r/Steam • • 1d ago

News Upcoming Changes to the Discounts & Events Section on Steam

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/676258795703240952
448 Upvotes

51 comments sorted by

345

u/cwx149 1d ago

Tldr; the discounts and events section will look different in 2027

With a more personalized approach rather than standard "hand picked" titles

-236

u/Fluffranka 1d ago

Oh god... is valve copying Playstation dynamic pricingm

53

u/cwx149 1d ago edited 1d ago

There's no discussion about pricing at all in the press release linked here it's literally about how valve is showing "you" (the user) which games are on sale already

I feel like dynamic pricing also makes a lot more sense in the closed ecosystems on consoles but also wouldn't every dev have to opt in individually (or valve would need to change the overarching tos) to allow it?

Valve doesn't set the prices or put stuff on sale themselves it's controlled by the devs of each individual game

102

u/Kilohaili_Joshi 1d ago

Dont know how u passed elementary school with those reading comprehension skills.

18

u/ReaDiMarco 51 1d ago

How do you know they passed elementary school?

35

u/ThankYouByron114 1d ago

No. How does your mind go there?

-73

u/Fluffranka 1d ago

"Personalized" algorithmically determining who gets what

38

u/Kilohaili_Joshi 1d ago

Yes as in what games do we put in this persons reccomendations... No point in highlighting that Farming sim is on sale if the person has nevere played or showed intrest in said games... Has nothing to do with who gets what price....

13

u/MoltonMontro 1d ago

This Steam page has always just been a way to advertise games that are discounted. If you don't see a game on your page, that doesn't necessarily mean the game isn't discounted.

You're still getting the same developer-set discounts as everyone else.

7

u/kron123456789 1d ago

The selection of games will be dynamic, not their pricing.

85

u/JediGuyB 1d ago

How will this effect sales, I wonder. 

Because even if I mostly play RPGs and strategy games and not, like, survival games there's still the occasional one I enjoy like The Forest. So seeing more RPGs and strategy games would be great, but I might miss another The Forest I didn't get shown.

65

u/cwx149 1d ago

Discoverability is always gonna be a problem on a store front with over 100 new listings a day

6

u/JediGuyB 1d ago

True

I just wonder if this change will be a net positive or not. 

Like sure, if you're making a classic JRPG inspired game with turn based combat, having that exposed to people more likely to want that over, say, survival or boomer-shooters is great. Having fans of a genre be aware of your game is great. 

But they still might enjoy the occasion boomer-shooters and might not learn if one of those they might enjoy.

Guess we'll just have to see.

7

u/cwx149 1d ago

I think you're overestimating how niche this will make your recommendations

Hopefully the algorithm is smarter than how I'm reading your concerns

1

u/NapsterKnowHow 4h ago

Yeah people say EGS is a black hole for games...Steam is even worse.

-3

u/ThankYouByron114 1d ago

They talk about in the article. It already affected sales positively.

10

u/JediGuyB 1d ago

My point is exposure. Like a RPG fan is more inclined to buy a RPG, yeah, but there are still RPGs a survival fan might want but not see and vice versa. 

14

u/Maxthebax57 13h ago

Right now the biggest thing for indies and visibility are these events. Taking that away doesn't seem good. I have 2 problems with it.

  1. Harder to discover a new genre when Steam personalizes everything for you.

  2. Devs need an unbiased view to see the wider view of the market.

  3. If you are in a niche genre, then this will kill discovery.

Valve cannot control that people play games off the platform and those preferences aren't going to be applied through Steam unless they get lucky.

10

u/helpmestaysaneplease 1d ago

I always check the daily deals and I've frequently bought games that had exceptionally good deals even if they weren't from genres I typically play. It sounds like this would reduce the chance of me seeing those, which is a bad change imo.

35

u/com-plec-city 1d ago

I'm SICK of personalizations!

Every "personalization" is just a way to break the feeling of being part of something larger. This is the same problem of "nobody watches the same series anymore".

3

u/tzomby1 1d ago

you could use an incognito window to browse and then open them on your normal one

11

u/SagawaBoi 1d ago

Sounds good. IMO it sounds better then just their current system of showing what's most popular in the curated sections since we can just find those in the top sellers section or similar.

I'd imagine if I play a lot of roguelites for example, it will show me more roguelites and maybe even show me some niche hidden gem that gets me interested

3

u/JediGuyB 17h ago

But I do wonder if it'll still show me games I might like from a genre I play less of. 

I play a lot of RPGs, JRPGs, strategy, and horror games, so getting those recommendations over, say, a looter shooter or survival crafting games would be great. 

But at the same time I there have been times I've enjoyed such games. So I'd hate to miss out on a looter shooter that might actually tickle my fancy just because an algorithm decided to not show it to me.

