Sometimes I worry that things like the seasonal Steam sales devalue games. But then I hear news like the results of one of Q-Games’ titles being voted into discount by the community.
Q-Games’ platformer PixelJunk Eden, originally released for the PlayStation 3 back in 2008, was chosen by voters during Steam’s year-end sale, to go on sale at a 90 percent discount, making it just 99 cents. After the sale, designer and programmer Dylan Cuthbert wrote on Twitter, “Thanks to everyone who participated in the Steam community sale for PixelJunk Eden, it sold *phenomenally* well!!”
Cuthbert elaborated by saying that the team “made [their] income to date, again, in just 8 hours.”
The theory I’ve heard is that frequent, scheduled sales like the ones Steam provides, will end up with people waiting to buy games instead of buying them new, missing that crucial period at the beginning of a game’s shelf life while it’s still getting buzz and being watched by executives. That might still be the case for the biggest games, but for smaller studios it seems like the Steam sale is more good than bad. Time to get back to collecting licenses for games I don’t have time to play!
Source: Polygon
