I bought on the rainslick precipice of darkness the other day... it is not on sale but it was $5 less that it was on steam, so I was happy

I did think it was odd that the package deal was 5c more expensive then buying the games seperately, usually a package is meant to have a discount.

but considering together they are $10 less then other places, i dont mind

The platform is apropriately named. Nothing deseptive or ironic about it. Having been a retail sales manager, I had to fend off vendors who would pay ridiculous amounts of money to get their products placed closest to the register or their 'sales' signs placed in the most prominent places. It's business. It's how they make money, it's how the retailer makes money. And it works. Because of that, it will probably continue in most areas of retail sales. I used to laugh and say I could put paper bags full of dog-doo next to the register and they would sell.  It's the consumer who is either shrewd or intelligent enough to resist the 'impulse' or just give into it.

I don't think I have ever heard someone complain about a sale item in such a way as I am seeing here. It's still a sale.

3.73% is actually higher than what is considered a cost of living increase. SO, psuedo technically, you'd be getting it at last year's prices!

If you saved $1.00 on everything you buy you would eventually be saving thousands of $ over the long run. A penny saved is a penny earned. It is marketing and there are no rules.

How many stores do you see that have SALE signs on their windows all year round? Have you ever went into the store and said anything? Probably not as that would require a face to face confrontation.

And then theres the conspiracy perspective where you work for another game developer that is being outsmarted by the competition.

You mean Tenbucks, don't you, SlyDrivel?

 Po' is correct and so is NT. Tell ya what: Send me all the differences in price you're claiming are deceptive...in fact, have 1,000 of your friends do the same.

All my WC buds and bud-ettes, as well as HG_E (a well known pizza vulture connoiseur), all of the hungry kids at SD and the famished Mods crew will all be invited for beer and pizza on the $ you didn't save...OK? Yeah...I'll even wait for Jafo to arrive so he can join in.

Maybe it's backwards. Maybe someone who thinks that 3.73% off is not enough is the cheap bastard? And if you have the names and phone numbers of these folks who don't check to see what the normal price is, please send them to me. I have a bridge and some property in Florida I would love to unload sell them.

If they are posted in the sale section, the buyer should know there is some kind of discount involved. It is then up to the buyer  if they want to buy it on impulse...or...investigate as to what the full retail price is and then decide if they want to purchase it.

And it's not a $1.50.

It's a $1.49.

Because in the buyers mind/subconcious  $1.49 sounds like a bigger savings than $1.50.A good example of that would be in the way you just rounded the number up. It would have been just as easy to type $1.49, but your brain was saying $1.50. Of COURSE  a $5.00 discount  would LOOK better..but again...$4.99 discount would sell more.

What is the real complaint here? That they look like cheap bastards and the perception they give off is a bad reflection on Impulse/Stardock? Or that you're just pissed because you want it to be a bigger discount so you can purchase it? I'm sure it's the first one. I have often felt the same myself. I have written numerous letters and emails to Walmart for much the same reason. I worry that the discounts they give are sometimes not large enough and it will create a negative perception and damage their overall image.

Damn you, Walmart!

Yes they do!

I work at a department store (SEARS) and all those sales are a rip..its written in tiny letters (out of original price) which is itself 45% higher than the promotion price..so basically that 50% cut is nothing more than a 5% drop of previous price!

Such a rip!

So does my local Jaguar dealer

local Target and Bestbuys would have sales in the ad on games where it is the same price as msrp. 

Mine too. That Steam is doing something arguably more dishonest is really beside the point, by cluttering the "sales" page with non-sales, they're actually obfuscating any real bargains that may be on the service. The entire point of the page, nominally, is to draw people's attention to good deals and consequently strengthen Impulse's case in an increasingly cluttered digital download market. This kind of thing is bad advertising, plain and simple, and that's a real shame as Impulse is genuinely superior to many of the other services (that have more clearly marked, more substantial, and better advertised sales).

     Even a 3.73% discount to the average consumer is enough of a draw to make a sale. More often than not the word 'SALE' is what pulls them in. Then the Impulse takes over and before you know it a sale has been made. Closer to the register, a high traffic area usually very tense if it's busy, is the perfect place. As far as the markup before the sale price is tagged on...everyone does it. I've worked in enough retail establishments and even made those price changes before the sale went into effect. Scan the barcode enter a different value where the normal price would be in the system hit enter and poof...instant markup before the sale goes into effect. The store whether in cyberspace or around the corner is never going to lose a dime if it can help it.

Just a clarification, the item in question isn't on sale, that is its normal price. When someone changed the price from the list price they used the wrong function and turned it into a piddly sales item.