Raise the Price

[Jmac]

At the risk of starting a board war here, I'm gonna say...the current price makes no sense at all and there is zero benefit for you to keep it at 11.99

I recommend 14.99 right now and then 20 bucks once its released.

I am sure everyone will agree you have worked hard on the game and people should get paid well for quality work, I know its still in progress and that you wanted to discount it a little bit but consider this....

#1 People think in price points, generally speaking once you break the 9.99 = ten dollar mental barrier, any price above that might as well be 15 dollars because thats what people would have to be willing to spend to pull the trigger....anyone who buys the game for 11.99 would of spent 14.99 on it, so really you are just losing profit for no reason.

#2 an odd price point like that actually stops people from pulling the trigger and they look for more reasons not to purchase.

#3 Consider the matrix games example....specialty niche product, everyone else is trying to get 5 bucks for 20 yr old games with no graphics, they have managed to charged 50 bucks and sell a lot of copies...moral of the story, niche consumers will pay for content and a quality product. There is no way that on release this game should be less then 20 bucks, if you do price it that way you are hurting your own brand and your own product, there is zero reason to give a discount on a good game. This is a common mistake in console based pricing that has bleed over to pc gaming

#4 Good luck with your game and keep up the good work. I have already purchased this but am waiting to play until you get it all done. I bought it because this is the type of game and genre we need more of options wise.

Keep up the good work and do not short change yourself with low pricing. Your price represents your brand and how you feel about the games quality.

[BrandonBP]

You have no more say in this than demanding Exxon raise or lower the price of gasoline. And it's truly a d1ck move to try and make others pay more for something. Shut your piehole.

[MrPdwash]

Honesty, Agree with author of this post. Great game, and for the value I bought it at, it is a steal! Loving the constent updates, keep it up dev!

[Jmac]

Brandon,

I think you are missing the big picture. Exxon makes billions, the way they got there was by having enough capital to invest in machinery and exploration...They had to spend money to be able to make the big bucks. Small developers like this guy have there time, which is a major capital investment.....I am sure you work for a living, or if not, someone does that supports you. Either way..they have to earn...its honestly short sighted to act like a couple dollars per unit will really make a difference in someones life who happens to be purchasing as pc game for entertainment, versus the couple dollars a unit to a developer, whom, it will make a huge difference for per unit...allowing that developer to continue to update the game, and to continue to release further dlc or other titles down the road.

Its economics 101 bud...and its not about making people pay more...its about the developer getting to earn from his major time investment......most people play this game or type of game repearedly for 20-50-100 hours depending on replay.....at the current rate that isnt even 50 cents an hour for this guys time.

[Kupferdrache]

every price makes no sense, because it is a desition of the dev, if he thinks the work he/she put into it so far sould be 11.99 € ,US $, Yen, I duno, it fine. If you want to support the dev even more there are ways to do that, but don't tell anybody something is too cheap, that makes no sense from a bussiness point of view, why else should some buy a game 80 % off at 2 <currency here>, and there are people who do that, you can check that in steam statistics during big sale events.

[Jmac]

Kup....I have over twenty five years in various sales and retail management. Every price does make sense and there is usually a lot more thought put into it that you might think. There are also consumer buying trends and mental price point barriers a person has....Everything I said is true and correct. If you know anyone actually in business or executive roles, ask them about what I said, I'm sure if they have a decent understanding of business they will understand my reasoning.

[ChimiChingus: HumongusChongus]

I agree in some ways. I think that might benifit the game dev quite a lot, and I think the game deserves it.

[Coredumping]

I plan the raise the price to $14 when the ability to change the price of a product has been added to the game, which is completely coincidental.

[Jmac]

Go 14.99, from a buyers perspective there is no difference between 14, and 15 dollars. at 14 or even 14.99 it registers in someones mind that they are paying 15 anyways.

[Tech Enthusiast]

Just wanted to hop in and second this.
A great game deserves good income. There are way less entertaining games for way more money.

Raise the price, you deserve it for your great work.

[bjorntobewildlife]

Originally posted by jmacjmac006:

Go 14.99, from a buyers perspective there is no difference between 14, and 15 dollars. at 14 or even 14.99 it registers in someones mind that they are paying 15 anyways.

everyone knows that, 1st lesson economics. he probably ment 13.99, but what ever.

[kanye2020]

Originally posted by Coredumping:

I plan the raise the price to $14 when the ability to change the price of a product has been added to the game, which is completely coincidental.

LMAO

Also im glad you'll be getting even more for your game! It's literally the game i've been looking for for years. Keep up the awesome work, you deserve it all!

[OldGamer]

Originally posted by jmacjmac006:

At the risk of starting a board war here, I'm gonna say...the current price makes no sense at all and there is zero benefit for you to keep it at 11.99

I recommend 14.99 right now and then 20 bucks once its released.

I am sure everyone will agree you have worked hard on the game and people should get paid well for quality work, I know its still in progress and that you wanted to discount it a little bit but consider this....

