Tag: Sales

Steam: Devs Cannot Discount Within 30 Days Of Price Increase


With the Steam summer sale upon us, it might be useful to look back at a not-so-new but not-so-well-known policy laid out by Valve in terms of how and when developers can put their games on sale. According to the terms of service as laid out by Valve, vendors are not allowed to discount their games within 30 days of a price increase, cannot change prices while a promotion is live, and cannot run another discount for two months following a launch discount.

These rules were likely put into place to prevent a repeat of previous years where some developers would increase their costs right before a big Steam sale and then discount it to make it look like the game is at a big markdown, such as a $20 game boosting its price to $50, then offering 50% off and selling at $25 so people think they’re getting a great deal when really they’re paying even more than the regular cost.

The full rules breakdown as follows:

  • You can run a launch discount, but once your launch discount ends, you cannot run any other discounts for 2 months.
  • It is not possible to discount your product for 30 days following a price increase.
  • Discounts cannot be run within 2 months of your prior discount, with the exception of Steam-wide seasonal events or other specific Valve-organized sale events.
  • Discounts for seasonal sale events cannot be run within 30 days of releasing your title or 30 days from when your launch discount ends.
  • You may not change your price while a promotion is live.
  • It is not possible to discount a product 100%.
  • Custom discounts cannot last longer than two weeks, or run for shorter than 1 day.

Grim Dawn Hits One Million Copies Sold


Crowdfunded ARPG Grim Dawn has plenty of reasons to celebrate, one million of them in fact! The Crate Team has revealed that their title has surpassed one million sales and have placed the game on sale to boost those numbers even further. Until the end of May, Grim Dawn will be available at 50% off on the Humble store and official website. Initially crowdfunded in 2012, Grim Dawn has seen immense success with its 2016 release.

For more information on Grim Dawn, check out the official website.

(Source: Grim Dawn)

Electronic Arts Posts Growth In Q4 2016


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Electronic Arts has posted its year end results for the fiscal year 2016, and everything is coming up profit. The publishing behemoth raked in $4.5 billion in revenue this past year, up from the $4.3 billion in the fiscal year ending in 2015. According to the company’s own projections, the next year should continue the trend with an estimated $4.9 billion.

As sales of digital goods climb, packaged games continued to lose market share. Digital revenue has taken over physical media by a growing margin, $2.5 billion compared to $2.0 billion, while EA’s profit margin has increased to an eye-popping 82.7%. PC gamers make up 26% of EA’s revenue while consoles account for 51% with mobile making up the rest. The console market had the strongest growth the past year, a 22% increase in revenue year over year.

Gamers hoping to see the end of downloadable content will have to wait another year, as customers spent $1.1 billion on “extra content,” a separate figure from the $570 million spent on mobile. Subscriptions and ad revenue made up $339 million while full game downloads accounted for about half a billion.

Fiscal year 2017 sees the launch of several big name titles, including Battlefield 1, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, and Mass Effect Andromeda.

There was no mention of The Old Republic that we could find in any of the documents.

(Source: EA)

Cheap Games: Ubisoft Sale On PSN


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Ubisoft is running a week long sale on the Playstation Network, and the list of games for sale is massive. The list of sale items includes the recently launched Division as well as other big name Ubisoft titles like Rainbow Six Siege and The Crew.

Sales are for the North America Playstation Network. Your mileage may vary.

Highlights:

  • The Division: $49.79 (17% off)
  • Rainbow Six Siege: $35.99 (40% off)
  • The Crew: $17.99 (40% off)
  • Toy Soldiers War Chest: $11.99 (60% off)
  • Watch Dogs Gold Edition: $19.99 (60% off)

The entire list of games on sale includes 32 items between the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4. Currently no Vita games are on sale.

(Source: PSN)

NCSoft Posts Q4 Report: Wildstar Revenues Climb


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NCSoft has posted their fourth quarter reports for 2015, and the results are a general mixture of the good and the bad. As you can see from the chart above, while figures were pretty solid across the board over the third quarter, revenue and profit dropped notably over the same period last year. NCSoft pits the majority of the loss on overseas royalties, but that overall the company is growing in profit thanks to a balanced growth from overall IPs.

On the games front, every single title in NCSoft’s library saw growth in the last quarter, including Wildstar. Lineage and Lineage 2, as well as Blade & Soul, grew thanks to content updates and strong in-game item promotions. Guild Wars 2 drove in plenty of new revenue thanks to the sale of Heart of Thorns.

