14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since Steam launched its first massive sale, analysts, developers and gamers have wondered whether it was a good idea to pick up a new title as soon as it was launched or simply wait as long as it took to pick it up for a heavy discount.
Jason Rohrer recently reignited the dispute and explained why he was more interested in those fans who were willing to pay for his title The Castle Doctrine on launch and how he was interested in keeping the experience out of future game sales on Steam.
I can sympathize with him and I can understand that a small developer might have problems if it never manages to sell a lot of copies when it launches a new title, especially in the increasingly competitive indie space.
At the same time, as a fan of games and buyer of content, I love sales and I do believe that deep discounts represent one of the best ideas that digital distribution services have brought to the world of video entertainment.
Given the limited time we have at our disposal, we can never play everything we might like and when Steam launches its promotions, the popularity of the titles offered and how they appeal to the community are a good way to know which experience might expand one’s horizon.
There are titles that I support on launch, like the Cycling Manager series, FIFA and the grand strategy experiences from Paradox Interactive.
I love them so much that I cannot actually wait for them to get a price cut and I need to play them as soon as they are available.
At the same time, I love the fact that I’ve picked up something like Tomb Raider on the cheap and have no regrets about the smaller sales totals that Lara Croft was forced to deal with as a result.
It’s highly unlikely that a future change of policies coming from developers, publishers or from Valve itself would ever persuade me to pick up major AAA titles on launch, especially if they fall outside my interests.
At the same time, every time a sale goes live, I tend to talk with a variety of friends about what they are picking up and I often find myself spending more money than I initially expected to on titles that I might not be interested in otherwise.