Matrix and Steam

[Rosseau]

Order of Battle Morning Sun was released only three months ago, and is now on sale. It used to be no Matrix games on sale until after a year. So no point buying Matrix games out of the gate if they are released on Steam. Just wait until they are on sale like other Steam games and save money.

[Ranger33]

It works like this, basic economics:

For any given game there is a segment of people who are willing to buy the game at full price. These people buy it on day one and for a few months after. At some point the majority of people who are willing to pay full price have already bought the game and sales slow to a trickle. The seller makes a nice margin on each sale, but there is a point where it doesn't make sense to keep the price so high.

Now for every other potential purchaser there is some price that they are willing to pay for the game. To get all of these purchases you put the game on sale at some point. Deeper discounts gradually over time so that you get all the people willing to pay $40, then $30, then $20 and so on. This gets you cash flow and moves product.

Valve put out a big report a couple years ago about how any game that goes on sale will see increased sales volume even after the sale ends. This is because of the increase in discussion of the game on forums, youtube videos, yadda yadda. With the old system you don't get any of that. You keep interest alive in the game through the regular influx of new players, instead of waiting a year for interest to fade away before offering any kind of discount.

If you want to wait, just do so. Obviously this strategy is working or they wouldn't be doing it.

[Veldor]

Yes Ive had the base game on my steam wishlist but never pulled the trigger.
Got notified by Steam about a wishlist item being on sale so I bought the base game which is almost a year old..and added the expansion to my Steam wishlist.
If I don't happen to buy the expansion in time it now stays on my radar and I end up paying full price or perhaps get notified if it ever goes on sale to remind me just like the other.
I wish more Matrix Games were on steam as I'd be more aware of them and more often reminded (Not to mention I prefer to buy my games there even when they aren't cheaper).
Matrix sent me so many emails I had to unsubscribe entirely as I could never manage to just get notified as to what I wanted.
So if it isn't on Steam I don't even hear about it anymore. I might come here and plod through the product listings but that maybe once a year at best when I get really bored.

[Rosseau]

I understand Steam's economics. It's Matrix's change of price "policy" I am noting. I sort of like that Battlefront and HPS games will never go on sale, so no point waiting for them - grab them right away.

Right now is a good time to be new to computer wargaming. I have an embarrassing number of Matrix games that I paid full price for, as up until the recent past, they didn't go on sale until maybe Christmas. Ian has said they are on Steam to round up the stragglers. This seems true. Games like DB Case Blue have 10 reviews, compared to 1,000s for the mainstream titles.

Anyway, I never got one lousy coupon in the 14 years since I first bought Uncommon Valor in May 2002. So the trend is to support the new customers and ignore the people like some of us who made the company what it is today. Hotels.com gives me a free room for every 10 I reserve with them. Even points would be nice. Obviously, too late in my case. But just saying [8|]

My gaming life would be far poorer without Matrix, so I support them. But I have to admit my list of disappointing and unsupported Matrix games has grown quite a bit. Easily several hundred dollars.

Heck, no one's twisted my arm, either. But I'm going to wait for sales from now on.

[Fallschirmjager]

Matrix and Slitherine have stayed with an e-commerce system is that archaic and hard to deal with.
Getting old download links is like pulling teeth.

I don't like that Steam takes there cut from Matrix but to be able to easily redownload games, not have to use serial numbers and be able to play games across multiple machines makes it worth it to me.

[aaatoysandmore]

You ever notice there's no loyalty code for buying early? Not once in my 30 years of gaming has a company ever sent me a free game for buying their games early or retail. Now, of course we do get these "coupons" and such but you notice you have to "buy" something to use them?

Companies really have no loyalty to their customers so why should we/I have loyalty to them?
Creative Assembly sort of put the icing on the cake when they made RTW and it was totally for the casual crowd not for the gamers that actually gave them the business in the beginning when Shogun and Medieval Total War came out. They got me on RTW because I thought it would be like Medieval Total War and it was the worst poc from them I ever played next to Empire Total War. AI armies broke sieges they could have won, they had armies that did nothing but march up and down the same road turn after turn and 3 units or less and a lot of other things that were not good or fun that I never saw in Medieval Total War I.

I learned "patience" a long time ago about the time WinXP came out. I didn't jump on that band wagon until Windows Vista came out. Then I never upgraded from it to Win7 or 8 or 8.1 because I didn't see a need or felt like I had to be first or one of the crowd.

