They could, but they'd rather just keep bitching about how no one wants to buy from them

So unlike how it looks, this isn't about a game going on sale. When this happens, it's about differences in regional pricing. Like a year ago, Poland was upset they were being charged the second most for games on steam, when they don't make that kind of income on average. So steam changed their regional pricing index, and games across the board got cheaper for polish users and a few other countries. Looks like they do this for recently purchased games when that happens. Not sure how many times this has happened, but I doubt it's very often.

Other game companies

FTFY

At first, I only read the first part and the price was an increase and that someone got the idea to charge people that have already bought something when the price goes up. Wonder how long until some genius CEO wants to try it.

At this point I do not believe anymore something like this in internet. If something so cool was sight in a random "meme" in internet, there is a high ratio that it is fake. There is no even a link to the actual post.

Edit: I had to investigate to prove my point. Gees.

The page in question -> https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4C10-B32A-137D-0945#missedsale

If it’s real it’s a marketing technique to boost sales https://fastercapital.com/content/Price-refund--Price-Refunds-in-E-commerce--Strategies-for-Boosting-Sales.html

The simple things make us customers for life. Hail Gaben!

added to your Steam wallet

Does this mean it's just store credit? Even if it isn't I bet this would motivate a lot of people to buy another game with these funds covering part of it, and the supply of games is infinite so Steam isn't out anything.

Probably easier to automate this than processing a bunch of price adjustment support tickets

Very cool to see given all the things going on with the other companies these days.