Steam Flash Sales are Coming Back

DooKey

DooKey

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According to Tyler McVicker, of the Valve News Network, we are going to see Flash Sales return to Steam. The only difference this time is the devs will be able to choose how long their sales last from 6 to 12 hours. This is outstanding news for us value shoppers. I purchased many games from Flash Sales and I can't wait for them to kick in again! Thanks cageymaru.

Devs can chose for the sales to last 6, 8, 10 or 12 hours, shaking up sales almost every hour, and making sales feel more like an event again.
 
I miss flash sales and also miss those GOG sales where each sale had a limited quantity. Both made me pay attention to the sales and kept me on my toes.
 
i know it isn't how things work, but I really would like cross-buy options to purchase on PC/PS4/XBONE/SWITCH etc.

A pipe dream, but a good one.
 
Lenard said:
i know it isn't how things work, but I really would like cross-buy options to purchase on PC/PS4/XBONE/SWITCH etc.

A pipe dream, but a good one.
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It would be nice but without similar storefronts it could never work. Honestly with all its faults the windows store for xbox/pc games is really awesome for this.
 
Sales within a sale. Oh, I'm sorry you missed the good price during the sale, I hate that shit.
How about having a single sale with one sale price. You know, like a sale.
 
I think this is as close to an admission as we're going to get. "Folks we fucked it up, we have no option but to resurrect flash sales as killing them made a huge dent in our sales"

Jim Kim said:
Sales within a sale. Oh, I'm sorry you missed the good price during the sale, I hate that shit.
How about having a single sale with one sale price. You know, like a sale.
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You mean like every summer and holiday sale was since they ended flash sales? You know, those things where I bought almost nothing since?

The point of sales within a sale was that the games in the headline were constantly rotated, depending on which had the best deals at the time. This meant It was worth going back to steam every day during the entire sale. As opposed to having a single sale where the most popular ones are set in stone on the front page, and it's absolutely pointless to come back after day one, because you saw everything already.
 
M76 said:
I think this is as close to an admission as we're going to get. "Folks we fucked it up, we have no option but to resurrect flash sales as killing them made a huge dent in our sales"


You mean like every summer and holiday sale was since they ended flash sales? You know, those things where I bought almost nothing since?

The point of sales within a sale was that the games in the headline were constantly rotated, depending on which had the best deals at the time. This meant It was worth going back to steam every day during the entire sale. As opposed to having a single sale where the most popular ones are set in stone on the front page, and it's absolutely pointless to come back after day one, because you saw everything already.
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Man, wouldn't it be great if they had a sale within a sale within a sale, now that would be a sale.:nailbiting::greedy::jawdrop:
 
I kinda got used to not having flash sales. Now I'm gonna be second guessing all my purchases during the sale period as they might show up in a flash sale. Then they will, then I'll rage.

Life will go on.
 
Jim Kim said:
Man, wouldn't it be great if they had a sale within a sale within a sale.:nailbiting:
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You don't understand the basic concept.

Flash sales means that only a limited number of games are on sale at a time. And those games are rotated. So more games get front page exposure. And if you check back on steam a few hours later you'll see a bunch of different games on sale than you did before. And each time you visit during the entire sale. Plus it was customary on steam during big sales, that they'd repeat the most popular deals near the end of the sale period.

Now with the flat sales. I'd visit the page once, yawn. Maybe visit a few days later and see the same few games on the front page, then say meh, and ignore the entire sale. Plus the discounts on flash sales were usually much higher than we get now with flat rates. 66-90% as opposed to most games going 20-50% now. A 20% sale on steam barely scratches the prices other online sellers like GMG provide around the clock without a sale.
 
Jim Kim said:
Man, wouldn't it be great if they had a sale within a sale within a sale, now that would be a sale.:nailbiting::greedy::jawdrop:
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yo-dawg-i-heard-you-like-sales-so-i-got-you-these-sales-for-your-sales.jpg
 
Flash sales never went away. Its called their mid week deals, weekend deals, free weekend deals and special offers. X-com2 is on sale this weekend and the Endless 4x games.

Will they bring back the old flash sale system? Because all that will mean is most people wait until those last two days to buy anything to avoid getting burned. If a game is on flash sale buy it. If not, wait till last day. Likely to piss off most customers during Christmas if they want to have a game gifted for the holiday only to see it go from 50% off to 75% off on December 29th for 6 hours. I guess it gives people something to do on the cell phone as they check steam several times a day.
 
Haven't bought much from steam since those flash sales ended and my wallet was recovering....