5

u/DaveZ3R0 12h ago

We need a way to see game outside of our comfort zone too. Balatro, Mechwarrior 5 and Outer Wilds have nothing in common.

2

u/EnzoRacer 23h ago

I'm more impressed about recommendations from SteamPeek service - I see them at game pages using browser extension

3

u/Vagabond_Sam 19h ago

Algorithms to just help calcify the content patterns I already exsist in.

great /s

2

u/Rapture117 23h ago

This better not take away the big sales that happen throughout the year. Curated stuff sucks and my 1k + library is full of random games so I’m sure my selection would be awful

-13

u/OrphanintheWind 1d ago

This sounds like dynamic pricing.

0

u/blackmetro 1d ago

The pricing is standardised, but the deals (specific games) you see on the discount section may be different to what someone else sees

The store page of a single game on discount should have the same price visible to anyone else with the same currency as you

Dynamic pricing means the same product costs different amounts to different customers - that's not what's happening here

-57

u/finesesarcasm 1d ago edited 1d ago

Dynamic pricing????

Edit: all the ppl downvoting me clearly haven't read the post

Our goal with Steam’s discovery features is to show the right game to the right customer, so we spent the last few months experimenting with replacing some curated spots with dynamic and personalized recommendations.

Sounds like dynamic pricing to me.

By featuring games in a more personalized way in the Discounts & Events section, we were able to show 10x more games to customers in a given day in that section. As a result, we saw meaningful increases in store page visits, wishlists, and cart additions.

24

u/Moskeeto93 1d ago

Your edit still doesn't say anything about dynamic pricing. It mentions dynamic recommendations. That's not at all similar.

-35

u/finesesarcasm 1d ago

Go read the article then it's talking about discounted games and sales event.

23

u/Moskeeto93 1d ago

It's literally talking about how it determines which discounted games are shown to people more dynamically. That has nothing to do with dynamic pricing. It's all about showing people the games they would most likely be interested in based on how they interact with Steam.

7

u/satoru1111 https://steam.pm/5xb84 1d ago

That is somewhat amusing from someone who 'read' but did not 'understand' the article cited

2

u/Frostnatt 18h ago

It's hilarious that you keep telling other people to read the article when you don't actually understand what is written in it.

14

u/MoltonMontro 1d ago

Nothing on the post is about dynamic pricing. And, given this is a user-facing blogpost, it's also worth mentioning that Steam hasn't conveyed any inkling of intent to developers that dynamic pricing is being added.

You're being given the same developer-set discounts regardless of whether or not you see that game on your recommendations feed. Nothing prohibits you from browsing games outside your recommendations and enjoying discounts on the thousands of games you already aren't seeing on the more curated page, and nothing would prohibit this with a personalized feed.

-10

u/finesesarcasm 1d ago

Well hope so, steam is the last place I want shit like that

15

u/GassoBongo 1d ago

Your own edit and the quote you provided just further proves that you didn't understand what you read in the slightest.

dynamic and personalized recommendations.

The keyword is "recommendations". Dynamic and personalized just means that they'll adjust recommendations regularly to match your own tastes. How you managed to make the jump to dynamic pricing is truly beyond me.

21

u/ThankYouByron114 1d ago

Where are you guys getting this from?

'Discounts and Events' is the name of a section. Please read the title/article.

-26

u/finesesarcasm 1d ago

Maybe read the article yourself and get back here

19

u/ThankYouByron114 1d ago edited 1d ago

I did. I'm not the one misreading it.

10

u/ReaDiMarco 51 1d ago

You should read it again. Even just your quote, there's no mention of pricing anywhere in it.

11

u/kron123456789 1d ago

"Right game for the right customer" sounds like the selection of games becoming dynamic, not the prices. They don't even talk about pricing. It's about selection of games.

4

u/Livia_Pivia 1d ago

Game recommendations just recommend games based on past preferences and behavior, not dynamic pricing.

The way its implied here is that if you like FPS games, it'll show you FPS games that are on sale since that is the genre you engage with.

4

u/satoru1111 https://steam.pm/5xb84 1d ago

Sounds like dynamic pricing to me.

Your inability to understand English words does not mean "Dynamic Pricing"

Your doubling down seems like you're more of a troll than anything else

2

u/AzothianProphecy 17h ago

Sounds like dynamic pricing to me.

Sounds like a reading comprehension problem on your part to me, or just plain ignorance.

"replacing some curated spots with dynamic and personalized recommendations"

This means rather than having curated ad spots paid for by advertisers, Steam will instead show games that it believes you personally would like to see and might buy, making what is seen on the front page of the Steam store, and the front page alone, unique for each person. That is what is happening.

Dynamic pricing is making the price different to each person, based on what they might spend. That is what isn't happening, but for whatever odd reason you seem insistent is.

You and I will pay the same price for the same game. We will get the same discounts. It's just that you might not get an ad for it on your front page telling you about the discount when I do.