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[Should Steam Bring Back Flash Sales?]

Should Steam Bring Back Flash Sales?

Yes

No

According to PC Gamer, flash sales may be returning in future Steam sales. For those who don't know, these were periods during a Steam sale where particular games would be discounted beyond their sale discount for a limited time, but they were removed in 2016 because Steam apparently wanted to make it so that people wouldn't have to constantly check for the best sale (I'm sure making more money from not having steeper discounts didn't factor into it at all).

Do you think this would be a good idea? I'm surprised that there are many people who liked that they removed flash sales, and removing them didn't seem to hurt how much money Steam and the publishers made from the sales overall. What say you?

I mean, that's a reason I love Sony...their occasional flash sales.  It's awesome when I can get something like the complete version of Witcher 3 for like 14 bucks when even in Gamestop it's still 30+.

So I'd be all for Steam bringing theirs back.

As someone who works in a customer support call center, I know that when a sale ends we usually get a large number of calls asking for the limited time sales price. I'm not sure if this would affect steam in the same way but it may factor into the decision.

Personally as far as steam sales go I like to plan my spendature ahead of time and I'd be super annoyed if I saw a game I just got on sale for a lower price but that's just me.

I get emails whenever games on my Steam wishlist are on sale, so I'm sure I'd get emails when flash sales occured for those games as well. So, yeah, I'd dig flash sales.

There have been a couple of times when I bought games for full price only for them to be cheaper later. Not a fan of flash sales.

There have been a couple of times when I bought games for full price only for them to be cheaper later. Not a fan of flash sales.

 

I've had that happen in terms of when Sony releases their new picks for PS Plus each month.  Just before last month when I bought Detroit when it released, I bought the deluxe edition that came with Heavy Rain.

Then a couple of days later, Heavy Rain appeared as one of the free PS Plus titles for the new month.

I was so pissed.

There have been a couple of times when I bought games for full price only for them to be cheaper later. Not a fan of flash sales.

 


I've had that happen in terms of when Sony releases their new picks for PS Plus each month.  Just before last month when I bought Detroit when it released, I bought the deluxe edition that came with Heavy Rain.

Then a couple of days later, Heavy Rain appeared as one of the free PS Plus titles for the new month.

I was so pissed.

I can imagine. I bought CK2 full price. The next week it was 80% off. I was kicking myself.

I mean, now that there's the 'refunds automatically accepted within 2 weeks/less than 2 hours of play' thing, I can't imagine you'd have that same issue. People can buy what they want, then if a flash sale comes up, refund it and buy it at the flash sale price.

I suppose it never bothered me much because I waited until the last day to buy games unless they were on a flash sale, so I knew I was getting the best deal. I've read a few times that Steam hasn't lost money on their sales since doing away with it, but I've personally bought fewer games during the sales...they're just not as good as they used to be. It'd be exciting to have them back, especially the ones where the community voted which ones were going into flash sales.

I mean, now that there's the 'refunds automatically accepted within 2 weeks/less than 2 hours of play' thing, I can't imagine you'd have that same issue. People can buy what they want, then if a flash sale comes up, refund it and buy it at the flash sale price.

Still a massive palava.

I mean, saving money generally is. Couponing is inconvenient, seeking out the lowest possible price is inconvenient - because at the end of the day, the reason middlemen exist is because they are providing a service - doing all that shit for you and making a profit. Arbitrage exists because some people have a lower threshold of what their bare minimum effort is than others.
If it's too inconvenient for you to use flash sales, just buy it whenever you want - but that shouldn't be a mark against having flash sales in the first place.

My problem isnt just that refunding is a palava, it isnt always an option. In a week, you could rack up significantly more than 2 hours of play time. And refunding is not the only issue. I do not want to have an internal argument with myself about if I should buy a game I really want now or wait endlessly, hoping for a sale. And I know I'm not the only one that hesitated endlessly about buying full price or not.

I think flash sales are great, they provide an everyone wins situation because the dev gets more eyes on their game (not to mention revenue) and we get a good game on the cheap. It sucks when you buy a game and then it goes on sale but thats the luck of the draw. Games aren't a value equation for me, I rarely think about the money I spent vs the time I spent playing. The only time I've done this is with Minecraft and solely for the reason that I've put so many hours into that game that it's ridiculous.

I mean, now that there's the 'refunds automatically accepted within 2 weeks/less than 2 hours of play' thing, I can't imagine you'd have that same issue. People can buy what they want, then if a flash sale comes up, refund it and buy it at the flash sale price.

If only Sony instituted that.  They always specifically state that there are no refunds for any purchases. 

And I think flash sales were where you could get the cheapest prices anywhere, too. I've noticed that since they removed them, games rarely if ever that cheap and it's just odd that an old game's cheapest price was years ago. =|

I've always had to be money-conscious, because I've never had a lot of it, so it's rare that I'll spend more than $10 for a game, and I don't think I've bought a game full-price since I was 16 (Warcraft III).