Some Math for Thrax

R

Rilke

Veteran X
10 x 49.99 = 499.90

12.5 x 39.99 = 499.87


By setting your price at the low end of the current game price spectrum, you potentially earn more customers, who in turn make up for the difference.

Your $39.99 game needs to have only 2 more adults and one midget (or child) in order to make as much money as your $49.99 game. I believe $10 is a significant amount of money to people when they are shopping for a game. Depending on the competition, $10 can be the differnce between Half Life and Shelf Life.

Take a shit outside of the box for a minute, Thrax. What if you were to to sell a solid game like T:V for $39.99, then release a quality, but mostly recycled expansion product less than a year later for $24.99? Since more people bought your first game at $39.99 because they heard it was good, heard it ran better on more systems, and saw that it costed less, the audience for your quality, recycled expansion is larger.

There are ways to turn a profit with a more reasonable price tag.
 
Well that's some nifty multiplication there I'll have to give you that... although you've completely forgotten about the costs of publishing and royalty fees on a per-copy basis. If the game kicks ass, it's worth the extra $10 and enough people will pay for it.

The point is to make the game good enough to buy, not cheap enough to buy.
 
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Didn't he say it'd be $69.99ish?

$70x10=$700.

And how many copies are sold? We'll say, hmm... 500, 000?

$40x500,000=$20,000,000
$70x500,000=$35,000,000

I'd certainly buy T:V for $70. Why? Because, like most people, I know Tribes has a whole lot of replay value.

Final Fantasy X cost $70 and it sold millions, correct? That game only lasted for abotu 70 hours worth of playing time, assuming you play it twice just to get everything. I've spent countless hours playing Tribes, so when I spend that money - I know I'm getting a lot of bang for my buck.

Keep in mind that they have to spend time with the One-Player mode, which means they have gobbles of character models, coding, and voice-overs to add along side the coding of the multiplayer mode. So yes, T:V will be worth $70 in comparison to the other games out there.
 
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BTW try taking an economics course if you're still in school. I don't think recycled expansion was a term used by Adam Smith.
 
Kefka said:
Didn't he say it'd be $69.99ish?

$70x10=$700.

And how many copies are sold? We'll say, hmm... 500, 000?

$40x500,000=$20,000,000
$70x500,000=$35,000,000
Click to expand...

google - inelastic demand curve. This does not exist.
 
I haven't forgotten about the complexity of publishing, et al., Nat. I just don't think it's relevent to the general, more simple notion that it's possible to relase a game that both kicks ass and enfranchises more consumers through better pricing.

So you don't like $39.99? OK. Then find a more consumer friendly price on the price spectrum to complement your quality title, rather than a less consumer friendly price.
 
Natural said:
BTW try taking an economics course if you're still in school. I don't think recycled expansion was a term used by Adam Smith.
Click to expand...

Adam Smith didn't ski or disk jump either. What's your point?
 
I think that Tribes, as a game, is more inelastic than the rest.

You have tons of first-person shooters out there that offer free-for-all frag fests where you blast away. You also have strategy games where most people make a million of one unit and rush you. Then you have those flight sims.

There's not many other games that meet the gameplay of Tribes, as opposed to the generic RTS/RPG/FPS games on the market. If someone wants a game that focuses on teamplay, vehicles/jetpack manueverability, armor classes, and espionage WHILE being cheater-free and quite balanced... then they're pretty much out of luck. So, yes, if someone plays Tribes and enjoys it, they're pretty much not going to hold value of $20 extra over the unique gameplay they're offered.

However, if you really wanted to hook people, you'd have to have great reviews. Tribes 2 had a dud set-off when the hungry public got their hands on a buggy game that most couldn't run on their systems. There were also those who couldn't stand the balance issues that were addressed in T2 to make the game more team-oriented. So, when people heard from others that T2 "sucked," people didn't buy the game. I seriously think T2 would've been a much better release had it been held back for another month.
 
rilkean panther said:
I haven't forgotten about the complexity of publishing, et al., Nat. I just don't think it's relevent to the general, more simple notion that it's possible to relase a game that both kicks ass and enfranchises more consumers through better pricing.

So you don't like $39.99? OK. Then find a more consumer friendly price on the price spectrum to complement your quality title, rather than a less consumer friendly price.
Click to expand...

Who gives a shit what the initial price is. The price does not set sales. The only game I've ever purchased due to an attractive price was Serious Sam and that's because it was 50% off and I had enough change in my pocket to cover the $5 plus tax.