The difference between 100 games for $499 vs 100 games for $4,999 is called "patience". So, when a new game comes out and 6 months later it's onsale I don't get mad....I'm actually glad. [:'(]

I just don't rush to anything in the computer industry anymore because I saw early what they were doing. A little upgrade here $100, another version of the same game $59 and so on and so forth. It's all out there for them to make money off the lemmings or monkey's. (you know monkey see monkey do?)

So, I wait patiently for every new game I want to try or play now and play a lot of free to play games online that's on steam that are pretty good and pretty fun if you don't get into the Pay gimmick of them.

Back in my boyhood days I'd drop $500 on a new computer just to play "one" frickin new game. Later I discovered how silly that was.

Now, don't get your panties in an uproar about "if everybody did that there wouldn't be any games". There will always be lemmings and monkeys and they will always out number me. I'm just one of the smart ones that found out early what was going on. I do notice though more and more complaining about the prices, even on steam. Especially the Slitherine games on Steam. You think we are bad here you should see the post from them about $19.99 for an old Close Combat game. They are hilarious. I just think Steam has sort of made a lot more accustom to a lower price point even on new games and most especially older games.

The other saying is "You got what YOU paid for" and others got what THEY paid for. There shouldn't be anger because YOU had no patience. [:'(]

[EdinHouston]

"For any given game there is a segment of people who are willing to buy the game at full price. These people buy it on day one and for a few months after. At some point the majority of people who are willing to pay full price have already bought the game and sales slow to a trickle. The seller makes a nice margin on each sale, but there is a point where it doesn't make sense to keep the price so high.

Now for every other potential purchaser there is some price that they are willing to pay for the game. To get all of these purchases you put the game on sale at some point."

This is true... but these numbers are not fixed and are time dependent. If buyers know a game will go on sale in the future, some of them will wait and not buy the game now. The sooner the sale is likely to happen, the more buyers will wait for the sale.

So yes, at some point it makes perfect sense to put games on sale. But the timing of that sale is important too, because some of the increase in purchases that occur after the sale happens are not 'new' or 'on the fence' buyers as you implied, but would-be day 1 full-price buyers who instead waited a few months for the sale.

In fact I am one of those buyers. I recently bought Victory and Glory, but only because I wanted to support Matrix and the developers of that fine Hannibal game. I don't buy that many wargames, and when I do, I am often willing to wait until it goes on sale. For Matrix games I feel guilty when I buy on Steam, but otherwise the Steam purchases suit me better than a day 1 full price purchase. This is especially true because some games (a few Matrix games like the Ageod games, but mainly games from other developers like Paradox) seem very buggy at release and more like a paid beta than a finished product.

[aaatoysandmore]

Also, don't forget the Humble Bundle deals. You can get a lot of great games for a $1 there. I got one of the expansions for Rome II for a buck there: Caesar in Gaul. It originally was like $9.99 I think. I got the real time Warhammer stuff there in a bundle package deal for a buck. Those sales and prices are a patient mans dream. [:D]

[Jestre]

And then there is the portion of buyers like myself that refuse to use Steam and wont buy from them...

[aaatoysandmore]

ORIGINAL: Jestre

And then there is the portion of buyers like myself that refuse to use Steam and wont buy from them...

True and I don't buy AAA titles there. Most of the games I get are $4.99 or less. I feel it's ok for that. I'm in my twilight years anyways so I figure if I lose them it ain't gonna matter much in a few years. [:D]

As I said I play a lot of the free to play games there. They are quite fun and good for FREE. [:'(]

I can recommend, Combat Monsters, Infinity Wars, March of War and this new one out Hex. Some of the mmo's are free as well but I can't see the fonts in a lot of them so don't play much of them but they have some pretty good ones of those also.

If it's intrusion you're worried about, man that stuff goes on everywhere they load a cookie onto your computer I've found. They track where you go and what you buy etc. etc. So, don't think because you ain't on Steam you can't be watched anymore. Everybody is watching everybody these days. Cell phone cameras, police chest camaras, police car cameras. Even a monitor that tells them if you have insurance or not on your cars now. I'm waiting for the legal bathroom cameras in department stores [:'(]

[Jestre]

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore

ORIGINAL: Jestre

And then there is the portion of buyers like myself that refuse to use Steam and wont buy from them...

True and I don't buy AAA titles there. Most of the games I get are $4.99 or less. I feel it's ok for that. I'm in my twilight years anyways so I figure if I lose them it ain't gonna matter much in a few years. [:D]

As I said I play a lot of the free to play games there. They are quite fun and good for FREE. [:'(]

I can recommend, Combat Monsters, Infinity Wars, March of War and this new one out Hex. Some of the mmo's are free as well but I can't see the fonts in a lot of them so don't play much of them but they have some pretty good ones of those also.

