It Was A Record Year for Steam, Claims Valve

I don't know about Steam, but I more than doubled my gaming purchases this year. And yea, almost all of it was from Steam, when shit's on sale. Nobody can afford to be a hardcore gamer if they pay 60 bucks for every game. If you play more than a few titles a month (and many are really sweet, but short, like Bastion) the cost of software can eclipse the cost of maintaining a rig.

thanks to steam i save sooooooo much moneys on games.

I bought many games for less than 10 bucks. All hail steam!

so this is why EA hates Valve............

Gotta love the sales, though I haven't gotten through even a 1/3 of the games I purchased, ha.

$60? You have it easy..

Try $89 for a new release here, most stores sell at that price for about a month or two.
That is the only reason I switched to PC gaming and holy cr*p it was a fantastic choice!

Better graphics, better prices.. Better experience.
My 360 is now a DVD player in the lounge..

Must resist buying games!!!!!!!
Valve: 50% off of a game I want.
EVERY DANG TIME!

Oh look, another person whining about what games cost in their country. We've heard it a billion times before, we get it already. Shut the hell up.

It might be bad economics for steam in the long run. They are building a brand expectation that almost every game will hit the $10 price point that they stock, and the long term is that more people (myself being my main example) now plan to wait out purchases until they hit the systemic lows 3 - 4 years after release. I got Neverwinter Nights 2 for $5 over the sale, for example, after having bought the first one back in 2003.

I mean, there is a natural trend of the cost of games towards $0 since the cost of reproduction is so low (thus the rampant piracy) and it seems Steam has proven that exponentially more people buy games at half the retail price outright.

I think if they just launched games at $30 rather than $60 on Steam, they would have significantly more profits just because a lot of people that pirate new releases due to the insane $60 price point would buy the $30 one, along with a lot of people like myself who wait on the blockbusters to go on sale. For example, Witcher 2. I'm waiting for it to go below $10 (also, waiting on my new gaming rig this summer) because I know it will eventually go that low. If it launched at $30, I might have bought it back in March.

PC gaming won't be on the rise until developers stop making crappy console games ported to the PC and start developing for the PC first.

I use Steam because pirating games is for lowbirths

Bull's eye

I buy original Xbox 360 title here, cost > USD80 for new games, and buying from eBay always falls into the Region lock trap (this holidays alone 4 out of 5 titles can't play because of region lock). XBox title can't even label the region lock clearly.

I have no choice buy to play pirated. Until steam!

I think its not "PC Gaming" comeback!

Its just that more and more ppl get access to NET connections that allow for using Steam + good prices for older games + easy of distribution (if you can coup with english).

And do not forget MacOSX support. It should add a bit (especially to download stats) since now ppl can get games on their Mac's.

I wish Valve provided some stats how well/bad MacOSX sales are going (and if they plan to expand more - or if they plan to work with Apple on bringing MacOSX gfx up to date).

reply to zanny

yep id say of all the games ho gets out a year id get 1 for the 60dollar prise or like its in sweden 80-85dollar my price range is 30dollar max for a game. this year i got bf3.

Who in the hell would buy Skyrim on Steam?

No cool map, no box art, no disc, and lots of waiting ... no thanks!

I went in Best Buy last night and was saddened by the TINY section of PC games left. I personally don't like where this is headed.

Steam is Skyrim's DRM, even if you buy the physical edition it requires a steam activation, despite it actually installing the game from the cd. It's nice really, because then I get both!

Now give us steam for linux

I used to pirate games, then I took an arrow to the knee

Put that in your pipe and smoke it origin...

I did because in a 900sqft condo you don't really have room for very many game boxes.

As for the dwindling PC games section, thats because of the decline in sales of physical copies. Steam is just easier. You buy it, its there for good. No need to worry about you disc. Hell I wanted to play GTA III the other day and bam. Just install it and go. No looking for a disc hoping its not scratched.

Then again I do have a pretty fast connection so that helps make Steam better.

i got dirt 3, deus ex HR for free with a gfx card. mass effect 2 for 4.99$....i love steam.

Anyone want to buy my origin account with battlefield 3. Can't stand Origin....wants to get rid of it. Loves steam though.

You have to love the steam holiday sales, second year i have picked up 10 games for only about 50% of their real cost. Got skyrim for 30% off early in december.

What helped steam was their great prices, easy to use interface & not being intrusive like Origin. "There was no edit button, so sorry for the double post"

I do not think Steam Sales hurt gaming because publishers know that good new games will be purchased at the price of around $50-$60 when launched and they can monitor the sales peek of a game. They can also boost sales with price cuts if needed.

You will notice on steam most games that are on sale on Steam are not new at all.

You're both tools, I pirate everything unless i enjoy it enough to pay the developer (which usually happens after I pirate it).

Yeah I've got it on PC, I actually hate the fact that it's attached to Steam though. Launching Steam every time I want to launch Skyrim is annoying. I will say I like how I automatically have a digital copy of the game now though.




I hear ya, I've had to stash away some of my older game boxes for room. I disagree that "you buy it, it's there for good" though. It's quite possible in today's market that Steam is just a few years away from going under. I know it is not likely, but you never know! And if they ever go under, so do all your games unless you've backed them up.

89 bucks for games. god man where do you shop? i got forza 4 (360)for 45 bucks and assassins creed revelations (PS3) for 60. might want to switch stores

i have literally purchased every game that i wanted this year. it's gonna be almost no purchases this year. what with ea making origin and taking away some games that i was looking forward too. i refuse to move to origin. EA is a shitty company. i don't like giving money to people i think are shitty.

Picking up 15 games for under $200 is hard to beat. I've got enough entertainment for the next two years I reckon