.

[eyebiter]

.

[Staggerwing]

Is that for Indi games? I can't imagine that Valve would just let EA or the like do whatever the frell they wanted without Valve having a hand on the brake lever.

[GDS_Starfury]

or in the till.

[FarAway Sooner]

Just because Valve is no longer telling developers that they can't charge a certain price to customers, that doesn't mean that they can't build specified pricing into their contract.  A developer can sell games to clients for $1, but if they're paying Valve $2 per game, that doesn't work for them.

I have no idea what Valve's pricing model is for developers who use them as a distribution platform, but I imagine it includes all of these features:

• 1st $X0,000 of Revenue (to cover onboarding & setup costs)
• $Y per game
• Z% of total proceeds

They'd likely customize those agreements with developers for individual games as the need arose.  They'd also likely want to build tiers in there (e.g., so Valve gets more money on the first 10,000 copies than the next 10,000) so that they stay more competitive for bigger/more successful titles.

Again, I know nothing about how Valve does that stuff.  But I've got to think that their pricing model is that nimble, in order to avoid competitors picking off products in certain niches.

[SgtRock]

If a Valve rep is not in on the price change (i.e. Sale), how will Steam list/feature the item?

If every Tom, Dick, & Hairy can will have their own sale, will this be the end of Steam Sales?

[Toonces]

You guys should read the linked article...  8)

[Bison]

You guys should read the linked article...  8)

Hahahahaha!

The whole F2P concept really is starting to annoy me.

[Nefaro]

If a Valve rep is not in on the price change (i.e. Sale), how will Steam list/feature the item?

Developers can already use their special Steam access to upload patches whenever they feel like it and check all the usage & info numbers Steam gathers from their customers when playing any specific title.  Those are the ones I know about, there may be more features.  It's not a leap to see that they're just turning over pricing controls to them via this software, too.

If every Tom, Dick, & Hairy can will have their own sale, will this be the end of Steam Sales?

That plays into Steam's hand because now you'll have to browse for sales in the store more regularly.  Just like department stores which move their displays around all the time, it will promote more impulse sales when potential customers are buying other products they happen to notice along the way.

[Arctic Blast]

Might also wanna check out the original article this is talking about : http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-02-27-developers-can-now-set-their-own-steam-sales

The new Steamworks tools cover both fixed weeklong promotions, which developers can decide to join and then set a percentage discount, and custom promotions, where the price and duration can be decided up to a two-week maximum. Prior to this change, pricing in Steam sales was worked out in collaboration with Valve.

"As with the addition of a 'Recently Updated' section to Steam, this is another effort to shorten the distance between developers and customers," Valve's Alden Kroll said in a statement issued to Ars Technica.

"This new Steamworks tool allows developers to configure discounts for their own products, on their own schedules. They can define custom sale periods or opt in to regularly scheduled sales. This will enable developers to better coordinate their promotions with events, announcements, or major updates they are planning for their products."

So they can join regularly scheduled sales blocks, or do their own thing. I can definitely see this making holiday sales a Hell of a lot easier to deal with from Valve's point of view now that the devs/pubs are configuring their own product deals within the sales structure.