So, I was thinking about picking up Skyrim this Steam sale because my experience on PS3 - while not as fraught as most - wasn't the best it could be. So, navigated to Skyrim on Steam and was like, "Yeah! $10!", but then noticed it wasn't the Legendary edition!?! I thought that was odd because I'd seen the Legendary edition for almost that price in the past.

Searched Google out of curiosity and it turns out Bethesda actually removed the old Legendary edition that was priced at almost the same price as the regular game is now, and made a new "Legendary" edition that's a bundle of the main game and the DLC. Had the old Legendary edition gotten the 50% discount that the base game has now, it'd be about $10 for everything, instead, you pay almost double if you want the DLC.

Shady, shady.

http://www.pcinvasion.com/bethesda-inflated-price-skyrim-legendary-edition-prior-steam-sale

I guess they're calling it the Legendary edition bundle now? Super shady marketing tactics to say the least!

Aren't GotY versions almost always more expensive?

Yeah, because that "remaster" is gonna be free if you have the Legendary Edition/all DLC on Steam. Guessing they don't want that cutting into their sales of the new version (because the amount of people who'd buy that version on PC and not the original version with a bunch of free graphics mods available is probably pretty low already).

Steam now prices bundles correctly if you have some of the items in it, so wouldn't this be beneficial to owners of Skyrim who have some, not all, of the DLC?

@skullpanda1: It used to be much cheaper than it is now. I bought it on sale for like 10 bucks, down from 40 I believe. The regular price of the new bundle is something like 65$ (CAD)

GOG does that, Steam doesn't, at least not in my region? Steam just shows you the actual discount rate you'll pay for the items you don't own instead of reducing the price if you own part of the bundle.

So for me it just says "This bundle is 85% off at 10€, but since you own 7 out of 11 items your savings will be 15% for the remaining items", while you still pay 10€.

@fisk0: That's strange because, it defiantly does that for America. For example the Skyrim bundle is priced on sale at ~$27 but, since I already have the base game the bundle is only ~$21.

Yeah, I think I only paid around 7-8 EUR (~$8-9) for the Legendary Edition a few years ago. This kind of stuff is always disappointing to see.

@conker: well that's certainly weird and unfortunate.

@conker: You are correct, I bought the Legendary edition for $10 CDN at the last Steam SUmmer Sale.

Aren't they giving folks the Legendary Edition for free as an upgrade if you have the base game and the DLC?

@philosyfee said:

Yes.

It's a bit confusing but the remastered version coming later this year is called Special Edition.

So we have:

1. Skyrim
2. Skyrim Legendary Edition (Skyrim + DLC content)
3. Skyrim Special Edition (Remastered version of Skyrim Legendary Edition content)

So because you require all the DLC to get free access to the Special Edition later this year, they've upped the price on the Legendary Edition. It sucks that it's been raised but it's still a pretty good price for the amount of content in that game.

In the UK it's saying I can get the discounted price on the bundle for already owning Skyrim.

The Dragonborn and Dawnguard DLCs have been as low as 75% off, or $5 each, during previous Steam sales. They are only 25% off at $14.99 right now.

@sinusoidal: https://www.g2a.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-legendary-edition-steam-cd-key-global.html I use the site regularly to buy games really cheap if steam doesn't have a good sale. The keys work and you will get the "Special" edition upgrade in october with this also. 20$ vs the 40+$ going right now.

Ever wonder how keys on G2A can be so inexpensive sometimes?

http://www.pcgamer.com/tinybuild-claims-g2a-sold-450000-worth-of-its-keys-without-paying-a-penny/

I read that, and also I understand that its not that great for publishers. But if you also understand why the site is still around, then you know that not everyone wants to OR can pay the price of the games they want to play all the time. I dont use it all the time, I generally use greenmangaming, steam, humblebundle, etc. But when I want to find something for cheap that I really want then i check g2a and for the most part, they are normally less priced then other places. If I wanted to pay 50$ for skyrim then I would have when it was out, not 5years later and RIGHT after they raised the price themselves because they want to release another version of the same game when it has been selling for 10-20$ for the past 2-3 years constantly.

Yea there's some shady shit going on. While not to the same level as what Bethesda has done, the "All DLC" section for Arkham Knight includes the DLC's and the Season Pass which covers all those other DLC's. I'm not sure what happens if you try to by from the "Add all DLC to Cart" button but that $75 is all covered under the $20 Season Pass. If it does charge you the extra $55 for all of it than that's pretty shady. It's not lying or anything, but the way its structured implies that they're separate products to what the Season Pass covers.

