Watch this person decide that they are going to buy this game
<iframe title="Embedded content" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hS6dZ5msSHM?rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamedeveloper.com" height="360px" width="100%" data-testid="iframe" loading="lazy" scrolling="auto" class="optanon-category-C0004 ot-vscat-C0004 " data-gtm-yt-inspected-91172384_163="true" id="889043108" data-gtm-yt-inspected-91172384_165="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-113="true"></iframe>At the end of the day, she bought it.
The key things to notice in this video
It was on sale.
They had their game on their wishlist for a while.
She saw people tweet about this game.
She has been into that genre for a while.
Very trusted friends recommended it.
How I watched people shop
Two months ago I ran a study where I watched regular Steam users shop. You can see all my findings and recommendations here. However, one issue with the past study was that I observed participants looking and adding games to their wishlist but never buying. Over and over I heard “Well I am waiting for a sale before I really buy anything.” I was missing a big part of the picture. the one that actually matters most: how people actually decide to buy games. So I committed to a follow-up study during a sale so that I could see how their behavior changed.
The following is my study of 6 Steam users during the first two days of the 2019 Halloween sale which took place from October 28th to November 2nd 2019. In general, I followed the same methodology as the previous study which you can read here. The one difference with this study was that I tested only during the sale. I wanted to make sure I got the first impressions from the participants so that I didn’t miss any key decision making by them. To do this I instructed participants not to open any “wishlist” notification emails, Steam app notifications, browse the store, or talk to friends about what is on sale until we were on the 1-1 screen share.
I tested six different participants. Three of the testers were from the last test (Participant C, D, and F) and three were new (Participants H, I, and J.) During this test I watched users shop and ultimately buy 12 games. All participants were paid a $25 honorarium for 30 minutes of their time (which is standard practice for consumer research studies such as this one.)
My research found that during sales events participants enter a special qualification buying behavior where they start with their existing curated wishlist, then reassess each game based on the following:
Percentage off
Friend recommendations
Past sale history
How shoppers look at Steam
In general here is a step by step process of what I observed the participants do during a Steam sales.
Receive notifications
Participants said they typically learn about sales because of the following
They will get the “An item on your wishlist is on sale” and it will contain more games than usual.
They see sales announcements from Twitter accounts that report on this Steam.
Friends will tell them.
Check the Event Sales Page
This step and the “check their wishlist” step are interchangeable depending on the participant. Participants skimmed through the page to see what types of events are occurring or what games are on sale. I tested during a Halloween themed sale so horror and suspense games were on sale. Not all participants like these types of games so some were more excited about the offerings than others.
Check their wishlist
(Sometimes this step was done before they went to the event sales page) I saw participants sort their list by the discount amount (not dollar price) and reacquaint themselves with it. If they liked the game, they added it to their cart
Cart review
At this point, the participant would just.... wait. They were aware that the sale would be running for a few days so they didn’t rush. They would use this time to message their friends who had played the game to see if they would recommend it, shop for more games they might have missed, and to debate whether they really wanted it or not.
Here is a detailed breakdown of how they would manage these steps
How they browse the main sales page
Participants followed a pattern that was very similar to the browsing behavior I observed during the last study. They looked for interesting capsules, hovered, looked at screenshots and tags. I noticed that most participants gravitated to games that they were already familiar with.
<iframe title="Embedded content" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/v5_5PaBWegE?rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamedeveloper.com" height="360px" width="100%" data-testid="iframe" loading="lazy" scrolling="auto" data-gtm-yt-inspected-91172384_163="true" id="866905532" class="optanon-category-C0004 ot-vscat-C0004 " data-gtm-yt-inspected-91172384_165="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-113="true"></iframe>Analysis and recommendations
I do not have any recommendations that are unique to the sale because the same rules apply that I found in my last study. You can get all those recommendations here.
I did notice a couple of participants gave a second look to games that had special badges for the Halloween Sale. So, decorate your capsule.
How they use their wishlist
Note that some users started with their wishlists and others with the Sale Page.
I observed many users do what Participant D did in the following video: they would sort their wishlist based on discount. Note they don’t care what the lowest price is, they are just looking for the biggest percentage off.
Other users like Participant C have such a big wishlist that they don’t even bother with the Steam interface. It just doesn’t provide the features needed to manage that long of a list. Instead, he uses the site GG Deals because it has something called historical low. Participant C liked to make sure that he is not missing out on any once-in-a-lifetime deals. If a game is regularly on sale for the same percentage he doesn’t bother buying it during the sale because he knows that that game will be on sale again later. This is "fear of missing out" in action.
I also observed a lot of participants totally surprised by what is on their wishlist. It was as if they were looking at the game for the first time.
Analysis and recommendations
Don’t take wishlists for granted. If some wishlisted it, you might feel as if that is money in the bank because they will eventually buy it. But that is not the case! When your game goes on sale all those wishlisters are going to look at your store page and say “what was this game again?”
Before big sales, update your store page. Think of better ways to describe what your game is and how it plays. Maybe you have been featured by some major streamers that did a good job showcasing your game. Make sure that video is easy to find for people visiting your page. Remember how Participant H went off to google to find more info about the game?. That indicates the page wasn't doing enough to describe the game. You want to make sure your page does a good job so they don’t leave Steam.
Also, if your game has been out for a while, consider doing minor updates or announcements before the next major sale. Clean out the cobwebs, put up a fresh coat of paint on your store page. Maybe put up some new screenshots or capsule art. Maybe even time an event to appear more alive.
Should you do frequent updates or not? There is no clear answer because it depends on your strategy and price.
Frequent updates can keep your game front-of-mind for many players. Note how Participant D said he was familiar with Talos Principle because it is always on sale. Just be sure that you make your game look different and alive with every sale.
Steam DB is a site that tracks every price fluctuation of a game and charts them. This is the sales chart for GTA V. Expect that a portion of shoppers are looking at the price chart for your game.
The downside to frequent sales is that you lose the power of "fear of missing out." If customers know your game will have the same sale price again in 2 months, they might skip it during a sale. We saw this behavior with Participant C who filtered for games with “historical lows.”
Historical lows for your game are very important. GG Deals dedicates a whole widget on their front page just to track them.
So be very strategic with your “historical lows” because that is a non-renewable resource. If you go straight from 10% off and then 75% off the next sale you just forever forfeited a whole bunch of “historical lows.” Instead, patiently discount by 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%... you then have many more chances to appear in user’s “historic low” filters.
Also save your historic low discounts to be timed during the 2 biggest Steam sales: Winter and Summer. I heard many participants say that they really save up in anticipation of those sales. While I haven’t tested users during those big sales yet I suspect that there is an additional urgency around those two that will make your “historic low” sale price have more potency again because of "fear of missing out."
How they use their cart
I observed participants quickly add good discounts they found on their wishlists or the sales page onto their cart. However, the cart didn’t mean that they are ready to buy. For the participants, their cart served as a secondary, temporary, wishlist.
Many participants indicated that they step away from Steam and have a think about which games to actually purchase. For example, Participant D said he thinks about which one he wants to play, he consults with friends (see the section below for more on that) and then checks more reviews.
There is a big risk here for us as developers because there is a real chance that people never come back before the end of the sale. Life gets in the way. Listen to Participant J as she mentioned that she forgets to go back. “I will probably end up forgetting when the sale ends and missing the sale completely.”
Although the Halloween sale has only one big discount round, Steam has trained users to wait to buy just in case additional items might go on sale. This is because the Summer and Winter sales have rolling discounts and additional unlockables that proceed throughout the week. Users don’t want to miss out on these so they might wait.
