Pricing Hurting Sales?

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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by V22 Osprey »

Haven't logged in about a year, but I had to comment. Took the plunge, paid $80 in total for Digital Download of base game plus both expansions today. Best 4X by far, and it has unlimited replay value.

Also, I would like to mention that Distant Worlds isn't expensive at all. People keep comparing it to AAA titles - Hello, Call of Duty is $60 brand new, plus 2-3 map packs at $15 a piece? The expansions for DW certainly add allot more entertainment hours than 5 maps for CoD.(Did I mention these 5 map packs are $15 A PIECE?) Keep in mind that this is $60 for a unreplayable 10 hour campaign and terrible multiplayer. Even after playing just several hours with DW, I don't feel like I wasted my money.

However, the main problem is that you always see people saying online that DW isn't playable unless you get the expansions. Otherwise, the base game is priced like any normal game. You guys must not remember the early 2000s when games routinely came out with full $20-$30 expansions, which added a significant amount of content instead this modern DLC crap.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Mansen »

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

Also, I would like to mention that Distant Worlds isn't expensive at all. People keep comparing it to AAA titles - Hello, Call of Duty is $60 brand new, plus 2-3 map packs at $15 a piece? The expansions for DW certainly add allot more entertainment hours than 5 maps for CoD.(Did I mention these 5 map packs are $15 A PIECE?) Keep in mind that this is $60 for a unreplayable 10 hour campaign and terrible multiplayer. Even after playing just several hours with DW, I don't feel like I wasted my money.

You're doing a disservice to your argument there. Correct - CoD... whatever they've reached is a NEW game. Distant Worlds and at least one of the expansion packs are not - yet they seem to hold a "release day" price level till now.

Regardless, we'll just have to wait and see what Matrix has cooked up for the big release sale. :)
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Bleek »

Quite.

Even AAA titles don't remain at RRP for many months.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by whiran »

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey
Also, I would like to mention that Distant Worlds isn't expensive at all. People keep comparing it to AAA titles - Hello, Call of Duty is $60 brand new, plus 2-3 map packs at $15 a piece? The expansions for DW certainly add allot more entertainment hours than 5 maps for CoD.(Did I mention these 5 map packs are $15 A PIECE?) Keep in mind that this is $60 for a unreplayable 10 hour campaign and terrible multiplayer. Even after playing just several hours with DW, I don't feel like I wasted my money.
I wouldn't compare a strategy game to a first person shooter since they are very different experiences.

But, what can one purchase for $60 USD that's a modern release? Well, there's Total War: Rome II that is a strategy game.

I don't mind paying $50-$60 for a game. Heck, for some games I pony up for the collector's edition that runs over $100. The issue here is that this is one of those blind purchases that has a very high price compared to other games that are similar.

What games are similar? Well, this is a 4x real time game. That means Sins of a Solar Empire(latest and greatest version at $40 USD goes on sale for $10 USD), Stardrive ($30 USD), Star Ruler ($19.95 USD), Sword of the Stars II ($19.99 USD goes on sale for $5), etc.

But, really, it's the whole you need all the expansions to make the gameplay experience a good one. That's fine and makes sense but it adds up quickly.

I'll see what is done to the pricing with the release of Shadows but if it isn't in line with the competition then this will remain a pass for me. I love turn-based 4x games and am only moderately interested in real time variants. So, I'm not the ideal market for this game anyway and, as such, my view is definitely skewed towards: I need an incentive to push me over the edge to buy a game I'm only moderately interested in (interested enough to voice an opinion though.)
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by V22 Osprey »

This thread is fail. People have been making comparisons to AAA this entire thread but when I do it is incorrect. Go figure.

First, DW is $40 DD. That is average for a two year old game. Same with expansions. Sure, Matrix should released a bundle for the original DW with RotS for $50-$60, but the prices are definitely average.

