/+12LEARN 2 GRAMMAR
- bwishey, on 02/19/2009, -2/+12I bought it Thursday night at around 10pm.
Sigh... - Kakumeikeahi, on 02/19/2009, -0/+10Yes, sir!
- DanBoodro, on 02/19/2009, -2/+11lol, "Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection - 95% OFF WEEKEND!" That would be nice...not like I don't have it already, but I got it for 100% off.
- Tyrghast, on 02/19/2009, -2/+10Try challenging yourself a bit more. Playing the game on easy isn't nearly as satisfying as on expert, and versus mode with good zombie players rocks. It's co-op game, not a single-player game.
- shadydentist, on 02/19/2009, -0/+8This is pretty interesting, actually. Think about it: With practically no distribution costs, the cost of selling 100 or 1 million copies is almost the same. This allows them to play around with price to get the greatest net profit out of their product at the benefit of consumers.
- kmoed, on 02/19/2009, -0/+8Who will eventually learn how to play the game and hand you your ass.
- BooLag, on 04/23/2009, -2/+10Of course that is completely wrong as, except for the initial launch of L4D when the TF2 team did give a hand, they are developed by separate groups of people.
- Bhatch514, on 02/19/2009, -0/+7I bought it. The game needs more Zombies.
- browe07, on 02/19/2009, -1/+8Time to pwn some n00bs :-P
- browe07, on 02/19/2009, -0/+6You forgot about versus...
- ArcadeJunkies, on 02/19/2009, -0/+6Wow, need I say more:
http://digg.com/gaming_news/Are_Video_Games_Too_Ex ...
Look at the timestamps... - Chewie67, on 02/19/2009, -1/+7You're exactly right.
However, I would suggest that the game companies either:
a) Have frequent sales -- four or six times a year where prices are AT LEAST 50% off on brand new, A+ titles. This will spike sales, make customers happy and move units.
b) Drop the retail price of their games much more quickly. 60 days after release they should drop by 25%. 120 days after release they should drop to 50%. Make your big money on day one for the people that absolutely have to own a game, then drop the price quickly to make your volume sales. - REV0R, on 02/20/2009, -0/+5Proof, if a game this less amazing then the priced company is even more money games.
- zinc6471, on 02/20/2009, -0/+5open console, type openserverbrowser find low ping servers
- Tyrghast, on 02/19/2009, -0/+5@ BuLong
I can't believe you're getting dugg, as both games share a good number of their developers. Valve will often have multiple projects going on, and while a few people are dedicated to one project many of their developers move between projects. It's a way to keep fresh ideas flowing. - Shawn4168, on 02/19/2009, -0/+5Read the article again. They clarified in the holiday sales section "10% sale = 35% increase in sales (real dollars, not units shipped)".
- acroyear2, on 02/19/2009, -1/+6i gots the sale with enough to order pizza.
- rnawky, on 02/19/2009, -0/+5I bought it.
- Chainheart2, on 02/19/2009, -0/+5More like 20+ hours per week, I'm still addicted a month and a half later
- Infowarsdotcom, on 02/19/2009, -0/+5It works like this...
If 75% of your friends buy the game at the sale price and you miss the sale, there's a good chance you're going to pay full price to play with them after the sale.
It's a very "friends" based game. - emjaymj, on 02/19/2009, -0/+4@Chewie67
Option b would be stupid. Their sales in the first two months would be really hurt and it wouldn't put pressure on the consumer to buy it quickly.
I personally bought the game during the sale. I was considering buying it before, but it was hard for me to justify dropping $60 on a zombie game. $30 was a lot more reasonable and I knew I had to buy it quickly before I missed out on the opportunity. Had I known the game was so much fun though I would have been more likely to buy it earlier! I also bought Bioshock on Steam for $15 during a sale (when it had been $30). And Orange Box when it first came out was $10 off for the first few days. Point is though, this sale worked so well because it doesn't really give the consumer much time to talk themselves out of the purchase. - Starkk, on 02/19/2009, -1/+5I bought it a couple of weeks ago at full price, but it is a great game when played with a group of friends that I feel no remorse for not waiting.
- deweyhewson, on 02/19/2009, -1/+5It wasn't a fun weekend to be an experienced player, for exactly this reason.
Hunters jumping around like they were on speed; Smokers who spent more time staring at walls than grabbing anyone; Boomers who seemed to be on diets; Tanks who forgot their steroids.
It was like Left 4 Dead: Nursing Home Edition™! - nowisee, on 02/19/2009, -0/+4So why then do europeans have to pay $57 for the game? Is it because they will sell more games if they raise the price??
- danwallace, on 02/19/2009, -0/+4Thank god Street Fighter IV came out just before l4d noob weekend began.
- Bhatch514, on 02/19/2009, -1/+5sale
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