Psychology of Steam sales – How and why does it work?

Table of Contents
1. Introduction:.................................................................................................................................3

2. Design of Steam - Show the customers what they (might) like....................................................4

3. Show the people what they could be interested in: Steam Discovery..........................................5

4. Steamspy......................................................................................................................................6

5. The target group: Gamer are not always male teenagers.............................................................7

6. Psychology of the sales ................................................................................................................7

7. Summary.......................................................................................................................................8

8. Sources.........................................................................................................................................9

9. Pictures ......................................................................................................................................11

“There's a word that people use to describe “creating a sense of excitement to improve spending on an upcoming
commercial event,” and that word is “marketing.” Marketing is a job, and in the real world, people get paid for it.”
Tim Colwill, May 2017

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1. Introduction:

It is commonly heard that people say they do not need anything new, but sales suggest a different reality.

Especially summer or winter sales, or buy 3 get 1 for free, special holidays like Christmas or Boxing Day (UK). Discounts are
used in various businesses: clothes, furniture, games or even food and drinks to persuade customers to buy more.
This system also works in online shops. One of those online shops is called Steam and is one of the biggest “digital
distribution platform(s)” (giantbomb.com, 2016) for PC games.
75% of the market share related to the sales of games via online platforms (others: gog.com, Uplay, Origin) belongs to
Steam.

It was developed by Valve Corporation in 2003 and is available in 27 different languages. Steam does not only offer
computer games but also programs for game developers, movies, social networks (Steam Community, chat with friends
and other players).
Steam Sales are not only taking place on holidays but also every day in agreement with publishers and developers. These
discounts are for one publisher, around a genre for example RPG´s. Furthermore, it is possible to play some games for free
over the weekend for testing. (giantbomb.com, 2016)

(Hachenberg A., November 2017)

2. Design of Steam - Show the customers what they (might) like

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On the start page is an overview about a rising number of new products, discounts and recommendations for the
customer. These recommendations are based on what the customer has bought and what games the customer is playing.
It is possible to subscribe other players or “curators” similar like YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. (Martin, D., 2014)
These curators can be familiar like the Lets´ Players PewDiePie (Sweden), Gronkh (Germany) or magazines like Gamestar
(see picture below).

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(Hachenberg, A., January 2018)

3. Show the people what they could be interested in: Steam Discovery

Steam discovery was published in 2015. It proposes the customers games similar to those they have bought and played
before. Customers can “discover” 12 recommended games per “discovery”. This leads to more recommended games (like
those from friends or curators) in that list of proposed games which might not have been familiar to the customer before.
(Reisdorf, D. 2015)
This offers easier access to finding potentially interesting games. As a result the click-rate rose by 30% on the product
websites until the end of 2015.

(Hachenberg, A., November 2017)

4. Steamspy

Helpful and existential important for Steams´ sales strategy is a program called Steamspy. It is used to collect information
which is needed for marketing for example creating statistics, recommendations or to analyze target groups. Steamspy
allows “developers, publishers and investors” (Barrett, B., 2017) to check out information like sales figures or reviews from
customers.

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Steamspy is “[...] a tool for everything from market research to constructing opening broadsides in internet fanboy
arguments. It uses Steams´ publicly available player data to estimate owner numbers, and thus is used to figure out how
many copies a game may have sold”. (Barrett, B., 2017)

(Hachenberg, A., Snipping Tool, January 2018)

5. The target group: Gamer are not always male teenagers

Steams´ target group are gamer. It is possible to differentiate several types of gamer related to several sources but
technically, they do not exist .
There is considerable overlapping which make it difficult to define a “typical gamer” for example a “[...] woman in her
fifties playing Candy Crush Saga on her phone and a college girl enjoying Call of Duty on her Xbox [...] “, would both be
categorized as female gamer even if they do not use a computer or a games console for gaming but a mobile phone.
(Galyonkin, S., August 2015)

Nevertheless, according to different sources, it can be said that the typical gamer is male and between 32 and 38 years old.
In addition, half of the percentage of people who buy and play video games are female. Video games are popular at all
ages and income brackets. Everyone who buys and uses video games (on mobile phone, computer or gaming – console)
can be described as a gamer. If a new game enters the market, the target groups has to be defined individually before.
(Fachstelle Öffentliche Bibliotheken NRW, September 2014)

6. Psychology of the sales

“Steam is offering discounted digital downloads in the form of daily sales that change every 24 hours, plus “flash deals”
that change every 8 hours. And there are community choice deals where users vote on which of three titles should get its
price slashed next” (Madigan, J., July 2013)

The dates for these sales are usually published at the beginning of the year. For example the next Steam summer sale will
take place on the 21st June 2018. (McMullan, T., January 2018)
Customers can create wish lists. They can add games, subscribe to them for new information (like updates). Any game they
have chosen this option on, they receive a mail every time one or more products on their wish list are on sale.

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And often, really often, customers are then tempted to buy more than one product when there are offers which can
include the game on their wish lists.

But why?

“According to an article on The Psychology of Video Games, that is because Valve has been able to psychologically
manipulate gamers into buying more than they normally would. [...] Valve hired a psychologist to analyse player behaviour
while playing. According to the article, there are 5 key ways that Valve gets gamers “hooked”. (Schwartz, W., July 2013)

First of all, is the uncertainty when a game you want will be on sale again. The chance to buy it now and to be safe is
tempting. The price is important, will the game be on the same price? Or higher/cheaper? Customers often use the chance
of a “cheaper price” instead of waiting for the next sale. Even if there is the possibility that the game is even cheaper next
time it's on sale.

Second, buying more games for a lesser price will lead to more fun while gaming instead of buying one game for the full
price because it is “more”.

