steam sale 2022 summer

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Delzimar, Jun 23, 2022.

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  1. MikeV710

    MikeV710 Registered

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    Out of Interest, I would have bought the E-Formula Pack If It would have been on sale at a reasonable price. I am not sure If I would like E-cars so I haven´t taken the risk of buying the pack at It´s regular price, but If It was on sale, I would have most likely bought It, or not. That´s just one example from one user, me...

    Instead, I bought TrackDayR which Is at a 30% discount. I already have GP Bikes, which Is very similar to TrackDayR, but since It´s on sale and I was curious to see how both can differ, or what TrackDayR can offer that GP Bikes can´t. I would have spent my money on the mentioned rF2 pack, but no, It wasn't on sale and I am not going to spend 34€ on a pack when I can get a whole game for that price, knowing that I might not like It, or I might have Issues with the AI In urban tracks like I do with my recent purchase of Monaco. How many people would think likewise with other racing sims that spark a Interest to them? These sales are opportunities for new users to jump on the bandwagon...

    I bought rF2 In a recent Humble Bundle some months ago for something like 7€.. That Included almost every popular race sim to date (rF2, AC, ACC, AMS, AMS 2, NASCAR Heat, Drift). Thanks to that, I bought most of the cars / tracks for rF2, all the packs for ACC, two packs for AMS 2, and most probably will buy more packs In the future for these sims.

    It´s a way to get people Into your game/sim, like when they wanted us to buy cell phones, remember? They were giving out cell phones for free If you bought the darn newspaper! Now look at us...
     
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  2. FAlonso

    FAlonso Registered

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    I suppose that you, it is the first time that you use the argument of the number of users, in which this time I agree. No one is asking for €5 for DLCs, but €10-15 for old content. On the 30th of this month we will have a new ACC DLC, I imagine that for a price less than or equal to €15, in a few months this DLC will cost €5... Personally rF2 is not my first simulator, nor my second... but if the prices were reasonable I would have spent my money on rF2 to have all its content.
     
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  3. lagg

    lagg Registered

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    It's normal. Everyone suposes that he is right.
     
  4. burgesjl

    burgesjl Registered

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    You've got to question what the objectives are of taking part in Steam sales like this one. It seems to me there are 2 primary ones: first is to get "net new" users - people who hadn't previously ever tried the game - in the hope you can convert them to long term users; second, is for long term users to pick up DLC that they would not have previously bought at full price. The benefits of the latter are many - not just immediate revenue, though that's the first and most obvious. With the way the CS is structured, the limitations it has, in order for that to be successful you have to get more people owning all the content. It's a big problem in my view that this is the case.

    So why haven't S397 done price discounts/promos on DLC, other than one bundle that actually includes 2 3rd party tracks that aren't even up to date graphically or feature wise? It's hard to say. Simply dropping the price on the base code and content isn't likely to get them very many "net new" users from the first category, primarily because the base content is now so inferior to the latest DLC. You can dip your toe in and see if you like it, but you aren't getting a good base experience in my opinion. Why do I say this? Well, competition from games like ACC and AMS2, there is a much broader set of content available, much better implemented, than you get with rF2. Yes, both have DLC that give you more recent cars and tracks, but in general, the quality of the content is consistent across DLCs and base game. In my own case, I've bought both ACC and AMS2 to try them, only when there were significant discounts on them (60% plus) and the outlay was maybe $40. In both cases, I also bought some additional DLC; 2021/2 cars for ACC (on the basis that most online usage would probably want to use the most recent models), and the USA pack for AMS2 because of a particular interest in historic CART and the Cleveland track. But I'm at pains to point out, I have not bought all DLC and certainly I need for discounts to apply to that as well. I'm a user of iRacing and also rF2, as I suspect many other sim racers are users of multiple titles, and frankly there's no sense in being "fully loaded" on all of them - too much stuff, too little time. I don't buy every cell phone on the market and then use the best version. Therefore, you've got to wonder why they won't do discounts on the DLC. And I can only conclude, they are currently desperate for any revenue $ from anywhere, and thats like 99% of where revenue is coming from right now.

    This only makes me more angry about what has been done with the CS. Because, quite frankly, that has just turned into a way to promote sales of DLC. It isn't a proper attempt to get a fully viable competition community, as it should be. CS has to grow in order for the whole of rF2 to grow; that's just how it is, and especially so with all the problems in AI and offline racing currently. It's chicken-and-egg; how to generate enough revenue to fund the development of the CS. That's the conundrum S397 have. And in my view, it can only be broken by getting more current users loaded up with as much content as possible, which the current pricing doesn't do. A single DLS pack now costs as much as a whole game from other publishers. CS isn't compelling on its own, but if users have all the content, they'll be much more likely to try it out. The current restrictions mean many are effectively locked out now. Gotta start somewhere...
     
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  5. Binny

    Binny Guest

    Honestly the steam system is CRAP, time S397 open there own shop like Iracing, hopefully this is in their future plans especially when building a CS to compete with other sims.
     
  6. davehenrie

    davehenrie Registered

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    Up until the purchase of S397 by MSG, S397 routinely had deep package discounts during sales. Just two years ago the car packs in the summer sale were 50% off and the tracks 25% off. But the package itself should be viewed as a sale price. The package price is often near half of what the regular price of the single cars or tracks when added up. Currently the package price without any Summer Sale price cut is 40% less than the individual prices for the 14 car GT3 pack. So getting nearly half-off year round is suddenly a bad thing?
     
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  7. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Who's asking for no packages?

    The majority of what's in packages was in packages soon or immediately after release (majority, not all, I am aware). Someone coming along now and wanting to catch up with all the content, paying that new package price for all content, has a pretty steep spend in front of them to avoid trying to join servers where you need all content used on them (sure, "many people play offline" - how's that in rF2 right now, especially for a new user?)

