The only issues with sales imo is when people start thinking in percentages. They see 75% off a $60 game and go "aw yeah gotta have this" but are still doubtful when they see something $10 at 10% off.
Otherwise Team Meat etc say that they get way mroe revenue from sales than they would've without, because when you have a sale, that means people who weren't that interested anyway bought it and thus you have some overexposure.
I guess it's worth considering how this affects your community during the weeks after release, but I just don't know how consequential any of this is.
I'm not sure if I can feel sorry for people who bought a game at full price without doing a lot of research, and I think people usually don't mind if it ends up being a really good game. Also last time I checked big gaming was making a killing off of people buying too early, and in their case weak launch sales would do them some good.
When it comes to the indie game developers who are going to get hurt more by people not buying at launch, their prices tend to be more reasonable in the first place, and it's not such a big deal to get it early vs a sale price.
Another point is that having these sales later in the game's life helps to extend it by getting new users constantly buying in.
[QUOTE=G-Strogg;43579899]The only issues with sales imo is when people start thinking in percentages. They see 75% off a $60 game and go "aw yeah gotta have this" but are still doubtful when they see something $10 at 10% off. [/QUOTE]
That's not an issue at all. With 75% you know that it won't go much lower than that in a long time. With 10%, even for a $10 game, you know it's just a matter of spring/summer/fall/christmas sale until it will be -75%. So why not wait a little and play your huge backlog.
While games are technically cheaper now than ever, when you factor in inflation, $60 is still a big ass chunk of money. Time spent Q&A'ing games is decreasing, we don't get demos to try, only rehearsed and scripted teasers, Bullshit snippets of the game cut out and sold on the side on release, or as incentive to put your faith in the rehearsed teasers as a pre-order bonus. Some games prefer to go online only, killing anyone's hopes with a terrible connection, or no connection. So with all this horse shit surrounding games, especially triple A titles, Sales don't screw your fans, they fucking save them
[QUOTE=Spor;43590996]That's not an issue at all. With 75% you know that it won't go much lower than that in a long time. With 10%, even for a $10 game, you know it's just a matter of spring/summer/fall/christmas sale until it will be -75%. So why not wait a little and play your huge backlog.[/QUOTE]
Yeah that's why I think it's a bit insane that indie games that go for ten dollars already are forced to 75% sometimes.
[QUOTE=G-Strogg;43593903]Yeah that's why I think it's a bit insane that indie games that go for ten dollars already are forced to 75% sometimes.[/QUOTE]Forced? In what way?
"sales screw your fans"
No more than sales on beenie-weenies screw grocery shoppers.
Granted, by the time a product makes it to a physical retail shelf, the maker isn't depending on individual sales to fund it's development process. But does the money made from early access or sales events [I]really[/I] fund the development of a project that a team or individual has already set out to do? If it does, then it sounds pretty flakey to me, unless it is openly stated "please invest in us, we need to pay for our licences" or something. Large scale companies already have a budget office, and small scale folks will generally do the "labor of love" thing, so I can't imagine early access money is something they plan on for buying essential components.
Discounts make up for low income numbers by bringing in volume. More folks get to see the game and tell their friends about it. This creates demand that can come back as feedback and requests that the developer can use to patch, fix, or expand the game with. That actually benefits everyone.
I don't see anything "screwy" about someone offering a discounted price on their product. Especially on Steam where everyone knows the sales events are seasonal. Users lamenting missing the sale or buying in at a higher price may as well be complaining to a store manager that they didn't get the 10-for-a-dollar hot-dogs last week. More 'sour grapes' than anything.
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