It's not weird. You are getting a free $60 game with your purchase now. The perceived value of the bundle went up, so they aren't cutting the price as deep as before. Supply and demand. Giving out the Special Edition for free was the right thing to do, but they are still a business.

What is more shady is games like Metro Redux and Ori Definitive edition that ignore that you already bought the old games. Pisses me off.

@jamesfargoth: I think its a little bit intectually dishonest to act like a visual make-over to a 5 year old game that you already own is some amazing boon worth 60 dollars.

Pretty sure I got everything a few sales back for like 20-30 bucks, so yeah the amount they're asking for now is fucked when you look at it comparatively.

@hayt: But that's how much it is going to cost. I'm stating the facts. Not that I think the Special Edition is worth $60 to me, in fact I stated that I think it was the right thing to do to give existing owners on PC the upgrade for free.

My point is that, technically speaking, Skyrim and its DLC are now worth more than they were last sale. So they are selling it for more than last sale.

Edit: People act like once a game gets down to a certain price it should always hit that price during sales, but that's not how economics works. The value of everything changes all the time. With a change in the offering (remaster included) and the demand (people rushing to purchase at a discount), they have no reason to sell it at its old "retired" pricing model. I get why people would be offended by this practice, and I'm not saying it doesn't suck. But I wouldn't call it shady.

If there were limited, physical copies, then yeah sure, demand should set a price since it would actually cost them more to meet the demand. Since we're talking digital goods, it costs Bethesda literally nothing to make more "copies" of Skyrim to suit the higher demand. Why is it now worth more? Just because more people want it? I think the only reason people want it right now is because of the sale anyway. Their little scheme actively prevented me from buying it. There's plenty of other fish in the sea, and there's no doubt in my mind we'll see the Skyrim Legendary Edition back around $10 sometime in the no-so-far-off future.

It's not the pricing I take issue with anyway. It's the removal of the original Legendary edition and replacing it with a 'bundle' to artificially inflate the value of the game that I think is shady. There was literally no other reason for them to do what they did other than to be able to put a higher percent-off value during the sale. They did it so they can say, "Look, a massive 59% off!" Only they cranked the 'value' of the game by something like 50% right before the sale just so that percentage could be higher. Had they kept the original Legendary Edition pricing and wanted to get the same amount for the game, they would have had to have a measly 25% off or something.

@sinusoidal: Even with unlimited supply, higher demand means higher value. But it's not just higher demand, like I said the offering changed. There is more to the product now, so yeah it didn't drop as much.

Steam seems to have incorporated their new bundle pricing system into a lot of games on steam. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other games relisted with the new system. We'll have to wait and see, I just think everyone is making a bigger deal out of this than it deserves.

Yea, I am not sure I would call this shady. Skyrim is still widely played on Steam. Steam stats shows almost 40k players at peak were dicking around with it today alone. That's #10 on their list. The game is popular across multiple platforms. Yes the price was lower before but now they are getting ready to graphically upgrade a very popular game and as others said it will be free if you had previously bought all the DLC. Now that they have advertised that will be the case and they will be selling the remaster at full price it would make no sense for them to sell all the DLC for $10. No sense in terms of running a profitable business at least. They know the game is still popular, they know people will pay full price for the remaster, they knew people would try and grab all the DLC for $10 knowing that they'd get the remaster for free.

Let's turn the argument around the other way. Let's say you already bought all the DLC when they were launched (probably a price greater than $10). You are now in line to be rewarded for your loyalty with the free remaster. Now some other guy who sees an opportunity to get a free version of the remaster swoops in and buys all the DLC for $10. How good does that reward feel to you now?

I know Bethesda is not going to go back through everyone's purchases and see who paid full price for the DLC vs Steam Sale price because that would be impossible, but it IS possible for them to prevent it from happening going forward now that they have announced the "free" remaster for certain people.

@ivdamke said:

Yea there's some shady shit going on. While not to the same level as what Bethesda has done, the "All DLC" section for Arkham Knight includes the DLC's and the Season Pass which covers all those other DLC's. I'm not sure what happens if you try to by from the "Add all DLC to Cart" button but that $75 is all covered under the $20 Season Pass. If it does charge you the extra $55 for all of it than that's pretty shady. It's not lying or anything, but the way its structured implies that they're separate products to what the Season Pass covers.

I don't think its' just them, i noticed it a few times on other games too may be a glitch in steam.