OT = How Does Shrapnel Stay In Business

[Saxon]

A few months back there was a article in PC Gamer called “Where does your gaming buck go” or something like that. It broke down all the costs of a game and why we pay what we pay. One of Shrapnel’s secrets is that they don’t pay a lot of those costs. For example, I paid about the same for SE4 and Armies of Armageddon that I would pay for two games in a game shop. However, Shrapnel didn’t spend big bucks on advertisements or stands at that big gaming convention. 3D accelerated graphics are not something one associates with Shrapnel, which is another production cost cutting. Also, they don’t pay distribution costs, those get covered by the shipping fee we paid getting the games.

All this means that they can survive doing the good work they do on much lower volumes of sales than Blizzard does. Given that they share the same philosophy of games that I do and that they have playable games, I think it is a good model of business and one I am happy to support.

PS I get the British and American Versions of PC games and I don’t remember which one the article was in. Sorry.