    A sale is a sale. The packages are bulk buying at a lower price. Different things. And both these in comparison to buying single items which you either better be careful about doing because you'll struggle online (without later buying the package anyway, or buying the missing items individually at higher cost) or you're doing because packages were added to and now you need to buy the missing items. And again, new users don't learn thing until after purchase, generally.
     
  8. MikeV710

    MikeV710 Registered

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    I, like I guess other new users didn´t buy any packs at start. You first buy the base game to see If you like It or not, you then start buying a DLC or two which could most likely be a car or track. It´s likely that you wont flesh out 30€ or more for a pack Initially. Yes It´s great that these packs are bulk discounts all year around, but as already stated, that´s still not to attractive to new players as they may still find them expensive for a first Impression purchase, If you want to call It that way. So yeah, I agree with Laza, a sale Is a sale.

    I am not a big fan of Steam either, so yes I would rather see S397 open up there own shop, that would even give them a more of a Pro Image. But every time I have brought the argument up about Steam In general, the reply´s are always basically the same, the ease of self updating of any of the products bought within the app.
     
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  9. hitm4k3r

    hitm4k3r Registered

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    It's not just the bad first impression when you enter the store, but the sheer lack of anything on offer. As allready pointed out by other people, the amount of money you have to spend to get somewhat started and get the best out of what rF2 has to offer today, is huge in comparison to other products while the quality is a bit all over the place, atleast on the car side. I don't know why there is not something like 10 % discount on everything. Simple and easy. It seems that they haven't understood the psychological effect of using those sales to boost the game. I am sorry to say this but a GT3 pack for 36 Euro doesn't sound like an invitation when you have a full GT3 game for less than half the price on offer, let alone AC. Everything with consistent, high quality and a bucket load of tracks.
     
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  10. FERNANDO CABRERA

    FERNANDO CABRERA Registered

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    A summer sale come, nothing interesting in rfactor2 inside my spending budget... Another summer sale gone.
     
  11. FERNANDO CABRERA

    FERNANDO CABRERA Registered

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    HEY!!!! look at that shining dlc on discount in ACC that I still have not buy (brit tracks)... Now is the chance to buy it!

    Now that how you do a promotion!!!, Old stuff that many people already have, put a deep discount tag (60%) so people that have not buy it yet decide to spend their money in it.
    I look first at s397 to spend my money.. no discount
    Looking at kunos, many things with discount that I can choose the most interesting for me at the moment, guess where I'll spend my sim racing hours the coming months...
     
  12. FERNANDO CABRERA

    FERNANDO CABRERA Registered

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    That's how is done!!
    My money whent with kunos.

    [​IMG]
     
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  13. Seven Smiles

    Seven Smiles Registered

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    I don't understand. So ISI programmed to ensure that every car matched exactly what was on the server. OK but it only has to check that my car is legit and matches the one on the server, there's no technical reason it has to demand that I have all the cars that are on the server; other cars are just a set of co-ordinates when racing online, it seems to be a commercial decision that you can only race if you've paid for all the cars on the server.

    An analogy that I am very familiar with - the phone network checks that my (Android) phone (more exactly, its SIM card) is what it says it is before it allows me to make a call, it doesn't demand that I buy an iPhone as well.
     
  14. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Other cars also have graphics and audio, plus physics that contributes to prediction code, and you could argue the simulation experience is enhanced when they look and sound like the cars they are.

    But that's not to say it wouldn't be possible to make the game share/contain enough information to have the other cars shown without installing or owning them. Dave has extrapolated the packaging system to this requirement; that doesn't mean it's actually the cause.
     
  15. Seven Smiles

    Seven Smiles Registered

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    Yes there is a small value in the way they look and sound so either charge a reduced price for that (I'd suggest the value is so little it's lost in the noise, give it away with the car(s) you have paid for) or simply substitute with the type of vehicle you do own, a bit like the way the yellow box works. IIRC I bought the GT3 pack but then more cars were added - I don't see why I have to buy the extra cars and I certainly don't mind racing against say someone else's Lambo that looks and sounds like a Porsche.

    I don't know why I'm arguing, S397 must have thought about this and made the commercial decision they did, and they don't have a great track record of listening to whingeing customers in this forum!
     
  16. shiet

    shiet Registered

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    :D
     
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  17. TheGame316

    TheGame316 Registered

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    Looking back through the forum history, its funny....
    The same issue has come up, at the same time(Summer Sale); now for the third year.

    And the sale item this time around makes ABSOLUTELY no sense. You are essentially setting up a new user to duplicate on content right from the start by offering this sale pack.

    ISI created what worked for them in a dedicated server environment that had no real plan of paid DLC or CS.
    S397 chose to not change the system knowing that their CS and paid DLC would benefit from the change.
    S397 also chose to use the Steam item store rather than the traditional Steam DLC system.
    S397 also choose to package up series in their CS requiring all tracks upfront, even when you own the track for the current session. Something most leagues running dedicated servers tried and stopped doing a long time ago due to updates to build, mods etc.

    I've said it since the talk of paid content was first announced, without a one car, one circuit entry to servers especially on their CS; playerbase fragmentation and frustration with the package system will continue and increase with every new release.
    Over the last 3 years at least, I have largely been proven right.

    And offering "Sale" packs like this just makes it worse.
     
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  18. avenger82

    avenger82 Registered

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    You mean buy real GT3 car and pay for a track day? ;)
     
  19. MikeV710

    MikeV710 Registered

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    Mine went to the AMS 2 track pack at 50% off :D
     
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  20. Delzimar

    Delzimar Registered

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    I bought an ACC pack with 5 cars for +- 6 dollars
     
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