GOD DAMNIT STEAM
 
That would be great if they actually bring them back the way they were but I doubt we'll see the deals that we used to with flash sales. When they got rid of flash sales the flash sale discount didn't get added into the regular sale prices but I imagine what we've been seeing for sale prices will be the new flash sale prices with the normal sale prices getting a bump.

The publishers are more to blame for the sale prices not being as good as they used to be though and I agree that this should help sales by making it feel more like an event again. I used to check a couple times a day during sales but now I just check my wishlist and maybe the front page of the store on the first day of a sale and call it good.
 
M76 said:
The point of sales within a sale was that the games in the headline were constantly rotated, depending on which had the best deals at the time. This meant It was worth going back to steam every day during the entire sale. As opposed to having a single sale where the most popular ones are set in stone on the front page, and it's absolutely pointless to come back after day one, because you saw everything already.
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Which is good and bad. Bad in that you need to check back. Many people don't have time to check every 8 or so hours and it sucks if you missed the good deal when the window was so short. Then there is also the typical whiny European who will cry afoul that it is an unfair marketing tactic, forces they to purchase within a short time frame ect. I'm sure the EU will be happy to levy more taxes on another American company after making some lame excuse.

The good is that deals may actually be decent again. 2 week sales are not sustainable if you put a game down at such a cheap price. Perhaps shortening the sale to a 7 day time frame would be ideal. We don't have to worry about checking a sale every few hours and developers can mark the prices down better as the duration isn't as long.
 
Buy game on sale 40% off. A minute later games goes on flash sale 45% off. Refund game, repurchase flash sale game. roll in savings
 
I liked the Flash Sales. I also liked the old fashioned Steam Sales when they featured different stuff over time. I bought more stuff back then (although not sure why..)
The last Steam Sale, I bought one game on my list for .99. Nothing else. My backlog is ridiculous.
 
When you can get Elite Sniper 4 and Tales of Berseria for $4 each, who needs steam sales.

Come to think of it, what you can get games for these days, pirating is just being an asshole.
 
Jim Kim said:
Man, wouldn't it be great if they had a sale within a sale within a sale, now that would be a sale.:nailbiting::greedy::jawdrop:
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That would be when they put up the wrong price for the flash sale. It happened from time to time, but usually only last for the first few minutes before getting fixed.
Few years back I bought a AAA game with something like 96% off :cool:
 
When they eliminated flash sales, Valve said we'd get the same sales for the duration of the sale days. Yeah, FAR from the truth. Steam sales have largely sucked for the past couple years. I remember when %66, %75 and %80 discounts ruled Steam sales. Now I see lots of %50 on year-old games. I hope the flash sales' comeback will bring the good prices again.
 
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Flogger23m said:
Which is good and bad. Bad in that you need to check back. Many people don't have time to check every 8 or so hours and it sucks if you missed the good deal when the window was so short. Then there is also the typical whiny European who will cry afoul that it is an unfair marketing tactic, forces they to purchase within a short time frame ect. I'm sure the EU will be happy to levy more taxes on another American company after making some lame excuse.

The good is that deals may actually be decent again. 2 week sales are not sustainable if you put a game down at such a cheap price. Perhaps shortening the sale to a 7 day time frame would be ideal. We don't have to worry about checking a sale every few hours and developers can mark the prices down better as the duration isn't as long.
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Your logic is flawed. If you don't have time to check back every day then flash sales makes absoluetly no difference to you. The regular lukewarm sales that you get currently will still be there. As they were there back when flash sales were a thing.

Hell I never had time to check all the time either, I still ended up blowing about a hundred US on each sale. In the last two years, meaning 2017 and 2018 I purchased a grand total of two games on steam. But whatever. I can continue buying my games on cdkeys and gmg if they insist.
 
4884 said:
I think you can buy the cheaper one as gift and store it in your inventory? After the refund goes through, redeem and benefit.
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But that's not really a benefit is it? If you only missed a sale by an hour. They could even refund you automatically for the difference, and spare the hassle. I bet the total cost of the whole refund process is more for them than the difference in profits between a 50% and 75% sale of a two year old game.

But they could also go hardball: Ban you from purchasing the same game you asked a refund for for two months.
 
M76 said:
Hell I never had time to check all the time either, I still ended up blowing about a hundred US on each sale. In the last two years, meaning 2017 and 2018 I purchased a grand total of two games on steam. But whatever. I can continue buying my games on cdkeys and gmg if they insist.
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You and I have evolved in very similar ways.
 
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