2008 in hindsight, Part 2 of 3

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tllotpfkamvpe
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Postby tllotpfkamvpe » Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:40 pm

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Postby estel » Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:09 pm

I think the point is that sales volume is a complex function of price and quality, and increasing the price has to be balanced by the expected drop in sale (which there will be) as a result.
For example (and I know that these numbers obviously don't precisely apply), titles in the Steam Sale /all/ increased their total income regardless of the price discount, and titles discounted the most increased their income the most too.
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Postby Xocrates » Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:06 pm

tllotpfkamvpe wrote:Third example, orange box, aging graphics, gameplay for me very repetative. And I've also said that classic games dont count in my argument.
Hum... You do realize that Defcon is over a year older than the Orange Box, right? Even taken the games in it individually, only Half Life 2 and Episode 1 are are younger than Defcon, and the second one by only Three months.

Defcon is, by videogame standards, old. You can't justify selling it at full price when the game is nearly 3 years old. By this point anyone that considered buying the game has done so, and raising the price would only alienate (or at worst, revolt) any other potential costumers.

Graphics/Gameplay as a measure of what the price for a game should be is ridiculous. Especially nowadays where graphics don't really change as fast as before. Personally I still find the Half Life 2 series to be one of the more realistic looking games I've ever played, and gameplay wise they are on par, if not above, most FPS's released nowadays.

You are just incredibly Biased on your like for Defcon vs Other games. The only way for Defcon to become relevant again would be through some major update (on which Defcon DS may have something to say).
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tllotpfkamvpe
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Postby tllotpfkamvpe » Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:32 pm

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Postby Phevnil » Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:03 pm

tllotpfkamvpe wrote:Third example, orange box, aging graphics, gameplay for me very repetative.


Source (the game engine of the orange box) can still support amazing graphics. In fact I haven't seen any game's that beat the graphics of the orange box that are fun to play. Not to mention that TF2 NEVER gets old.
[insert outrageously funny/insightful comment here]
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Postby Weatherproof » Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:45 pm

Haha, you said "ex-future employee"
Paradox!!

Seriousness though,
Wow, second depressing post... this is going to be an epic-sad saga...
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Postby sfericz » Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:48 pm

Xocrates wrote:The only way for Defcon to become relevant again would be through some major update (on which Defcon DS may have something to say).


IMO, I feel the Defcon DS project will do nothing for the Defcon we play now. (Unless, magically, DS players will be able to play PC/Mac players.)

A good way for Defcon to "become" relevant again, is for people to stop thinking its irrelevant, and for IV to fix just a few long standing bugs.


[edit] MVPE, raising the price of Defcon wouldn't be a smart move in any sense, sorry. It was a smart move to stop demos, and lower the price (So the long playing demo players would get off their high horse and buy it.) Every player counts now, (I even removed Mind Bender from the SFCON's ban list :P), so if lowering the price brings those players in, then that's what needs to happen.
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Postby Xocrates » Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:57 pm

tllotpfkamvpe wrote:A lot of old games sell at high prices. Look at X-com UFO defense on ebay.
X-Com sells at 5€ on Steam (for comparison Defcon is at 10€), and before going on Steam it was abandonware and you could get it for free. ebay is hardly a point of comparison for retail. Also, Amazon.co.uk sells the boxed copy of Defcon at 11.64£

tllotpfkamvpe wrote:Half life games have been played by almost everyone who wanted to play them and the prce is only decreased to milk the last customers before somthing with better physics and graphics comes along.

And how is that different from Defcon? The fact that Half-life is better known? So what do you propose to do, just increase the price?
Fine, now we have a 3 year old indie game that won't be the subject to impulse buying (since it is too bloody expensive) and that no-one ever heard of, on account of no-one having played it, on account that despite being three years old is still bloody expensive.

Don't you get it? By keeping a game at full price you remove the chances of anyone who never heard of the game of buying it. It's not a matter of return of investment, because no-one is buying the bloody thing. Everyone that was willing to pay full price for the game already did - either because they were aware of the game and told their friends, who might have also have picked the game up.

By keeping the price high, you deny impulse buying, therefore denying the spread of the word. You are just stagnating sales.



sfericz wrote:IMO, I feel the Defcon DS project will do nothing for the Defcon we play now.

It might raise awareness for the existence of the game and therefore renew interest.

