Steam has discovered the money-making magic that it&#x27;s better to collect $.50 from many thousands of people than to collect $.00, and presumably, that it primarily supplements full-price purchases rather than displacing them [1]. I&#x27;d observe that even the other gaming platforms still took years to also discover that even with Steam lighting the way. Movie houses are still apparently completely clueless about this analysis, though I will concede in advance whether cheap movies would displace full-price movies may be different. (But I suspect the only way to find out is to just try it.)<p>[1]: Bear in mind that the only &quot;full-price purchases&quot; that matter are ones that <i>actually occur</i>. With my gaming habits, I&#x27;m perfectly happy to work in the indie space and years behind the mainstream, plus my laptop isn&#x27;t even in the running to run the latest &amp; greatest right now. I buy many cheap things from Steam, but it doesn&#x27;t displace full-price purchases because I was never going to make them. If Steam was just a &quot;full-price game service&quot;, <i>I wouldn&#x27;t even have an account</i>. Instead, they&#x27;ve probably made at least $100 from me of profit.