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Thank you to NCSoft for plotting out each game on an individual basis, it saves me a lot of time. As you can see from the chart above, while Wildstar’s income grew in the first quarter of free to play, it didn’t grow all that much. Revenue is still far down from where it was when the game launched, and it brought in only $2.23 million USD in its initial free to play rush.

At this point in the timeline, it looks like the upcoming China launch may be Wildstars best, and only, bet at salvation. Assuming NCSoft is willing to shoulder the title to that milestone, we’ll likely be hearing in 2017 about whether or not this title goes on the chopping block. As for Guild Wars, it looks like the Heart of Thorns quarter brought in a bump of $14 million. According to the earnings call itself, while sales were good for Heart of Thorns, they did fall below expectations. This lines up with earlier predictions of Daewoo Securities that Heart of Thorns would sell less than expected.

The first quarter earnings for NCSoft won’t be out for another few months, but they will have some very important information going forward: How has Blade & Soul fared with its western launch? How will Wildstar hold up after its free to play transition?

Get Games Cheap: Thanksgiving Digital Sales


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Thanksgiving is upon us and while this is traditionally an American holiday, there is no reason that everyone can’t get something out of it.

(Editor’s note: Prices shown in USD. Sales/Games may not be available in all regions.)

There is also a ton of DLC on sale for your games.

  • Trion Worlds is running a host of Black Friday sales, on ArcheAge, Defiance, and Trove.
  • Save 25% off on Daybreak cash purchases as well as in-game sales on several Daybreak games.
  • 20% off of mounts and companions in Neverwinter.
  • Turbine is offering 85% off of the price of expansions in Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online.

Final Fantasy XIV Sells Character Licenses


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Final Fantasy XIV isn’t just making bank in terms of box sales and subscriptions, it’s also making good on licensed products. In Square Enix’s latest financial report, the company praises FFXIV and its first expansion, Heavensward, as being behind a bump in sales of goods derived from characters and soundtracks.

During the three-month period ended June 30, 2015, sales of character goods derived from the Group’s own IPs increased, primarily due to the release of the first expansion disc for “FINAL FANTASY XIV.” The Group continued to distribute and license items such as character goods and soundtracks based on the IPs while also strengthening its character goods lineup with additional products from third party IPs and overseas expansions.

Luckily the MMO is good for something more than just selling toys and music. Square reported that sales from FFXIV and Dragon Quest X are making “favorable performances.”

(Source: Square Enix press release)

Star Vault Posts Higher Q1 Earnings


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Star Vault has released their first quarter sales for 2015, and the results are rather positive. While sales are down from where they were last year, net sales increased over the fourth quarter to $68 thousand. Likewise, Star Vault’s net loss fell substantially from over $100 thousand in Q4 to $61 thousand this quarter.

According to Star Vault’s report, the number of subscribers remained about the same over last quarter.

CEO Henrik Nystrom’s note:

We have recruited a further enhancement to our team, in the form of an experienced programmer with great interest in game development. This gives us the resources for the Steam release. Our new additions will work in several areas of development in Mortal Online – it’s great with fresh eyes coming from outside that can give feedback on what areas can be improved. We also have an additional encoder remotely in the US who now helps us with GUI and flash programming.

(Source: Aktie Torget)

Disclosure: Star Vault’s finances are published on the Aktie Torget stock exchange in Swedish, linked above, and translated using Google’s automatic tools. Figures shown above are based off of the SEK to USD conversion rates as of the day of their publishing. This is for informational purposes and is not meant to advise investment.)

(Editor’s note: Henrik Nystrom’s note only includes the last of three paragraphs. The first two were removed for brevity and poor translation, and cover outdated information on the Sarducca update)

Destiny Most Pre-Ordered New IP


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While much of the world waits in anticipation for Destiny, Activision is already showing off their trophies. In a statement released today, Activision has declared Destiny as the most pre-ordered new IP in history. Exact numbers have not been detailed, but we know that the game has had a massive response with 4.6 million users taking part in the beta period over the console platforms.

We will surely know post-launch how many copies Destiny has sold.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

Guild Wars 2 Did Not Sell 3.8 Million In China


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You may have seen some news over the past few days that Guild Wars 2 has sold 3.8 million copies in China, which would be excellent were it true. As it so often turns out, the information was spread via a fansite and is inaccurate, according to an Arenanet Twitter post:

We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.

The moral of the story is: Always wait for an official source.

(Source: Twitter)