Fine, I will compare it to other strategy games(Sorry, even for an FPS, you are still paying more for less hours of entertainment, which is the point of video game. CoD Black Ops is still $40 on steam, plus 3 DLCs at $15 a piece is $85, which is more than I paid for DW + both expansions). Even if you look at the last three Total War games, when you add all the DLCs and expansions they still come out to be around the same price as DW + expansions.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Kayoz »

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey
This thread is fail.
I am in 100% agreement.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Buio »

There is also this other thing...

You don't lower price on a product that sells. Sales are for products that don't sell.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Mansen »

ORIGINAL: Buio

There is also this other thing...

You don't lower price on a product that sells. Sales are for products that don't sell.

Fallacy - It is a niche product among niche products.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Bleek »

ORIGINAL: Buio

There is also this other thing...

You don't lower price on a product that sells. Sales are for products that don't sell.

If you were in marketing you'd realise that simply isn't true and it isn't that simple.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Ucchedavada »

I am also in the camp of having wanted to buy DW, at least until I saw the price:
The total cost of 80 EUR after VAT for the base game plus expansions is simply far beyond what I would consider shelling out for a single 3 year old game, no matter how highly praised by its fans. Even if I just picked up RotS in addition to the base game, which almost everyone appears to recommend that you do, that would still be a 60 EUR blind purchase.

As has been noted before, very few titles are 60 EUR three years after launch, even if they started out at that price, even including subsequent expansions, and ignoring the fact that DW is not a AAA title. Furthermore, many new AAA titles can be had for significantly less than 60 EUR. For instance, you can currently pre-purchase Total War: Rome 2 for 35 EUR at Amazon (uk), and you can get all the previous Total War titles, plus most of the DLC, for as little as 30 EUR during sales as part of the Total War Grand Master Collection (right now at GamesPlanet.com, previously at many other sites).

In general, pricing in the Matrix Games web-shop seems to be completely out of whack compared to the rest of the market; consider for instance Armada 2526, which they sell for 46 EUR for the base game and the expansion Supernova combined. But if you go to GamersGate, you can get the Armada 2526 Gold edition (which includes both the base game and the expansion) for a mere 18 EUR! Even if you insist on buying the base-game and expansion separately, the price is 28 EUR, still far less than what Matrix Games charges. Another example is Unity of Command; at its face the price is the same as GamersGate. However, GamersGate bundles the OSX/Windows version of UoC, while you would have to buy the game twice via the Matrix Games web-shop if you wanted to play the game on both platforms. That’s not is simply not competitive.

I do not know who has decided on this pricing structure, but they are not doing themselves any favours (assuming that they are not suffering from chrometophobia). I am currently waiting for the sale that is supposedly coming up with the release of DW:Shadows, but whether or not I pull the trigger will very much depend on whether or not the people in charge decides to sell DW at a more reasonable price. If not, then I’ll just play something else.


ETA:
So being a bit bored, I went and did a price comparison among games that can be purchased at both MG and GG (prices compared in EUR). In Matrix Games favor, I found Birth of America 1 and 2 (0.91x and 0.98x the price, compared to GG, respectively), as well as Napoleon's Campaigns (0.98x the price of GG) and while I found a number of games which are significantly more expensive at Matrix Games, including (contrary to what I wrote above), Unity of Command, which was actually 1.5x the price offered by GG. If we set that as the lower bar, and only consider games where the difference is even more significant, then we have

[*]Achtung Panzer: Operation Star (1.7x the price of GG)
[*]AI War: Alien Bundle (1.8x the price of GG)
[*]Armada 2526 + SuperNova (2.8x the price of GG)
[*]WW2: Time of Wrath (3.0x the price of GG)
[*]Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge (3.1x the price of GG!)

Please let me know if I have made any omissions/mistakes in the above.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Buio »

ORIGINAL: Bleek
If you were in marketing you'd realise that simply isn't true and it isn't that simple.
It is a generalization, but if you'd were in marketing you'd know it was true more often than not, even for games.

