PC Tsw Bundle Pricing On Steam

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by Medellinexpat, Jan 19, 2019.

  1. Medellinexpat

    Medellinexpat Well-Known Member

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    In the past I’ve said I find TSW pricing on Steam bizarre. Perhaps it’s just limited to my Country store, Colombia, but if not can someone explain to me the rationale for the bundle pricing. Note I’ll show the prices in local currency, but there are around COP 3,000 pesos to the USD.

    There’s a ‘digital deluxe edition - complete my collection for existing owners’. That has TSW, GWE, NEC, Rapid Transit and the GP40-2 for COP 124,960 which based on Steam List prices is a 60% reduction from the combined price of COP 312,400.

    Then there’s a ‘digital deluxe edition’ with EXACTLY the same content. That package is COP 59,580. However it shows as only being a 55% discount as the package pricing is based on normal package price of COP 132,400.

    So existing customers pay around $42 for the same package as new customers pay $20 for.

    It’s not a mistake as there’s a helpful link to the cheaper package from ‘complete your collection’ if you’re a new buyer.

    That’s quite a price for being an existing customer...
     
  2. Nick_Brad

    Nick_Brad Member

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    I've never understood their pricing either, which is why I'm very careful before hitting the buy button to make sure I am actually getting the best deal.
     
  3. Sintbert

    Sintbert Well-Known Member

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    Those are completely different working products..

    The 'train sim world' or the 'digital deluxe edition' are full packages, you pay the price and get everything in it. If you have some of it you pay again. They may be cheaper at the moment because they are heavily discounted.

    The complete my collection has at the moment the same stuff in it as the 'digital deluxe edition' but you will only pay for the parts you do not yet own.

    So depending on how many DLC you own, complete my collection will be cheaper.
     
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  4. Medellinexpat

    Medellinexpat Well-Known Member

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    Sintbert that would make sense I guess. But with everything, for the new buyer being only $20, even individual pricing isn’t a great deal. And again, if it’s ‘complete my collection’ why isn’t everything listed - there’s more to complete a collection than is in the bundle?

    As for the ‘deluxe’ package all it adds now (as the other items are only available in bundles) is the GP-40. The base pack with the four items is COP 5,500 pesos cheaper ($1.75).

    And if items like NEC are only now available in the bundle how can they have a ‘normal’ individual price? Where can I buy NEC for the listed price of COP 132,400? It’s like buying a car, being told it’s a package and being given a separate price for the windscreen. In some countries don’t items actually have to have been on sale at the listed price before you can quote sales prices? Yes, the package has a discount, but isn’t the package total, based on the individual prices fictitious?

    So the TSW package is COP 54,000, the ‘normal’ package price COP 120,000 but at the bottom of the package contents and the individual prices it shows the total cost as COP 238,320 and ‘here’s what you save’ as COP 184,320.

    As I can never buy all of the items separately I can never pay COP 238,320 so I can never save the amount shown. Is that Legal?
     
  5. Sintbert

    Sintbert Well-Known Member

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    That has all historically come together.

    In 2017 the Base-package was just CSX HH. Then came the other DLCs GWE, RT, NEC and the GP40-2.
    In 2018 with the release as TSW the Base was changed to now include all those DLCs from the first year. And complete my collection was added for those who did have some, but not all of the DLCs to get to the same as the Base, but with a discount. Then came the new DLCs WSR, RSN, LIRR, and now NTP.
    In 2019 they will most probably change the Base again to include the new DLCs, but throw out the old routes. Also may they change the complete my collection to include those new routes.
    That is if they do it analog to how they did with TSXX over the years.
     
  6. Medellinexpat

    Medellinexpat Well-Known Member

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    Sintbert but the TS1 model evolved over a number of years.I'm not sure that they'll do that going forward with TSW, One different element is going to be the consoles and how far they'll let the pricing/packaging between the two platforms differ. As the quality (hopefully) improves on the packages I believe that the early DLCs are always going to be packaged or very heavily discounted. If they don't throw them into the base package I question how much of a market there would be for them individually (again). I'd suggest that that they aren't shown individually is a pretty good sign they aren't sustainable on their own even at this point. Bottom line who's going to pay $40 for NEC at this point?

    And while I appreciate the history at this point the suggestion of individual element pricing (to arrive at a discount) when items aren't aren't available individually is I think a far more important point. I've no issue with a bundle having a discount, but then listing prices within the bundle that effectively don't exist and suggesting an even bigger value is pretty tacky (at best). In those 120 staff DTG don't have a lawyer who thinks about these issues?
     
  7. Sintbert

    Sintbert Well-Known Member

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    They stay on a pretty hefty price for a long time.. Look at the Weardale & Teesdale Network on TS19.. Thats from 2015 and still on the same price as new routes. Other routes that old have had there price halved by now.

    Its always a good tip to wait for a discount on a route you want.
    Right now every route except the newest one are 20-60% discounted. The older, the higher the discount.

    The prices show in the bundles are the original prices before they where bundled. And they will most likely keep that price once they get kicked out of the bundle.
     
  8. Medellinexpat

    Medellinexpat Well-Known Member

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    Sintbert of course it’s always a good idea to wait for discounts. Except in your example if you wait too long it goes back to full price!

