Why is STEAM so much more expensive than Play or Amazon

Guys

Can someone please tell me why I can buy, via links on your own website, a copy of FM2010 for £15 from Play and Amazon yet I have to spend £30 to buy it right now from Steam?

Thanks

Ian

Because Steam are greedy and dont reflect there prices in the current climate, not a fan of theres and never will be.

Well a couple of weeks ago Steam did have it on sale for £15. Like most retailers they tend to have multiple sales throughout the year and apart from holiday seasons a lot of the those sales aren't at the same time that others are having a sale on that product.

Buy the disc forget Steam, used it once and never again in my opinion.

You can buy it from amazon and still use it from steam, wouldn't really bother with them other than for how easy it is to update the patches.

Just buy it in disc format and then use Steam to update the game. You get a nice, shiny disc to keep and Steam patches your game.

Steam can be more expensive but they do a fair few deals on games that drastically lowers the price. I guess they reward those who use the program regularly by making these deals weekend only.

Don't forget you also pay for the convenience of downloading the game as well as re-downloading the game on later occaisons. However, I do agree that they often charge a lot of money for games that have been released in the last year or two. For games that have just arrived they can be reasonably competitive:

Just Cause 2 - £30 on Steam; £25 + P&P on Amazon

Mount and Blade: Warband - £23 on Steam; £18 + P&P on Amazon

Dragon Age: Awakenings - £20 on Steam; £15 + P&P on Amazon

Bear in mind P&P can be a couple of quid and you have to wait a few days (or more if you go cheap P&P). I personally think a couple of quid is a small price to pay to have the game in an hour or two after deciding to purchase it. You also get the hassle-free auto-patch.

I guess I'm just a fan of Steam, or I have more moeny than the young'uns.

It just doesn't make sense to make it more expensive, when you can buy it for cheaper elsewhere and still use steam with the game, boggles my mind abit.

It just doesn't make sense to make it more expensive, when you can buy it for cheaper elsewhere and still use steam with the game, boggles my mind abit.

Like I said, convenience. Some will pay for that, like me. I don't object to a little bit more to be able to have it now.

I have passed on some Steam games though.

Steam used to have decent prices before they enforced entire europe to use GBP as currency (used to be USD), and converted the prices 1:1. Nowadays the only stuff worth buying from steam is when they have special prices for a couple of titles. As others have said, just buy the disc, it's not like they force us to buy from them

Simply, Convenience.

They got too pay for their master servers somehow, don't they?

Just ignore the horrors of steam, it is awful. Buy a digital download from someone else and save yourself the headache of steam.

Just ignore the horrors of steam, it is awful. Buy a digital download from someone else and save yourself the headache of steam.

What headache? You failed to elaborate.

I haven't had a problem with Steam for the last year or more. When I first joined up I had a few problems with signing in, but that was so easily rectified and nothing of the like has popped up in ages, like I said.

If you're encountering errors I can only think you're using it wrong.

It's hardly a fair appraisal of a program to come on here and warn people to 'ignore the horrors of steam', but fail to offer any reason as to why.

i think steam is great and very reliable and fast to download , i have bought alot of games from there , but there price's do need looking at. Alot cheaper to mail order next day delivery.

Just ignore the horrors of steam, it is awful. Buy a digital download from someone else and save yourself the headache of steam.

im sorry but this post is a load of nonsense.

I'm personally not a huge fan of Steam, I can't understand why somebody would pay more to not get a disc (if you can't be bothered to put a disc in the drive then you're lazy). I know they do quite a lot of sales, and they are good when they come, but alot the games that I might buy are full price, and I'm not going to do that when you can get it on Amazon for cheaper. Steam is good if you live in a country where it is more difficult to get a game, but when you can't get a disc option for cheaper, for me it is a not brainer which one I will buy.

Convenience.

Steam is brilliant. I do think some of their prices could be a little bit lower, but your paying for the convenience of the service. I own so many games that it's nice to be able to store them digitially, rather than taking up space in my house as DVDs.

