Really hope this game sells at full price

[NoxNoctum]

*heavily sobbing, tears falling into his bowl of soup*


what planet is this? how did I get here?

How about instead of repeatedly dropping in the thread and making some two word comment implying how stupid everyone else is you actually make a cogent argument.

The fact is, when people see games for under $30 at release they tend to think budget.

It's a serious title, it needs a real pricetag, ESPECIALLY since it has a full singleplayer campaign this time around as well as MP AND that skirmish mode. If you're not willing to pay an extra $15-20 for the sequel to a game you've probably been playing for at least 3 years then shame on you.

This isn't about rewarding TWI though, it's about ensuring we have a good sized community.

We don't want ROHOS next to "Urban Assault" or whatever generic $19.95 shooter on the shelf.

This isn't about US, everyone hear knows it will be quality, this is about the rest of the public who is not familiar with the franchise.

You can moan and whine all you want about how pathetic it is that people wouldn't pay attention to a title just because it's cheaper but it's true.

 

[REZ]

Nox, what you've written in this last post shows me you havent read the entirety of your own thread, much less made an attempt at understanding solid points. Continue to cling to your 'high priced iz bettar/not full priced meanz crap' logic for all I care. HoS will most assuredly be 'full priced' as you call it.

 

[Zetsumei]

No need to personally attack people rez ...
Some people still buy games without reading reviews, some people just go to the store and pick a box and buy it. Games starting at a lower price how crooked it might be can often be seen as an inferior product as if its better why wouldnt it be higher priced. This is a fact, however the effected amount of people is unknown, and could be so low that it doesnt matter.

But i think the main reason for devs to go and charge full price is simply because they probably can do it without a big amount of backlash. I just hope that well some more good marketing of the product itself in return, so people do indeed know of the product. And don't have to judge a game on boxart and price.

For some reason wildly anticipated games get higher reviews as well than sleeperhits, games hyped to the moon and back are often given 9's even if they are 7 games.

 

[Fedorov]

but in that sense, there is also the possibility that you have some money, get into a store and say: "lets see what games I can buy with this money" and then you buy several under-priced games instead of just one,

most gamers I know in RL do that kind of stuff

 

[Zetsumei]

Which is exactly why i said the effect and importance of pricing in shops in this sense is unknown. There are multiple things playing. And what ends up being the most effective strategy can probably only really be determined after the product went retail.

And the question is not only about the current price its about the starting price. In that bargain bin you find games with a label with a 49,99 with stripe through and the same price as say red orchestra. People at that moment still often go for the game that was originally more expensive.

Things can go all ways and the mind of consumers are hard to predict, but when a game starts at an initially higher price it got more leverage to go and drop the prices.

 

[Fedorov]

in any case, Killing Floor, being well priced, lasted a few months in the top seller Steam list, that says something, doesn't it?

 

[D3terioNation]

Ok time for my 2 centeth!

I would say hand on heart that this game is as well known amongst ww2 FPS fans as DoD... easily!

So this isnt some unknown title that most of us ignore on the Steam store!

So I say cheaper is better.

 

[Zetsumei]

L4D heavily overpriced was number one on the top sellers list for half a year. You can find examples for the credit and discredit of both.

The effects talked about of initial pricing only matters in retail outlets however (generally steam buyers tend to inform themselves more before buying they are on the internet anyway), although i dont have any numbers i think that RO got a lot of players actually through retail channels more than one might think.

Atleast if i look at amounts of players from different countries of players playing, and look at countries that didnt get a retail release compared to some others that did. I really get the feeling that retail still matters a lot atleast in getting a foothold in a country.

Both killingfloor and the original RO, debatably didnt feature enough features for a full priced game. Especially with relative difference to a beforehand free mod. Now the featureset is there enough that the public if executed right wont mind paying full price, and i think it would be weird for a company not to ask what they can get, especially as the public generally wont mind.

The sweet spot initial price in my opinion would be around 40 euro.

Although of course if it was feasible i would prefer to get the game for free

 

[Fedorov]

L4D heavily overpriced was number one on the top sellers list for half a year. You can find examples for the credit and discredit of both.

is not that much difference in comparison to what KF did, and add th fact that left 4 dead has had huge advertisement campaign for years

now imagine a 50 - 60€ game that youve never heard of before, becaus it had no advertisement... you wont think, its good because is expensive, you'll say, its too expensive for a budget game "as i've never heard about it" so they didn't have money for advertisement

 

[Zetsumei]

Full priced game means that it is priced as a full game that got all assets you expect of a full game. Generally 60 is a standard price for console games and 50 for pc.