If it's intrusion you're worried about, man that stuff goes on everywhere they load a cookie onto your computer I've found. They track where you go and what you buy etc. etc. So, don't think because you ain't on Steam you can't be watched anymore. Everybody is watching everybody these days. Cell phone cameras, police chest camaras, police car cameras. Even a monitor that tells them if you have insurance or not on your cars now. I'm waiting for the legal bathroom cameras in department stores [:'(]

It's more a matter of not really owning a game purchased thru Steam, they are just allowing you to play it. If Steam goes under for whatever reason all your games are gone...

[aaatoysandmore]

Actually no they aren't. As long as you have the "steam client" installed the games just look for that client and if it's there they will run. The cd check and all that has been done the one time you were online downloading the game. After that you can play them all offline and never have to be connected to steam. I've learned this over time playing all my games offline. Especially since my ISP is going to start charging me for data over 300gb

The "client" program .exe is savable also, so as long as you keep a copy of it you'll be ok. Though it's best to go online once in a blue moon and let steam update. But, it only takes a minute and you can go back offline and play play play without any headaches.

Believe me I used to think like you, but, from my own research have found that I can play my games without being online as long as I have that "steam client.exe" installed. It's a savable file as I said. So, I don't fear losing anything now.

There is one other thing though that you will need to do and that is backup the complete Steam Folder periodically as you get new games from them. That's the part where I could see why you would say you lose your games because you are right if Steam goes belly up you won't be able to "download" those files again but you can save them locally on your hard drive, flashdrive or portable disc drive. I have mine backed up 3 places so even if those go bad (which they do of course) I hope that at least one will still be good. Media on disc drives deteriorates over time just like a floppy. You've got to replace those files of everything you want to keep periodically saving those files to new drives and places. Nothing lasts forever even my old c64 game floppies are deteriorating.

[IainMcNeil]

Morning Sun is a DLC and we've often had these go on sale a lot sooner. We rarely if ever have discounted a base game within a year of release. The only reason Morning Sun was included was because of the Daily Deal promotion. Nothing has significantly changed!

On downloading our installers - if you are loggged in when you purchase your download links will be stored automatically in the members area for you to redownload at any time.

[Jestre]

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore


The "client" program .exe is saveable also, so as long as you keep a copy of it you'll be ok. Though it's best to go online once in a blue moon and let steam update. But, it only takes a minute and you can go back offline and play play play without any headaches.

Believe me I used to think like you, but, from my own research have found that I can play my games without being online as long as I have that "steam client.exe" installed. It's a saveable file as I said. So, I don't fear losing anything now.

From Steam Wiki:

Software delivery and maintenance

Steam's primary service is to allow its users to download games and other software that they have in their virtual software libraries to their local computers as game cache files (GCFs).[33] Steam provides digital rights management (DRM) for software titles by providing "custom executable generation" for executable files that are unique for each user; this allows the user to install the software on multiple computing devices via Steam or through software backups without limitations.[34] The user is required to be running Steam while connected to the Internet for authentication prior to playing a game or have previously set up Steam in an "offline" mode while connected to the Internet, storing their credentials locally to allow play without an Internet connection.

Too tenuous for me...

[aaatoysandmore]

Yeah, that's just legal mumbo jumbo I've found. It's good to be cautious like I said for $4.99 game I'm not worried about losing it I rarely play them at all. But, Steam is good for those "free" games online.

I can only really say the games I have I don't need to be on Steam or online to play them now. Those that have DRM in the beginnning, yes, you have to be online that one time. Usually after the download and install and first time you run the game. Steam is going to check that ONLINE. Afterwards though you don't have to be online to play them or even connected to Steam. Just as long as that client is there on your computer and gets to do a "local" check everything is fine.

For instance I have Rome II Total War. I had to be online initially to download it and of course I could have installed it offline but Steam would have required me to connect to check the DRM the first time. So, I just stayed online and installed it and let Steam do it's thing with the DRM check. Ever since I have played it offline without ever having to have a DRM check. So, it's not like it's an alltime thing. It's basically just that one time and then you're good to go without the DRM check, but, it will check for the Steam Client installed on your computer. I'm playing it right now in offline mode and not connected to the internet. Working just fine. I think where we all get off on Steam is this line right here : The user is required to be running Steam while connected to the Internet and that is where we stop reading but if we go just a lil bit futher and read the whole sentence this is what it says: for authentication prior to playing a game or have previously set up Steam in an "offline" mode while connected to the Internet, storing their credentials locally to allow play without an Internet connection. That's saying "A" game not all games. Basically just that one time deal as I said. Then you can pretty much do what you want as long as you keep the Steam client.exe file installed. But, never have to go online again. It would be recommended though for updates and patches.

