Games for the PC aren’t overly expensive, but at the same time who can say no to a sale, right? Every now and then distribution platforms like Valve’s Steam holds a sale in which many of the games listed are discounted, which is great news for both developers and gamers because this causes an influx of sales, so it’s kind of like a win-win situation, or is it? According to indie developer, Jason Rohrer, it seems that he does not think that sales are necessarily a good thing to have. According to Rohrer, he believes that by having sales, it makes gamers wait for the sale to happen before buying a game, meaning that prior to that, there won’t be as many units of the game sold, which he believes will affect how much money developers will make in the long-run.
Rohrer has since pulled his games from Steam’s sales last year and is grateful that Valve never really forced developers to put their games on discounts. Interestingly enough Rohrer has an experiment that he plans on conducting, which is that he will offer his next game at a 50% off before the launch, sort of like a pre-order sale, 25% off during its first week of availability, after which the game will be sold at full price. It’s an interesting idea but what do you guys think? Do you agree that sales might not necessarily be a win-win situation for everyone involved?
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