What’s a lot more? 19 millions? Both games sold around 1 Million at the $50 price point. Based on the example numbers reducing the price to 20 bucks would have increase the sells to 20 Millions. I just want to know how this should work in reality?
Alan Wake: Microsoft preparing to leave PC gamers behind (again)
- Thread starter Richard
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What’s a lot more? 19 millions? Both games sold around 1 Million at the $50 price point. Based on the example numbers reducing the price to 20 bucks would have increase the sells to 20 Millions. I just want to know how this should work in reality?
And nothing of value was lost, blockbusters are almost purely marketing driven.
Do you see any ads out there or any other sort of marketing for a last-year game? I don't. And then see Valve doing this stuff and the result. You just need the right strategy.
And as said, the sales of old and used games did explode according to the official voices, that's not my idea nor do I know what sort of games they're talking about or where they have their data from.
If they'd sell maybe 5-8 million, it would still be a better result.
Not if its standing next to the waiting line in Walmart or such. That's the stuff you just chuck into the bin on impulse when you walk by, pirating it requires more work and ain't worth it.
And just the fact that you usually can't patch the pirated version nor can you have a nice experience online, it's simply not worth it anymore in most cases. Another reason why it's a flawed argument.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Keep saying that and keep your head buried in the sand as more and more devs move to console.
Despite the fact that profit margins on a per title basis are smaller on console versus PC, the return on investment is still significantly higher than on PC due to the rampant piracy on PC. Assuming you can afford to transition to console. Especially for the larger budgeted titles.
And no, the people I know both locally and on the net that buy that 5 USD title would also buy 50 USD titles. The ones that wouldn't buy a 50 USD title in most (not all) cases also don't buy the 5-10 USD titles.
The same goes for movies and music.
Regards,
SB
Î still need to ask about something that could prove this already reduces numbers.
I don’t see that cheaper (I must confess not AAA titles) games sell that much better than full price games. Another question is where should this additional money come from? If the price is reduces to $20 the current player base could be buy 2.5 times more games with the same budget. Therefore players need to increase their budget or the player base needs to be growing.
Well, the player base is already growing but not in the classic boxed products. Microtransaction based online games are the growing sector in the game business these days. I am not sure if the fact that you can’t pirate these games has something to do with this. At least for the Asian market this seems to be true. Another point may be that microtransactions breaks with the one price fit’s it all concept of classic boxes. Many players of these games don’t pay a single cent but others pay multiple times the price of a comparable boxed product.
It’s not the first time I am saying this but boxed products are already a dead horse these days. It’s still ridden by many publishers but the start to notice that it doesn’t moved anymore.
RenegadeRocks
Legend
Its really really sad that PC plans are up in the air 
! This was what I was looking forward to ever since Crysis arrived. PC gaming is indeed dying T_T .
! This was what I was looking forward to ever since Crysis arrived. PC gaming is indeed dying T_T .I know this effect but it is not large enough to boost sales to factor 5 or more.
Its really really sad that PC plans are up in the air
It is not dying it is changing.
It is pretty darn clear that pricing has a huge impact on number sold. If steam would release details you could see it there as pricing can be arbitrarily changed.
Of course a lot price can get people pumped up with their wallets opened up. However, there is also an intangible value associated with pricing.
If you see a high price on something, it does make that item seem like it might be worth more than a lower priced item, even if that's not the case from a quality/cost/materials standpoint. It's really just as risky to underprice as it is to overprice.
You can see this with people who buy the Collectors Editions because it makes the purchase feel more significant/valuable even though you're getting nearly-worthless additions.
Low pricing can bring rightfully placed suspicion too with seeing the product as an abandoned cash-in. Is the product unfinished and/or unsupported? Low price brings some potential added risk to the consumer.
Consumers are generally tricky creatures. Illogical and influenced by lots of things.
If you see a high price on something, it does make that item seem like it might be worth more than a lower priced item, even if that's not the case from a quality/cost/materials standpoint. It's really just as risky to underprice as it is to overprice.
You can see this with people who buy the Collectors Editions because it makes the purchase feel more significant/valuable even though you're getting nearly-worthless additions.
Low pricing can bring rightfully placed suspicion too with seeing the product as an abandoned cash-in. Is the product unfinished and/or unsupported? Low price brings some potential added risk to the consumer.