I tend to buy many games from Steam at the weekend when they're on special offer. Got some great bargains that way.

i think steam is great and very reliable and fast to download , i have bought alot of games from there , but there price's do need looking at. Alot cheaper to mail order next day delivery.

im sorry but this post is a load of nonsense.

No its not, Steam is the only bad thing Valve have ever done. They're support is a joke, there are so many errors and on FM09 I was unable to play my game for over a week due to their incompetence. If Steam was so great do you think they'd need a whole FAQ thread stuck to the top of this forum?

It's subjective and down to your own experiences. I've never had any problems so I like Steam, those that have had problems will, understandably, not be fans of Steam. We don't need an argument over whether Steam is great or not - it's all down to individual experiences.

Convenience.

What exactly is convienient about getting something for a more expensive price?Sorry, still don't get it. I like steam as its easy to update the patches, so i've got no feelings against them, this doesn't make sense to me though.

Steam is lame, all they have to do is accuse you of piracy, cheating or anything they want and they will block access to all your games. Youd have to be stupid to accept those terms.

Now lets take that into the real world, imagine you modded your PS3 and then find out sony had disabled your TV, phone and hifi as well.

The main time I use Steam is for their sales, some of them are seriously cheap deals. They're also a good place to find some indie games like Audiosurf, Osmos and Braid all of which I found worth the £2 each I got them for in the sales. Also when they did the £3 deal for all the X-com games that was a massive bargain IMO, all 3 of the main games classics, automated emulator to take out the hassle of old games on new PCs and no digging around for my old disks. When my main PC was broke I just fired up my old PC downloaded Steam, downloaded Enemy Unknown, Terror From the Deep and Rome: Total War and that week just flew by as if all was fine.

As a main shop they can be a bit more expensive than others but if you stick to the deals, especially the big ones like Xmas or Thanksgiving (US holiday but I still get massive savings in the UK? Score!) they often come out quite a lot cheaper.

Steam doesn't set the price, it's the publisher who has the direct control over the prices and any special sales.

So the anger about the prices via online distribution is understandable, but its the publishers who are greedy and thus not the platforms fault. It is also the publishers who demand international prices of $1 = €1. And it are the publishers who add DRM although Steam wouldn't need any further protection.

Steam doesn't set the price, it's the publisher who has the direct control over the prices and any special sales.

So the anger about the prices via online distribution is understandable, but its the publishers who are greedy and thus not the platforms fault. It is also the publishers who demand international prices of $1 = €1. And it are the publishers who add DRM although Steam wouldn't need any further protection.

I dont buy that, I think steam must take a bigger chunk of the pie than normal distribution leaving the publishers with no alternative than a higher price on steam to get the same money as they would with a boxed copy.

Proof of this is every game thats not on special offer is more expensive than a boxed copy.

Whats more likely, steam being greedy or every publisher on the planet being greedy. Steam would have to be 50-66% of the price of a boxed copy for it to be worthwhile, not 150%.

It's not really important what you buy or not. A fact is a fact, the rest is what you make of it philly_flyer10.

I've only had problems with STEAM- it took an age to install FM, the editor is hidden in some far away folder, it's constantly running in the background, and so on.

I imagine prices are higher due to the cost of servers and so on.

I've never gone for Steam but I'll never use it on principle. Putting your games at the mercy of a third-party who has a dodgy pricing strategy and further overhead costs is just wrong.

I don't see any of the "advantages" Steam offers as an "advantage" anyway, and certainly not worth paying extra for.

Buy the disc and take care of it well. Don't let Steam, who could go under at any moment or choose to screw you over, control that part.

Never used Steam and never will. I much prefer having the disc and patching if I want to and not being made to patch up.

I asked the same question a few months ago about the pricing and one of the Mods told me that the boxed versions are very often sold at a loss - he could not explain why but some companies do do it. I suppose as it is such a popular game, the stores are trying to buy loyalty so that you will go back to them for other games that will make them money.

