Dhruin
SasqWatch
Jeff Vogel's latest blog post argues that services that cap the price of indie games (Amazon, Xbox Live etc) are potentially damaging the indie games industry.
More information.
More information.
I think you've just given one major reason why the current pricing system is totally fucked up.[...]On the other hand, from the online retailers' perspective, the price controls are important. [...]
I am aware how much of an effect the portals have. And I can't help the impression they are shamelessly abusing their power, to the disadvantage of indie devs.I think what you guys do not know, is how much of a difference getting a game on a portal could make. We are not talking double or tripple,,,, we are talking much much more. I know from my friend, she could not make a living by her games until she got them on portals at that time her profit grew a lot.
Word of mouth. The best marketing available - but it's not based on effort by the portal here.The reason for this is that the portal has signed up members, and when they play one type of game they love they are recommended other simular games on that portal......... which is a kind of marketing......
The things Amazon and iTunes do are comparable to BIG specialized retail chains with staff who knows their stuff. With the difference that they don't even have to pay all the costs related to physical product.@Gorath
I find no fault with your analogy to offline retail, but we know that things are different enough in the online world that different rules can and do apply. Most importantly, can you really look at mega-e-tailers like Amazon and iTunes and say they are "no longer doing anything to get the game sold?" Like GG says, just being in those stores leads to sales in a way that being in an individual chain, even a national one, would not. I mean, maybe Walmart is analogous, but even that's stretching it, because Walmart doesn't provide an in for indies, and Amazon and iTunes do just that. In spades.
I think you've got the perspective wrong. There is no "shift" in pricing power. Our whole economy is built on the principle that somebody produces a product and puts a price on it. That's not unusual, it's the standard. Then the market is either willing to accept the price or not.In your own example, you cut out the publisher. True, these mega-e-tailers aren't acting like publishers, but then neither are the developers. We have a new model. There's no reason that pricing power which used to belong to publishers should shift to the devs rather than the e-tailers.
See elsewhere in my posts. This is unproven and not undisputed. Plus selling through portals has other negative effects, for example no new customers for the indie (address data is not transfered!), lower price everywhere including the indie's own site (usually almost 100% margin), the customer expects a lower price ( -> he values the product lower). That's a very complex topic. I doubt there are general rules. Every indie has to decide this for himself.Amazon doesn't provide a damned thing that Spiderweb can't, for example, in terms of the game you download. So why should Spiderweb want to sell games on Amazon? Because Amazon DOES increase sales big-time.
Of course they are bringing something to the table. It's just not clear to whose table.In return for this sales bump, Amazon demands price caps. If Spiderweb doesn't like it, they can keep selling games the way they have been, and lose all those potential sales. And complain about it. I'm only saying let's not pretend Amazon isn't bringing anything to the table; if they weren't, why bother having this conversation?
A good idea. Many indies will do just that. But on the other hand, as Jeff correctly writes, the more specialzed your product the more money you should ask for. Jeff would need ca. 4 9.99$ units to compensate for 1 28$ unit, due to the fixed costs (transaction fees, etc.). Is this possibe? Only Jeff can answer this. Please remember the target is to maximize your earnings, not the amounts of units sold.@Indy game publishers, and anyone who can influence them:
This is so stupid. While I was typing this out, I figured out the answer. Just frigging cut your content up into sizes where (price cap) X (# of chunks) = (what you want the game to sell for), and this whole issue vanishes. Duh. Just make Geneforge 5 Chapter 1, 2, and 3. Tada!
I am aware how much of an effect the portals have. And I can't help the impression they are shamelessly abusing their power, to the disadvantage of indie devs.
Please ask your friend how his/her numbers have changed since Amazon entered the business in February. The numbers from ca. a dozen indies I've seen - Jeff linked to a couple of articles, the rest can easily be found - mostly indicate that they earn less since then. Meaning the price cut does not lead to a big enough sales increase to compensate for the loss.
I liked Jeff's approach to figuring out how much to charge for a game, except he left out the first consideration. Just about everyone makes that same mistake, so it's forgivable.
Ask someone who's looking for a new job how much they feel they should be paid, and they'll invariably go into that same kind of analysis. That's fine, but it's the wrong way to answer that particular question. The only right way to answer that is to venture an opinion of what the market will bear for someone with your same skills and amount of experience. All other considerations are secondary.
That may seem nitpicky, but it can make a world of difference. One should always determine fair-market value first, IMO, and then go from there.
I'm comparing the two, because everyone can relate to getting paid for their work. Your points are all worth considering, of course. But my point about fair-market value is that it's like putting the horse before the cart. It's best to determine that first.You are confusing a job with a product. When doing a job....
I have been contemplating the following question:I'll refuse to buy games from indies who use payment services I've never heard of, or ones I've heard of but have reservations over (like paypal). However much I may want a game, I'll pass it up if I'm not completely certain the pay system is legit.
That sense of trust is one significant advantage for the big-name portals.
I've heard from many indie developers who now have their games on Amazon at half their previous price. In general, the increase in sales didn't even come close to doubling. They lost money in that experiment, and it's hurting them.
I don't know about Jeff's old rule-of-thumb: "Charge half as much as the comparable product being sold in boxes on store shelves." The difference in production values between an indie game and a "comparable" product can be pretty extreme. But still - it seems to work okay for him.
Getting onto a portal *can* make a huge difference for certain kinds of games.
As far as breaking your content out into chunks: Good in theory, and it's definitely being tried with some success (see Penny Arcade Adventures, Sam & Max, etc.). But it's had its failures, too.