Steam is changing bundle pricing, bundles to cost less if you own some of included games

Steam is changing the way you see prices of the various game bundles.

Steam is making a major change to the way bundle prices work, opting for a more dynamic pricing model that takes into account whether or not you own games featured in the bundle.

Valve has yet to officially announce this, and likely never will, but PCGamesN has obtained official documentation the company sent to developers.

"Either it made bad economic sense for those customers to purchase the pack, or they just felt bad about doing so since it [looked] like they were paying for products they already [had]."

What this means for you is that you'll get a discount on a bundle if you already own one of the included games. This also scales up depending on how many of the featured games you own. By doing this, you'll only get the games you do not already own whenever you buy a bundle.

"With Steam Bundles, if a customer already [owns] some items in the Bundle, they will pay for and receive only the items not already in their account," the documentation reads. "This allows the best fans of your series or franchise to 'complete the set' and get a deal on the remaining items in the Bundle."

Valve goes on to say that bundles and complete packs are "a bad deal" for customers that already own a chunk of the included games.

"Either it made bad economic sense for those customers to purchase the pack, or they just felt bad about doing so since it [looked] like they were paying for products they already [had]. The new Steam Bundles system addresses this," Valve continues.

The regular style of bundles will not go away, and Valve calls them "Must Purchase Together" bundles. For these, expect to see added extras such as art books, soundtracks and whatever else you can expect from deluxe editions.

As the site notes, another effect of this will be a drop in the number of times in which a bundle would cost more than buying included games individually.

The Headup Games Complete Bundle is apparently one of the first to implement this new strategy, but there's no clear indication when more will follow suit.

It's probably worth mentioning that this would only apply to bundles purchased directly from Steam, and not through third-parties such as HumbleBundle.