Steam Is Removing Over 90% Discounts on Games Soon! [Effectivity, Discount Rule Changes, and More]

Steam will no longer offer its highest discount rates by March 2022.

A Steam blog post stated that the popular video game digital distribution service will be changing some of the platform's discount rules, which will come into effect on March 28. One of these changes is the removal of discount rates of more than 90 percent and less than 10 percent.

While this change may be a sign to say goodbye to your wallet's contents (whether it's your Steam Wallet or physical wallet), the other changes in Steam's discount rules are actually in consumers' favor, and for good reason: artificial price inflation.

Steam Discount Rule Changes

According to the blog post, product sellers on Steam would be unable to launch a discount run on their products following a price increase in any currency, in addition to the removed discount rates. They are also not allowed to change their products' prices while a promotion about their product is live or scheduled for the future.

Additionally, the time between discounts run on Steam will change from six weeks to four weeks, meaning that game sellers on Steam would have to wait for at least a 28-day interval or "cooldown" before they can launch another discount run.

Discounts also cannot be run within 28 days of a seasonal sale event such as the Steam Summer Sales, 28 days when a product's launch discount ends, or within 28 days of a price increase in any currency.

Meanwhile, custom discounts cannot last longer than two weeks or run for shorter than one day.

Simply put, the revised discount policy covers all types of promotions such as Weekend Deals and discounts across Steam except for the four major store-wide seasonal sales: Lunar New Year Sale, Summer Sale, Autumn Sale and Winter Sale, which would run at their usual duration.

Product sellers can still offer discounts when they're invited to join in a Steam sale event organized by someone outside of Valve. However, they will have to consider if the event falls within the new 28-day cooldown. Product sellers can still join the sale event even if it falls within the 28-day cooldown period, but they are not allowed to offer discounts to consumers and charge them for the full price of their products.

What Is Artificial Price Inflation?

Artificial price inflation, or price inflation, is an increase in the price of standardized goods or services over a specific period of time, as defined on Investopedia. Price inflation usually happens when the cost of production increases. However, it could also be used in a way that Valve is trying to prevent.

Product sellers could increase the price of a product before slapping a discount rate on it to give consumers a sense of agency when in truth, they will be paying the product's full price without knowing it, per the Center for the Study of Services' report on deceptive advertising.

The fake discounts are also meant to stop people from looking for a similar product elsewhere. After all, it's hard to beat a discounted price when the other product is asking for full price. Unfortunately, while the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is disallowing fake discounts, it is still a common tactic to use by retailers and product sellers due to how difficult it is to prove that a discount is fake, per Market Watch.

While the changes are impressive on paper, it remains to be seen if they're as effective in cutting false advertising in video games as well.