Hi,
I would like to ask (if you can answer) why Impulse (and other DD services) dont publish their revenue, profit, sales numbers etc.
Is it because of NDAs from publishers? Some other reason?
Such info would make current situation on DD market much clearer. All current info about DD marketshare is just bunch of rumors, estimates etc. (for example Steams marketshare is estimated from 40% to 85% ). Few months ago I wrote article about DD services for local website and about 90% of time spent on that article was just research regarding what is most likely marketshare of each service.
Thank You
Rebel44
P.S. I am going to send email with same question to Gabe Newell
Not a whole lot of games on that list at 50% off that were released during the current year. Before Impulse, Steam had crap sales on games no one wanted... like Two Worlds. Gogamer can barely give Two Worlds away these days.
If they can find a way to stop advertising Mac services to Windows users, sure. They could grow from this.
As it is they're just annoying people (me at the very least, I assume I'm not the only one.)
Will you be also annoyed when they relese their Linux client? I expect those Mac release adds to slowly dissapear after they finish releasing their current games for Mac platform.
I dont like Macs but I dont see any problem in announcements that game XY is now being available for Macs.
Only if they advertise it at me. "Half-Life 2 now available for Linux!" would totally mean something if I actually used Linux.
Otherwise, you know, STFU. (Not you, them.)
I say prove him wrong with facts. Neither claim may be validated from the data provided so far. You've both an unsubstantiated opinion but that doesn't make either opinion less potentially valid. In my personal opinion saying something is 'not true' without presented evidence is not an honest and fair practice. (Personally, I wouldn't expect Frogboy to make a claim that he couldn't back up with facts)
All that said: Let the data fly! I'd like to see the back-and-forth on this draw to a peaceful close.
Stardock isn't new to selling games or selling bundles / offering discounts to loyal customers. Flat-rate discounts are a semi-new trend though (from what I can pull from archive.org and ignoring pre-orders/bundles), you're right, but Stardock has been in the business of selling games for far longer than Steam has. Given the lack of raw data anyone has presented thus far about the subject (forgiving information available off Stardock's site regarding), I did a little sleuthing of my own and came up with the following:
The evolution of sales and discounts procedures for Stardock Software, according to their Products page (pulled from Archive.org):
Services provided:
Stardock Entertainment (2000)
Drengin.net (2001-2003)
TotalGaming.net (2004-2007(?))
Impulse: (2008+)
Evolution of sales offers and customer incentives
2001: "You can purchase these games individually or all together by joining Drengin.net (in which you get everything we make for a year after it goes 1.0)."
2004: "You can purchase these games individually or all together by joining Drengin.net (in which you get everything we make 12 months after your order)."
2004: "For a single fee you get all the games already on it plus everything that is added onto it for a year."
2005: "[...]or become a TotalGaming.net member and buy them at a discount using our unique token system."
2006: (First Bundled Game): "PowerGamer 2006 combines several award winning, strategy games together into one exciting package. Games include Galactic Civilizations, Galactic Civilizations: Alterian Prophecy, The Corporate Machine, The Political Machine." (Also a price reduction on TotalGaming.net from the $70 range to the $60 range)
2006: (First Pre-Order) [GalCiv 2: DA for $24.99 ($5 off)]
2007: (Token prices are now listed next to the prices of games)
Addendum
I would list the changes seen in 2008 before and after Steam's release and the last of '07 but they switched over to a more complex interface which broke Archive.org's site crawler. Sorry.
Frogboy, if you've got some behind-the-scenes data that's not publically accessible through Wayback and such (like if/when you sent out discounts to newsletter subscribers and etc) I think data like that would expedite this recurring argument to a peaceful end.
Of course, spoiler, I'm a marketer and a developer at a small indie studio so of course I'd like to see more data from original sources.
I did exactly what he asked me to do. I have proved my claims by using web.archive.org.
Wardell hasn't mentioned anyone of these. He asked: "Where were those great Steam holiday sales in the years before Impulse was doing them?"
And my simple answers are:
Steam had a holiday sale before Impulse has been released.
Steam had dozens of weekend deals (beginning in 2007) before Impulse did it's first "Weekend Impulse Buy" in december 2008.
Steam even had 75% off sales before Impulse has been launched. (Another one of his claims in a different thread.)
These are all facts, not arguments or opinions. 2007 was before 2008, it's as simple as that.
I just don't understand why he is doing this. He could just say "competition is good for the consumer" and everyone would agree. But why taking credit for the Steam deals? Why lying about the dates? I don't get it.
I think the keyword here is you don't understand. We certainly didn't have weekend, midweek and pretty much quality games on sale every week from Steam until competition picked up. And I don't mean they're own titles, indie games and crap that could barely sell off store shelves... actual, newer games. All Steam seemed to do was sell new releases and most releases within the last year or two at full retail price while on the B&M retailers put new releases on sale. Heck it seems since the digi stores started doing some quality sales, not the online retailers (Amazon, GS) have quality sales now and then too on new releases.
First thing is that during that time DD was just a niche. Although being able to provide games at a cheaper price, Steam for example did not. Prices at steam (and probably other DD providers) were almost always higher as in retail. Launch prices still are. Thing is that this probably comes from pressure from large retailers who did not want to loose market shares.
As far as I remember the large 75% sales have been mainly about Valves own games in the beginning. The way I see it that (mainly) Valve got enought data from their own and Indy sales to encourage other publishers to allow those sales for their games too.
This probably keeps retail at bay (hey it's just a weekend sale; starting prices still are above retail starting prices) while raising publishers profits (at the beginning at least).
One thing that should be noted is that publishers probably have been quite anxious about these deals because people might get used to these prices. Lower prices might lead to more sales but not necessarily to more profits. If you sell a game at half the price you would need to sell more than double the units to make the same profit.
In the short run those sales seem to generate more profit but in the long run prices will fall and profits probably as well as people just dont have enough time if they were to buy more games with falling prices. In my opinion Valve did give the publishers some meat with their collected data about theirs sales and the publishers bought it.
Currently this is good for the customrs (at least Steams as Impulse just does not seem to get these deals) who already get accustomed to weekend sales. And in my opinion weve got these lower prices mainly from Valves work.
Talking about who invented them first is mainly marketing talk that may even refer to the wording (we've been the first to introduce "weekend sales" not "sales"). It's the same stuff like valve saying that they want Steamworks games to be sold on other platforms and that they do not want to restrict any kind of sales.
If a company official does say something about company policies best thing is to regard this as marketing, as it probably is.
I think the main point given was the word I put in bold. Were any of the sales worth mentioning before they had competition? All you've said is that they had sales...which doesn't disqualify what Brad said.
(Yeah, I know I was slow to the party. I blame the lack of caffeine.)
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