[Jestre]

as long as you keep the Steam client.exe file installed

That's the part that is too tenuous for me...

[JosephM]

ORIGINAL: rosseau
Anyway, I never got one lousy coupon in the 14 years since I first bought Uncommon Valor in May 2002. So the trend is to support the new customers and ignore the people like some of us who made the company what it is today. Hotels.com gives me a free room for every 10 I reserve with them. Even points would be nice. Obviously, too late in my case. But just saying [8|]

Hello Rosseau,

In case you weren't aware, we have started rolling out a new coupon system to reward loyalty, so please see the forum thread for more details. When the anniversary date of your Unified Account (which is most commonly from your MAtrix account creation date) passes you should get a coupon. More details can be found in the below thread:
tm.asp?m=4006249

[aaatoysandmore]

ORIGINAL: Jestre

as long as you keep the Steam client.exe file installed

That's the part that is too tenuous for me...

That's kewl believe me I understand where you are coming from and I was on the other side of he fense for years but when I tested it out myself doing all sorts of things to make it not work, it always did once I installed that client file again. So, it's basically one .exe file vs all those you have backedup somewhere for all your Matrixgames games (I hope) [:'(] With Matrixgames you have to prove ownership usually before a redownload of a lost game so I can't see much difference in that and the one time check online. You're online when you deal with Matrixgames although you can use snail mail I suppose if you want to wait that long.

The difference is you have to copy and save that steam client folder as well over time. Takes about 5 seconds but it is something you have to do to keep those files safe. Since I have all the time in the world now (basically retired) I don't mind saving a few files.

It's become "convenient" like most have said. It keeps all the games I get there in a library so I don't have to go searching for the cd or keep it in my drive while playing. Man, it made a lazy man even lazier. lol It also keeps all the games updated and patched so I don't have to go online looking to see if a game needs patching from time to time. That was a chore in itself.

The one thing I can probably still say I don't like about Steam is all these indi games they are splattering all over the front pages now. Page after page of old crap games like platforms and pew pews with gnarly graphics. I do have to surf it more now to find what I want.

It gives you a wishlist to make where you can store all the games you are interested in over time and will notify you when one of them goes onsale. Got a lot of great games for $4.99 or less using that system. Patience is the key there as well as any place else. Wait long enough and you can get games like Morrowind, Oblivion, possibly even Skyrim now for $4.99 to $7.99

Looking back the last game I think I "might" have paid retail for was Crusader Kings II. How long ago did that come out? I got HOI III for $3.99 just to give you an idea of some of the games they have great sales on.

One can also 3rd party buy and play the games on steam if there is a sale somewhere else like Humble Bundle or Gamersgate. So many avenues to get games for $4.99 now that should just be the normal price of a new game. [:D]

Oh Oh Oh and the new thing is Steam has a "REFUND" system in place now. Play the game less than 2 hours or 14 days and you get a complete refund no questions asked. To tell you how good it is I bought Europa IV 3 times and got a refund each time. Basically had 6 hours to test it but I didn't abuse it I was just trying to use mods and things to make the font bigger which I never could get the size I wanted. Maybe a lesson for developers to put in something so we can change the fonts for us older gamers. I can't hardly see less than the size of this font and this isn't easy.

[Jestre]

Another thing that keeps me from getting Steam is worrying whether the games will work, my boxed copy of Civ IV wont let me install and use Beyond the Sword, Medieval 2 wont install and play correctly either so I dont want to invest in Steam if I still have these issues.

[wodin]

You now have a few days where you cna get a refund.

I have no worries using Steam..none at all..an awful lot of the games I have on there where cheap sale or bundle games. If steam goes..veyr unlikely I'm sure the game developer would make sure you could still play and they could still sell.

Using Steam makes things alot easier aswell..download and install as often as you like..auto updated..just all round easy. No having to spend ages uplaod set up files to clouds in case your system\hard drive goes west.

Also to be honest with you it's very rare I'll still be playing a game a year or so after release..only very veyr few games get to that point with me so this percieved risk about losing them well really I'd say there only two game sin my steam library that I wouldn't be able to get some other way and that I'd miss..but I'd rather have had the enjoyment with them for a set amount of time than never at all.