"My game isn't selling anymore so sales must be a bad thing"
the attitude is rarely ever "I don't want to buy this game now because even though I like it, I'll wait for a sale"
the attitude is "this game is not worth what the release price is, I'll buy it on sale"
Interesting theory. Is it any true, I wonder?
There's one problem though; I haven't seen a single game in the past few years on Steam that didn't have a preorder discount. Which can be a pretty good deal if you have faith in the game.
I've felt this way for a couple of years now.
There is no reason to buy any game at all at full price unless you do so to support them.
And then you have games that go on 50% sale and you think "well, the price is still a bit high for my taste, I'll just wait till the next sale when it's probably cheaper or the discount is higher".
Sales are so common across all digital stores now that buying a full price non discounted game just seems silly.
It's also sort of terrible how a big budget or even triple a game can go on sale at 25-33% off just mere weeks after release. It's a douchebag fucking move towards everyone that bought it during it's release week, because who the fuck even expects a newly released game to suddenly drop down so hard?
he does have a point
I've never felt like that about paying full price in games. If the game is good and lengthy enough it pays itself.
Just because 'I could've paid less if I bought it down the road" doesn't make it less worth the money.
I was half expecting this to be a general point that caring too much about your game sales would screw your fans over or something like that.
Even though the current climate favours someone like me who doesn't have that much disposable income, this is true.
Since when I do buy a game 100% price, it is usally an indie game or a 40 euro game.
maybe your game is too expensive, and not worth full price
He is assuming that we want his games badly enough. If there's a game that I've been especially eager for, I'll buy it at release. Simple as that. Those are your Batman Arkham games, Total Wars, your Telltales, your BioWares, your whatevers. If I'm sufficiently stoked for the game, paying full price at release is no big deal for me. What I save sales for are games that I don't want badly enough to pay full price for, which means that if they never went on sale, I'd likely never buy them, or at least not buy them until their normal asking price had dropped down to a more acceptable range, a year or so after launch.
Sales make me buy games I had no intention of buying, or that I simply wouldn't have paid full price for. I've got dozens of games on my Steam List that I've barely touched, and a couple which I've never even installed, and only have because they were on a sale too low to resist, or because they came in a pack, or what-have-you. I'd have never bought those otherwise.
Sales make me buy [I]more[/I] games. I still get my highly anticipated titles at release, but then sales roll around and I get all the other ones that piqued my interest a bit, or ones that I've never heard of but look pretty cool.
He's not exactly incorrect, but I don't fully agree with him either. I barely buy any games at full price, but that's more because I'm simply not willing to pay $50-60 for a new release. It's too much money for one game, especially considering most recent releases last maybe 8 hours at most.
There are games I buy at full price, but that's when it's a game I genuinely want and know I will enjoy. So really it's not sales that are the problem, but the initial prices for a game. I would much prefer if new games were priced in to $20-40 range and sales were less frequent and less drastic.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;43557698]He is assuming that we want his games badly enough. If there's a game that I've been especially eager for, I'll buy it at release. Simple as that. Those are your Batman Arkham games, Total Wars, your Telltales, your BioWares, your whatevers. If I'm sufficiently stoked for the game, paying full price at release is no big deal for me. What I save sales for are games that I don't want badly enough to pay full price for, which means that if they never went on sale, I'd likely never buy them, or at least not buy them until their normal asking price had dropped down to a more acceptable range, a year or so after launch.
Sales make me buy games I had no intention of buying, or that I simply wouldn't have paid full price for. I've got dozens of games on my Steam List that I've barely touched, and a couple which I've never even installed, and only have because they were on a sale too low to resist, or because they came in a pack, or what-have-you. I'd have never bought those otherwise.
Sales make me buy [I]more[/I] games. I still get my highly anticipated titles at release, but then sales roll around and I get all the other ones that piqued my interest a bit, or ones that I've never heard of but look pretty cool.[/QUOTE]
Same for me pretty much.
