EA's thoughts on steam sales...

garfi3ld wrote: www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/06/ea-senior-vp-...-property-%E2%80%9D/


"We won’t be doing that. Obviously they think it’s the right thing to do after a certain amount of time. I just think it cheapens your intellectual property."


Am I the only one a little bothered by this? How much money is saved by going to digital distribution over retail? They have to be saving money on packaging, storing, manufacturing not to mention they have to be selling the games to retailers at a discounted price when compared to MSRP for retailers to make money as well.

I quick google search is showing the retailers cost to be around $35 to $30 for a $50 game. Toss out the packaging, storing, and manufacturing costs, I don't see how they would see any difference between full price at a b&m store and 1/2 off on digital.

Plus there is never an over supply of the game that requires it to be sold to a 3rd party to sell off at deep discounts, it sells the exact amount of copies that are demanded by the market...

I think the way this SVP thinks about game sales is all wrong. He must think that average people have 60 dollars to plop down on every game.. Sorry your wrong. There are a few games a year I will pay 60 dollars on release week for and that's about it. I know the devs need to be paid and the that the publishers put a lot of money behind it but just because they put alot of money into doesn't mean that they cant do a sale and maybe convince me to buy more in the future because I am already using their game distribution service. What he is describing that they WONT be doing is the exact reason why I installed Origin in the first place. They had Battlefield Bad Company 2, with the Vietnam expansion pack and some other games all on sale at one point for $9.99. Isn't that deep discounting? I don't know, that whole article just reeks of money-grubbing to me. I could be wrong.

Sometime you have to put a game with stale sales on a big discount and then you make up for the discount in the volume of revenue that you get. And lets not forget, they aren't shipping us an actual product, its digital so that whole thing of "Were not trying to be Target" is a complete crap statement. Target is Brick and Mortar. Origin is not.

So EA is too chicken to sell on Steam? lol. I wonder how much their sales have hurt since
they wont? I certainly hope Origin isnt giving them a better profit. They need to be back on
Steam like everyone else.

EA thinks like the Cable Companies where they want to control absolutely everything and the price point they want not matter what the market/consumer is willing to pay for. If demand is down you would think supply is down and lets lessen the price but they don't look at it like that at all.
They just assume people will come around and "eventually" buy the game.

EA's is a bunch of tools. Since Origin has came out they really have shafted themselves numerous times. Pretty sad actually.

There's probably some prejudice considering it's EA. Pretend Blizzard made that statement.

The article states that EA isn't offering Steams tactic of deep discounting on Origin. Origin certainly has had some pretty decent deals, granted I haven't purchased them because I can't stand Origin.

I paid $59.99 I believe, for Battlefield BC2 on steam in March of 2010? December of 2010 Steam had it in their holiday sale for $7.49 despite it's immense popularity at that time. I remember this vividly, because as a business person, it made no sense to me. Why would you cheapen a popular product? It was extremely popular. $14.99 would have been a hell of a deal. So would $24.99. I played the hell out of that game.

This actually might be a tactic by Origin to try to score some publishers for their platform and maybe some exclusives. There is a devaluation for an IP when the perception is that it can be had cheaper for later, especially with single player games. "I'll get it during a steam sale" is something I hear pretty commonly now. I wonder if part of the publisher agreement for an AAA product is that Steam gets certain leverage for their sales?

Not defending EA, just saying I see the logic that some games (Duke Nukem Forever, Homefront) deserve to hit $5 during a sale, and that some games probably shouldn't (Skyrim).

The way I look at it is I have 135 games on Steam. 20 of those games I would of bought without steam sales. I haven't even played some of them. I have beaten even less. This means I buy games that I know I might never play just because the deal is to good to let go. During the Fall, Christmas/New Year, and 4th of July Sales I sometimes work a extra day or two to have spare cash just for the game deals. This has to be great for the game industry from the developers to the publishers. When I hear people talking about Steam it brings a smile to my face. That's where all my entertainment is be it games or chatting with friends. When I hear someone talk about Origin it just makes me think of games I cant play or even buy through my choice of retailer. Ea needs to remember that Steam is more than just games to me. It has a huge loyal following that wish Origin would not exist, and this makes the pro Steam consumers angry at Ea for messing with my kool-aid.

Valve knows how to get a game into your account. They understand when to do sales and they really seem to help other devs. I couldn't believe it when Dungeons of Dredmor got Steam Workshop support!

EA just wants to make cash, not get sales. I think Devs will start to dislike that lack of support and platform strength, and I see Origin not growing to catch up to Steam ever.