Steam against false discounts

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steam 1 1000x600.jpg
steam 1 1000x600.jpg

I don’t think there are many people who think that Steam’s success as an online game store is undeserved. Quite the contrary, and although with its weak points and its controversies, such as the withdrawal and subsequent recovery of the very controversial Hatred, back in 2014, in general the Valve store is not only in good health, but also also of good image among its users. which is a guarantee for the future for those responsible, who they see as the rest of the stores, and mainly Epic Games, have not managed to take away a significant portion of the cake.

There was, however, an outbreak of controversy a few years ago, when users discovered a lot of fake discounts during the summer sales Steam 2015. Users found that a significant portion of the “sale prices” displayed on Steam during the sale were actually artificially inflated prices a few days before the sale began.

Fortunately, this type of technique is not so common anymore, but there was a time, a few years ago, in which this commercial trap was popularized, clearly aimed at tricking users (or at least trying to). Surely you have seen it on occasion: a product that normally costs 50 euros, sees its price rise to €99.99 (for example) a few days before the start of a sale, during which its price « low” no less than 50%… up to 50 euros, which was actually its original price.

At that time, some voices pointed to Valve as responsible for the inflated prices, but the company recalled, at that time, that It is the developers and distributors who choose and modify the prices as they please. of their titles on Steam. Even so, they apologized to their users for the malpractice of those actually responsible for said frustrated attempt at teasing, a step that some of those really responsible for said price increase never took.

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Steam against false discounts

Time has passed since then, but better late than never, and it is that Valve has announced changes in relation to discounts, with measures that, you do not have to be Sherlock Holmes to realize, they intend to pursue exactly that, upward price adjustments to, later, simulate discounts, either in one of the Steam sales or themed events, or at any other time of the year.

Here are the new Steam rules when it comes to price discounts:

  • You can take an introductory discount, but once the introductory discount ends, you will not be able to take any other discounts for 28 days.
  • It is not possible to apply a discount to your product during the 28 days following a price increase in any currency.
  • Discounts cannot run within 28 days of a previous discount, with the exception of Steam-wide seasonal events.
  • Discounts for seasonal sale events cannot be executed within 28 days of your title launch, within 28 days of your launch discount ending, or within 28 days of a price increase in any currency.
  • The price cannot be changed while a promotion is active or scheduled for the future.
  • It is not possible to discount a product by more than 90% or less than 10%.
  • Personalized discounts cannot last more than two weeks, nor last less than 1 day.

The most relevant point in this regard is, without a doubt, the second, since it establishes a minimum period of four weeks between an upward price change and the application of a discount to it. With this rule, price increases a few days before the application of a discount will definitely end, putting an end to a commercial technique that, although less present than a few years ago, is still used by some sellers with few scruples.

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