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Letting Customers Decide Pricing On Game DLC
An anonymous reader writes "How much should game developers be charging for DLC? It seems that one indie dev has decided to carry out a unique experiment. The latest expansion pack for Gratuitous Space Battles is priced at $5.99 — or is it? It turns out there is both a standard ($5.99) version and a discount version ($2.99). And the difference between them is... nothing. The buyers have been left to make their own decisions on whether or not they should pay full price, and send more money to the developer, or treat themselves to a deserved discount. The buy page even lists comparisons of national incomes, average salaries and even the price of sausages to help buyers make up their minds. Will this catch on? Will Microsoft start asking us whether or not we should get a discount and trust us to answer honestly?"
This experiment has been done before in some form, but it generally gives an option of paying nothing, and that's invariably the most popular option. I suspect this may give more interesting results - the main reason I'd often choose to pay nothing when given the option is because I can't be bothered to find my credit card for a tiny purchase. In this particular situation, users are forced to actually figure out a payment method, then make an objective decision about how much to pay. For a small indie developer with a loyal fanbase, I can see a fair proportion choosing the higher figure.
Will Microsoft start asking us whether or not we should get a discount and trust us to answer honestly?"
Um... no. Not as long they control the distribution platform (i.e. Xbox Live). Also, they've already shown that they believe in the guilty until proven innocent by using product activation features in Windows.
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
The one you linked to was a charity event. People are likely to pay more because of that.
Even if not unique, it is definitely an interesting experiment, especially since we can see the results live (down the bottom of the page).
I wish the guy well, the game seems like a decent way to kill a bit of time.
...but then I decided to buy the discount version, just to stick it to the developer.
:-)
Actually I disagree with his statement "Won't everyone just get the discount version? Possibly. I hope not. If they do, this experiment failed!" If the free publicity doubles the sales of the discount version, the experiment is a success.
I sell a bit of stuff online - skyboxes and tools for indie game developers. With one of my tools I made a similar "experiment". I offer the very same product at four different prices, from 10 to 50 bucks. I'm very upfront about it and basically say "you know what the time you save with these tools is worth to you, pay what you find fair".
Turns out that my most optimistic estimates were about spot on. About half of the buyers pick the lowest price, the rest pays more. And yes I've sold several for the highest price.
My lesson from that is that people will treat you fairly if you treat them fairly - be honest about what you offer, tell them up front what the deal is, give them your trust and let them do the right thing. You'll be surprised at how often they will.
Meanwhile, with computer games we're pretty much back where we were in the early 90s when we all traded floppy discs on the school yard and didn't think anything off it. Since you are continuously being treated like a criminal by the software companies, even if you are a perfectly honest customer, with all their limited activations, and DRM and invasive copy protection and key and so on, heck, if you treat me like a criminal anyways, give me one reason to not become one.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
For those who don't know, it's a small game, well executed on a small budget. Thirty years ago, it is the kind of thing that made me want to enter the business of writing programs. Now most games (phone Apps aside) are multi-multi-million dollar productions, and just like Hollywood, once they start they can't seem to pull the plug once they realize they're off the mark, "I mean somebody will buy this steaming pile and pay top dollar, we're (fill in the blank studio)".
I have found their business model to be fair: free trials, previews at reduced price at late beta (like a week or two before shipping), all the kinds of things you'd want from a small developer trying to make it in a tough business environment against all odds at the same time treating the customer right; I don't resent them finding incremental revenue in an almost predictably fair way.
We all know it's about market segmentation: buy coffee at McD's, buy it at Starbucks, make it at home, run a sale, use a coupon. These guys are just pretty transparent about it.
The game even supports modding, so if you don't want to pay them ever again, you can go in and edit everything yourself.