Edit: KingRaptor helped me figure out it’s a bug in steam’s wishlist. It can bundle games without telling you then shows the combined discounted price.
Original post follows.
Title: Steam is lying about their discounts
This is a troubling trend I noticed today while browsing my wishlist on steam. One of the games seemed to have a double discount, but the price before discount was much higher than I remembered. The original price should have been under $20, but they had it listed as over $30. Checked steamdb.info, which is completely independent of steam, and sure enough the list price is $16.99.
I checked another game that had a double discount, and it was the same trend. List price of $7.99, but steam was showing $19.98 discounted to $7.63.
When did steam start engaging in this shady practice? Has this just started or has it been going on for a while?
It’s like how Amazon doesn’t meaningfully police counterfeit goods or fake reviews. They profit from it while keeping their hands clean even though they encourage it. Most customers give blind loyalty and aren’t awake enough to hold them accountable.