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Indie game pricing: The balance between fair and cheap!
#378163
07/20/11 10:39
07/20/11 10:39
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,206 Innsbruck, Austria
sPlKe
OP
Expert
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OP
Expert
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,206
Innsbruck, Austria
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This topic originated from a discussion about price points in games. However, due to the very helpfull and sometimes very emotional replies of some users, It became a help desk for all indie game developers that want to publish their games themselfs. Error014 for example provided a very nice list of things one should check: 1) Are you running ads? 2) Are you sure you provided the necessary amount of PR? Posting trailers on YouTube is NOT enough. Sending press releases to many, many outlets would be a start. There are services for that, if you don't want to do it yourself. I don't know your current sales, but I'm sure you'd see a nice spike if you get a favorably (maybe even bad or awful) review from bigger sites. 3) Have you made sure your website makes it easy and clear how to buy? Not for someone like you looking at it everyday, but for someone who's never been there before and is not web-savvy? 4) Are you closely analyzing your website-traffic and stats? 5) Are you providing Demos for your games? Those a re a few things to consider. He also was kind enough to link us to this BLOG with alot of REALLY good information. Like those four links: Indie Games pricing Issues The wild economics of selling online Two web sales mistakes you could be making right now Let's kill the cheap and begging myth right now Also, JibbSmart added three very useful links for self publishers. GamePress Press releases - Create your own press release Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Getting your game pre/reviewed The Indie DatabaseFurhtermore, you can find some very helpfull and some not that much helpful tipps and opinions in the replies
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Re: Indie game pricing: The balance between fair and cheap!
[Re: sPlKe]
#378171
07/20/11 11:11
07/20/11 11:11
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 616 Austria
Stromausfall
User
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User
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 616
Austria
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interesting question ! i guess maybe you're right... because if you would have to choose between a bar of chocolate priced 1€uro and a bar of chocolate priced 10Cent.... i guess not many people would take the 10 cent bar of chocolate - and even then it would be seen as inferior ! To know that the 10 cent bar of chocolate is as good as a 1€uro bar of chocolate requires that you've already tasted both ! And commonly we only buy a 1 €uro bar of chocolate... Thus we would assume that there's something wrong with the 10 Cent bar of chocolate ... Same thing with games on steam... if for example half life 2 is on there for 10 Cent, everybody would buy it instantly ! But if some unknown shooter would be there for 10 Cent not many people would buy it, because something has to be wrong with it... I guess without knowledge we(at least i) are cautious and thus we can miss a good deal.... of course if you have knowledge about games and you buy a game for 19.99€ that's objectively (and also from the point of view of the developer) only worth 4.99€, then I'd be pretty pissed off (of course only because I know that the game isn't worth that much)... Thus I guess, if you want to sell the game to people who have some knowledge about games, keep the price low If you want to sell the game to people who only occasionally play games, raise the price this interesting video is roughly about this topic : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FREh6GyHk1k
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Re: Indie game pricing: The balance between fair and cheap!
[Re: Stromausfall]
#378172
07/20/11 11:38
07/20/11 11:38
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,023 The Netherlands
Helghast
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,023
The Netherlands
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I have actually bought all 3 games, I enjoy them Which reminds me, I've been working on feedback on GRUNTS for you, I will get that to you some day soon. regards,
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Re: Indie game pricing: The balance between fair and cheap!
[Re: Helghast]
#378174
07/20/11 12:24
07/20/11 12:24
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,538 WA, Australia
JibbSmart
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Expert
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,538
WA, Australia
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That's interesting. I would've thought that $5 USD is cheap enough that I wouldn't be too bothered if I didn't end up enjoying the game, but enough that I know the distributor's not just making a desperate attempt to increase sales. Obviously I would assume it's an indie game, and in this case it is.
These days I rarely get games that cost any more than $10, the exceptions being AAA titles that have critical acclaim and have given me good reason to believe I'll sink a lot of time into them.
Jibb
Formerly known as JulzMighty. I made KarBOOM!
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Re: Indie game pricing: The balance between fair and cheap!
[Re: Joey]
#378190
07/20/11 15:41
07/20/11 15:41
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,538 WA, Australia
JibbSmart
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Expert
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,538
WA, Australia
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If you do raise the price, bust out a press-release giving players a 5 day (or so) grace period in which to buy the games before prices go up.
Jibb
Formerly known as JulzMighty. I made KarBOOM!
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