If I want it bad, I'll buy it, if its expensive and I don't think I'd really consider it worth that much then I'll either wait for it to be in a sale or never buy it.
In the sales I sift through the store and buy a ton of games which I never would have even considered at full price.
I don't usually wait until sales if there's a newly released game l want, because I want to play right away, and I might lose interest by the time it's on sale.
If they're really fans and are excited about the game they're going to buy it on release, unless the game is simply not worth its full price.
Not to take away from his point, but from what I've heard, Castle Doctrine was hilariously easy to hack, and the traps that people set quickly became incredibly complex and unfun to play. Sure, I'm sure that all publishers face something similar, but maybe word just got around that the game is kinda broken and people stopped buying it?
Maybe sales are so stupid effective because the traditional pricing model for the industry is borked
In the end, if you never put your game on sale, you simply make shit compared to the company that puts equal quality games up for sales simply due to the fact that sales let your product get into more hands [I]legally[/I] which increases your fanbase substantually.
If he is so against sales then he should in all honesty sell his game at a sale-like price. The problem with this, is that its not quite as effective because sales are psychology as well as indicators of price - they entice people to act [I]now[/I] if they want a game.
Besides I really wonder how "damaging" sales really are for the industry.
A. Digital Distribution is 100% free. Retail sales cost money on some level, because its a physical good, its retail space, its printing promotional materials, etc. Digital sales are 100% free to do and cost you [B]nothing[/B].
B. You earn more profit from sales, its that simple.
C. You still tend to earn a large percentage of your profit from the first month of the game being out anyways due to early adopters. You'd be REALLY surprised at how many people pre-order and stuff full price. Why? Nobody wants to buy a game they are actually interested in after all their friends already played it or the initial-release-hype has died down.
D. The video game industry is fucking saturated with games at the moment. If you never put your game on sale, the only time it ever has to be the the limelight is the opening week. Putting your game on sale however gives it exposure, which increases sales outside of the lower price point.
E. Because of the first point that game sales are 100% free to do, you can really just put the price at whatever you want to generate demand. This is why L4D saw a 3000% profit increase when it first went on sale at $5. Sure its stupid discounted, but it doesn't matter because it cost Valve nothing to do, and in fact made them an incredible amount of money to do this.
F. Sales drive people to buy your game, especially if its interesting, even after the sale is over. Extra profit from that alone. Also, it expands your audience. Which is huge. A sale allows people who otherwise would not have purchased your game to purchase your game, which is awesome, and why wouldn't you want that? Its not like you take any losses from this when its purely digital. And the most valuable thing you can have as a content creator is an audience, because they are going to turn into future fans and the people who buy your thing on release week for your next game. They also drive hype. If you never have sales, you seriously stunt your audience growth which will not only drive profits away, but also prevent growth in interest in your work.
The only games a sale-culture really hurts when you get down to it are games that people are modestly interested in, but not interested in enough to buy at full price. And this is a pricing, quality, or market issue rather than an issue with sales specifically. And even then, its not like they could seriously hurt from this - just that their launch week might not be as impressive as hoped because in the minds of the audience that style of game that was made is simply something that people would rather buy from the "bargain bin" vs. off the shelf.
It sounds like its just that his first game didn't have enough going for it to warrant a massive buy-in at launch and people decided it was worth a lower price. But he talks about making 25% of his revenue from launch and that being bad, but fails to actually show why. Would it be better to make 100% of your revenue at launch and never again? 75% at launch and the other 25% over the rest of its life?
[quote]Even in my example from above, 25% is a pretty sad launch week. In my case, that represented something like $23K. I made more selling the game through my own website. Pathetic.[/quote]Honestly, looking at that, I think he's more pissed that his game wasn't some blowout massive thing that was massively popular, and he's blaming the sales for it.
[editline]17th January 2014[/editline]
I mean, imagine he had made 75% of his revenue at launch, but it was still just that $23K he complains about. Great, you made most of your revenue at launch, it was just a piss poor amount. Like, his argument really doesn't do a lot to reinforce itself. He basically bitches more about people just not wanting to buy his game.
