Well I snipped this at 1:30ish pm from the Community Hub tab off of Steam. Although this one shows the current player who are playing the game thru Steam I would guess to say it wasnt as successful as they would have hope.
In the end I stick by my point that it doesnt matter what you discount something for, or at what percentage. Its the perceived value of what is being sold that determines if something (doesnt really matter what) will sell or not.
Looking at those in game numbers below (in the green), I'd say 33% off a subscription to Champions didnt raise its perceived value.
In my opinion; A "turd" is a "turd" no matter how you try and sell it. Looks like I wasnt alone in that opinion either.
Edit: the link didnt work: lets see if I can fix it. But currently at 1:34 (US Westcoast time) on Steam only 354 people were playing.
Edit, Edit: My snipped didnt save to the upload. If you have Steam just look up CoL, go to the Community link on the right and it will show you current players.
Tommy Boy had it right. All you have to do is swap the word guarantee with discount.
Tommy Boy (the salesman): "Let's think about this for a sec, Ted. Why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting."
Ted Nelson (the customer): "Go on, I'm listening."
Tommy Boy: "Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time..."
What Im kind of curious about and was never addressed by the original post (or by me previously).
Was this to attract new customers?
Or was it to help retain customers?
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
If people can't afford £8.99, then those people are just freaking poor. I don't care if you have 10 billion kids. You can't NOT have any disposal income. A pint of beer can be £5-6 here in London. Lowering the sub fee would make no difference. If I don't play a game, it's not because of the £8.99 sub. E.g. if EVE suddenly dropped their sub to £1, I would still not play the game. It's not a matter of money. It's a matter of the game not being fun and not being worth my time.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
I think it'll work. Speaking from experience. I mean, $15 doesn't seem like a lot but growing up in a single parent home you have to stretch every dollar, and paying for a WoW sub is never at the top of that list. I know a lot of work goes into these games and honestly it's not feasible to charge lower prices but sadly a lot of people live check to check and cant part with a few bucks, lest they go without a meal or delay a bill.
Originally posted by fivoroth If people can't afford £8.99, then those people are just freaking poor. I don't care if you have 10 billion kids. You can't NOT have any disposal income. A pint of beer can be £5-6 here in London. Lowering the sub fee would make no difference. If I don't play a game, it's not because of the £8.99 sub. E.g. if EVE suddenly dropped their sub to £1, I would still not play the game. It's not a matter of money. It's a matter of the game not being fun and not being worth my time.
Of course most people can afford $15 for a great game (at least most people who are reading forums like this and have internet access). Many could probably afford a lot more than that actually and people will not play a game that they don't enjoy even if it is free (time has value and is a factor here).
The issue is that there are some people who will try the game if it is cheaper and once they try it may come to like it but if the price is too high they are not willing to risk the money. Lowering your sub price has the same logic behind it as offering a free trial. It will get more people to try the game. More people will risk $5 on something they may not like than will risk $20 on the same thing. It is why companies can still make huge profits selling games on Steam sales for a fraction of their opening day retail price.
Of course if you lower your sub price too much the number of extra people you get will eventually not be worth the revenue you will lose per player. This is especially true with MMOs which have far more ongoing development costs than other games so it's a definite balancing act for companies to find the right price point that allows them to maintain the quality their customers expect. Especially if they are trying to avoid heavy use of cash shops which will also devalue the game in many peoples eyes if over-used.
Obviously you are wrong. Why does Walmart succeed? Price. Why does Macdonald succeed? Price. Quality is just one factor, same as price.
And why does F2P succeed? .... no .. not price ... WHALES!
Walmart's success is in logistics, MCD made their money in real estate, F2P provides much better monetization in current market than P2P...
which allows all of them to charge lower prices, and lure the customers in.
Don't tell me you think Walmart wins customers on quality.
Of course not, you go to Walmart to buy commodity items where there is no perceived difference in quality. If I want to buy a stand alone fan, so Walmart makes great sense.
But if I want to buy a good dress shirt, definitely not the place I head to for clothing.
Do some people shop at Walmart for the price of their clothes, sure, but they are the low end market and not the place every retailer wants to be.
