Valve states if their sales were actually killing games, they would have ended it by now

7/19/12 9:01am

The verbal feud between Valve and Electronic Arts continued as Valve officially responded to earlier claims by EA of Steam sales being dangerous to the strength of gaming properties. EA accused Valve of "cheapening" those properties as a result and not in terms of savings to consumers. In a bit of irony, EA would shortly hold their own mega sale on Origin which "cheapened" a lot of their own games.

Valve's Business Development boss, Jason Holtman, stated recently the annual Summer sales and other big sales done by Steam do not "cannibalize" overall sales but instead help those same games succeed a lot more.

He also mentioned had Valve ever felt these sales were doing more harm than good to these games and partner companies, they would have ended the mega sales long ago and that these sales are not company policy but rather a means of giving extra value to the player.

"It’s not as if a 75% offer or a 50% off sale at some point in time cannibalizes a sale that would have happened earlier, it’s just not true. We’re actually seeing both of them growing. We don’t see one cannibalizing the other. If we did, we wouldn’t do it.”

Using Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2 as examples, Holtman said if these sales were in any way killing their franchises or causing them to take a hit in terms of revenue, they simply wouldn’t put them on sale.

“We’ve even gone so far as to give away Portal for free a couple of times. Whole days where it’s not free for a day, it’s just free. We looked at this amazing data afterwards. The day after the sales were exactly the same, if not more."

Editor’s Note: Is the Origin sale ironic, hypocritical, or both? I’m not quite sure. But I do know that John Riccitiello’s face must be red right now. Oddly enough, I think Gabe Newell is likely too busy counting Valve's profits to even notice.

» Source: http://www.destructoid.com/valve-if-steam-sales-killed-games-we-wouldn-t-do-them-231526.phtml
» Tagged In: #community showcase, #EA, #IP, #Origin, #sales, #steam, #valve

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EA = Company who wants to Be Valve, but cant get their shit straight

Kaepora22

July 19, 2012 - 12:29pm

Valve already has a ton of money from me and there's a reason for that......They're good to their consumers. EA could care less and that's why they have to whine if they don't get their way.