Steam sale thread

[redcoat]

The Wargamer website has looked at the Steam Halloween Sale 2018

https://www.wargamer.com/articles/steam-halloween-sale-2018-war-games/

[Greybriar]

There are many, many games featured in Steam's Halloween Sale, October 29th - November 1st.

[Red2112]

Natural Selection 2, on sale 75% off (€2.49). Great online RTS/FPS hybrid. Same team as "Subnautica"...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4920/Natural_Selection_2/

Red

[DonCzirr]

25% on all the Strategic Command games ....


Purchased all the ones I did not have ....

They play awesomely on my Android tablet and have a ton of odd little scenarios in addition to the big campaign stuff.

Good times ...

[Red2112]

Destiny 2, for free till the 14th. Must have a Blizzard account (Battle.net).

Red

[Red2112]

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation bundle at a great price! If you like the C&C series or the Supreme Commander series (RTS), you will like AotSE...

https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/ashes-of-singularity-escalation-bundle

Red

[Mobeer]

Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion free:
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/sins ... -rebellion

Have to sign up to their mailing list

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: Kuokkanen

This goes little beside the point, but Steam has started to expunge visual novels because of "adult content", whatever the Hell that is. Theory is games (or visual novels) in question haven't been rated by ESRB, which makes purging of them easier than games that have been rated by ESRB, regardless of content of either group of games. There is likely some double standards and related BS going on. Some (potential) targets of the Steam's purge have started migrating over to Good Old Games, and of course many of the affected games are still available elsewhere: MangaGamer, DLsite, JAST USA to name a few. Steam's loss, their gain. But does Steam's executives really believe this move is good for business and profit?

ORIGINAL: Orm

And yes, steam obviously believe that this would make them more money.

This is old news by now. But apparently someone in Steam decided they don't get paid enough for removing "adult content" games and now Steam has games on offer that are outright porn. But it looks like some employees haven't got the memo and they still reject and remove some of such games, and even games without porn nor nudity to begin with.

[Red2112]

Strain Tactics, on sale (Steam Autumn Sale) at 60% off. A very cool "Doorkickers meets X-Com" style game...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/621810/Strain_Tactics/

Red

[Red2112]

Steam Autumn sale goodies at cheap...

PT Boats South Gambit and Knights of the Sea (Gold Pack) 70% off (3,29€)...
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/12139/
Was former on Battlefront (BFC). Works just fine on W10.

Breach & Clear 90% off (1,49€)...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/266130/Breach__Clear/

7,62 High Calibre 80% off (0,99€)...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/289890/762_High_Calibre/

Red

--

[demyansk]

I tried that game and it looks good. I might buy this for a few dollars.

I might also get that 7.62 as well. Looks cool

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: demyansk

I tried that game and it looks good.

What game?

I might buy this for a few dollars.

Again: what game?

[Red2112]

ORIGINAL: demyansk

I tried that game and it looks good. I might buy this for a few dollars.

I might also get that 7.62 as well. Looks cool

If you do decide to buy 7.62 High Calibre, the game will start in Russian. To change to English go to your Steam library and right click 7.62 ---> Properties ---> Language tab ---> English. Unless you want to play in Russian [:D]

Game has alot of detail, more then Jagged Alliance.

Red

[nicwb]

A good sale is always great but a note of caution - I've noticed that some (at least) of the Matrix games I have an eye on are noticeably cheaper on the Matrix Christmas sale than on Steam ie compare before you buy.

[demyansk]

The Pt boat game is the one that I played before, however, bad reviews and it might crash on Windows 10.

[Kuokkanen]

BattleTech with -30% cut! Bought!

[Red2112]

Synthetik: Legion Rising daily sale (60% off) ends tomorrow...
https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/synthetik

Red

[Zorch]

On the subject on Steam...

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/ ... ore-money/

Epic undercuts Steam with new store that gives devs more money

New storefront will take 12% of a game's revenues, rather than Steam's 30%.

Over the years, we've seen a lot of new PC game platforms try to make a dent in Steam's market-dominating position. Epic Games announced it's having a go at the leader this morning with an upcoming platform, the Epic Games Store, that promises more developer-friendly publishing terms.

Unlike Valve, which takes a baseline 30 percent of revenues from most games and content sold on Steam, Epic is promising to take only 12 percent of developer revenues on its new store. That matches the revenue cut Epic already takes on development assets sold through the existing Unreal Marketplace, a cut the company recently lowered from 30 percent.

"As a developer ourselves, we’ve always wanted access to a store with fair revenue-sharing that gives us direct access to our customers," Epic Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney told Ars in an email interview. "Now that we’ve built such a store, and Fortnite has brought in a huge audience of PC gamers, we’re working to open it up to all developers."