Third, the feeling of completing something. Many people do not like to leave something unfinished. This is the same with
computer games. These people spend hours in a game to find and see everything. Most games on Steam offer
“Achievements and Trophies” (Madigan, J., July 2013) which reward the player for buying and playing a game (fighting a
boss in a short time, finding every item etc.). Some gamer want to accomplish every achievement and spend many hours in
a game.

Fourth, consistency. Steam is using this human attitude with “Community Choice polls”. (Madigan, J., July 2013)
This means that customers are a part in the community by recommending games writing reviews, helping other gamer
with problems or voting for a new game to be published.
And if you voted for a game you might feel “forced” to buy it for example to support the team who developed it.

And last, “random reward schedule” (Madigan, J., July 2013). Steam manages to bring his customers back regularly. There
are many reasons to check Steam: new games, daily discounts, a big sale, news on games etc. So, every time you check
Steam there can be something interesting worth a look.

7. Summary
Steam offers a wide range of different products, not only for gamer but also for game developers like photo editing,
animation and modeling or audio production. (Steam, 2018)
A clear design presents the customers new, customized offers, updates and other news every day.
Based on the games the customer bought and played, there are new recommendations every day. It is possible to play and
chat with friends and be a part of the community. Writing reviews, supporting new games or other players. There is always
an opportunity to be active.
Daily sales and announced ones like winter or summer sales make it easy to visit Steam on regularly basis to check the
actual offers.
Furthermore, the use of “psychological tricks”. Like receiving mails every time a game on your wish list is on sale, the
uncertainty when a game will be on sale again and how the price will change. The possibility to buy more games to have

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more fun and collecting achievements.
All these reasons make Steam a really successful market leading company in the area of computer games.

8. Sources

1. Barrett, B., February 2017. What do developers and publishers really think of Steam Spy? [04.01.2018]
https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam/steam-spy-accuracy-developers
2. Colwill, T., May 2017. Valve is not your friend, and Steam is not healthy for gaming [07.01.2017]
https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/16/15622366/valve-gabe-newell-sales-origin-destructive

3. Conditt, J., 2013. Psychology of the Steam Summer Sale [07.01.2017]

https://www.engadget.com/2013/07/15/psychology-of-the-steam-summer-sale/

4. Crider, M., June 2017. What Is Steam Direct, and How Is It Different from Greenlight? [07.01.2018]
https://www.howtogeek.com/311311/what-is-steam-direct-and-how-is-it-different-from greenlight/

5. Fachstelle Öffentliche Bibliotheken NRW, September 2014. Wer sind eigentlich diese Gamer?, [08.11.2017]
https://oebib.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/wer-sind-eigentlich-diese-gamer/

6. Galyonkin, S., August 2015. Why you shouldn’t talk about “MOBA audience”, “core gamers”, “female gamers” and
instead think smaller [08.11.2017]

7. Gronkh, January 2018. Youtube.com [4.01.2018] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYJ61XIK64sp6ZFFS8sctxw

8. Madigan, J., July 2013. The Psychology Behind Steam’s Summer Sale […] 07.01.2018]
http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2013/07/the-psychology-behind-steams-summer-sale/

9. Martin, D. 2014. Steam - Valve veröffentlicht neues Design [05.11.2017] http://www.playnation.de/spiele-

news/steam/valve-veroeffentlicht-neues-design-id56599.html

10. McMullan, T., January 2018. Next Steam Sale: The Winter sale has ended, when is the next Steam sale? [07.01.2017]
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/games/1405421/when-is-the-next-steam-sale

11. N. d., last edited January 2016 , https://www.giantbomb.com/ [07.01.2017] https://www.giantbomb.com/steam/3015-

718/

12. N.d., gog.com [07.01.2018] https://www.gog.com

13. N.d., Uplay [07.01.2018] https://uplay.ubi.com

14. N.d., Origins [07.01.2018] https://www.origin.com/gbr/de-de/my-home

15. N.d., Steam [07.01.2018]http://store.steampowered.com

16. N.d., Gamestar [07.01.2018] http://www.gamestar.de

17. PewDiePie, January 2018. YouTube.com [07.01.2017] https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie

18. Pretotto, A., 2011. The Business Model of Steam [07.01.2017] http://www.dsi.unive.it/~marek/files/seminari/Andrea
%20Pretotto/Steam%20Relazione.pdf

19. Reisdorf, D. 2015. Steam: "Discovery-Update hat funktioniert" - Valve über neue Store-Oberfläche [05.11.2017]

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http://www.pcgames.de/Steam-Software-69900/News/Discovery-Update-hat-funktioniert-Valve-ueber-neue-Store-
Oberflaeche-1154927/

20. Schwartz, W.,July 2013. The Psychology of Steam Sales [4.0.2018]https://attackofthefanboy.com/news/psychology-

steam-sales/

9. Pictures
All via Snipping Tool (program on Windows to create Screenshots)

1. & 2. Steam startpage

Hachenberg A. (with Snipping Tool, November 2017. Steam Startpage [03.11.2017], http://store.steampowered.com

3. Friends
Hachenberg A. with Snipping Tool), November 2017. Steam Start page [05.11.2017], http://store.steampowered.com

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4. Steam Discovery
Hachenberg A. with Snipping Tool), January 2018. Steam Start page [04.01.2018], http://store.steampowered.com

5. Recommendations
Hachenberg A. with Snipping Tool), January 2018. Steam Start page [04.01.2018], http://store.steampowered.com

6. Curator
Hachenberg A. with Snipping Tool), January 2018. Steam Start page [04.01.2018], http://store.steampowered.com

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7. Steamspy
Hachenberg, A., Snipping Tool, January 2018. Steamspy [04.01.2017] https://steamspy.com

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