Same for MMO's. F2P and low sub price games are the low end and not the desired place to be, but if your game doesn't warrant premium prices (and few do) then people won't be paying them, simple as as that.
All sorts of tiers of customers and MMO's have to be priced to maximize their revenue potential, even if it means ignoring a specific tier of the player base.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
All sorts of tiers of customers and MMO's have to be priced to maximize their revenue potential, even if it means ignoring a specific tier of the player base.
I worked for a vineyard one summer and spoke to the sales rep over some very tasty wine. He said essentially the same thing you point out here. When he sells wine (and the vineyard makes wine), they try to sell it in lots of varying prices. Restaraunts typically want a low end (good) wine, a middle priced wine, and then an expensive one (or several of each tier). This is how vineyards can maximize profits. Selling ONLY expensive wines is likely not to be as lucrative.
Comments
Well I snipped this at 1:30ish pm from the Community Hub tab off of Steam. Although this one shows the current player who are playing the game thru Steam I would guess to say it wasnt as successful as they would have hope.
In the end I stick by my point that it doesnt matter what you discount something for, or at what percentage. Its the perceived value of what is being sold that determines if something (doesnt really matter what) will sell or not.
Looking at those in game numbers below (in the green), I'd say 33% off a subscription to Champions didnt raise its perceived value.
In my opinion; A "turd" is a "turd" no matter how you try and sell it. Looks like I wasnt alone in that opinion either.
Edit: the link didnt work: lets see if I can fix it. But currently at 1:34 (US Westcoast time) on Steam only 354 people were playing.
Edit, Edit: My snipped didnt save to the upload. If you have Steam just look up CoL, go to the Community link on the right and it will show you current players.
Tommy Boy had it right. All you have to do is swap the word guarantee with discount.
Tommy Boy (the salesman): "Let's think about this for a sec, Ted. Why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting."
Ted Nelson (the customer): "Go on, I'm listening."
Tommy Boy: "Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time..."
What Im kind of curious about and was never addressed by the original post (or by me previously).
Was this to attract new customers?
Or was it to help retain customers?
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
You could charge the modern player 10p a month and they would still cry about pay walls and being forced to pony up cash to play.
Of course most people can afford $15 for a great game (at least most people who are reading forums like this and have internet access). Many could probably afford a lot more than that actually and people will not play a game that they don't enjoy even if it is free (time has value and is a factor here).
The issue is that there are some people who will try the game if it is cheaper and once they try it may come to like it but if the price is too high they are not willing to risk the money. Lowering your sub price has the same logic behind it as offering a free trial. It will get more people to try the game. More people will risk $5 on something they may not like than will risk $20 on the same thing. It is why companies can still make huge profits selling games on Steam sales for a fraction of their opening day retail price.
Of course if you lower your sub price too much the number of extra people you get will eventually not be worth the revenue you will lose per player. This is especially true with MMOs which have far more ongoing development costs than other games so it's a definite balancing act for companies to find the right price point that allows them to maintain the quality their customers expect. Especially if they are trying to avoid heavy use of cash shops which will also devalue the game in many peoples eyes if over-used.
Of course not, you go to Walmart to buy commodity items where there is no perceived difference in quality. If I want to buy a stand alone fan, so Walmart makes great sense.
But if I want to buy a good dress shirt, definitely not the place I head to for clothing.
Do some people shop at Walmart for the price of their clothes, sure, but they are the low end market and not the place every retailer wants to be.
Same for MMO's. F2P and low sub price games are the low end and not the desired place to be, but if your game doesn't warrant premium prices (and few do) then people won't be paying them, simple as as that.
All sorts of tiers of customers and MMO's have to be priced to maximize their revenue potential, even if it means ignoring a specific tier of the player base.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I worked for a vineyard one summer and spoke to the sales rep over some very tasty wine. He said essentially the same thing you point out here. When he sells wine (and the vineyard makes wine), they try to sell it in lots of varying prices. Restaraunts typically want a low end (good) wine, a middle priced wine, and then an expensive one (or several of each tier). This is how vineyards can maximize profits. Selling ONLY expensive wines is likely not to be as lucrative.