Intrinsic on 15 August 2014
| Burek said: Well, your idea falls apart on step 2 and it's math. 1. If they lower the sales only by $10 in order to achieve a 15% sales boost, they will be profiting less (discount of 16.6% versus 15% increase). And if they drop it to $40, it's a 33% discount. 2. So, they would have to be sure that their sales will increase by more than 33%, which us hard to believe, even though video game industry operates as an elastic, "luxury" goods industry. 3. Also, I don't know your stance on Microtransactions, but you RP seem like an even worse rip-off, as they move beyond cosmetic into "gaming advantage" territory. It can also be considered gambling in many countries, leading to numerous legal disputes, thus putting players in certain geographic areas at a distinct disadvantage. 4. I think they need to continue what they're doing, DLCs, microtransactions, sponsorships etc. All those are purely optional, and better games get rewarded, bad games do not sell add-ons. |
- In truth I have no idea what lowering the sales $10 will do and by how much or little it will increase sales. But I know it will increase sales. And not just for a praticular game, but in overall games sales in general. As I said, its easier getting someone to spend $100 if it would get them 2 things than to ask them to spend $60 for one. Another thing you need t consider is that I also said that the cost of physical games can remain as is $60, cause in that case more hands are in the pot. But digital prices should at least drop to $50.
- Yes it may be hard to believe, but I sincerely believe (though my beliefs obviously don't account for much) that making games available digitally at at least $10 less than their physical counterparts will generally increase the number of games a gamer typically buys in a year. Just think about it, there are generally 3 types of buyers, those that save up bits of money until they have enough to buy a game, those that trade in a game towards their next game purchase and those that walk in with $100 and walk out with change of $40 and a quick stop at a pizza place on their way home. They would not have walked out with anything if they could have got two games with $100.
- I don't know how RPs are in anyway a rip off. Like not even close. You get RPs as a reward for buying your games. Tier 1(1st 3-6 months) gives you 5RP (3 after you purchase and 2 when you get 60% of your trophies/achievements). Tier 2 (6-9th month after release) you get 3RP and nothing more. Thats it. The RPs have an exact in store only cash equivalent. So basically 1RP = $1. You can use these RPs and do whatever you want to do. Same way how you can use money that you have in your instore wallet to do whatever you want to do. If you want to buy DLC, games, themes, movies...whatever.
I don't know, are you saying that if sony/ms gave you back $5 for every $50 transaction to make that you can only spend on the PSN/XBM that is giving you a "gaming advantage" and is as vile as micro transactions????? I don't even see how its remotely related. This is just a way to keep people buying new or even if they buy 3-6 months after release to not go to the store and buy used since they are getting reward points. Nearly every single store does something like this already.
And its not gambling, to gamble you basically have to wager on an outcome of something. This is quite literally you paying to get into a lobby for a online game in currency that can ONLY be used and/or ONLY has value in ONE digital store. There is a lot of difference here. Even if you have 1000RP, all you can do is gift it out, buy games/DLC, buy movies/shows from the PSN/XBM, buy into other online games...etc. Basically, that money (points) is useless to you outside the platform's online store. So no, thats not gambling. It will sure as hell give people a reason to spend more on points though that they will ultimately use to purchase more games down the road. - What I have proposed isn't saying they should stop doing anything they are doing now besides small price adjustments. I am just proposing things they should consider adding as a way to increase gamer spending (habits) without forcing anything down anyones throats.