The release of new versions of old games can give boosts for the original versions (ike Starcraft and Diablo II showing up back on the top selling game lists after the announcement of their sequels)
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Postby shinygerbil » Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:02 am

Valve have made several comments about the effect of reducing price on sales. Namely, that reducing the price by half can more than double your sales, so in the end you may make more by selling it cheaper. They even mentioned that one indie game (they didn't say which) got something ridiculous like a 1700% increase in sales, or something. I'm guessing off the top of my head there, but it was something huge, and it furthers the point here, that hiking the price back up will do nobody any favours.
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Postby sfericz » Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:07 am

Xocrates wrote:The release of new versions of old games can give boosts for the original versions (ike Starcraft and Diablo II showing up back on the top selling game lists after the announcement of their sequels)

Hm, That is a good point. But their sequels was for the same platform. This situation is llike releasing a new Madden only for PS3 and not Xbox.
Although I do agree it might give people motive to look more into Introversion, giving the chance they see the rest of IV's games. So that there, might be enough (lets hope)
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Postby Xocrates » Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:19 am

shinygerbil wrote:Valve have made several comments about the effect of reducing price on sales. Namely, that reducing the price by half can more than double your sales, so in the end you may make more by selling it cheaper. They even mentioned that one indie game (they didn't say which) got something ridiculous like a 1700% increase in sales, or something. I'm guessing off the top of my head there, but it was something huge, and it furthers the point here, that hiking the price back up will do nobody any favours.

I believe it was something like 13000%. They themselves had a 3000% increase in sales with the L4D sale
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Postby kipper_308 » Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:53 am

Xocrates wrote:
shinygerbil wrote:Valve have made several comments about the effect of reducing price on sales. Namely, that reducing the price by half can more than double your sales, so in the end you may make more by selling it cheaper. They even mentioned that one indie game (they didn't say which) got something ridiculous like a 1700% increase in sales, or something. I'm guessing off the top of my head there, but it was something huge, and it furthers the point here, that hiking the price back up will do nobody any favours.

I believe it was something like 13000%. They themselves had a 3000% increase in sales with the L4D sale


Yeah - it's about hitting that "magic price" that we all set ourselves, that certain amount of money which in a particular context, we don't consider a "significant" investment. Basically it's the price below which you will impulse buy, rationalising: "For that price, I'll give it a whirl: if I enjoy it, bonus! If not, well, I'll have got a few hours entertainment and no harm done to my bank account.".

Steam know this, and have thier weekend promotions, which must make them and the game developers lots of new sales. My games list is littered with impulse buys from 1/2 price offers: Call of Duty, Penny Arcade, Garry's Mod, Flatout, Lost Planet, Far Cry 2. All of these games I had not bought at full price, for one reason or another, either I was unsure if I'd like the game, or just didn't want to pay full "just released" price for it.

I think this kind of behaviour is pretty normal. Many of my friends do the same thing, and pickup obscure (to them) games, just because they look tempting at a lower price. The reason that it's attractive for a publisher / developer should be obvious. As an example, take Far Cry 2. I wanted to play it, but after reading reviews wasn't sure I'd love it. Initially it was selling for ~£30 and that was just too much for a "gamble". When it was reduced to £15 on Steam, I snapped it up. For that price I was prepared to accept the chance of not enjoying it. At the initial price, that was a "lost" sale for Ubi/Crytek, I'd never have bought it for that much, but by reducing the price they got SOME money from me.

Additionally, I told one of my friends about getting it, and that I was enjoying the game. He bought it as well shortly afterwards, even paying full price. This is perhaps even more important for the publisher / developer than the cut of the money I paid myself: a personal reccomendation from a friend is much more likely to encourage someone to part with thier money than all the advertising you can buy. By stratigically reducing the price of your game, especially later in its lifetime, you will tend to extend the lifeitme of the game, by continually trickling in fresh players, and broadining your potential market by doing so through the friends and contacts of those new players.

PS: Thankyou to Chris for writing so honestly and openly about life within IV. Very few people, let alone companies, are able to be that honest, frank and objective about thier difficult times.
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Postby Wasgood » Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:00 am

Xocrates wrote:
tllotpfkamvpe wrote:Third example, orange box, aging graphics, gameplay for me very repetative. And I've also said that classic games dont count in my argument.
Hum... You do realize that Defcon is over a year older than the Orange Box, right? Even taken the games in it individually, only Half Life 2 and Episode 1 are are younger than Defcon, and the second one by only Three months.

Defcon is, by videogame standards, old. You can't justify selling it at full price when the game is nearly 3 years old. By this point anyone that considered buying the game has done so, and raising the price would only alienate (or at worst, revolt) any other potential costumers.

Graphics/Gameplay as a measure of what the price for a game should be is ridiculous. Especially nowadays where graphics don't really change as fast as before. Personally I still find the Half Life 2 series to be one of the more realistic looking games I've ever played, and gameplay wise they are on par, if not above, most FPS's released nowadays.

You are just incredibly Biased on your like for Defcon vs Other games. The only way for Defcon to become relevant again would be through some major update (on which Defcon DS may have something to say).



Wow, time goes fast. I just think Defcon needs more promotion hell, half my friends play now.
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Postby cheesemoo0 » Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:16 am

I can only hope that the next post is about how much better things get and how you are living happily ever after since.
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Postby MikeTheWookiee » Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:54 pm

Don't forget that part of the increase in sales will come from the extra marketing as well as the reduced price. When there's a Steam sale, x million people worldwide get a big splash screen telling them

******GAME!!!!!! CHEAP!!!!!*******

That'll boost sales a bit, even if you don't actually drop the price, since people will have actually heard of your game.

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