The psychology behind Steam’s Summer Sale.

Yeah, they are tricking us... :(

Well, those tricks don't work for me anymore :) Only two games (and zero cards) bought so far. The worst sale was for two years (my first one), when I bought games for about 200 bucks and still didn't touch most of them.

So far I've spent $3. I guess I'm immune :)

So far I've spent only 18$ preorder Shadowrun Returns. Games I want to buy isn't available in my region. Plus Jade Empire is not even on sale, not even 30% off.

Thanks for the link. Most of it is obvious, but I really enjoyed the examples from those research studies. (Especially the car wash thing) :)

At every sale one of these articles pops up, but I have to admit, this is one of the most researched. Btw I missed the deals for Hotline Miami and Fez the author mentions :)

None of that works on me. The knowledge that I'm getting rip-off prices keeps me from spending anything in the Steam store. I don't think I've bough anything from it in over a year.

Whatever psychology is Valve using is not working on me. Guess Amazon/GMG/Trade have better psychologists :)

I'll admit, I fall for some of these tactics (checking the home page every 8 hours for one). The cards don't impact me as much other than I'm a top of the line cheap-ass and immediately sell them on the market for my free 15cents. The cards however are genius from a business standpoint and Valve and pubs and devs have to be thrilled with all the dedicated money Valve is accumulating towards video games.

CARDS CARDS CARDS CARDS CARDS

Just one more...

Funny thing is I still haven't spent a cent and have gotten multiple good games(Hard Reset, Torchlight 2, Duke Nukem 3D) because of selling cards, I love Steams "tricks", they seem to always benefit both them and the consumer.

Pop psychology. Yawn. Thanks for the GA though <3

Thank you bump...

That's pretty obvious. I still spend more during Summer Sale.
This year I have bought both Witchers, Deadlight, Dear Esther, Surgeon Simulator 2013, Hitman Absolution, To The Moon and Nazi Zombie Army. (Costs ~40€)
Games are cheaper, you can get 10 with the price of one. So of course I'm going to save up some money for the Summer Sale and spend it all, even if it means spending a bit more than I would otherwise.

Interesting read, cheers.

Meh, too complicated for me to understand that.

Also, nobody buys games just to have those Summer cards. You could 'em easily from the market for 20 cents.

I'd like to think I've been through enough of the Steam sales that I'm not affected by such things. Though the temptation is always there, however the money is not. There will always be another sale.

Though I really, REALLY hate the trading card aspect this sale. I have badges from the last two Summer sales and am disappointed I won't have one for this year, but I'm not about to fall into their gimmick and spend money on useless virtual cards.

Well, I didnt spent a real cent of mine. Bought my 3 games and a lot of cards to craft badges just with the money of my foil card sales.

Good article.

I'm fascinated by two things past this, though:

1. How does this same psychology affect the long-term vision of video games for profit. That is, it appears that volume sales are up, but per unit profit may be down. I'd love to know how these sales affect the perceived worth of games. Especially high-budget titles. As other in this thread have demonstrated. There is now a perception that 75% off of retail price for a game now is considered a "rip off". That's a paradigm shift from 10-12 years ago when retail boxes were the norm, AFAIK.

2. I wonder if there is a controlled factor here for those that realize this is partially pomp, but choose to participate in the game because, well, it's fun. Because if you have the right attitude, and some self control, it is. Those of us fortunate enough to be able to spend our money on non-essential entertainment are certainly going to "throw away" currency at something. How is this any different than a carnival, or a high-performance driving school (once), or a film/music festival? If it's a willing parting of money from the person, the idea that Valve is "getting over on us" may be a false one.

Also, great giveaway. Absolutely loved that game.

After reading that article, it is apparent that I'm a brainwashed Steam zombie. gaaaaaaaammes... urrrrrr....

Interesting read, but I can happily say I've only made a couple purchases that wasn't preplanned. I will say that I've spent a fair bit though, since my list is quite extensive. The games that I purchased that weren't on my list are mostly ones that I saw go on sale and texted my girlfriend asking "Hey, this game is really good, you want it?" like Arkham City and possibly Fallout New Vegas.

I thought this was interesting .. "The trading card mechanism, as described here, seems to be the exact same “Konpu Gacha” mechanism that was legally banned in Japanese social games last year in accordance to pre-existing consumer protection laws.

The banned mechanism consists on combining 1) A random reward on purchase + 2) An extra reward for completing the set of primary rewards."