[casual_games] Re: Pricing

[Lennard Feddersen]

The one thing we may have going for us is that $20 really isn't very 
much money for the core casual gamer audience - over 30 with reasonable 
to strong incomes. Innovation and quality are going to matter. The other 
issue is likely to be if gamers have to wade through too many titles to 
find what they really want. This will further strengthen the position of 
the larger suppliers who maintain consistency and quality in their 
lineup as customers trust them to be a quality filter.

Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
3521 Dogwood, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4Y7



Sean Ryan wrote:

> I agree with Tom that this tends not to happen as much in console 
> gaming, but that’s because all titles must be approved by the platform 
> manufacturers, which tends to limit the quantity.
>
> However, I’m not sure I don’t see the same quantity vs quality problem 
> starting to occur in the casual game segment, where there are very low 
> barriers to entry, increasing number of market suppliers, and what I 
> believe will be pricing pressure later this year since many of the 
> titles are not differentiated enough from each other. I’d argue we 
> haven’t seen very much innovation in the casual game space in the last 
> 12 months, and I’m not sure I see it coming in 2006, but hopefully, 
> I’m wrong
>
> Sean Ryan
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* casual_games-bounces at igda.org 
> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] *On Behalf Of *Tom Park
> *Sent:* Thursday, December 15, 2005 10:09 AM
> *To:* IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
> *Subject:* Re: [casual_games] Re: Pricing
>
> I thought Softkey came in when the market was already dying. The 
> edutainment market was suffering from oversupply of very poor quality 
> titles, and a lot of companies were failing to make any sort of 
> profit. Around that time, I heard execs saying stuff like, "We can't 
> seem to sell more than 100K units of any particular SKU, so to 
> increase revenue we need to pump out more SKUs." Which, of course, 
> only led to worse quality titles. My impression was that Softkey 
> recognized they could offer more to the consumers by buying the 
> devalued companies and offering discounted, bundled packs of software.
>
> Of course I could be completely wrong about this, but blaming 
> Softkey's tactics for the failure of the industry seems like a case of 
> "post hoc, ergo propter hoc."
>
> The game industry seems to recognise the hit-driven nature of the 
> market and tends to focus on quality. But the game industry is not so 
> different -- the last time I heard someone say the quote above was 
> someone at 3DO, regarding a plan to significantly increase their 
> production staff a few years before they declared bankruptcy, but the 
> sales number was 300K.
> --t
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>
>     *From:* Michelle Bushneff <mailto:michelle at planbenterprises.com>
>
>     *To:* casual_games at igda.org <mailto:casual_games at igda.org>
>
>     *Sent:* Thursday, December 15, 2005 9:25 AM
>
>     *Subject:* [casual_games] Re: Pricing
>
>     Interesting discussion. Does anyone remember what happened to the
>     ”edutainment” software biz when Softkey bought up a bunch of
>     companies then started slashing prices and offering huge rebates?
>     The market virtually disappeared. Ironically, the Softkey guys
>     were former commodities traders.
>
>     All it takes is one big gorilla that owns their delivery pipe and
>     their content to tip pricing in the casual games market. Let’s
>     hope it doesn’t happen anytime soon...
>
>     Cheers, Michelle
>     -------------------------
>     Michelle Bushneff
>     *Plan B
>     *www.PlanBEnterprises.com
>     -------------------------
>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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