    I’m not sure how you’re working out the discounts of the older DLCs but it’s not 60%. As those are only available in a package the package content for TSW (which includes TSW, GWE, NEC and RT) is at a 78% discount to the original pricing of the individual items. Just think about that for a second. An 80% discount on a fairly new game. That’s the level of discounting you see on very old and half functioning TS1 items.

    And you think that once they’ve been on sale at nearly 80% off they’ll eventually go back in the store at the original price? If they do, to sell any, they’ll need to massively discount them.

    Personally I think that the TSW pricing reeks a little of desperation. Selling four items for less than $20 might get some new entrants to the game but then trying to get them to buy the next single DLC at $40 is going to be an uphill battle.
     
  9. Sintbert

    Sintbert Well-Known Member

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    Well we may have different discounts..

    Do not think of the TSW packages as brand new.. those are all routes that are over a year old, most of them have already multiple discounts behind them.
    The new routes that came out trough the last year are 20-60% discounted for me.
    And yes, they all go back to regular prices once the sale is over. They have to, or they get problems with the authority. If they stay down, it would not have been a sale and therefore false advertising for that part.
     
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  10. Medellinexpat

    Medellinexpat Well-Known Member

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    Sintbert Agreed! 'If they stay down on price..' they have to take them off sale. But if they're not listing the routes as separate DLCs - and may well not do so for some time - how do they justify the price for each individual item in the packages? They can take the discount from the package, but it will still be way less than the total of indicated prices within the package. Bottom line, the inclusion of single item prices which are not available as single items at this time gets them into a bind. As it says on Steam 'here's what you save' based on the items individually. They don't have a reference point for those prices as you can't get them individually!
     
  11. Sintbert

    Sintbert Well-Known Member

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    Well the items had individual prices before they where in the package and they will have it once they are out of it. To not sell them separately at the moment is just a decision from DTG. But that does not make those prices invalid in any way.
     
  12. Medellinexpat

    Medellinexpat Well-Known Member

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    Just taking UK law for example an example of an invalid sale price would be

    ‘Using a reference price that applied many months (at least more than two months) before the promotion’

    All DTG has to do is also list the individual items at the full price for a while. But they can’t have it both ways, suggest a seperate price and then not make that item available separately.

    And the law doesn’t allow you to say, ‘we’ll list it at those prices sometime in the future (maybe)’.
     
  13. Sintbert

    Sintbert Well-Known Member

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    Well no problem with that, since the sale goes on the package price, and not the individual route prices inside that package..
     
  14. Medellinexpat

    Medellinexpat Well-Known Member

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    Sintbert really? So your suggestion that the wording ‘what you save’ is based on the total of the fictitious full price of the individual items (as there is no reference) rather than the package price has no bearing?

    Somehow I don’t think you’d win that case. It’s exactly what these consumer laws are set up for to avoid misleading statements of ‘value’ against sale prices. The issue - and one you never address - is that the individual items are no longer listed. Having individual prices, even with a package, means that those items have to exist at those prices, at least in the recent past. In the past (maybe with one exception?) DTG would list items priced in the packages separately as available DLC. I’m not sure that this omission is deliberate. They may just have missed it when they decided to wrap the old routes into the TSW ‘package’.

    Bottom line if the package already has a more than decent discount in it why do DTG need to try and pump it up even more in the package description? If nothing else it’s confusing (not everyone chooses for their Mastermind specialist subject ‘DTG pricing methodology and history’).
     
  15. Sintbert

    Sintbert Well-Known Member

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    No the sale is based on the package price..
    For me the package is 60.80 CHF. The Sale is -55% on that price which is 27.36 CHF.
    The 'what you save' is inside the package detail and says how much u safe against the full price of every DLC. And that goes down to the discounted price at the moment, as is correct. But it does not mention any saveing due to the sale like the -55% on the mainpage.
    Full price of all DLC is 123.48 CHF, the package costs 27.36 CHF and you save 96.12 CHF.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2019
  16. TrainSim-Dmitri

    TrainSim-Dmitri Well-Known Member

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    Hi Medellinexpat,

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this with us, I spoke to someone in our team about this.

    As you mentioned correctly, there is a bundle for new customers and there is also a bundle for existing customers. Currently, while on sale, the new customers' bundle is priced at £20. The second bundle which is only for existing customers has a higher price but only if you don't have any content from it at all. If you own a couple of Add-Ons from this "existing customer" bundle, the price you pay will be much lower and offering a saving over buying each of the add-ons separately.

    Hope this helps.
     
  17. Medellinexpat

    Medellinexpat Well-Known Member

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    TrainSim-Dmitri as I sent you a detailed email which explained the question I raised at the end of the thread, and which you ignored, both on this thread and in response to me I must say I’m more than disappointed.

    Getting any focus from DTG on any item on this forum other than soft ones seems a waste of time. It’s the same over in Steam. Why have the forum and coordinator if DTG aren’t going to take is seriously?
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2019
  18. TrainSim-Dmitri

    TrainSim-Dmitri Well-Known Member

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    Hi Medellinexpat,

    I apologise for this, I think I misunderstood the issue that your brought up.

    I just spoke about this with my management, we've raised the issue, and I will get back to you as soon as I get more details.

    Thanks.
     

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