There are always people only secondarily interested in a game. Maybe it's not their first priority genre or whatever. If the game company needs to convert as many customers as possible, staying with the same price forever probably won't work out.
Steam Sales have a massive effect on games - thousands of new players try the game simply because it happens to be 15% off today or whatever. Even the "Free Weekend" play converts thousands of players that find the game fun. It makes trying out a new indie-type game feel less like a risk.
Now that Factorio has real competition in this type of building game (Satisfactory - which I highly recommend if you liked Factorio), they might discover their principled stance against any Sale might waver a bit.
To each their own I suppose. One day, Factorio will be on sale... once the playerbase dries up and they desperately try to inject life into the game. Or not... maybe they let it wilt away... which would be a real shame.
You can play an ER game, get bored, stop playing for 6 months, and then come back and tons of new content is available now. This keeps the player base around too.
Usually though, once a game calls itself "1.0" or whatever, the new free features tend to stop shortly thereafter.
(which is more than fair, it's a "completed" product now)
Where will this game be in another 4 years, after little or no new content? All games have a shelf life.
The developer could stick to their principles and ride it out, and shutter the game once enough people have lost interest. Or... they could have a Steam Sale and extend the life for years at a time. We'll have to see...
Satisfactory is a more meditative experience for me where I enjoy building and exploring within a beautiful, hand-crafted world. I find myself building with cosmetics more so in mind over optimization.
Sometimes I'm in the mood for one or the other, but they feel distinct enough for me to not substantially cannibalize my time. Though, mine is but one point of data!
It has a free demo.
> thousands of new players try the game simply because it happens to be 15% off today or whatever
Really? Why? That's such a small amount.
Getting on the front page of Steam is a massive boon to any game. Having a sale, even if small (not unusual on Steam) is often enough to incentivize people to try it.
I've not played the Demo version - but usually demo's are pretty limited. Free Weekend's tend to be the full game, multiplayer and everything. It's a fantastic way to get a ton of new players instantly - and many (myself on several occasions) become paying customers as soon as the weekend ends. Basically, it's letting the game sell itself at that point.
Steam Summer/Winter Sale is huge. That's why it's silly for these developers to totally write off any sale forever. Very foolish and not wise. Then again, they did say that over 4 years ago... and "they" do say to never say never.
And well, such a small amount doesn't really grab my attention.
> Steam Summer/Winter Sale is huge.
Isn't that because of the big sales? I wish the Summer/Winter sale didn't have any small percents so there's less noise!
Also for me I probably will never buy Factorio because of this. I absolutely accept their decision but I don't have enough time for this game to justify 25 bucks I guess. I would rather play other untouched games in my collection first. I guess the honest business model saved me from spending money :) Still says nothing about the quality of the game.