Epic is keeping mum for now on specific launch date and game line-up details for its new store, but said in a release that "the store will launch soon with a hand-curated set of games on PC and Mac and will open up more broadly to additional games and other open platforms throughout 2019." Sweeney told Ars that the company plans to "start small" and will "sometimes fund developers to release games exclusively through the store," Sweeney told Ars.

The approval process for new games will "mostly focus on the technical side of things and general quality," Sweeney said. "Except for adult-only content, we don’t plan to curate based on developers’ creative or artistic expression." That differs somewhat from Steam, which now allows adult-oriented content as part of a largely lasseiz-faire curation policy.

Sweeney also told Ars Epic will "manually curate the Epic Games storefront rather than relying on algorithms or paid ads." That's a not-too-subtle dig at Steam's more programmatic methods for guiding users through an increasingly bloated list of games.

"We believe the ultimate vector for players to discover new games will not be our storefront but creators," Sweeney said. To that end, Epic said the Store's "Support-a-Creator" program will "connect developers with over 10,000 creators, such as YouTube video makers and Twitch streamers," to bring more exposure to listed titles.

Epic isn't the only company that has tried to take on Steam in recent months. Popular gaming-focused social network Discord launched its own curated game store earlier this year, including a number of timed exclusive "first on Discord" indie games. And browser-focused gaming network Kongregate recently launched its own PC gaming store where players can receive discounts on games and other real-world rewards for earning in-game achievements.

But Epic comes into the crowded PC game platform market with a few advantages. For one, the company has already grown Fortnite into one of the most popular games in the world without the help of third-party platforms like Steam or Google's Play store on Android. Fortnite will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store on PC and Mac, Sweeney said, alongside other Epic Games titles like the new Unreal Tournament.

[JReb]

ORIGINAL: Zorch

On the subject on Steam...

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/ ... ore-money/

Epic undercuts Steam with new store that gives devs more money

New storefront will take 12% of a game's revenues, rather than Steam's 30%.

Over the years, we've seen a lot of new PC game platforms try to make a dent in Steam's market-dominating position. Epic Games announced it's having a go at the leader this morning with an upcoming platform, the Epic Games Store, that promises more developer-friendly publishing terms.

Unlike Valve, which takes a baseline 30 percent of revenues from most games and content sold on Steam, Epic is promising to take only 12 percent of developer revenues on its new store. That matches the revenue cut Epic already takes on development assets sold through the existing Unreal Marketplace, a cut the company recently lowered from 30 percent.

"As a developer ourselves, we’ve always wanted access to a store with fair revenue-sharing that gives us direct access to our customers," Epic Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney told Ars in an email interview. "Now that we’ve built such a store, and Fortnite has brought in a huge audience of PC gamers, we’re working to open it up to all developers."

Epic is keeping mum for now on specific launch date and game line-up details for its new store, but said in a release that "the store will launch soon with a hand-curated set of games on PC and Mac and will open up more broadly to additional games and other open platforms throughout 2019." Sweeney told Ars that the company plans to "start small" and will "sometimes fund developers to release games exclusively through the store," Sweeney told Ars.

The approval process for new games will "mostly focus on the technical side of things and general quality," Sweeney said. "Except for adult-only content, we don’t plan to curate based on developers’ creative or artistic expression." That differs somewhat from Steam, which now allows adult-oriented content as part of a largely lasseiz-faire curation policy.

Sweeney also told Ars Epic will "manually curate the Epic Games storefront rather than relying on algorithms or paid ads." That's a not-too-subtle dig at Steam's more programmatic methods for guiding users through an increasingly bloated list of games.

"We believe the ultimate vector for players to discover new games will not be our storefront but creators," Sweeney said. To that end, Epic said the Store's "Support-a-Creator" program will "connect developers with over 10,000 creators, such as YouTube video makers and Twitch streamers," to bring more exposure to listed titles.

Epic isn't the only company that has tried to take on Steam in recent months. Popular gaming-focused social network Discord launched its own curated game store earlier this year, including a number of timed exclusive "first on Discord" indie games. And browser-focused gaming network Kongregate recently launched its own PC gaming store where players can receive discounts on games and other real-world rewards for earning in-game achievements.

But Epic comes into the crowded PC game platform market with a few advantages. For one, the company has already grown Fortnite into one of the most popular games in the world without the help of third-party platforms like Steam or Google's Play store on Android. Fortnite will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store on PC and Mac, Sweeney said, alongside other Epic Games titles like the new Unreal Tournament.

That's interesting. Competition is always good but they will have to do something better than Stream or provide something unique to survive. They can't just try to be Steam Pt II.

[Lecivius]

IF they share more revenue with developers, then I can see said developers switching fronts. Steam already has a lot of negatives. The big 'positive', IMHO, is ease of use. If someone else comes along and provides this same simplicity while giving a better revenue stream to development houses, I can see it getting a lot of attention.

Time will tell.