• Nintendo Announces a 'Dynamic Game Pricing Strategy'
    53 replies, posted
[img]http://www.hardmode.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/iwata-e320121.jpg[/img] [quote]More simply, this business model has been put in place to encourage consumers to do what they do best – consume. In order to achieve this, players will be given discounts on additional games based on how many titles are purchased by Nintendo owners. Ninty claims that giving its fans discounts on software depending on how much they buy increases the “usage ratio” of any given platform, which more or less means that it keeps users engaged for longer amounts of time. As was discussed during the the latest third quarter financial results briefing, the current pricing structure for consoles and respective software just doesn’t hold up “amid dynamic changes in people’s lifestyles.” As a result of this, games can’t consistently retail for $30-$50 on Nintendo platforms and dropping the price of software for fans can increase the number of sales and players as a whole.[/quote] [quote]“For example, until now it has been taken for granted that software is offered to users at the same price regardless of how many titles they purchase in a year, be it one, five or even ten titles. Based on our account system, if we can offer flexible price points to consumers who meet certain conditions, we can create a situation where these consumers can enjoy our software at cheaper price points when they purchase more. Here, we do not need to limit the condition to the number of software titles they purchase.”[/quote] This is... interesting and very encouraging. I hope it works out. Also I suggest you read the full article, it contains more clarification. [url=http://gamerant.com/nintendo-dynamic-game-prices-wiiu-3ds/]Source[/url]
[img]http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/9509/djw0.png[/img]
Hmm this could definitely go somewhere. I wouldn't turn down discounts on new games for being a loyal customer, which seems to be where they're going with this.
Have you also heard about Nintendo's foray into the mobile world of smartphones apps and games? I honestly have no idea what they will do. In regards to the thread; this is a really smart move on their part. I could even see myself buying Nintendo products again if they implement it well enough.
All I can say is, good luck Nintendo.
Rewarding frequent customers with discounts? I like where this is going.
Group together with friends, keep buying from the same account, get cheap games for all
Well I've had an account to register Nintendo products since the GameCube was released, chances are this is only going to count for the current "nintendo network" as opposed to the older "rewards catalogue" one
You could also use that same account system to tie our purchases to it, Ninty. Seriously, what's taking them so long.
This makes so much sense. The reason why Steam sales are so widely profitable and successful, and so frequent has largely to do with completely unsustainable pricing structure of the industry at the moment. Its also why the indie gaming scene has seen such a huge boom - you can get amazing games for less than $20 brand new coming out every quarter. Simply put the $60 pricing structure just is too much for most people, to the point where the only people buying at that price are buying it in launch week for a game they 110% know they wanted anyways, and that game acts as their one big game for the next few months. People who are interested but not already fanboys over the game concept or the IP are turned away immediately. Thats not a healthy industry pricing model when the industry is more competitive and diverse than ever before - you turn people away who could be fans to instead buy when its on sale in a year or used (the latter of which gets you no money), and the fans who do buy at your $60 price point likely won't buy another game anytime soon because of it, which means less people buying and becoming invested in the industry as a whole which will indirectly hurt sales. There's valid concern over the frequency and intensity of steam sales, but fact of the matter is, it opens up the industry to allow for more participants, more consuming of game media, and more brand building. Steam sales are much more of a "sustainable price model" than if we were stuck with every game staying $60 for a year, because every game wants to pretend they have the CoD-cult like following that are willing to buy at any price. That just doesn't work.
[QUOTE=Kite_shugo;43725533]Have you also heard about Nintendo's foray into the mobile world of smartphones apps and games? I honestly have no idea what they will do. In regards to the thread; this is a really smart move on their part. I could even see myself buying Nintendo products again if they implement it well enough.[/QUOTE] do you have any sources that aren't speculatory garbage with ""insider"" info? Anytime someone even hints at Nintendo pushing into the mobile market everybody solidly agrees that it would be suicide for them as a gaming company entirely. It's not about abandoning the WiiU/gameboy lineup and finding a "more successful" platform to rake in sales, it's purely how they function as a provider of the experiences.
We still need a universal account system that isn't tethered to a physical device. I don't want to pay for games that I will lose access to if my console breaks.
In thier conference today they mentioned they're working on it. And technically they do have an account system but it's tied to both the account and system so if you need a replacement you need to contact support (seems like on NA support is willing to do this) and have them replace the old system with the new one. It's a stupid system but at the time their reason for it was to prevent piracy, iirc.
