Ucchedavada
Posts: 7
Joined: 5/14/2013 Status: offline
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Hey Erik, Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post! quote:
ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins This may be correct - these are all distribution (non-exclusive) releases for us. At the time of release, we had the best price for them, but we don't always keep up with the discounting that goes on elsewhere. I would agree that for non-exclusive games you may get a better bargain elsewhere, especially long after release when they've been through the full discount cycle. With that said, as an example Armada 2526 and Supernova we did work with the developer on, tested it, helped balance and tweak and did a lot more than any other distribution outlet to ensure that it was a quality release. Same for Time of Wrath and Hired Guns. We're an actual publisher - a pure distribution store like GG just puts the game up there. It's similar to a retail store putting something on its shelf. You have no guarantee they've played it, tested it or that it even completely works. With us you do have that guarantee. All that said, this is also why we are no longer doing distribution releases and focusing on our exclusive titles. Many customers don't understand the value we add for these releases and we don't have the staff to keep up with the price changes for these titles on other sites across the internet. I am aware that you are a publisher, but that honestly makes no difference; the product is the same whether or not the consumer purchases it from a distributor, from the publisher, or directly from the developer him- or herself. You may well have added value during the development of these (and other) games, which is not exactly anything unusual for a publisher, but those games being sold at your web-shop, as opposed to also being sold by one or more additional distributors, does not add any additional value by itself. The just makes you a publisher with a limited outlet. quote:
ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins DW is an exclusive release for us. The fact that the original game is three years old is IMHO irrelevant. First, we updated it for about two years after release, second, the expansions fit on top of it and improve it further. DW is as new as the latest expansion. Until it is replaced _as a game_ by something definitively bigger and better that offers the same gameplay, it is not old. I think it is a unique experience that every 4x sci-fi fan would enjoy and we're working to make sure it gets out to as many of them as possible. We do hear all the feedback on pricing as you can see from this thread and others. I'm not going to go into great detail on this again, but I can tell you we are very aware of all the different sides of opinion on this issue. We are also extremely interested in forging the best possible path for DW and part of that is indeed making it as available as possible. No doors are closed, all options are open for the future, as long as it helps DW succeed. Regards, - Erik It is hardly irrelevant that that the original game is 3 years old, and the fact that you have continued to update it does not change that fact, nor is it anything unique. For example, allow me to draw attention once again to AI War, a 4 year old game which is also (IMO) a unique experience. It has been updated consistently since its release in 2009, including multiple expansions (with another expansion currently in development), but it is also priced very competitively: AI War and all expansions taken together costs less than a single DW expansion(!), and it has been part of many sales at significant discounts, including sales for the benefit of charities. Not to mention that AI War actually has a demo, which covers both the base game and expansions. In my opinion, Arcen Games have done much more to get their game out to as many fans as possible. Your pricing model, on the other hand, simply ends up raising the significantly bar for new fans every time you release a new expansion, which runs exactly counter to your stated goal.
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