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What's up with all the $99 games with a 95+% discount on Steam?

So I was browsing SteamDB.info looking at the various games on sale when I noticed there were a bunch of games (usually from the publisher Hede, but there’s quite a few others) listed as having a discount in the high nineties, yet still costing in the neighborhood of 30-50 dollars. Even odder when I go to the game’s Steam, it’s not listed as being on sale and costs the… “normal” price of $99.99.

I’m just wondering A) What the scam is here, B) How a SteamDB.info is getting $99.99 dollar game as costing 30-ish dollars when it’s 97% off but at the same time it’s apparently not actually on sale?

Botree ,
@Botree@lemmy.world avatar

steam game shady price

You’re right. Funny how they’re all the games with “hidden” in the titles and they all look somehow similar. It’s super suss. I don’t think it’s as simple as a cash grab. High chance they’re used for money laundering or transferring funds from stolen steam accounts or credit cards.

Vcio ,
@Vcio@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah it’s really annoying, i would like a way to tag and block this kinds of games. One really funny, they would increase the price and the “discount” each week/month.

SGforce ,

The reason it might not be on sale when you look it up yourself is that a lot of jurisdictions don’t allow fake sales and price manipulation so they’re forced to keep them at full price as the sale gets voided.

Dioz ,

My guess would be that heavily discounted games might be getting an advantage by the steam recommendation algorithm. So they’d rather go for 99,99 and constantly discount it instead of starting with 4,99

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Why make a good product and sell many copies at a low price, when you can scam just a few people with a shitty game sold for hundreds of dollars? 🤷🏻‍♂️

NuclearArmWrestling ,

Remember the I Am Rich app?

Amuck7157 ,

Please unmark yourself as a bot if you’re not one. it clutters

airplanesarecool ,

Just guessing but it’s probably the same age old scam of the permanent sale people like to think they are getting a deal also I think you can list games by discount percentage same as all the Amazon prime day “deals” where they jack up the prices then put them on sale for the normal price

KevonLooney ,

Who would ever look by discount percentage? Why should I care what the price used to be?

vd1n ,

Bro balance out your privilege. I only buy games under 3 dollars if they also have 90% discount.

thatsTheCatch ,

It’s a psychological trick where people tend to view discounts by how much they’re saving than what they’re actually spending

Sludgehammer OP ,
@Sludgehammer@lemmy.world avatar

That kinda breaks down at some point though. At the very least I don’t look at a mixed review hidden object game and think “Sweet! It’s only $2 rather than the hundred dollars it normally sells for. What savings!”

And that’s ignoring all the weirdness with the third party sale tracker somehow thinking a 98% discount on a $99.99 game is $46.20, when the game is still full price.

Haui ,
@Haui@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Good question. I have not seen those yet. Will keep an eye out. Thanks for mentioning it.

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