(Also, quite plausibly he's just saying this because he knows it'll get him attention on gaming news sites and he figures more attention and sales of his new game.)
I love sales because it's good on my own money as well, I dislike buying 50-60 dollar games that are not worth that amount of price for me when I can turn around and buy a 10 dollar game and 2 20 dollar game at the same amount that i really liked, I tend to wait for some decent sales on games that I considered very short or something to play for 10 minutes before hopping to something else. If I buy the game and dislike it, i'll regret buying the game and wish i have not spend a single dime on that pathetic titles...
[QUOTE=Untouch;43557677]maybe your game is too expensive, and not worth full price[/QUOTE]
Oh yeah? At what price is considered EXPENSIVE?
Above $10? $20? Some people would not even buy a game at $9.90 until the price is dropped at the lowest possible at $2.00. I think Steam Sales have trigger this "buy it cheap mindset among people"
[editline]17th January 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;43567405]It sounds like its just that his first game didn't have enough going for it to warrant a massive buy-in at launch and people decided it was worth a lower price. But he talks about making 25% of his revenue from launch and that being bad, but fails to actually show why. Would it be better to make 100% of your revenue at launch and never again? 75% at launch and the other 25% over the rest of its life?
Honestly, looking at that, I think he's more pissed that his game wasn't some blowout massive thing that was massively popular, and he's blaming the sales for it.
[editline]17th January 2014[/editline]
I mean, imagine he had made 75% of his revenue at launch, but it was still just that $23K he complains about. Great, you made most of your revenue at launch, it was just a piss poor amount. Like, his argument really doesn't do a lot to reinforce itself. He basically bitches more about people just not wanting to buy his game.
(Also, quite plausibly he's just saying this because he knows it'll get him attention on gaming news sites and he figures more attention and sales of his new game.)[/QUOTE]
You need to remember, game developers have investors who have given their money to them and those investors expect a huge profits in return. Sales may not help much
I kind of agree. Last time I paid full price for a game was Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS. Why buy a game at full price when it will be discounted next month? It applies even more to PC games, since Steam literally always has something on sale.
I was pissed when I got Hitman Absolution last year for 60 and it was down to 15 within literally a month.
[QUOTE=BCell;43569307]You need to remember, game developers have investors who have given their money to them and those investors expect a huge profits in return. Sales may not help much[/QUOTE]Does he? He's a very small indie dev. And no one mandates that they put their games on sale. Its something they willfully choose to do.
i feel like the frequency of the steam sales are fucking retarded. it used to be a random special, xmas or summer. fuck these spring, autumn, etc sales they aren't special anymore.
The Castle Doctrine was really bad at release since everyone would just build really bullshit houses, usually with combination locks or ridiculous dog mazes, that and failing testing your own building would permanently kill you, plus the whole family thing which you had to make sure you got killed before actually doing anything (otherwise you'd lose half of it as soon as soon as someone tries to rob you)
It sounds like hes just blaming the game selling badly on sales instead of it being crappy
I can honestly only afford to play games because of the constant sales. If I had the money, I might buy on release so that I can play with my friends while the game is still a hot ticket item, but I just don't.
if your game is really worth playing, your fans won't regret having paid full price for it
I had paid like $60 for portal 2 because I had realllly wanted to play it. Now its what, $20? Doesn't phase me a bit.
I've been saying the same thing about PSN+ for a bit. Bioshock Infinite hasn't even been out a year, and it held some decent value on consoles for a while. I think it's retailing at around $35 or so right now. PSN+ is giving it out for free, so it's effectively worth $0. Though these sort of things are great for us as consumers, it's already conditioned many to not buy a game until it's incredibly cheap. Just look at Steam sales.
It's like saying that stocks are bad because some people buy them when they're expensive and lose out.
Buying at full price is a kind of a fine for not having patience.
god the castle doctrine is fucking bad
regret buying it so much.
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