[casual_games] Downloadable Game Pricing

[Israel C. Evans]

~$1 per day sounds pretty steep.  I think the defacto standard for casual
like rental games is something closer to $5 per month.  Disney's Toontown is
~$10 per month and it's a full on MMORPG.

I do like the subscription ideas some portals are offering. Any game on
their site for a small recurring fee.  It seems to be good for the portal
and good for the consumer. I don't know what sort of cut the developers get
though.

As far as Options go, I like em.  You have to present them in a friendly and
accessible way however, to avoid confusing the customer or introducing doubt
about the value of their purchase in any way.  I'm not in sales, but it
seems like there would be a disconnect between telling the person that they
are getting a great value by buying the game but also saying they are
getting a great value with this other purchase option.

I think the trick here is that with a casual game, you are already at a low
price point. It doesn't feel like a huge difference for someone to pay a 5th
the price of a casual game to unlock it for a little bit longer.  If you
were able to offer them subscription access to more than the one game at a
time, I think you'd have more bites. The customer really is in charge here
and you've got to give them something they perceive as valuable. They don't
generally care how much a developer or publisher is making, they just want a
good time and a good deal.


~Israel
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