ORIGINAL: Mansen
Fallacy - It is a niche product among niche products.
Indeed, it is a niche product. Now, what games do keep high prices longer and do not have sales as often? Niche products that cater to a small but dedicated group who are willing to pay, or mainstream games that go on sale when the initial sales curve has dropped off?
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Mansen »

ORIGINAL: Buio

Indeed, it is a niche product. Now, what games do keep high prices longer and do not have sales as often? Niche products that cater to a small but dedicated group who are willing to pay, or mainstream games that go on sale when the initial sales curve has dropped off?

You're forgetting one tiny thing - saturation. A niche product has a much smaller "dedicated" market. Once that has been saturated, you're out of "people who are willing to pay". To get new customers you're going to have to stay competitive - which either means more/better content or lower prices.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Erik Rutins »

ORIGINAL: Ucchedavada
[*]Achtung Panzer: Operation Star (1.7x the price of GG)
[*]AI War: Alien Bundle (1.8x the price of GG)
[*]Armada 2526 + SuperNova (2.8x the price of GG)
[*]WW2: Time of Wrath (3.0x the price of GG)
[*]Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge (3.1x the price of GG!)

Please let me know if I have made any omissions/mistakes in the above.

This may be correct - these are all distribution (non-exclusive) releases for us. At the time of release, we had the best price for them, but we don't always keep up with the discounting that goes on elsewhere. I would agree that for non-exclusive games you may get a better bargain elsewhere, especially long after release when they've been through the full discount cycle.

With that said, as an example Armada 2526 and Supernova we did work with the developer on, tested it, helped balance and tweak and did a lot more than any other distribution outlet to ensure that it was a quality release. Same for Time of Wrath and Hired Guns. We're an actual publisher - a pure distribution store like GG just puts the game up there. It's similar to a retail store putting something on its shelf. You have no guarantee they've played it, tested it or that it even completely works. With us you do have that guarantee. All that said, this is also why we are no longer doing distribution releases and focusing on our exclusive titles. Many customers don't understand the value we add for these releases and we don't have the staff to keep up with the price changes for these titles on other sites across the internet.

DW is an exclusive release for us. The fact that the original game is three years old is IMHO irrelevant. First, we updated it for about two years after release, second, the expansions fit on top of it and improve it further. DW is as new as the latest expansion. Until it is replaced _as a game_ by something definitively bigger and better that offers the same gameplay, it is not old. I think it is a unique experience that every 4x sci-fi fan would enjoy and we're working to make sure it gets out to as many of them as possible.

We do hear all the feedback on pricing as you can see from this thread and others. I'm not going to go into great detail on this again, but I can tell you we are very aware of all the different sides of opinion on this issue. We are also extremely interested in forging the best possible path for DW and part of that is indeed making it as available as possible. No doors are closed, all options are open for the future, as long as it helps DW succeed.

Regards,

- Erik

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC


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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Mansen »

Entirely irrelevant to the ad nauseus discussion, I am looking forward to seeing your plants for DW2 come that time. A successful new IP is always hard to follow up on - especially with so many competitors (in both genre and style)

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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Ucchedavada »

Hey Erik,
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post!
ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
This may be correct - these are all distribution (non-exclusive) releases for us. At the time of release, we had the best price for them, but we don't always keep up with the discounting that goes on elsewhere. I would agree that for non-exclusive games you may get a better bargain elsewhere, especially long after release when they've been through the full discount cycle.

With that said, as an example Armada 2526 and Supernova we did work with the developer on, tested it, helped balance and tweak and did a lot more than any other distribution outlet to ensure that it was a quality release. Same for Time of Wrath and Hired Guns. We're an actual publisher - a pure distribution store like GG just puts the game up there. It's similar to a retail store putting something on its shelf. You have no guarantee they've played it, tested it or that it even completely works. With us you do have that guarantee. All that said, this is also why we are no longer doing distribution releases and focusing on our exclusive titles. Many customers don't understand the value we add for these releases and we don't have the staff to keep up with the price changes for these titles on other sites across the internet.

I am aware that you are a publisher, but that honestly makes no difference; the product is the same whether or not the consumer purchases it from a distributor, from the publisher, or directly from the developer him- or herself. You may well have added value during the development of these (and other) games, which is not exactly anything unusual for a publisher, but those games being sold at your web-shop, as opposed to also being sold by one or more additional distributors, does not add any additional value by itself. The just makes you a publisher with a limited outlet.


ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
DW is an exclusive release for us. The fact that the original game is three years old is IMHO irrelevant. First, we updated it for about two years after release, second, the expansions fit on top of it and improve it further. DW is as new as the latest expansion. Until it is replaced _as a game_ by something definitively bigger and better that offers the same gameplay, it is not old. I think it is a unique experience that every 4x sci-fi fan would enjoy and we're working to make sure it gets out to as many of them as possible.

We do hear all the feedback on pricing as you can see from this thread and others. I'm not going to go into great detail on this again, but I can tell you we are very aware of all the different sides of opinion on this issue. We are also extremely interested in forging the best possible path for DW and part of that is indeed making it as available as possible. No doors are closed, all options are open for the future, as long as it helps DW succeed.

Regards,

- Erik

It is hardly irrelevant that that the original game is 3 years old, and the fact that you have continued to update it does not change that fact, nor is it anything unique. For example, allow me to draw attention once again to AI War, a 4 year old game which is also (IMO) a unique experience. It has been updated consistently since its release in 2009, including multiple expansions (with another expansion currently in development), but it is also priced very competitively: AI War and all expansions taken together costs less than a single DW expansion(!), and it has been part of many sales at significant discounts, including sales for the benefit of charities. Not to mention that AI War actually has a demo, which covers both the base game and expansions.

In my opinion, Arcen Games have done much more to get their game out to as many fans as possible. Your pricing model, on the other hand, simply ends up raising the significantly bar for new fans every time you release a new expansion, which runs exactly counter to your stated goal.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by elmo3 »

Distant Worlds has been worth every penny I've spent on it. Shadows is a day one purchase for me. Bring it. [:)]
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Bleek »

ORIGINAL: Buio
ORIGINAL: Bleek
If you were in marketing you'd realise that simply isn't true and it isn't that simple.
It is a generalization, but if you'd were in marketing you'd know it was true more often than not, even for games.

Ok, FYI I'm the director of a marketing agency in the UK.

We work with some quite big brands who pay us quite a bit of money to market their products, so I'll leave it there.
I've been beta testing myself for decades.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Buio »

ORIGINAL: Mansen
You're forgetting one tiny thing - saturation. A niche product has a much smaller "dedicated" market. Once that has been saturated, you're out of "people who are willing to pay". To get new customers you're going to have to stay competitive - which either means more/better content or lower prices.
And you are forgetting one thing. Do you think it saturated or sales are low when they continually are doing expansions for the game? Three expansions and talking about a possible forth are really unusual in games, even if you count large DLC.
ORIGINAL: Bleek
Ok, FYI I'm the director of a marketing agency in the UK.
We work with some quite big brands who pay us quite a bit of money to market their products, so I'll leave it there.
Doesn't really help you when you are wrong. I can look at many games proving what I said, even if there are exceptions too of course.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Kayoz »

ORIGINAL: Bleek
Ok, FYI I'm the director of a marketing agency in the UK.
argumentum ad auctoritatem. Don't expect it to get you much traction.
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RE: Pricing Hurting Sales?

Post by Talon_XBMCX »

Ever wish there was a "Block this thread" option?

Matrix is no different than Battlefront, HPS, and other independent "niche" publishers. Some of those publishers have games much older the DW that are still at their release day prices ... and they are STILL getting sales.

This is my hobby. I choose where to spend my wages. My full price dollars, and everyone else that has made the purchase, has helped to further this title. Why should we be punished for supporting this game early on? What makes your dollars so much more valuable that you can't help to support it too? Just because you are coming to the party late? Aren't you getting the same product I purchased?

Sure, you can throw marketing terminology, pricing grids, and whatever other nonsense makes you feel better, but I will continue to spend my dollars where I feel I am getting quality. As soon as someone else's dollars become more valuable than mine, I will be happy to take my dollars elsewhere.

I wish people complained to the oil companies about fuel pricing ... now there is a worthy cause.
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