Steam Winter Sale 2015

Joined Jul 2004
1K Posts | 1+
Bmount
Lots of nice things on sale but Steam has been stingy the last few sales. The few cheap titles are the same I bought on the 2013 and 2014 sales, none of the newer triple a titles have dropped to that single digit mark. They've gone away from their flash sales, daily deals, and games and gimmicks for this cluttered mess and a queue they recommend based on popularity, sale price, blah blah blah.

I feel like the old guy telling kids to get off his lawn or the middle aged guy talking about how music was so much better ten years ago... but wth. I can't tell if its Steam or the devs, or the publishers getting greedy but its really saved me money during these things. Until this year there wasn't many sales I spent less than $100. Most was on 6 mo and older titles that was priced under 10 - 15 or cheap nes wannabe indie games.

I shouldn't be fussing because that's how things usually go, crap gets more expensive as we age, but games haven't always done that. I remember Super Mario Bros. 3 being 50 - 60 in 1990... games are still this much... so factor in 25 years worth of inflation and we're paying half what we used to.
 
It's because the economy is better. The PC (and Steam mostly) has officially solidified itself as a true, selling platform. It's no longer a secondary system but the primary system for a lot of gamers these days. PC games are selling better than ever, so there's no need to give deep discounts anymore.

It sucks that there aren't crazy discounts anymore but it's actually a great sign that the PC platform is doing awesome.
 
I assumed as such, although I am a bit worried they jumped the gun.

With all the network problems people complain about in the console world, the pc world is worse. Having the ability to plug something in and start playing still isn't there in the pc world although its getting better. Patches and bug fixes are still an occasional hassle. These are a challenge for the veteran pc gamer but can be a deal breaker for the novice.

when games like call of duty are a pain in the butt to install, requires us to upgrade our video cards yearly, and is plagued with network issues, some are going back to the console. With all the challenges and extra expense and requirements of the hardware there's got to be a win somewhere. If not John Q. Casual gamer may buy into Origin or Steam for a minute but will go back to a Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo console and stifle what the medium has been building towards.

If we bring the unwashed in too early without any incentive to put up with the quirks associated with being a pc gamer we'll lose all but the most stubborn.
 
...and honestly I could care less about the amount of gamers in the medium, I'm more worried about what the influx then sharp decline will do..

Look at Nintendo. The WII was a colossal success economically and it brought so many into the fold but almost none of the pleebs stayed. They're all running around with Tablets now and Nintendo is having a tough time supporting its next iteration.

I enjoyed the wii and I enjoy the wii u but it's probably the first system I've every been able to afford to purchase every game on it that I'd actually want to play (Virtual Boy not withstanding). There are quality games but they are few and far between. The fad is over, the masses are on to other things, and Nintendo and the hard core gamers are left to flounder.

I see a similar happening in the pc arena especially if people jump on too quick and then abandon ship.

The steam controller sucks (finally tried mine out, am not a fan) and the steam link is a good if you're hard wired and your daughter isn't trying to run a minecraft server. VR is in its infancy and there's still this odd proportion of affordable display port monitors to video cards with display port as the main output option.

There's just so many reasons to turn away an aspiring pc gamer with little incentive.
 
Have you tried installing Destiny and its patches? Even with a disc? I installed Star Wars Battlefront for PS4 last week and it took foreeeeeeeeeever!! Meanwhile I installed ultra street fighter IV on PC and it did it within 15 minutes. All 15GBs.

Consoles have always been the plug and play solution but Steam has narrowed that gap extensively. I've found it much easier to install off of Steam than it was on PS4. Consoles are still figuring out how to do installs for some reason.

Hardware upgrades are not as necessary as they used to be. With the PC being more popular, games are much better optimized. So a lowly GTX 750Ti is more than enough to get you gaming at settings equivalent to the latest consoles.

I still game on consoles and there are some must have exclusives but I wouldn't second guess the PC.
 
Well the beauty of the PC is that you don't have to use the Steam controller. You can just plug in an Xbox controller and be set.

There will always be influx, especially when the new shiny thing comes out but a lot of people have a PC because it's needed for productivity. So the platform is not going to go anywhere anytime soon.
 
On the pc I tend to upgrade slower than others but I've had three video cards, two hard drives, and extra stick of ram, and now I need a motherboard on a computer I built 5 years ago. Consoles seem to last almost ten years for the cost of most people's mother board and processor...
 
Well, last gen was not good to Xbox owners. The red ring of death made sure you had to replace your Xbox. Not for everybody but it got a lot folks. The PS3 had the yellow light of death with the first iteration and I knew plenty of friends who got it too.

Yeah, PC still has its hardware quirks but they tend to be on par with consoles. My Sandy bridge i5 build is coming up on its 5 year birthday and I don't have anymore plans to upgrade components. I'm curious to see how long it will continue to pump out 1080p gaming.
 
Microsoft was about as good about the rrod as could have been, they extended their warranty out to three years and required no real proof you purchased the thing. I bought a few used ones and was able to get them repaired gratis.

I never really had an issue with the ps3, other than if you bought it early you paid too much and got a smaller hard drive I did hear about the yellow light but never was a problem I experienced.

Now back on to the steam sale, So I think I'm going to spend a little this time on some Amplitude games. Dungeon of the Endless, Endless Legend and Endless Space are all on sale and you can get a big package for 33 but it looks like if you skip out on the dlcs and just buy the core game carte blanche It's about 13 cheaper. - I may save for a motherboard and processor though, I'm really tired of tring to game on a laptop that's just a little nicer than a chromebook!