So I was browsing SteamDB.info looking at the various games on sale when I noticed there were a bunch of games (usually from the publisher Hede, but there’s quite a few others) listed as having a discount in the high nineties, yet still costing in the neighborhood of 30-50 dollars. Even odder when I go to the game’s Steam, it’s not listed as being on sale and costs the… “normal” price of $99.99.
I’m just wondering A) What the scam is here, B) How a SteamDB.info is getting $99.99 dollar game as costing 30-ish dollars when it’s 97% off but at the same time it’s apparently not actually on sale?
Why make a good product and sell many copies at a low price, when you can scam just a few people with a shitty game sold for hundreds of dollars? 🤷🏻♂️
My guess would be that heavily discounted games might be getting an advantage by the steam recommendation algorithm. So they’d rather go for 99,99 and constantly discount it instead of starting with 4,99
Good question. I have not seen those yet. Will keep an eye out. Thanks for mentioning it.
Just guessing but it’s probably the same age old scam of the permanent sale people like to think they are getting a deal also I think you can list games by discount percentage same as all the Amazon prime day “deals” where they jack up the prices then put them on sale for the normal price
Who would ever look by discount percentage? Why should I care what the price used to be?
It’s a psychological trick where people tend to view discounts by how much they’re saving than what they’re actually spending
That kinda breaks down at some point though. At the very least I don’t look at a mixed review hidden object game and think “Sweet! It’s only $2 rather than the hundred dollars it normally sells for. What savings!”
And that’s ignoring all the weirdness with the third party sale tracker somehow thinking a 98% discount on a $99.99 game is $46.20, when the game is still full price.
The reason it might not be on sale when you look it up yourself is that a lot of jurisdictions don’t allow fake sales and price manipulation so they’re forced to keep them at full price as the sale gets voided.