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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[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 130 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days 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 6 days ago

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

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[–] secret300@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 5 days 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

[–] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 41 points 5 days ago

They're showing their true value.

[–] irotsoma@lemmy.world 65 points 6 days 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 6 days 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 5 days ago

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

[–] TedZanzibar@feddit.uk 2 points 4 days ago

This shit winds me up so much. It used to be that a game would be full price for 6-12 months before moving onto a budget label at a vastly rexuced price.

Nowadays games are full price forever, except for the few days a year when they go on "sale" and get reduced to what they should've been all along. During which time the publishers get to act like they're being altruistic and doing us a massive favour.

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[–] Soleos@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days 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.

[–] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 63 points 6 days ago

The steam fall sale is going on right now.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 62 points 6 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

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

[–] DuckWrangler9000@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days 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 15 points 6 days ago

Be aware of the kernel anticheat,

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[–] jaschen@lemm.ee 40 points 5 days 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.

[–] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 54 points 6 days ago (3 children)

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

[–] Tanoh@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days 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 5 days 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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[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 31 points 6 days 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.

[–] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 31 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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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[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 12 points 5 days ago

EA Game 🤮

[–] badbytes@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago

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

[–] LovingHippieCat@lemmy.world 23 points 6 days 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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[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 3 points 4 days ago

With the same shitty unoptimization I might add. These games were horribly optimized for what they are. My 8750 and 1060 should not be struggling with this game at 1080p

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days 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 18 points 6 days 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.

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

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

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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.

[–] warm@kbin.earth 12 points 6 days 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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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Because it's two years old?

[–] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 11 points 6 days 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 6 days ago

And because it was kind of a shitty game.

[–] bruhsoulz@lemmy.ml 7 points 5 days ago

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

[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days 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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[–] simonced@lemmy.one 8 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Lol, still too expensive for that garbage...

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[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 8 points 6 days ago

Black Friday sales are crazy sometimes

[–] Joelio@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 days ago

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

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