Steam is lame, all they have to do is accuse you of piracy, cheating or anything they want and they will block access to all your games. Youd have to be stupid to accept those terms.

Now lets take that into the real world, imagine you modded your PS3 and then find out sony had disabled your TV, phone and hifi as well.

Don't pirate then. If you don't do piracy then you have nothing to worry about, do you? I have nothing to worry about because I don't pirate games.

I think you're taking things in to the real world a little too far. There's no comparison between Steam catching you pirating and sony cutting off your TV and hifi. Keep things based in reality.

I've never gone for Steam but I'll never use it on principle. Putting your games at the mercy of a third-party who has a dodgy pricing strategy and further overhead costs is just wrong.

I don't see any of the "advantages" Steam offers as an "advantage" anyway, and certainly not worth paying extra for.

Buy the disc and take care of it well. Don't let Steam, who could go under at any moment or choose to screw you over, control that part.

Again, I think people are looking for reasons. There's nothing to say that Steam are going to go under and you are going to lose what you have paid for. I am sure they have contingency plans for anything that may happen regardless.

Who's to say I won't buy a MMO tomorrow and the developers will withdraw all support and servers six months down the line.

I could say that I won't buy a CD because it's scratchable. Now we both know that's a nitpicky reason, so why do people keep coming up with far-fetched and based-in-fiction reasons for Steam being so bad?

Yes, I know it's the choice of a person, but we're heading into a world where digital downloads are becoming more the norm. I honestly can't see it being too long before developers start to move away from putting a product in a shop and solely rely on digital sales. Games and other high street retailers already stock a much smaller selection of PC games. I think it would certainly cut costs and lead to PC gaming becoming cheaper.

Steam is amazing. Use and buy EVERYTHING of steam. Instant downloads to your computers. Some GREAT offers..

Steam is amazing. Use and buy EVERYTHING of steam. Instant downloads to your computers. Some GREAT offers..

Well I may be coming across as FM's ambassador to Steam, but instant downloads might be stretching it a bit.

Again, I think people are looking for reasons. There's nothing to say that Steam are going to go under and you are going to lose what you have paid for. I am sure they have contingency plans for anything that may happen regardless.

Not just bankruptcy. Nothing is stopping Steam from forcing you to, say, install more software to get your games running, putting more "protection" on their games, more enforcement of DRMs, tighter regulations around "cheating"...

Steam is akin to parking your car in the home of a stranger who washes your car on the weekends for an additional cost. Nothing is stopping him from doing things like putting dangerous things on his driveway so your tyres burst when you do take your car, or putting a dangerous guard dog up without a leash to "protect" the place.

We didn't see various banks going under a few years back but look at what the financial crisis did.

Who's to say I won't buy a MMO tomorrow and the developers will withdraw all support and servers six months down the line.

With Steam, you have another avenue for things to go wrong. If a developer withdraws support then Steam consumers suffer too.

I could say that I won't buy a CD because it's scratchable. Now we both know that's a nitpicky reason, so why do people keep coming up with far-fetched and based-in-fiction reasons for Steam being so bad?

Loaded question - it's not far-fetched or based-in-fiction for Steam to make the games less accessible or for Steam to go under.

I haven't scratched a CD in a while and some of the CDs I've used have been in use for over a decade! No scratches. It's not hard to take care of your CDs.

Yes, I know it's the choice of a person, but we're heading into a world where digital downloads are becoming more the norm. I honestly can't see it being too long before developers start to move away from putting a product in a shop and solely rely on digital sales. Games and other high street retailers already stock a much smaller selection of PC games. I think it would certainly cut costs and lead to PC gaming becoming cheaper.

Assuming this is true, I don't like it at all. What you "download" isn't just the game, after all - it's likely going to be DRM-infested in the future, if not the present. Consumers already have so little control over the software they buy and third-parties only reduce that control further.

But there's always going to be a market for people who order the games physically, not just in the high-street but perhaps bought online. It's a physical transaction and will always be more comfortable for consumers.

Why not have the best of best of both worlds buy the game from another vendor, but install it from via the Steam method for the auto patching is win/win for me. It's what I do.