You're a MILLION times more likely to increase the amount of people playing the game by the quality of the game. Media hype/word of mouth will exponentially increase sales--IF the game deserves it. Stop focusing on how much the game is going to cost and post something more meaningful to the future of the franchise. THINK about what the game can do to be better... post it here... People are watching.
 
Kefka said:
I think that Tribes, as a game, is more inelastic than the rest.
Click to expand...

Yes, tribes does have a dedicated community that will probably purchase the game even if it's above average cost. However the community, as large as you may think it is, cannot nearly fund the cost of the game.
 
Natural said:
Who gives a shit what the initial price is. The price does not set sales. The only game I've ever purchased due to an attractive price was Serious Sam and that's because it was 50% off and I had enough change in my pocket to cover the $5 plus tax.

You're a MILLION times more likely to increase the amount of people playing the game by the quality of the game. Media hype/word of mouth will exponentially increase sales--IF the game deserves it. Stop focusing on how much the game is going to cost and post something more meaningful to the future of the franchise. THINK about what the game can do to be better... post it here... People are watching.
Click to expand...

Since when are the quality of a product and the price of a product necessarily and directly, as opposed to inversely, linked to one another?

Also, I don't understand what you mean by the "price does not set sales." Would you explain that to me?
 
That's the point of word-of-mouth.

If the Tribes community all says "Wow, this is a great game. You get blah-blah-blah," then you'll have many others who'll say "That sounds great, I think I'll try it."

When Tribes 2 was released, it's "dedicated" community of "l33t oldbiez" disapproved of it due to bugs/system specs/different gameplay. However, most of these types seemed to have been filtered out. If the community honestly approves of T:V, then I'm quite sure word will get out in a positive light this time.

And why do I assume that T:V will be better welcomed?
1: It's based on an engine most are familiar with. So I doubt there will be as many system and bug issues as with Tribes 2.
2: People who were more adapted to being one-man heroes who could destroy an entire enemy base with a lazily aimed mortar were filtered out and players who were more open to the gameplay changes stayed.
3: Because of its engine, I would bet that mod developers would have little trouble making their mods. I remember one of the largest complaints in T2 was that there were no good mods. If the alterations for their outdoors rendering is true, I'm sure there will be a major mod-development team to look into the new engine.
4: New players will have a single-player mode. This means people won't jump into the game and get slaughtered as they stagger to learn how to jump-jet and get yelled at by irate team-mates when they order a heavy carrier and sit on the vehicle pad.

So yes, I'm optimistic that T:V will sell much better than T2, even with a thick pricetag.
 
rilkean panther said:
Since when are the quality of a product and the price of a product necessarily and directly, as opposed to inversely, linked to one another?

Also, I don't understand what you mean by the "price does not set sales." Would you explain that to me?
Click to expand...

... You originally posted that the price should be lowered to increase the size of the community.

I said that the size of the community is not influenced by the price of the game NEARLY as much as the quality of the game.

This really isn't that hard.

PS: Directly and Inversely are not antonyms.
 
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Kefka said:
Didn't he say it'd be $69.99ish?

$70x10=$700.

And how many copies are sold? We'll say, hmm... 500, 000?

$40x500,000=$20,000,000
$70x500,000=$35,000,000

I'd certainly buy T:V for $70. Why? Because, like most people, I know Tribes has a whole lot of replay value.

Final Fantasy X cost $70 and it sold millions, correct? That game only lasted for abotu 70 hours worth of playing time, assuming you play it twice just to get everything. I've spent countless hours playing Tribes, so when I spend that money - I know I'm getting a lot of bang for my buck.
Click to expand...

Are you kidding me? If they sold a game for $70 they'd have their ass handed to them. FFX *might* have been $60 when it first came out, but I'm sure places were selling it for $50, and $50 was the price it was at for most of its sales career.

Most games start at $40-$50, with very few going up to $60. And there is no way in fucking hell I'd buy a game for $70. If one game sells for $70, then it gives publishers the idea that they can sell more games for $70. Anything more than $55 is ridiculous, especially now with the smaller packaging that saves several dollars per game.
 
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Honestly, I think anybody that gets the title "Producer" for any half-decent company would already know about this. There's probably a lot more intangibles involved, and I think there ARE cases where keeping prices in the same range as other products help economically in the long run (I'm not an economics specialist so im not sure)
 
sounds like some people better ask there parents for a raise on there allowance............lol

i would pay $100.00 for anyy additional tribes titles.

they provide me w/ countless hours of enjoyment ( at least 3 hours a night, 5 times a week, for 4 years now)
 
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