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Steam's sale section is going dynamic, and every player will see different discounted games External Article (www.tweaktown.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/Bside@fedia.io
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Steam plans to replace its curated Discounts & Events calendar in early 2027 with personalized game recommendations, not changing prices. Valve says testing displayed ten times more games daily and increased store visits, wishlists, and cart additions; results for developers have varied, and the system may need further tuning.

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[–] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The important part: no dynamic pricing.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago* (1 child)

    Valve says that from early 2027, Steam's Discounts & Events area will move away from manually scheduled placements towards something more dynamic and personalised, with each player seeing a different set of discounted games. Unlike the dynamic and elastic pricing currently being tested by Xbox and PlayStation stores respectively, Valve's approach isn't about changing prices. It's more about which games get shown to you.

    So basically, the prices are the same for everyone, but which sales are displayed on the homepage will differ from person to person?

    That's pretty normal, and I would have thought that they were doing that already. That's useful personalization and it's fairer to developers who might not have been selected in the curated lists.

    Meanwhile I didn't know Xbox and PlayStation were doing that. I wasn't buying anything from them, but now I know to look for shenanigans too.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago

    I would have thought that they were doing that already.

    The main page has a small section recommending things based on what you've played, but the rest of the page is the same for everyone.

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    • [–] 10 points 1 month ago

    and every player will see different discounted games

    This is worded badly on purpose to make you angry. The discounted games are the same for everyone. The difference is which ones are shown to you on the homepage.

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    [–] 10 points 1 month ago*

    Here's a better article that is not written by AI:

    https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-algorithm-comes-for-steams-discounts-and-events/

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    [–] 4 points 1 month ago*

    I'm not alarmed, but a bit suspicious, and the PCG article words it better than l:

    I'm a little tired of dancing to the tune of algorithms, and I wonder too if some people won't wind up missing out on cool stuff that maybe falls outside their usual areas of interest if they're only presented with what Steam knows they're likely to buy.

    I don't like what happens with too much algorithm, and Steam already has a lot of algorithm.

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    [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    Any opportunity for the small game devs to get more exposure is good.

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