http://gamerssphere.com/2014/03/01/steam-developers-can-now-create-sales/
http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/02/26/new-steam-tools-allow-developers-to-set-their-own-discounts-plan-sales/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/27/developer-discounts-steam-sales-are-changing/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/02/steam-teases-plan-to-allow-developers-to-create-their-own-sales/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/03/04/valve-permitting-devs-to-control-pricing-on-steam-to-drivepc-game-prices-to-mobile-levels-lovell/

Valve have introduced a new developer tool in Steam - they are now free to set and create own discounts and discount plans without co-ordination by Steam staff.

This means that different gaming communities can now come together and create their own sale events, or the publishers do not need to wait for an event created by Valve to go on a sale. This change have been introduced very quietly last week, and it seems to be a couple of issues and concerns so far:

1 - A publishers can create "fake" sales, making a game $100, and then go on an eternal -90% sale at $10.

2 - It may drive down the price on many, especially indie, PC games to mobile prices, this is a consideration in-front of the new Steam Machines, and it may be a positive factor in the up-coming "console war" between Valve, Sony and MS.

3 - It gives the developers/publishers more controls over their own product

4 - Games can become "invisible" - even when on a sale, as there will be much more sales all the time.


To put it in a little bit of perspective, according to Didimatic.com, there are now 147 games on sale on Steam.
17 games with -90% discount
1 games with -85% discount
12 games with -80% discount

who give a crap what happens on steam? publishers and devs always set the prices.its nothing new.if anything its going to be very messy for steam lol
if devs drives the prices down because of competition its their own suicide. great for customers but pretty awful for the industry imho

because as the market leader, others are sure to follow site also, which is why gog now have -75-80% sales, even though they said those sales devalues games.

Consider that Frozenbyte is now making own sales on their catalog, if this is more permanent sales - places like gOg will lose sales on Trine 2, or match those sales. This was before controlled by the stores, and in many ways coordinated (like summer, Christmas etc), but now it is more open. Depending on how this goes, it may have sever effect on other stores also.

If this leads to prices on PC indies reaching mobile game prices, do you honestly not think that it will effect the indies gOg sells also? Not only that, if it gives devs/pub. more control over own product than anywhere else, it is yet another reasons for them to go Steam only and not bother with other places which do not give the same amount of control.

I wouldn't consider that much of a concern. People are responsible for what they buy. A little research or checking up should clue them in if it happens. That's if you consider it a "console war".
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-11-valve-plays-the-long-game-again

Poor HumbleStore, this will probably kill them. :(

Seriously: naturally that same would apply also to old classics on GOG. So it shouldn't be considered as a discouragement for GOG to keep selling also newer (indie) games, anymore than selling old classics.

If the pricing schemes become some kind of problem for GOG, then the solution is relatively simple: give the publishers more control over pricing also on GOG.com. And naturally the same also on HumbleStore etc.

If anything, Humble is more prepared for such a move, as part of their structure is the Humble Widgets - who are controlled by the developers (it just needs the Humble guys to be awake and update changes :)). the devs can set whatever prices, and discounts, they want on the widgets.

It is more a matter of the more "normal" stores, and it will be interesting to see whether there will be anything come out from this, especially for the stores who do like to hold tight control over the process (for better or worse). But you can now really start to see the wedge between "physical" stores, where the stores have to sell a stock of goods they have invested in, and digital stores, where there is no stock and everyone takes %'s of each sale.

People will stop buying ( indie ) games on Steam and will always wait for a sale with 90% off discount .

Now i'm waiting for threads on the Steam community forum with this title " No 90% off , no buy . "

Exactly. I think most people are smart enough to look at a game and say "Yeah, the base price is 100 bucks? Who you trying to kid with this 'sale'?"

That is nonesense. Many people want to buy their game now. They don't want to wait. This is why most units are sold the first few weeks after release. The market will continue to set the price as usual. It's normal competition.

So it will be no different than it is today.

Some people already wait for games to appear in bundles. Many others don't.


The main advantage I see to this is that developers will no longer get into pricing conflicts they didn't intend, like Steam sales before Humble sales which annoy people and happen because Humble is postponing the sale.

This is why fixed amount instead of percentage cut at IsThereAnyDeal is good.

Dude .
Dont be stupid
GOG sells DRM free
Steam sells mostly DRMed games
One is not going to affect the other.Sorry

Sorry , but you are wrong .
Many people bought the Thief , Tomb Raider , LoK and even TW series on Steam instead of GOG .

It's been like this for ages. The "Specials" tab is mostly a worthless list of "10% OFF!" attempts at promotion.

Sorry, gonna believe someone from GOG over you on this, and they pretty much said they had to because it was the norm to do so and they'd loose out if they didn't.

Clearly they don't think DRM-free alone is enough not to do that.