Valve might be adding a 30-day price tracker to Steam — feature is already available in some EU countries to spoof out fake discounts

News
By published

Steam is getting more and more feature-rich by the day.

Steam cover art
(Image credit: Valve)

Steam is the most popular marketplace for games on PC, and Valve keeps adding new features to make it even better. One of the reasons behind Steam's prevalence is its pricing — how some games cost less in certain regions, and how often they're discounted in sales. Now, it seems like Valve is adding a 30-day price history right inside the store to let you track any recent changes and get the best deal possible.

We can infer all of this because this feature is technically not new; it's been available in the EU since 2023, but not every country in the region. By law, the EU Omnibus Directive mandates that all storefronts show the recent price of a product to safeguard consumers from fake discounts. For instance, a developer could raise the price from $20 to $60 for one day, then immediately "drop" it to $30 and claim it was 50% off.

Article continues below
Comment from r/Steam

Showing the price history for the previous month ensures stuff like this doesn't happen or, at least, the buyer is aware of it. That being said, even outside of the EU, Steam users have been able to track prices through third-party tools like SteamDB that offer a much more comprehensive outlook. You can check the all-time price history on SteamDB, along with regional prices (averaged against USD) for any game.

Since Valve is now considering adding support for price history in Steam natively, it will only help make more informed purchasing decisions, even if SteamDB offers better tracking otherwise. In other news, Valve is also reportedly developing "SteamGPT," its very own AI bot for customer support that might even be able to interface with CS2's anti-cheat. Clearly, it takes a lot for Steam to remain at the top, even if rival marketplaces are trying to become more competitive.

Google Preferred Source

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

TOPICS
Hassam Nasir
Hassam Nasir
Contributing Writer

Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ezst036
    A lot of people do not understand the loyalty that Valve receives. This is a (simple)good example of it.

    The money that Valve takes in is shown by the evidence as being returned back to the consumer in the form of investments in infrastructure that customers can then have their lives enhanced.

    Money that Valve takes in is not just a money grab. Valve is resoundingly pro-consumer.
    Reply
  • WolfEisberg
    ezst036 said:
    A lot of people do not understand the loyalty that Valve receives. This is a (simple)good example of it.

    The money that Valve takes in is shown by the evidence as being returned back to the consumer in the form of investments in infrastructure that customers can then have their lives enhanced.

    Money that Valve takes in is not just a money grab. Valve is resoundingly pro-consumer.
    It's not known if this is an update to the already existing system that will still only be shown in countries they are legally obligated too or if this will go globably.
    But other stores like GOG and Epic Store have showing this globably for several years now while Steam has only showed it in countries they were legally obligated too.
    Reply
  • Notton
    I don't think I've ever seen or heard of anyone else encountering fake discounts on Steam.
    Are there some examples?

    Either way, I check SteamDB price history for historical low compared to it's current discount.
    Reply
  • m3city
    Great news. There is an extension for firefox called augmented steam that shows historical priced, but also where to buy a game, often cheaper than on steam. Info about price during last 30days of discounted items is mandatory in my country and applies to everything, both online and retail, from potatoes in a grocery store to new electric VW. And while there was some whining how difficult it would be to implement such policy, now it just works.
    Reply
  • FijiBang
    Hopefully its a feature you can disable cuz it looks like bloat to me. Why would I need a price tracker for Steam?

    The price tracker on the Augment extension exist because you can see prices from key sellers and Steam, what's the point of only having one for Steam?
    Reply
  • baint
    From Valve's developer documentation: A product cannot be discounted for 30 days following a price increase in any currency.

    Insinuating that game developers are faking discounts "for a day" when it's literally impossible to do on Steam is irresponsible and harmful to what little goodwill is left between gamers and developers.
    Reply
  • thesyndrome
    WolfEisberg said:
    It's not known if this is an update to the already existing system that will still only be shown in countries they are legally obligated too or if this will go globably.
    But other stores like GOG and Epic Store have showing this globably for several years now while Steam has only showed it in countries they were legally obligated too.
    I guess it's good that Epic beat Steam to something for once, instead of neglecting features and then complaining about people using Steam, as if it didn't take 3 YEARS for Epic to add basic features like a shopping cart and not ban people for buying too many things at once
    Reply
  • JohnyFin
    Steam become platform of total crap games or trials probes. Is covered by this trash. Maybe 1% of games are worth and good but rest is swamp money slope.
    Reply
  • bill001g
    JohnyFin said:
    Steam become platform of total crap games or trials probes. Is covered by this trash. Maybe 1% of games are worth and good but rest is swamp money slope.
    Not a real lot different that the shopping mall or walmart. They are targeting the stupid customer who seem to have too much money and need to be told what to buy. I use steam as a destination to acquire a game I already know I want to buy. I never just wander around a shopping mall looking for things to buy. I go in, buy what I came for and leave. I don't even remember the last time I went into a shopping mall.

    The closest I get to browsing on steam is during their demo days and even then I tend to have heard of the couple games that are worth trying out.
    Reply
  • scottsoapbox
    baint said:
    From Valve's developer documentation: A product cannot be discounted for 30 days following a price increase in any currency.

    Insinuating that game developers are faking discounts "for a day" when it's literally impossible to do on Steam is irresponsible and harmful to what little goodwill is left between gamers and developers.
    Is it actually impossible (the store enforces the rule) or just a rule?
    Reply