Skyrim - Price Inflated Prior to Sale

@PCInvasion Sadly Bethesda have inflated the price of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim legendary edition to take advantage of those looking to get the legendary edition ahead of the free upgrade for said edition to the special edition.

In what appears to be a blatant effort to take advantage of people looking for a cheap version of Skyrim: Legendary Edition on PC (and qualifying for a ‘free' upgrade to the Special Edition), Bethesda inflated the price ahead of the Steam sale.

Technically speaking, it was even more devious than that. Perhaps in an effort to avoid another run-in with the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (which eventually cleared Bethesda of similar shenanigans with Wolfenstein: The New Order in the 2015 Steam summer sale), the version of Skyrim: Legendary Edition currently on sale through Steam is (semantically speaking) a different one.

The prior version, listed in this pricing database for $40.00 USD (some $25.00 cheaper than the present version) actually no longer exists on Steam. Bethesda's current version of Skyrim: Legendary Edition is now a ‘bundle' of the regular game and the individual DLCs, rather than a single title.

It's exactly the same, content-wise, but it allows the publisher to re-list the game at an inflated price, and exploit those who want to get in on the Legendary Edition before the Special Edition update shows up. So, rather than the Legendary Edition being on sale for $15.00 (or possibly even less) as it has been in prior sales, it'll instead cost you almost $27.00; and no doubt more in Europe.

All (probably) nice and legal, thanks to the "no no, it's a bundle now" dodge. But all rather unpleasant from a customer's point of view.

More information.

Thank porcozaur who posted about this in our forum.

The claimed to be free updated Pc version appears not to be that free.
In the end, there will be flash sales on the remastered version.

Is it really an update or just milk'em DLC?

Kinguin?
Just saying!

And Bethesda discounting 40% off TES IV: Oblivion is another bad joke. The game is …what… 10 years old? And it has been discounted 75% off before.
I would like to read a faithful, believable Steam report about this Summer Sale: how many titles were sold, what was the revenue loss comparing both to the last Winter Sale and the previous Summer Sale (2015), etc.

Originally Posted by henriquejr
And Bethesda discounting 40% off TES IV: Oblivion is another bad joke. The game is …what… 10 years old? And it has been discounted 75% off before.
I would like to read a faithful, believable Steam report about this Summer Sale: how many titles were sold, what was the revenue loss comparing both to the last Winter Sale and the previous Summer Sale (2015), etc.

I think they realized that people (like me) were waiting for this grand summer sale to open their wallets. It was only a matter of time before they started pulling shenanigans.

The Steam Summer Sale is a sale in name only, anymore. Only difference between a normal day is how many games are involved.

It's probably no different than what happens in the retail stores. Caveat emptor.

I played Skyrim enthusiastically until I climbed the mountain and got my DragonBall-Z powers from Beardie Elder Man Guru Guy…then I utterly lost all interest in continuing. It's still on my hard drive with the last save just waiting to be picked up from where I last stopped from 3-4 years ago or so. I think I'll give it another go when the HD pack comes out, just to show off the eye candy with my new Geforce 1070 if for no other reason. There might be some decent mods for it by now too, so…

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
The Steam Summer Sale is a sale in name only, anymore. Only difference between a normal day is how many games are involved.

I disagree a little. There are some titles that rarely are on sale and now they are.
For instance, the IMO overprized japanese ports to pc from Square Enix, NIS, or Idea Factory are sold now at 25% - 75%.
Also, I have a dozen games on my wishlist and now all of them have a doiscount between 20% and 80%.

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
The claimed to be free updated Pc version appears not to be that free.
In the end, there will be flash sales on the remastered version.

This is not a very logical comment….if you already owned the versions of the game then yes it is free, them trying to get a bit more cash from those that sat on the fence doesn't really bug me at all.

Originally Posted by JackOfOwls
I played Skyrim enthusiastically until I climbed the mountain and got my DragonBall-Z powers from Beardie Elder Man Guru Guy…then I utterly lost all interest in continuing. It's still on my hard drive with the last save just waiting to be picked up from where I last stopped from 3-4 years ago or so. I think I'll give it another go when the HD pack comes out, just to show off the eye candy with my new Geforce 1070 if for no other reason. There might be some decent mods for it by now too, so…

You should see it with over 300 mods, the game is crazy….

Look up STEP for skyrim….

Originally Posted by rune_74
This is not a very logical comment….if you already owned the versions of the game then yes it is free, them trying to get a bit more cash from those that sat on the fence doesn't really bug me at all.

On top of this, their change to the Legendary Edition is still a good deal. If you already have Skyrim but not the DLC then buying the rest is still cheaper. If you have part of the DLC then it's even cheaper still. I have Skyrim on Steam but no DLC and to upgrade via the new Legendary package would only cost me $16 US on the steam sale right now.

Why should it not be "legal" to change the price of your game before releasing a free upgrade? I don't see the problem, there. The only people who have to pay more are the ones who a) want to use the chance to get a cheap special edition (bad luck, nice try) and b) are not clever enough to simply buy a cd key from a reliable vendor which tends to be cheaper than Steam anyway. Everyone who already bought the game pays nothing. And everyone who feels that it's to expensive… Don't buy it. Very simple, isn't it? Where's the problem?

LOL,does anyone expect different from bethesda?When the paid mods appeared and good old beth says modders get a cut of 25% did anyone think?To sit in a chair for 12 hours a day modding and then beth gets 75% of the pay is just mind boggling.Upping the price before the new release does not surprise me one bit.

Originally Posted by rune_74

The pic looks like it is running at 5fps.LOL

I'm not a great fan of elder scrolls games but I was on the fence with it precisely to take advantage of the future enhanced version. But I've decided now that I won't buy it as I don't think this is the way a company should treat their customers.

If you don't want to offer a big discount to your games even if you did before that's fine, but trying to trick customers with false discounts isn't acceptable. I won't support that way of do things,

Originally Posted by rune_74
This is not a very logical comment….if you already owned the versions of the game then yes it is free, them trying to get a bit more cash from those that sat on the fence doesn't really bug me at all.

I agree.

While there are time when gaming companies get cheesy with how they milk consumers, not every situation like this merits a knee jerk reaction that said company is an evil greedy bastard. This certainly is NOT one of those times imho.

Originally Posted by wolfen
The pic looks like it is running at 5fps.LOL

I get 40fps….not sure your point? If you don't have a good machine then yes it would….??

The pic is actually running at 0fps as it is a pic and not a video.

Originally Posted by Vitirr
I'm not a great fan of elder scrolls games but I was on the fence with it precisely to take advantage of the future enhanced version. But I've decided now that I won't buy it as I don't think this is the way a company should treat their customers.

If you don't want to offer a big discount to your games even if you did before that's fine, but trying to trick customers with false discounts isn't acceptable. I won't support that way of do things,

Yes, we should feel sorry that they aren't offering a big discount for those that fence sit? Why do they "owe" you that?

Silly.