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NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 18 May 2025 15:16:44 +0000
From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Epic Games Store Mega Sale
Date: Sun, 18 May 2025 11:16:34 -0400
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On Sun, 18 May 2025 11:02:34 +0100, Mr Rob
<noemailformethx@jsjsaiiowppw.com> wrote:

>On Sun, 18 May 2025 09:24:03 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
>
>
>>I never quite understand sales like 10% off as paying say £50 instead of 
>>£45 really doesn't make any difference does it. Possibly it's just to 
>>grab your attention?
>
>All of the main outlets seem to do this.
>
>I recently had an email from Fanatical inviting me to browse their
>current summer sale. Some of the games on 'sale' were 3+ years old and
>the sale amounted to 10% off the release price. It seems bonkers, but
>as all of them do this I assume that they must make at least some
>sales through these promotions.
>
>Some games in these 'sales' are £45+ which is often double the price
>or even more if you use a different vendor.

As much as I like them, that's one of the major problems* with digital
storefronts.

Back in the day, a four-year old game would probably get a 95%
discount because shelf-space was limited and the store-owner wanted to
get rid of old inventory so he'd have room for the latest-n-greatest.
Sure, "Doom" was a great game in 1994, but in 1998 people wanted "Half
Life" and "Sin" and "Baldur's Gate". Get rid of that old stuff,
whatever it takes! 

But nowaday, with digital storefronts, 'shelf-space' for video gameas
is effectively infinite. There's really no downside to keep a copy of
the "The 7th Guest" up forever, which means stores have no incentive
to drop prices of older games anymore. Which means a game of "Pac Man"
might still go for $20-30 USD, because why not? It's not costing you
anything to keep it up, and somebody might actually BUY it at that
price.

So those great sales of my younger days --when I'd walk out of a store
with a big bag filled old games, only a few bucks lighter***-- are
forever gone. It almost makes me wish we were still in the 'bad old
days' of brick-n-mortar shops.


As to the digital sales themselves, it's a LITTLE better today than it
was five or six years ago, when Valve put their foot down and stopped
publishers from blatantly manipulating prices to make their sales look
better. (E.g., game normally sells for $50, a week prior to sale jack
up 'list price' to $70, then during sale give a 25% discount but still
sell the game for $53 ;-)




* The other major problem** with digital storefronts, of course, is
ownership, of course
** The other other major problem is no cool boxes and printed manuals
;-)
*** Seriously. I have fond memories of this old video-game shop in the
local mall where I walked out with 15 games that I spent $5 bucks for.
Because even in the late 90s I was a game hoard^h^h^h^h^h collector.
;-P