I seriously hope this happens soon, I mean both this loyalty discount AND the account system, I already know I'm gonna get the WiiU when some AAA first-party games start dropping and this would be the cherry on the cake. It's a shame that this probably won't change anything for current 3DS owners like me though, it'd be really nice to have an account to tie all of my purchases together rather than just the system's ID, but for the moment all the game's I've bought have been physical copies and honestly unless there was a digital-only game I really wanted I'll probably stick with physical copies just to be safe. Also, wasn't Nintendo showcasing some sort of cross-play between the 3DS and the WiiU? Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but it would be sweet if you could just use the WiiU touchpad as the bottom screen, and obviously the TV wouldn't necessarily need to be 3D to work. Hell, I think most 3DS games feel like they're straying away from the whole 3D gimmick, I love the idea but it only has so many implications before becoming just another marketing ploy. Then again this is speaking from limited experience, but I've only heard more of the same from other people, I think the system stands on it's own without 3D and I really hope Nintendo can pull the WiiU up in time. I've been playing Nintendo since the NES and original Gameboy, and while all of these other competing companies that have come and gone since then were great in their own ways, Nintendo will always be how I started playing games and I hope someday my kids can say the same thing.
Well the accounts for 3DS and the Wii U have already be tied together in the most recent updates (shared eShop wallet, miiverse, etc.) but apparently what they're saying now is that they plan on removing the part where purchases are tied to both an account and a system. Plus they plan on doing something like this for future systems, [url]http://nintendoenthusiast.net/news/an-account-based-future-suggests-youll-never-have-to-rebuy-nintendo-games-again/[/url]
Hopefully they're thinking of more 3rd party support as well.
I wonder when this pricing scheme will come into effect.
[QUOTE=dai;43726985]do you have any sources that aren't speculatory garbage with ""insider"" info? Anytime someone even hints at Nintendo pushing into the mobile market everybody solidly agrees that it would be suicide for them as a gaming company entirely. It's not about abandoning the WiiU/gameboy lineup and finding a "more successful" platform to rake in sales, it's purely how they function as a provider of the experiences.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.siliconera.com/2014/01/29/nintendo-dedicate-small-team-smartphone-development/[/url] it was confirmed on their stockholder meeting. as was what's in the op. i think you're the one who needs to get up to date.
[QUOTE=dai;43726985]do you have any sources that aren't speculatory garbage with ""insider"" info? Anytime someone even hints at Nintendo pushing into the mobile market everybody solidly agrees that it would be suicide for them as a gaming company entirely. It's not about abandoning the WiiU/gameboy lineup and finding a "more successful" platform to rake in sales, it's purely how they function as a provider of the experiences.[/QUOTE] All they said about mobile in their financial meeting was that they have a small team getting something ready for smartphones, and that they're trying to find a way to make it fun and exciting so that people don't just download it and never use it. They're not counting games out of the question, but they will most likely be very different games than what you'd get on an actual Nintendo console. (That's if they decide to release some games for it. They've asked the media to not report that they were releasing games on smartphone because they're still not sure if they're going to do it.) That's okay. Back in the DS days there were a ton of little games that were full priced and played more like something you'd get on a smartphone. Some of those would probably be a way better fit there than on their main Consoles. The only other thing that is definitely happening is eShop/Miiverse for Smartphones. Who knows what else. But they want whatever they're doing for smartphones to have some kind of impact for the things on their Consoles. So there may be Companion Apps, too.
Loyalty discounts? Sounds pretty neat.
came in expecting microtransactions. never happier to be wrong in my life
In the restaurant business this is referred to as the guest check. You always want the guest check to be higher. So you aren't worried about selling an appetizer, entree, dessert, and drinks so much as you want the guest check to be above X dollars no matter what the customer ordered. In the case of videogames it makes sense that it's in the company's best interest to have each user spend X dollars every year, no matter how many games it takes, rather than have each user buy X number of games per year(even at full price). Would you rather have a customer spend $300 a year on games, even if he gets 10 games, or buy 3 games a year at full price? I'd rather have the larger amount of money per user even if I have to offer the occasional discount.
Not a terrible idea, but Nintendo still needs to embrace 3rd party developers more if it wants the Wii U to succeed.
I guess it would only be for the eShop? Unless they somehow can cooperate with retailers to implement it. I might have more incentive to buy stuff off the eShop if the discounts are substantial. In Australia digital is as expensive as retail. $70 for Monster Hunter 3U, no thanks.
[QUOTE=JXZ;43731965]came in expecting microtransactions. never happier to be wrong in my life[/QUOTE] How did you expect microtransactions out of "game pricing" ?
I hope I can include my large nintendo backlog in this I got games on games
and now suddenly buying Nintendo games digitally has some REAL incentive behind it. See Nintendo? Was that so hard?
I'd probably end up just buying a bigger SD Card with my savings to store all the games I downloaded but still.
[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;43740340]Then your 3ds breaks, support doesn't help you, bye bye games. [/QUOTE] As long as you contact NoA, who actually give a damn about the customer, you have a pretty good chance of gettting your purchased games on a new system.
[QUOTE=Keychain;43733849]How did you expect microtransactions out of "game pricing" ?[/QUOTE] i think it was from some press release that tried to make microtransactions sound like "pay what you want"
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