what about the future?

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by Soyweiser

I read a large blogpost by some indy dev a while ago who very eloquently wrote why this isn't always true, and the process of gradually lowering the prices doesn't always lead to more sales.

I think it was Jeff Vogel. At least this what I could find regarding the subject doing a quick search.

http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2009/...more-pt-1.html

Originally Posted by Jeff Vogel

"Back then, new games sold for $50. So Exile was $25, which was a very common price for shareware games back then.

A few years later, I started sending the registered version on a CD (instead of E-mailing a registration code). I charged $30 for a CD. Sales changed very little.

Two years later, I went back to an E-mailed code system and lowered the price back down to $25. Sales changed very little.

Three years ago, I looked at all of our expenses (credit card fees, postage, insurance, etc) and went "Holy crap! We need to raise prices to account for this." We raised our price to $28 (still about half the price of comparable products on store shelves). Since then, our money intake has actually increased. We're doing quite well now."

True, Jeff makes very niche games. SP RPG's, with substandard graphics, but I think his type of audience is comparable to the Dom3 crowd.

And you could argue that Jeff releases a new game every few years, and thus the comparison isn't totally correct. (And I would have to agree with you there).

I just don't think that reducing the price by two thirds would really increase the amount of sales ten-fold.

I doubt I'm allowed to say this, but I'm actually sad that popular bittorrent sites don't keep good logs of the amount of times the torrents are downloaded. It would make it easier to determine the pirate popularity of Dom3. World of Goo had a 90% piracy rate, in that case it was possible that a increase in sales by lowering the price. Don't know about Dom3.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by Soyweiser

I doubt I'm allowed to say this, but I'm actually sad that popular bittorrent sites don't keep good logs of the amount of times the torrents are downloaded. It would make it easier to determine the pirate popularity of Dom3. World of Goo had a 90% piracy rate, in that case it was possible that a increase in sales by lowering the price. Don't know about Dom3.

That slightly steps into an area I actually voiced an opinion but didnt win out.
I wanted the protection of Dom3 to follow the protection of Dom1. Full game with a ceiling.

It would have allowed review sites to distribute the game, torrent sites to distribute the game, fans to distribute the game. Then Shrapnel would be able to offer online ordering of the unlock codes with very little overhead.

There are many many pros/cons to that and I agree with the way they went (at that time way back then). But Id be willing to pitch it again with some of the new changes to the online world.

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

I wanted the protection of Dom3 to follow the protection of Dom1. Full game with a ceiling.

Damn, at the risk of sounding like a fanboy (which I ain't, I just read his blog). But apparently that is what Jeff (Spiderweb software) does. See: http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2010/...-business.html.

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Then Shrapnel would be able to offer online ordering of the unlock codes with very little overhead.

This would also work to a degree. The current copy protection tends to go off if people are using the same key across different pcs. (Right? That is what I recall). So as one of the large appeals of Dom3 is the multiplayer. This would stop people from easily sharing their keys.