Yesterday’s news that Gears of War: Judgment was going to bundled with the original Gears of War for free got me thinking about
English: Gabe Newell, Game Developers Conference. Français : Gabe Newell à la Game Developers... [+]
game pricing. How is it that this game, once the biggest thing on the market, is now a giveaway? A quick trip into Amazon.com’s labyrinthine prices for different GoW games made one thing clear – nobody has any idea how much this game was worth to a consumer.
Game companies like to complain that Gamestop and piracy are to blame for declining sales of older games, but they’re curiously unwilling to play with distribution to address those problems. You go into an online store and they sell at $40 or so, sometimes on sale at $30. I can’t imagine anyone is making a mint off of something like that.
You only need to look at Valve for the alternative. At a certain point, the played with digital distribution is essentially free for the producer. Especially on a game like the first Gears of War, the cost/benefit has already been worked out within a year or so of release. Now the game is this free-floating code in the ether, out to make as much money as possible. And so Valve decided to just axe the price. It started selling absurd bundles at 90% discounts, and judging by Steam’s success in the world of Pc distribution, it’s worked. Here’s Gabe Newell talking about why.
Digital distribution is all about volume, or at least the promise of volume. You charge .99 instead of 1.99, and you don’t sell twice as much. You sell ten times as much. Maybe you sell 1,000 times as much. In the case of something like Angry Birds, I’d say that you sell 1,000,000 times as much. It’s impossible to tell, but a lot of people have decided that the math works out. Many others have worried about devaluing brands over the long term, but I’m not sure that matters so much. Steam sales haven’t tempered excitement for brand new, $60 games. If anything, they can build it.
PSN understands this to a certain degree with Playstation plus, which gives players an instant collection of free games. But its sales still look like someone slashing the price on a toaster – with a game, 30% off just won’t make the difference. Xbox looks the same – I see $40 games discounted even down to $20, but I still don’t feel the compulsion to pick them up.
These companies need to calm down and start selling cheap games. Games cheaper than they ever thought they would sell. Digital distribution is all about volume, or at least the promise of volume. You charge .99 instead of 1.99, and you don’t sell twice as much. You sell ten times as much. Maybe you sell 1,000 times as much. It’s impossible to tell, but a lot of people have decided that the math works out.
Steam proves that there’s no reason bigger games can’t take advantage of those same principles. Don’t just give away Gears of War with Gears of War: Judgement. Charge a couple bucks for it on Xbox Live and watch the sales ring up from people who feel like they might as well play it. Sell Halo or Uncharted games for $5 a pop. Not only do you start to make a mint off of old titles most people were picking up at Gamestop, you also build excitement for new installments. What if Call of Duty sold single player-only versions of its games for $5? I imagine those players would be much more likely to buy the new one in the fall.