Consumers are generally tricky creatures. Illogical and influenced by lots of things.
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LOL, my head burried in sand? First of all it's not like I give a shite about the games sales numbers or which platform does what - I'm talking like a simple customer. I will buy $20 games and I won't buy $50+ games. Same goes for millions of people out there.
You know some quite strange people I have to say.
As for the head in the sand, see the sales numbers for Left4dead in the link above, 'nuff said.
Demirug, the same - see those Steam numbers. Also take a look at the official sales charts, google will give you enough info already.
Don’t trust a statistic that you haven’t manipulated by your own.
I have seen this steam numbers and already described how such an effect can generate. If people know that you will doing such a cheaper weekend sales you get a huge number of people that wait for such a weekend. This way you reduce your regularly sales to favor your special weekend sales. This sounds stupid at the first place but it generates buzz and helps you on the top of the sales charts. Another rule of the business says that being in the Top 10 or even better place 1 in a sales chart will generate additional sales. This way a special weekend sales pushes a game back to the top on the Steam sales chart. This will generate additional sales for the regular price after the weekend.
If Value would trust that cheaper prices generate more revenue why do they reduce the prices only for some weekends? If cheaper prices are always good they should sell them all the time for this reduced weekend prices. But Value knows very well that this cheaper price game works only if you combine it with a time limit. This way you get the people who were not sure if they want to buy this game to make a quick decision. If they know that they could buy it always for the cheaper price there would be much less pressure.
Therefore as long as Valve doesn’t publish one of their AAA games from the first day on for the cheaper price the whole statistic doesn’t say much about game prices and overall sales numbers. It just shows human behavior when it comes to special sales. But this isn’t something groundbreaking new.
I have seen this steam numbers and already described how such an effect can generate. If people know that you will doing such a cheaper weekend sales you get a huge number of people that wait for such a weekend. This way you reduce your regularly sales to favor your special weekend sales. This sounds stupid at the first place but it generates buzz and helps you on the top of the sales charts. Another rule of the business says that being in the Top 10 or even better place 1 in a sales chart will generate additional sales. This way a special weekend sales pushes a game back to the top on the Steam sales chart. This will generate additional sales for the regular price after the weekend.
If Value would trust that cheaper prices generate more revenue why do they reduce the prices only for some weekends? If cheaper prices are always good they should sell them all the time for this reduced weekend prices. But Value knows very well that this cheaper price game works only if you combine it with a time limit. This way you get the people who were not sure if they want to buy this game to make a quick decision. If they know that they could buy it always for the cheaper price there would be much less pressure.
Therefore as long as Valve doesn’t publish one of their AAA games from the first day on for the cheaper price the whole statistic doesn’t say much about game prices and overall sales numbers. It just shows human behavior when it comes to special sales. But this isn’t something groundbreaking new.
Thit really sucks... I don't think I powered that vacuum cleaner called 360 for a long time now... I was waiting for AW since the day it was announced, to play it on pc, with everything on high at beautifull high resolutions and AA,AF...
I'm sure that they'd get a lot of sales, if they worked with a steam version...
I won't be buying it for the 360 though... That console is the worst buy I've made in years... Everything I like on that thing is either multiplatform or also on pc... To bad that that is about to change on a game I really would like to play...
I'm sure that they'd get a lot of sales, if they worked with a steam version...
I won't be buying it for the 360 though... That console is the worst buy I've made in years... Everything I like on that thing is either multiplatform or also on pc... To bad that that is about to change on a game I really would like to play...
aaronspink
Veteran
You do realize that when WB went to the checkout stand pricing model with their catalog they made more money in the first 3 month from those properties than they had made in the prior 10 years right?
And all from a random idea form someone inside the company: "these are movies that everyone should own but aren't going to look for, lets make it an impulse buy!"
aaronspink
Veteran
Impulse. Same reasons a lot of games are discounted the first week available but not after. Its all about impulse. The economic model works because people are more likely to buy something at a discount and even more likely to buy it if they don't have time to think about it.
It is an economic model that has been around forever. 1 day sales, car dealerships, etc. They do it because it works!
but they already do cheaper prices at release, they generally have discounted sales pre-release and at release and then raise the prices after.
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