Valve's changing Steam's discount rules to clamp down on "fake" discounts
No more sneaky price increases before a Steam sale!
Published: 21st February 2022 | Source: Valve |
Valve's stopping developers and publishers from increasing their prices ahead of Steam Sale discounts
We all know the tactic. Increase the price of your product ahead of a sale and then give it a discount to make it appear to be better value to consumers. We all hate the tactic, but that doesn't stop it from working. Thankfully, Valve appears to be as annoyed about these so-called "fake discounts" as we are, and thy are putting a stop to them on Steam.
On March 28th, Valve will be making changes to Steam's discount rules, setting limits on how developers and publishers can add discounts to their games. Games can no longer be discounted within 28 days of launch (excluding launch discounts), and new discounts cannot be made until 28 days after a prior discount (with seasonal Steam sales acting as the only exception to this rule). Additionally, developers will not be able to discount their games within 28 days of a price increase in any currency. That last point should end the practice of "fake discounts" on Steam.
The main changes to Valve's Steam discount policy are detailed below.
Specific Discounting Rules
- You can run a launch discount, but once your launch discount ends, you cannot run any other discounts for 28 days.
- It is not possible to discount your product for 28 days following a price increase in any currency.
- Discounts cannot be run within 28 days of your prior discount, with the exception of Steam-wide seasonal events.
- Discounts for seasonal sale events cannot be run within 28 days of releasing your title, within 28 days from when your launch discount ends, or within 28 days of a price increase in any currency.
- You may not change your price while a promotion is live now or scheduled for the future.
- It is not possible to discount a product by more than 90% or less than 10%.
- Custom discounts cannot last longer than two weeks, or run for shorter than 1 day.
You can join the discussion on Valve changing Steam's discount rules on the OC3D Forums.
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