[casual_games] Price as Signal

[Joseph Weaver]

> What I'm looking for is a great reason for the end consumer or reviewer
> who legitimately wants to know why we - not Rusty Axe Games (geez, my
> acronym is RAG, crap) but all of us, cause I know nobody is, yet,
> spending millions on these titles - are charging the prices we do.

One argument is volume.  While we spend much less money developing
titles, we also don't have boxes in every Wal*Mart, Best Buy, Circuit
City, and EB games.  As I understand it, a downloadable game which has
maybe 200,000 downloads in a year with a 1 to 3% conversion rate is
doing extremely well.  A triple-a title might see 2,000 to 6,000 units
as very poor opening weekend.  Adjusting for  low volume, 20 bucks
might seem eminently reasonable as a  way to make some sort of income.