Because purchasing a multi-pack comprised of games you already own makes no sense, Steam is about to see a significant change in the way it prices its bundles. That is, if the service detects that any of the titles included are already present in your collection, you’ll receive a discount based on the number of featured games you have. As a result, purchasing a bundle will grant you fresh access to only the games you don’t have.
Valve has not made a public announcement about this on behalf of the company, PCGamesN retrieved official documentation, presumably from a developer, confirming this adjustment.
“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 document explains. “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.”
For obvious reasons, Valve continues its documentation by confidently reassuring us that buying the same game twice isn’t the steal you would hope for.
“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 document elaborates. “The new Steam Bundles system addresses this.”
Nevertheless, the classic “Must Purchase Together” bundles will remain, complete with appropriate labeling. Added bonuses, however, like art books, soundtracks, and anything else you might demand from a deluxe edition, will be included exclusively with this bundle type.
Ultimately, the goal here is that the games together cost less than each title purchased individually. Notably, one of the first to take advantage of the new monetization model is The Headup Games Complete Bundle, though it’s not exactly clear when or what will emerge next from the new approach.
While this is a crucial step forward for Valve’s Steam client, it’s important not to overlook the fact that it’s only applicable to games purchased through Steam itself, as opposed to keys obtained through third-parties like HumbleBundle.