I would say though the convenience of downloading the game via steam can make a lot of games become very pricey. To add my two cents on the matter. Mad aint it.

Not just bankruptcy. Nothing is stopping Steam from forcing you to, say, install more software to get your games running, putting more "protection" on their games, more enforcement of DRMs, tighter regulations around "cheating"...

Apart from the big one: the consumer. DRM is already a hot topic, they start adding more needlessly and that's going to generate a massive amount of bad press for Valve. At the end of the day they want to make money, why the hell would they do something that would do nothing but alienate a bunch of customers? They do that and there's plenty of other companies people will go to to get their games.

Regarding bankruptcy I'm pretty sure they've already stated that in the unlikely event of them going tits up they'll release all the necessary cdkeys/patches/copy protection/etc to make all games bought through Steam keep on working.

Not just bankruptcy. Nothing is stopping Steam from forcing you to, say, install more software to get your games running, putting more "protection" on their games, more enforcement of DRMs, tighter regulations around "cheating"...

Steam is akin to parking your car in the home of a stranger who washes your car on the weekends for an additional cost. Nothing is stopping him from doing things like putting dangerous things on his driveway so your tyres burst when you do take your car, or putting a dangerous guard dog up without a leash to "protect" the place.

We didn't see various banks going under a few years back but look at what the financial crisis did.

It's called fair trade, and I don't think the banks have anything to do with this. As for DRM, well I've always been of the impression that it is a necessary evil.

Every consumer is governed by rights. If you leave your car to be washed you are legally entitled to have that service delivered.

We're talking ifs and buts here anyway.

With Steam, you have another avenue for things to go wrong. If a developer withdraws support then Steam consumers suffer too.

What has Steam got to do with it? If a game isn't on Steam and a developer withdraws support then you lose access to the game. A game doesn't need to be on Steam for this to happen.

Loaded question - it's not far-fetched or based-in-fiction for Steam to make the games less accessible or for Steam to go under.

I haven't scratched a CD in a while and some of the CDs I've used have been in use for over a decade! No scratches. It's not hard to take care of your CDs.

Nor have I, which is, in essence, the point I was making. If we're going to devise ways for Steam to be bad, then let's talk about scratching CDs. I know how to look after a CD and I know how to look after my Steam purchases. I don't foresee a likelhood of Steam going bust or I wouldn't buy from there.

Just look up the digital market online. Example. Newer example.

Assuming this is true, I don't like it at all. What you "download" isn't just the game, after all - it's likely going to be DRM-infested in the future, if not the present. Consumers already have so little control over the software they buy and third-parties only reduce that control further.

But there's always going to be a market for people who order the games physically, not just in the high-street but perhaps bought online. It's a physical transaction and will always be more comfortable for consumers.

DRM is a thing of here and now. It's not perfect by any means, but it's here and it's here to stay. I just bought Settlers 7 and to play you need to be online. It's not perfect but it causes me no hassle and I don't pirate, so what do I have to be concerned over?

Like I said, more and more high street retailers are reducing stock of PC Games and more and more are moving into digital download areas. It won't be the end of the CD/DVD but there's a trend setting in. I get a lot of my music online lately. I like to have the physical CD but it gets hard to keep up with the space required for a lot of CDs. Much easier to store them on my hard drive.

Well we're not really talking Football Manager here so let's agree to disagree.

Apart from the big one: the consumer. DRM is already a hot topic, they start adding more needlessly and that's going to generate a massive amount of bad press for Valve. At the end of the day they want to make money, why the hell would they do something that would do nothing but alienate a bunch of customers? They do that and there's plenty of other companies people will go to to get their games.

Regarding bankruptcy I'm pretty sure they've already stated that in the unlikely event of them going tits up they'll release all the necessary cdkeys/patches/copy protection/etc to make all games bought through Steam keep on working.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as of now Valve are under no legal obligation to release such a patch if they do go under.

