How Steam Sales work?

NickB · August 20, 2017

When there a steam sale on a game, who picks the sale price and when to do the sale? Does steam decide or does the game dev decide? Also if someone buys a game on sale, does the dev still get paid the full price as if there was no sale?

Thanks!

Billy_Mays · August 20, 2017

Christmas and Summer thats when they are when almost all games are on sale

BlueChinchillaEatingDorito · August 20, 2017

The same way sales work in regular retail?

JaegerB · August 20, 2017

I believe the prices are set by the Dev or Publisher. And since it is picked by Dev/Publisher, they don't get a standard cut, they get a cut of the discounted price.

ARikozuM · August 20, 2017

Publisher (whoever put the game up for sale) decides. The sales are usually based on a contract with a set ratio of "who gets what". @christianled59 might have some more info on the subject.

christianled59 · August 20, 2017

19 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

Publisher (whoever put the game up for sale) decides. The sales are usually based on a contract with a set ratio of "who gets what". @christianled59 might have some more info on the subject.

Nda prevents me from really saying much. But, it's mostly:

Dev/publisher chooses the price

Valve approves it

Valve gets their cut.

Sales are restricted by a bunch of policies I'm not allowed to get into, but they typically follow laws similar to anything else you'd buy in retail in most countries.

To answer OP, you get your cut of the amount of the sale. For example, if the game is $60, and you put it on sale for $30, your cut comes from the $30, not the $60.