Weekend game deals: Deus Ex: HR $7.49, Hard Reset $6.80

[Matthew DeCarlo]

If you've missed the zillion chances to grab Deus Ex on sale, Steam is offering another opportunity with 75% off the entire franchise, including Human Revolution and its downloadable content. Things are relatively quiet elsewhere as GameStop continues to offer 50-75% off Assassin's Creed titles, GamersGate has substantial savings on Hard Reset and Total War games, GOG lets you vote for discounts, and Origin knocks 50% off select titles if you preorder another game.

Steam
{pf id:54185 size:small} Deus Ex Collection $14.99 (75% off)
{pf id:3457 size:small} Post Apocalyptic Mayhem $2.49 (75% off)
Cubemen $1.99 (60% off)
More...

Amazon Digital
{pf id:4092 size:small} Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition $9.99 (75% off)
{pf id:3004 size:small} Mass Effect $4.99 (75% off)
{pf id:3005 size:small} Mass Effect 2 $4.99 (75% off)
{pf id:81478 size:small} Payday: The Heist $9.99 (50% off)
{pf id:54210 size:small} Tropico 4 $19.99 (50% off) 
More...

GameStop
{pf id:54210 size:small} Darksiders $4.99 (75% off)
{pf id:54201 size:small} Saints Row: The Third $16.99 (66% off)
{pf id:1251 size:small} Assassin's Creed $4.99 (75% off)
{pf id:1252 size:small} Assassin's Creed 2 $9.99 (50% off)
{pf id:36360 size:small} Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood $14.99 (50% off)
{pf id:1127 size:small} Aliens vs. Predator $7.49 (50% off)
BioShock $9.99 (50% off)
More...

GamersGate
{pf id:81987 size:small} Need for Speed: The Run $15.98 (60% off)
{pf id:1165 size:small} Amnesia: The Dark Descent $4.95 (75% off)
{pf id:40512 size:small} Total War: Shogun 2 $7.49 (75% off) 
{pf id:3188 size:small} Empire & Napoleon Total War GotY $8.99 (70% off)
{pf id:81116 size:small} Orcs Must Die! $7.50 (50% off)
{pf id:2705 size:small} Jamestown: The Legend of the Lost Colony $4.98 (50% off)
{pf id:80410 size:small} Hard Reset $6.80 (66% off)
Rome: Total War Complete $3.74 (75% off)
Medieval 2 Total War Gold Edition $2.49 (75% off)
More...

GOG
Gothic $4.99 (40% off)
Arx Fatalis $2.39 (60% off)
Vote on tomorrow's deals

GameFly
{pf id:81478 size:small} Payday: The Heist $9.99 (50% off)

Green Man Gaming
Up to 50% off Iceberg Interactive titles

Games for Windows
{pf id: size:small} Battlefield: Bad Company 2 $9.99 (50% off)

Origin
Preorder a game, get another half off

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/49112-weekend-game-deals-deus-ex-hr-749-hard-reset-680.html

 

[TomSEA]

I can definitely recommend Hard Reset. That's a hella fun FPS.

 

[Guest]

Anyone else notice steam sales or specials are pretty much a group of the same titles re added to specials or sales, apart from occasions when they do add a AAA title to the mix (albeit that same AAA title has been on sale or cheaper RRP for at least 3months elsewhere and steams special price only matches the normal price other digital retailers have already...)

Sorry I enjoy steam but I really wish they would get their "sales" producing sales..

 

[gwailo247]

Man, I'm so pissed off about the GG sale on the Shogun stuff. It probably won't last until next week, and I'm sure as hell not paying the same price in Euro as in dollars..

But I have high hopes for the Steam summer sale, I'm gonna buy so many damn games LOL.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

You're definitely not the only one. I can't back this up with anything more than saying I've looked at all the sales every week for two years or so, but there are a handful of deals that appear and reappear weekly or biweekly across the digital distributors for certain blocks of time before disappearing. Deus Ex, Space Marine, Civilization, Assassin's Creed, Saint's Row: The Third, Mass Effect 1 and 2, AvP and others have been on sale a bunch of times over the last six or more months.

I imagine it's just the nature of the business and developers/publishers use digital discounts as a means of boosting sales on games that didn't sell as well as they could have during their launch window (Space Marine for example), to generate hype for a franchise ahead of a major update (Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed), or any number of other tactics to maximize their performance.

The major events have lost some of their appeal -- to me anyway. Steam's annual summer sale is coming and I assume they'll offer the same publisher/developer packs they have a dozen times before, except with one or two games added. I already bought the packs I want and adding a game or two isn't going to make me buy a bundle I didn't previously want or rebuy a bundle I already have.

As for Steam's pricing, they tend to have equal if not superior discounts to other distributors when it's a "real" sale. There seems to be a trend across all digital distributors, but especially on Steam, of games being reduced by say, 25% or 50% a handful of times before a 75%+ discount comes. Eventually, after one or more of those major sales, the base selling price drops a little and distributors repeat the same tactic: offer a small discount to generate interest and boost sales a little, then offer another major sale (now cheaper than ever) so people who haven't already bought the game feel like they have to take advantage of the situation pronto.

In other words, they let everyone who's willing to pay the retail price do so, then they let everyone who's willing to pay a quarter of the retail price do so, then let everyone who's willing to pay half of the retail price do so, then three quarters and so on. Sales have a side benefit of encouraging discussion about the games online, between friends and family etc. so any given promotion seems to have an aftershock of "buzz" about a given title. When that declines, the game is discounted again.

I'm not even sure where I'm going with this anymore, just babbling about the conclusions I've drawn from doing these posts and offering a potential explanation for why the same games are discounted so often. At the end of the day, beyond the psychology, there are definitely a lot of genuinely good deals that keep things interesting enough for people who check regularly, while those who don't are likely to find something appealing on any given weekend, even if they're just the same old promos.