Steam revises the discount rules, more than 90% discount will go into history when it hits a broken bone | 4Gamers

At the beginning of February this year, Valve rarely released a preview of the recent Steam sale. The announcement also mentioned the modification of the promotion policy. Now this modification has gone through a more specific specification and implementation date. The new rules are expected to be implemented on March 28.

According to the latest records of the “discount rules” in the Steamworks documentation, we responded to the loopholes in the past where publishers would use the old rules to adjust the selling price and then discount, and reset the interval between the two discounts. The detailed changes are as follows:

• Listing discounts are available, but no other discounts can be offered within 28 days of the end of the listing discount
• No price drop promotions within 28 days of a price increase in any currency
• No other discounts can be made within 28 days after the previous discount ends, except for Steam site-wide seasonal events (Chinese New Year, Summer, Autumn and Winter)
• Seasonal sale discounts are not available within 28 days of product release, within 28 days of end of shelf discount, or within 28 days of price increase in any currency
• Price changes are not allowed during the promotion period or if a promotion is scheduled for the future
• Product discounts cannot be more than 90% or less than 10% (currently not 100%)
• Customized discounts can be up to two weeks and a minimum of one day

The new rule change basically allows developers to use discounts more frequently, and also combats the practice of raising prices and then discounting before unscrupulous manufacturers’ special sales. At the same time, manufacturers cannot make discounts more than 90% to strive for homepage recommendation exposure.

In view of the concern of some players whether “the discount cannot exceed 90%” means that there is no limited-time free option, in fact, all discounts cannot reach 100% under the existing rules, and the limited-time free appearing on Steam should be for developers. The practice of contacting Steam to modify the pricing (modified from paid to free) belongs to the “pricing” rules.