#1 People think in price points, generally speaking once you break the 9.99 = ten dollar mental barrier, any price above that might as well be 15 dollars because thats what people would have to be willing to spend to pull the trigger....anyone who buys the game for 11.99 would of spent 14.99 on it, so really you are just losing profit for no reason.

#2 an odd price point like that actually stops people from pulling the trigger and they look for more reasons not to purchase.

#3 Consider the matrix games example....specialty niche product, everyone else is trying to get 5 bucks for 20 yr old games with no graphics, they have managed to charged 50 bucks and sell a lot of copies...moral of the story, niche consumers will pay for content and a quality product. There is no way that on release this game should be less then 20 bucks, if you do price it that way you are hurting your own brand and your own product, there is zero reason to give a discount on a good game. This is a common mistake in console based pricing that has bleed over to pc gaming

#4 Good luck with your game and keep up the good work. I have already purchased this but am waiting to play until you get it all done. I bought it because this is the type of game and genre we need more of options wise.

Keep up the good work and do not short change yourself with low pricing. Your price represents your brand and how you feel about the games quality.

obviously you have never owned a product or business before.

lower prices = more demand.

this is why you get buy 2 for 1 deals in supermarkets.

All marketing, If you want no one to play your game wack it up to 60 quid and see how my product at 8.50 gets more revenue than you get.

[MrPdwash]

@OldGamer

Not that I want to be a part of this fight... but your argument against this is invalid. For instance, today. Go out to the store and mark down the price of Bagles and Creamcheese. Say the bagles where $2.50 and the creamcheese $3.00. Wait for one to go on sale, let's say that the creamcheese goes on sale for 16.5% to make my numbers easier lol. So now creamcheese cost $2.50. On Average in almost every store in the world, the bagles will reflect that cost, and now cost $3.00.

What does the company get from a sale? Lost profits,,, you can't have that, in this day in age,,, in huge companies lol.

My point being, even raising it by 3 dollars, won't turn people away, people will still buy it. The developer rocks, and is putting out content that people like. That is why s/he has an active forum, and lots of discussion and I bet tons of sales.

$3 reflects the work s/he has put into this fantastic game, and will not be a deturent to anyone who buys it. Plus once the full version is release s/he will be able to market it on the front page again. I believe all devs get 3 front page markets,,, I have to check my contract with steam, but that sounds right.

All I am saying, is raising it by 3 dollars will not change someones mind, or make the dev any more or less good at doing what they are doing.

[Tech Enthusiast]

Originally posted by OldGamer:

obviously you have never owned a product or business before.

lower prices = more demand.

this is why you get buy 2 for 1 deals in supermarkets.

All marketing, If you want no one to play your game wack it up to 60 quid and see how my product at 8.50 gets more revenue than you get.

You are oversimplifying this a little.
There is only so much demand you can possibly get.

If he dropped the price to free, more would play it, sure. But not an endless amount of people.
Quality and positive ratings increase the $ people are willing to pay.

To make an example:
If 100 people are willing to pay 8 bucks... it may or may not mean that 200 people get it at 4 bucks. Increasing the price to 16 bucks may or may not reduce the willing costumer to 50.

It is a fine line and without a massive market research team it is down to luck and experimentation actually.

That being said i highly doubt that a quality game that goes for 15 bucks gets considerably less sales then if it was 8 bucks. It may get a few less, yes. But not enough to offset the higher income. In this specific case: I definitly believe he is WASTING potentional income by underselling his work.

I highly doubt he will get way less sales with double the price, but will infact get a much bigger income, even with a few less sales. This of corse would be totally differend if the product in question was crap. But it is not. So oversimplyfication of the matter is not working here.

[Jmac]

Oldgamer......anyone who played lemonade tycoon back in the day would even understand that what you said is simply not true....lower cost does not always equal more demand and sometimes it can actually damage a brand due to percieved quality via price.

While I don't think you will care about my resume or the businesses I have run, I will tell you because you brought it up.

When I was a store Manager for gamestop, I was in the companies 99 percentile in all customer service factors. That store did a little over a million dollars in sales per year...and get this.....since it was gamestop...it was all video and some computer games.

At walmart I helped run a 110 million dollar super center. We literally had over 200 products in the store.

As a regional Manager of a nationwide mortgage company, I was responsible for 75 million a month in loan volume.

I now mostly played video games all day long but I do have my real estate license and occasionally I'll help someone buy or sell a home. Which comes down to pricing all day long. I have never yet failed to help anyone purchase the right home or sell theres for the best price.

Yet again....all anyone would of had to do in there life was play lemonade tycoon to know that your statement just simply isnt true....lower price does not mean more sales and like one of the previous replies said....each game or product only has a certain number of people that will buy it regardless of the price.

A note to the developer....whatever you do, I hope you feel some pride because of this post. I have never before suggested someone raise there price, nor have i ever seen a raise your price post on any game.........also the comments from the community have largely been supportive....and lastly if i had never bought this game, and was looking at the community discussion page and i saw a post about the developer should raise his price, that would give me a lot of confidence in the title because its a clear message that people are getting there monies worth.