All Discussions > Steam Forums > Suggestions / Ideas > Topic Details
AlexSledge 9 Oct @ 2:59am
Price Bidding
The reality is that the wishlist is simply a place I park titles until they hit the price point I've already decided I'm willing to play for the title. This is the price I set which, if the game doesn't fall off the internet onto my hard drive on it's own before hand, I'd pay to add the game to my library.

Given that reality, and the reality that many others use their wishlist in the same manner - it would behoove Valve and the game sellers to provide a mechanism where I can state up front, for the world to see, what I'm willing to pay for a game.

Given they are considered bids, the mechanism should allow any game seller to observe what offers are out there, and if they so choose make an offer to sell at the price.

Example:
GameCo release a new game call Cat Chasing Munchers for $30. I see the game and think, uh, yeah, I'd throw $15 at that game to mess about with, so I put in my purchase price bid. A few weeks later, GameCo looks and sees, hey, there are about 3,800 people waiting to buy our game at $15 - we sure could use that money now, so let's action that price point. Immediately notification is sent out to everyone with $15 bids that their bids have been accepted, and let the sale process begin.

Instead of waiting for big annual sales, let these deals happen more granularly.
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Showing 1-10 of 10 comments
Tito Shivan 9 Oct @ 3:16am 
Devs already have tools to gauge what people are willing to pay for a game.

They're called market analysis. What people say they'd be willing to pay for a game and what they're actually willing to pay for a game are two different numbers.

A million people on Steam marking they're willing to pay up to $5 for GTA6 isn't going to make Rockstar put it on sale for that.
#1
Doctor Zalgo 9 Oct @ 3:16am 
Valve, being commission based, isn't going to implement any sort of system which puts a downward pressure on game prices.
#2
Supafly 9 Oct @ 3:21am 
What I'm prepared to pay can depend on a few things

1. My finances at the time
2. From what I've read/watched about a game do I think it's worth it.

I do pay full price for some games. Good reviews, and word of mouth, sometimes seeing friends/family playing a game. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being the most recent
#3
Brian9824 9 Oct @ 4:54am 
Originally posted by AlexSledge:
The reality is that the wishlist is simply a place I park titles until they hit the price point I've already decided I'm willing to play for the title. This is the price I set which, if the game doesn't fall off the internet onto my hard drive on it's own before hand, I'd pay to add the game to my library.

Given that reality, and the reality that many others use their wishlist in the same manner - it would behoove Valve and the game sellers to provide a mechanism where I can state up front, for the world to see, what I'm willing to pay for a game.

Given they are considered bids, the mechanism should allow any game seller to observe what offers are out there, and if they so choose make an offer to sell at the price.

Example:
GameCo release a new game call Cat Chasing Munchers for $30. I see the game and think, uh, yeah, I'd throw $15 at that game to mess about with, so I put in my purchase price bid. A few weeks later, GameCo looks and sees, hey, there are about 3,800 people waiting to buy our game at $15 - we sure could use that money now, so let's action that price point. Immediately notification is sent out to everyone with $15 bids that their bids have been accepted, and let the sale process begin.

Instead of waiting for big annual sales, let these deals happen more granularly.

They can already do sales whenever they want at a price they decide. So its pretty redundant. You'd also be quite surprised at how many people will claim their top dollar is $15 and then buy the game when its say $18-20.
#4
Hikari Light 20 hours ago 
Just because you can't afford the game at its listed price, does not mean the devs are going to lower the price.

The devs have their own bills to pay and families to feed.
#5
Start_Running 20 hours ago 
Originally posted by Tito Shivan:
They're called market analysis. What people say they'd be willing to pay for a game and what they're actually willing to pay for a game are two different numbers.
And spoiler: The Latter is generally much higher than the former.
#6
Haruspex 19 hours ago 
I don't think such bidding data would be particularly useful to any developer. You would likely have a lot of people posting bids of 1 cent, and the end result would just be noise.

Really, the current system already works as a kind of price bid, and in a much more useful way. The developer puts up the price, and you can "bid" by either buying it or not. If the developer feels like people aren't really buying at the price it's set at, they can reduce it, usually during a sale, and watch how the sales numbers change. Often times they'll set the price, the games sells, then over time those sales fall, and the developer will reduce the price and watch the sales jump up again.

Actual sales (or lack thereof) make for useful data. People who probably wouldn't buy the game at a reasonable price anyway posting arbitrary "bids" do not make for useful data.
Last edited by Haruspex; 19 hours ago
#7
Crazy Tiger 19 hours ago 
In my opinion people overestimate how important their view of "what I wan to pay" is. Seriously, companies don't care what you say you will pay.
#8
Tito Shivan 19 hours ago 
Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:
In my opinion people overestimate how important their view of "what I wan to pay" is. Seriously, companies don't care what you say you will pay.
Also the business knows that wallets speak louder than mouths.
#9
76561198407601200 17 hours ago 
Originally posted by AlexSledge:
The reality is that the wishlist is simply a place I park titles until they hit the price point I've already decided I'm willing to play for the title. This is the price I set which, if the game doesn't fall off the internet onto my hard drive on it's own before hand, I'd pay to add the game to my library.

Given that reality, and the reality that many others use their wishlist in the same manner - it would behoove Valve and the game sellers to provide a mechanism where I can state up front, for the world to see, what I'm willing to pay for a game.

Given they are considered bids, the mechanism should allow any game seller to observe what offers are out there, and if they so choose make an offer to sell at the price.

Example:
GameCo release a new game call Cat Chasing Munchers for $30. I see the game and think, uh, yeah, I'd throw $15 at that game to mess about with, so I put in my purchase price bid. A few weeks later, GameCo looks and sees, hey, there are about 3,800 people waiting to buy our game at $15 - we sure could use that money now, so let's action that price point. Immediately notification is sent out to everyone with $15 bids that their bids have been accepted, and let the sale process begin.

Instead of waiting for big annual sales, let these deals happen more granularly.

Through analytics this can already be achieved more or less.
#10
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All Discussions > Steam Forums > Suggestions / Ideas > Topic Details
Date Posted: 9 Oct @ 2:59am
Posts: 10
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