And if Valve do go under you can bet that the last thing they'll be doing is writing patches for all their games to keep working to some degree.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as of now Valve are under no legal obligation to release such a patch if they do go under.

And if Valve do go under you can bet that the last thing they'll be doing is writing patches for all their games to keep working to some degree.

Steam's not going anywhere. Leave speculation alone.

It's subjective and down to your own experiences. I've never had any problems so I like Steam, those that have had problems will, understandably, not be fans of Steam. We don't need an argument over whether Steam is great or not - it's all down to individual experiences.

I agree it its all down to individual experiences.

I used steam when I was forced to use it when i bought Supreme Commander 2. I hated it and felt pointless, because for me it is stupid to play game you have to play another program (an emulator, that is what steam is) to play the game.

I don't like it I hope that SI doesn't do like the people that cerated Supreme Commander 2 did.

It's called fair trade, and I don't think the banks have anything to do with this. As for DRM, well I've always been of the impression that it is a necessary evil.

Every consumer is governed by rights. If you leave your car to be washed you are legally entitled to have that service delivered.

We're talking ifs and buts here anyway.

You cannot guarantee Steam's service several years in the future - while you hold the destiny of your own disc in your own hands and with care can guarantee its usage several years in the future.

The question is whether you can trust Steam and whether you should or not. I don't think you do.

What has Steam got to do with it? If a game isn't on Steam and a developer withdraws support then you lose access to the game. A game doesn't need to be on Steam for this to happen.

Agreed, so why did you bring it up?

"Who's to say I won't buy a MMO tomorrow and the developers will withdraw all support and servers six months down the line."

Nor have I, which is, in essence, the point I was making. If we're going to devise ways for Steam to be bad, then let's talk about scratching CDs. I know how to look after a CD and I know how to look after my Steam purchases. I don't foresee a likelhood of Steam going bust or I wouldn't buy from there.

Alright, let's look at the benefits of Steam: Downloadable (is this really an advantage to having a disc), multiple downloads (if you snap your disc)

Er, yeah, a whole load of advantages there. To me, they don't outweigh the negatives by any means.

DRM is a thing of here and now. It's not perfect by any means, but it's here and it's here to stay. I just bought Settlers 7 and to play you need to be online. It's not perfect but it causes me no hassle and I don't pirate, so what do I have to be concerned over?

Settlers 7 is under a very controversial DRM which requires you to be online all the time. That's good if you can get such a service but broadband all over the UK and Australia tends not to be so reliable (quick yes, reliable slightly, but not perfectly reliable). You may recall Assassin's Creed 2 was slated for such a DRM because unless you have a perfectly reliable connection, one dropped packet could basically mean losing all progress up to a save point.

And again if Ubisoft go under, or are bought out and the other company decides to disband the servers, or whatever, you are basically left with nothing.

DRM is all good when it all works and everyone cooperates, but human beings are not perfect and things will go wrong.

Agreed, so why did you bring it up?

"Who's to say I won't buy a MMO tomorrow and the developers will withdraw all support and servers six months down the line."

I wasn't talking about an MMO on Steam. I was talking about a CD/DVD based game that is bought down the shop, as opposed to digital. My point was there is just as much chance of that going under as Steam. There's actually probably more chance in the precarious world of MMOs, but that's an aside.

I thought that was rather obvious. You're not going to make your views more valid by altering the points that have been made.

Honestly, this is going around in circles. Did you even happen to take into account the increased market sales of digital downloads? That's a fact.

Can I also point out that you can not guarantee the usage of a disc several years in the future. The problems associated with running old games on newer windows upgrades are testament to that. The same would even go for Steam games.

Steam does have a back up option by the way. There are ways to burn games to disk but I guess you would need Steam to play them after still. If Steam ever goes bust I am sure there will be ways to access the rights to the games you have bought. It's all ifs and buts of course.

Its funny how a question about price got turned into DRM discussion.

--

Any digital product will usually be more expensive general wise.

Since you can download them any time and you are not bound by a disc.

Here is an example.

