Thanks!

2 years ago
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Edit: I've substantially reworked this post so as to properly reflect a more accurate representation of the pricing, following drbeckett's notation that earlier pricing and current GOG pricing are only reflective of a four game bundle (excluding the fifth game, Epiphany), rather than the full five game bundle available currently on Steam. Apologies for the initial oversight.

The current $7.84 discount matches to Steam's median/regular low, occuring 18 times since June 2018.

It is, however, also the best low the game has had on Steam since Feb 2019 (during which it was reduced to $6.53), and not too far off the lowest price range ($5.20, Oct-Nov 2018) the game has had since its base price increase in March 2018 (which, based on the price increase, seems a reasonable point at which to assume Epiphany was added to the bundle, with any previous lows likely relating instead to the four game version of the bundle).

GOG, on the other hand, has maintained a median/regular low of $4.49 for its four-game bundle over the same period, and had a recent(ish) low of $2.99, back in Nov-Dec 2021. Epiphany has been seeing consistent lows of $4.49 since Jan 2020. This'd make GOG's comparable pricing around $8.98 for the complete set of games (or $7.48 during Nov-Dec 2021).

Thus, in summary:
-78% is the standard discount rate for the Steam bundle.
The Steam version hasn't had a better discount for three years
The Steam version is a better deal than the GOG bundle

2 years ago*
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Thanks for all the info!

2 years ago
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From what I see the games included in the bundle have changed through it's history.

I have the bundle activated on Steam on 2011 (retail, so I imagine from some bundle) and have an activation on 2012 for Blackwell Deception and I'm still missing Epiphany which is included in the current bundle. So the bundle back in 2011 didn't include two games, there might've been another period where it included Deception but didn't include Epiphany, which is actually what looks to be included in the GOG version (This is what it says in the description: Blackwell Bundle includes the first four episodes: Legacy, Unbound, Convergence, and Deception.), but maybe that's different in other regions?

2 years ago*
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Thanks for pointing that out!

Actually, my GOG purchase from 2013 (at $2.99) also doesn't include the fifth game, Epiphany (I instead have that DRM-Free from Humble Weekly Bundle: Adventures! 2, which threw off my noting that absence in my recollection). That'd explain the gradual price increase on both platforms, and both justify GOG's current low of $4.49 and explain its earlier low being only $1.49, Though it still doesn't really explain why the current GOG version discounts to half what the current Steam version does, despite them both seeming to properly have all five games.

Blackwell Epiphany should have been added into the collection after its release in 2014, so any pricing history past that point should be accurate to the present bundle composition. Despite that, I'm still seeing $1.49 and $2.99 discounts on GOG several times following that point, as well as several $3.99 and $4.99 discounts on Steam.

There was however a base retail price increase in March 2018, so it's possible there was a weird, significant delay in the game getting added into the bundle. If we base off that date, then there's just a few $5-6 discounts for Steam right at the start; GOG, however, still managed $1.49 - 2.99 offers in that same period. So.. maybe the price increases weren't all that reasonably determined after all. :S

Unfortunately, there's nothing listed in the history for the bundle through SteamDB, and SteamDB is even griping at me about looking into Epiphany's history prior to 2017, so that's about the sum of what I can dig up at the moment.

2 years ago*
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So GOG does include Epiphany in your region?
In my region the GOG bundle only has the first 4 games.

2 years ago
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Ah, I misunderstood you. No, I guess it does still only contain the first four games. I'll update my initial post, thanks for clarifying that.

2 years ago
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No worries. Still it was good to know and now with the edit it's more informative.

2 years ago
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thanks, I had to buy them individually because the bundle does not exist on steam, perhaps they expressed themselves wrong in the title because when entering the link it redirects me to the main steam page, the 4 titles are still on sale.

2 years ago
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Weird, it works fine for me. Maybe it's a regional thing?

2 years ago
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Blackwell Bundle is correctly formatted as a Bundle on Steam, and the OP is correctly linking to it. If you're getting automatically redirected, then that usually means that the bundle is for some reason not available for purchase in your region. If we then go to SteamDB, we can seemingly confirm that, as the Bundle lists "N/A" for both the Turkish Lira and the Argentine Peso, the latter of which your Steam profile would indicate is likely the point of issue.