And with a price like 50 retail (mind you that this means that retailers buy the game from wholesalers for like 30 euro and often big shops sell it online for like 35 euro).

So ideally you would actually want a price of like 30 or at max 40 on steam, but retailers wont stock the game if there isnt enough of an incidentive for buying the game in retail.

 

[Fedorov]

Fallout 3 was full priced and it doesnt have multiplayer, same with oblivion

 

[REZ]

I didnt personally attack that guy.. I simply blew him off.

The 'fact', as you guys are calling it, of people buying games because they are higher priced and in their minds somehow 'better' is not something I've denied. Yes, people do that... and it's a sad 'fact'. I've only made points, points which I stand by, of how totally ridiculous that logic is. I know.. sometimes it feels like putting out an LA wildfire with a squirt-gun, but it needs to be said. Especially since it seems there are quite a few here who believe in this backwards 'fact'.

 

[Zetsumei]

Maybe it is rediculous, but i doubt we can change the buying methods of some people.
Its easier to market toward a certain group. Although i guess we should let this discussion be for what it is, as we probably can never change whatever pricing intention twi already got in mind for this game.

 

[Susi]

I wonder why every shops and companies also sell games with lower prices
if they sell more with higher price.

You watch thigs too much from harcore player viewpoint.

 

[Zetsumei]

Because a lot of games are so horrible (or percieved as such) that they would never sell unless they are so cheap that people buy it in the mindset of just getting 3 games instead of 1. AAA titles are generally never priced in the budget group, which is why the budget group is often skipped when someone is looking for a real new game to play on the internet and not just a game for an afternoon.

Its more about percieved value what im talking about here, even when a full priced title is reduced in price to the price of a budget value (and especially then) people see that it was originally of a higher price than a pure 20 dollar product. And think that that product is worth more. Once it has come down to this pricepoint it will still come into interest of those that buy cheaper game, but it has been in the sights of those that buy more expensive games as well.

I'm not fully supportive behind the mindset, as i dont think that it effects a big amount of people. But i do think that twi can get away with asking full price for hos. And if more money can be asked, the game price can be reduced longer, continously causing slow but good waves of new player for whom everything will be fresh again whenver the price gets a reduction. (I rather see a more stable player amount than one that starts really high at launch and from that point pretty much only loses people).

L4D sold more games when that 50% price reduction was going on than during the first launch week.
There are different models and different models can work if executed right, i just don't think there is any model that is absolutely right.

I dont know why i view from a hardcore players viewpoint, personally i think harcore players or whatever just read reviews tryout demos and then buy a game, and when they buy it buy it from the cheapest online retailer. Rather than going to an actual shop.

 

[213]

what's the mindset behind paying more? it seems to me it's just lip service. if people wanted to further support the company, why not donate money or buy extra copies of the game?

i'm fine with whatever price they set as long as it's within the usual(50 dollars) but if it's 40 dollars that can only be better, not worse.

 

[Zetsumei]

I dont have a mindset of paying more than whats its worth, i want the game to be priced at the optimal start price wherever that may be. And i think that the same price as RO or KF for HOS would be wrong in that sense.

And from the amount of people stated and posted about people not picking ro up because it was a budget title, i think that as feature wise it isnt a budget title anymore, it wouldnt be unwise to start the game together with the rest, and let it drop down to budget after a while.

This discussion was never about what would be the nicest price for the consumer, as that would be free and nobody debates about that. The question is what option would give the biggest and longest lasting community while twi stays in business and is profitable enough to give long lasting support.

 

[Mr Milkman]

holy crap Zetsumei, you couldn't explain it any clearer to them... if they don't get it by now they must be retarded. It's the basic mindset of the average consumer DEARER MUST MEAN BETTER regardless of if it being actually the FACT. People see more expensive items as being of better quality...

 

[Fedorov]

if they don't get it by now they must be retarded.

...

 

[PermenentMarker]

I really hope RO:HoS will have better marketing organization and funds. Also some commercials would be nice.

Second thought is realease in non-euro currency countries. In my country euro price is extremly expensive and game bought via steam cost 4-5 times more than box version from local computer shop. SO i'm looking forward for retail european version premiere, hopefully it will be in same day as steam version

I would think on site unskipable advertising on streaming sites like gametrailers, avgn, nostalgia critic, escapist and so on would work well

Some people like me I regretfully admit eventually get brainwashed at seeing these advertisements none stop like Wolfenstein and Batman...

Should cost a pretty penny tho.


Personally however I am certain the game will do fine if the mainstream reviewers rate it high... but I am sure it will do great.