I read this great blog entry by one of the guys behind Gal Civ II and Sins. I’ve always been annoyed by the different hoops that legitimate game consumers like me have to go through to play games that are technically geared towards me but wrapped in whatever the current mode du jour is on the DRM from.
Check it out here: http://draginol.joeuser.com/article/303512/Piracy_PC_Gaming
While you’re at it, check out Penny Arcade’s latest series…brings back memories…
The basic jist of Brad’s blog: they don’t bother with DRM because they know their customers hate it and as long as they’re able to turn a profit on the games they make (which they do), they’re good to go. Piracy is never going away…the guys cracking your games are always going to be smarter than you because a lot of them come out of the engineer factories in Eastern Europe and China where they eat, sleep and shit code. Plus, they’ve got more incentive than you really have to get the crack done. Ego trumps cash flow any day.
It’s sort of like when you see those sports games in stadiums where people sit on rooftops and in parking structures to see the game without paying the $$ to get in the stadium where the franchises have set prices to rival movie theatres. Captive audiences pay the price but who’s fault is that?
Basic economic principles (borne out by centuries of historical evidence) is that lower prices net you larger sales volumes at, usually, slimmer profits. If you sold a game for $70 (nowadays, this isn’t unusual on the console side), you’ve set a barrier for a lot of people for whom $70 is several meals. So, you’ve got to ask yourself. Who are you selling to? Do you want the mass market to buy your game? Have you considered selling it for $30? You’re guaranteed, assuming the game’s good of course, an increase in sales with the lower price.
Here’s an idea…the next time you’re releasing a game, sell it on your online store for a discount during the first couple weeks…offer a 40% discount for those people who buy in the first few weeks. See how much more it sells. Assuming you’re not hampering the experiment with lacking marketing or just a bug ridden game, I’m sure you’ll see more purchases than you’d have seen just selling the game at retail prices.
kn
