Valve could be gearing up to globally launch a 30-day pricing history for games on Steam, which would allow users to directly view any price changes of a given title within a 30-day window. Steam features the largest online video game library and a massive store that sees new games added daily, and players often try to save a few dollars here and there by waiting for titles on their wishlist to receive discounts or be included in sales. With the 30-day pricing history display, fans would have a better chance at timing their purchases, making Steam an even more financially accessible platform for gaming.
It is worth noting that this 30-day pricing history feature is already available to users in the European Union, though that system was implemented in order to follow local laws rather than test-drive a global roll-out of the software. Many fans already use third-party sites to check game price fluctuations, with SteamDB being among the most popular for its accuracy, thanks to drawing data directly from Steam’s client code. While Valve is facing multiple lawsuits tied to player spending habits and profit splits with developers, it looks like the company is aiming to offer some financial transparency that would actually help users.
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What’s the Benefit of Steam Showing Price History?
First spotted by SigaTbh on SteamDB and shared courtesy of LambdaGen, Steam’s client code provides a 30-day pricing history for games, and it may only be a matter of time before Valve makes this information public-facing. Some may question the true benefit of knowing that a game was discounted a week before they had hoped to make a purchase, and there are several ways users can make better decisions with the 30-day pricing history. For starters, players can keep track of any pricing patterns, such as noticing that a certain developer consistently drops discounts on a particular day of the week or date of a month. Fans will also be able to spot if popular games only get price cuts during seasonal Steam sales or if they occassionally get discounts at random times.
Another crucial benefit of a 30-day pricing history display on Steam is being able to spot any price inflations followed by false discounts. Gamers have pointed out this type of misrepresented “deal” happening across retailers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and the increased transparency of Steam directly showing price changes could help to mitigate this kind of marketing tactic. Of course, there will still be regional pricing differences on Steam, so players will want to be mindful of getting too excited about any data sharing on social media and will want to be sure and check their own Steam store to view the 30-day pricing history for their region.
Valve continues to make changes to its transparency with backend information, having already enforced new requirements for developers to disclose the use of generative AI in Steam games and now preparing to be able to make its 30-day pricing history available outside the EU. Interested players can stay tuned for any official announcements on when the 30-day pricing history for Steam games will be rolled out globally, as well as any other helpful changes coming to Steam.