Finally, there's this from an Argentina user back in 2020: https://twitter.com/v62didi/status/1332095219177840640

for some reason the Blackwell Bundle is no longer available in Argentina, we can only buy them separately, any idea why?

Unfortunately, Wadjet Eye doesn't seem to have ever replied to the comment, and I was unable to find any indication as to why the exclusion exists from any other source as well.

2 years ago*
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Turkey and Argentina are usually the two countries with the lowest converted prices so it might have to do with that. I'm not condoning nor defending that, just pointing it out.

2 years ago
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Bundles link to accounts, though (ie, preventing trading), so from the perspective of blocking regions out to maintain fair pricing, it'd actually make less sense. Rather, the only way that makes sense would be if they're trying to intentionally make Turkey and Aregentia consumers pay above a minimum value.. which doesn't really seem reasonable, given that digital goods run through Steam shouldn't have a minimum expense threshold to meet.

So while it's a good hypothesis, if true it'd suggest a somewhat problematic perspective towards consumers in Turkey and Argentia. :S

2 years ago
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a somewhat problematic perspective towards consumers in Turkey and Argentina

I might be a cynic here but does that really sound that implausible? I am open to more philanthropic hypotheses but can't think of any. It's also just during sales. Whenever there is no sale, they can buy the bundle. You can see the individual price history per currency on SteamDB when clicking on the respective name of the currency.

It's also not the first bundle I stumbled over where only these two countries were excluded only during sales:

https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/a1q4W/tales-from-candlekeep-leaving-steam-on-sale#ckSHiZ1

2 years ago*
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Individually they usually went down to 80% off (from 2015 to 2018)... since then they are usually -70%, so I guess it's an OK deal.

2 years ago
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Thanks for the heads up! Looks like a good deal anyway.

2 years ago
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Thank you, it's definitely a great deal and an epic series <3

2 years ago
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Finished 4 games, didn't want to play the 5th because that would mean that it ends.
Now I only remember a rough outline of the story. Maybe it's time that I finish the series soonish

2 years ago
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yeah it's sad for it to end, but the story is so well told i'd hate for you to miss it. i also recommend unavowed which is excellent on its own but also has some connections to the blackwell games you'll probably appreciate as much as i did

2 years ago
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Did a playthrough of Unavowed, it was certainly interesting

2 years ago
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There's even a playable character in Unavowed who was an NPC in Blackwell Epiphany.

2 years ago
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Goddammit :D

2 years ago
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I feel the same about most stuff that I enjoy. First I'm sad that it's ending, then I postpone it but by the time I get back to it I either forget most of it or most of my initial enjoyment has already faded. So in a way I hinder the maximum enjoyment I could get out of the experience because of it. Which sucks, I need to learn to get over it.

2 years ago
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So in a way I hinder the maximum enjoyment I could get out of the experience because of it.

I feel the same, I tend to leave the "good games" for later, ending up with mostly okay games
Working on it as well, I think I'm past the issue with finishing games/series :)

2 years ago
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Great series and worth the money.

2 years ago
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Thanks for the breakdown ! Been watching these for so long - I decided to go ahead and pick up the bundle now at 78% total discount (vs waiting for a possible 80% on individual sales) - I had a few cents in my wallet from selling cards which helped a tiny bit, and I also liked knocking 5 items off my wish list !

2 years ago
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I apparently played the 1st one back in 2013. I don't remember it at all, but that's because my memory is horrible, not a reflection of the game. I think I'll pick up the one I don't have and play through the whole series this time.

2 years ago
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Great deal. Would definitely pick it up if I didn't already own the 4-game version of the bundle on GOG.

2 years ago
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thanks i was only missing one game :)

2 years ago
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These games are some of my favorite point-and-click adventure games. I played all five last year back-to-back and absolutely loved them. Highly recommended for anyone who's a fan of the genre!

2 years ago
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