FM10 on Game

Retail £16,99

Digital £29,99

Link: http://www.game.co.uk/Games/PC-Games/Football-Manager-2010/~r343271/

Mass producing retail discs is cheaper then hosting digital software usually.

DRM is a thing of here and now. It's not perfect by any means, but it's here and it's here to stay. I just bought Settlers 7 and to play you need to be onlin

Now, I have nothing against normal DRM. This sort of think irks me though. I haven't bought AC2 over the issue, and won't do until I can buy a cheap PRE-OWNED (so Ubisoft don't get a penny) PS3 version.

The time I play most of my offline games (FM10 not included) is when my internet goes down for one reason or another. Steam's offline mode means that the odd day when Virgin mess up my line doesn't effect me. Ubisoft, however, would simply not have me play at all. So they not only lose the pirates, but me too, and plenty of other legitimate would-be customers.

I think an "always online to play" DRM system would be the only way SI could break my FM addiction.

Steam is useless, Im very much opposed to the notion of having a client in order to play a game that I have paid for.

Steam is useless, Im very much opposed to the notion of having a client in order to play a game that I have paid for.

Roflol.. Steam is not useless..

Steam is a option.. Id rather have steam running then a spinning disc.

Don't pirate then. If you don't do piracy then you have nothing to worry about, do you? I have nothing to worry about because I don't pirate games.

I think you're taking things in to the real world a little too far. There's no comparison between Steam catching you pirating and sony cutting off your TV and hifi. Keep things based in reality.

You dont even have to pirate, just be accused of it. You might have a mod installed and their system could think its a cracked exe.

My comparison is totally valid because they stop giving you access to things youve bought and that youve done nothing wrong with.

Steam is ok if you like paying over the odds, the minute theres a problem it becomes one of the worst services you could ever have.

Steam is useless, Im very much opposed to the notion of having a client in order to play a game that I have paid for.

What's Windows then? Remove Windows and get Linux, then try to run your games.

Steam is free, it doesn't system hog, you can run offline, you can chat, you can buy new games, run demos and watch trailers all in one handy place.

2,000,000 users can't be wrong can they? That's how many Steam lists as online at this very moment.

Or even 15 million users can't be wrong.

Each to their own of course.

As with most things in the world Steam has its drawbacks, but on the whole it's a great option to have. The pricing of digital game downloads is much like the music industry in that it's artificially inflated to help sustain the hard copy market. Look at any digital distributor - from Steam to D2D to EA to Game - and the prices are all largely the same.

Valve is a company which makes great games, they understand what people who play games want and I'm more than happy to buy directly from them...when there's a sale on!

The main problem with Steam is the restriction to when you play the game and when you do it. I only used Steam to play SC2 and one day I had the problem to connect the entire day and steam wouldn't allow to change to the offline mode. In conclusion i couldn't play the game.

C&C4 is also restricted to play with only internet connection. If you loose the internet connection for some reason, you can't play at all.

So yes I'm against of those imposing restriction on when you play the game and can't see any benefits that things like steam bring.

Anagain it depends on what people like and don't like. 15 million doesn't force everybody else as wrong for not like it. I mean it is not the first time I don't agree with reviewers saying bad about movie and I end up liking the movie. Or me not agreeing with Majority of the gamers that liked FM 09 and FM10, which I don't like.

You dont even have to pirate, just be accused of it. You might have a mod installed and their system could think its a cracked exe.

please do provide an example of this...

as far as i am aware, the only time that valve will do something like this is through a VAC ban, which is game specific (DOD:S, CSS etc)...

The main problem with Steam is the restriction to when you play the game and when you do it. I only used Steam to play SC2 and one day I had the problem to connect the entire day and steam wouldn't allow to change to the offline mode. In conclusion i couldn't play the game.

C&C4 is also restricted to play with only internet connection. If you loose the internet connection for some reason, you can't play at all.

So yes I'm against of those imposing restriction on when you play the game and can't see any benefits that things like steam bring.

The always online requirement is nothing to do with Steam though, it's the publisher.