Reasons To Buy Retail!

[Arkady]

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

The one thing about direct sales, you guys still have to remember, the whole world doesn't own a computer or have an internet connection, but, most every city has a Walmarts. Oh and I forgot, the internet connection is not totally "broadband" either.

and you must remember that not everyone live in U.S. [:D]
Nearest Walmart is several hundreds or thousands kilometers away [;)]

[ravinhood]

ORIGINAL: Arkady

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

The one thing about direct sales, you guys still have to remember, the whole world doesn't own a computer or have an internet connection, but, most every city has a Walmarts. Oh and I forgot, the internet connection is not totally "broadband" either.

and you must remember that not everyone live in U.S. [:D]


Nearest Walmart is several hundreds or thousands kilometers away [;)]

Well if you start walking now, you might get to a local Walmarts by release day. [:D]

And well as far as socializing, I guess I'm much different, I can socialize anywhere with anyone. I've even made some sales for Matrixgames Korsun Pocket although I don't own the game myself. Just from the information I have found here I was able to convince the potential customer that he would be happy with his purchase over RTW. hehe This was a man in his 30's and he couldn't decide and so I convinced him by just talking to him about his past gaming lifestyle that he would prefer the Matrixgames titles instead. Of course I will never know if he was happy or not, but, I figure if I seen him in the software dept once I'll see him again and find out. This was at Best Buy btw.

I bet when some of you guys go grocery shopping you are like zombies and just buy your groceries, pay and leave, man do you guys know that grocery stores are some of the best places to meet women? hehe I have no qualms about asking them which is a better product and why they like it. Heh, I guess after 20+ years of retail sales, one isn't afraid to talk to a stranger.

[GreenDestiny]

ORIGINAL: coralsaw

ORIGINAL: GreenDestiny

OK…I’ll probably get flamed for this one, so I’ll hide it in this thread. I’m assuming that the WAW is going to cost the same amount for DD and retail. My question is why?

Possible answers:

• Matrix can't/won't undercut their retail channel for obvious reasons
• Target pricing: you pay as much as we think you can afford
• Value pricing: you pay as much as we think you value the product
• The retail channel is not available to you so you have no choice (eg. uncovered countries)

In any case, if it's a good game, the sale is all that matters. We should trust that Matrix has done their best to maximize the revenue inflows with their pricing.

/coralsaw

I'll say it's most likely [*]Matrix can't/won't undercut their retail channel for obvious reasons.
Now I wonder how much the game would cost If it didn't go to retail 29.99 or 34.99 ?

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: GreenDestiny

I'll say it's most likely [*]Matrix can't/won't undercut their retail channel for obvious reasons.
Now I wonder how much the game would cost If it didn't go to retail 29.99 or 34.99 ?

Ok, let me throw gasoline on this fire. It would be $49.99 or more if it wasn't going to retail. Why? Because the considerably fewer copies we would be able to sell would have to be made up for with a higher price, even factoring in the higher margin per sale. The price is as low as it is because it's going to retail and the hope is we will get more than just serious wargamers as customers. We hope this is the right strategy for this game. There are very few wargames that we would consider candidates for this strategy. Here's some historical info (all games sold at retail in the nineties):

Panzer General - over 250,000 units at full price (many more at lower prices)
Steel Panthers - over 130,000 units at full price
Most other SSI wargames (like Pac War, War in Russia, etc.) - 10,000 to 20,000 units at full price


Yes, the retail/internet environment is different now, and GGWaW is not Panzer General or Steel Panthers, but there has always been a bigger world out there than just the world of hardcore wargamers. Some of it is interested in an occasional wargame.

[GreenDestiny]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

Ok, let me throw gasoline on this fire. It would be $49.99 or more if it wasn't going to retail. Why? Because the considerably fewer copies we would be able to sell would have to be made up for with a higher price, even factoring in the higher margin per sale. The price is as low as it is because it's going to retail and the hope is we will get more than just serious wargamers as customers. We hope this is the right strategy for this game. There are very few wargames that we would consider candidates for this strategy. Here's some historical info (all games sold at retail in the nineties):

Panzer General - over 250,000 units at full price (many more at lower prices)
Steel Panthers - over 130,000 units at full price
Most other SSI wargames (like Pac War, War in Russia, etc.) - 10,000 to 20,000 units at full price


Yes, the retail/internet environment is different now, and GGWaW is not Panzer General or Steel Panthers, but there has always been a bigger world out there than just the world of hardcore wargamers. Some of it is interested in an occasional wargame.

Thanks for the numbers Joel. I hope that GGWaW sells as much as or more than PG at full price. I think it will, there’s alot more gamers out there these days than in 96. It’s also another good reason to buy the game at retail. If the sales are good then maybe Matrix will release more games to retail, and thus cheaper games for the customers.

Again.. thanks for the response.

[ravinhood]

Lol Joel I like your style and I wouldn't have believed that Panzer General outsold STEEL PANTHERS, people just don't know what is good anymore.

And I knew about the sales figures of the hardcore wargames through Dave Landrey, it amazed me that there was that little support for computer wargames at that time also, since board wargaming was still pretty popular then and I moved from it, I guess I expected the 100's of thousands to move from it also. Is the wargaming population really that small these days? I would have thought worldwide we would be in the at least middle 100's of thousands. I guess that 100 or so gamers at the wargame conventions I went to just looked like 100's of thousands to me across the map. lol Now I realize hey those guys came from all over the country, not just Dallas. lol

One thing you phrase though is there is a much bigger world out there, now you guys wouldn't be thinking of jumping on the "milk wagon" now would you? We won't be seeing any Gary or Joel RTS games now will we? WILL WE? lol

[Zap]

I convinced him by just talking to him about his past gaming lifestyle that he would prefer the Matrixgames titles instead.

Hi, ravinhood that was good work it is the grass roots effort that will sell more games. Being in the right place at the right time

[targul]

This whole retail vs DD remains valueless. Matrix continues to believe the wandering customer will wander by and buy this game. NOT SO!!!!

I just checked again at the local merchants which are Comp USA, EB, amd Best Buy. Not one of these have any intention of carrying the game on their shelves. EB Games has maybe 30 PC games on its shelf. Those are all old and out of date. They will special order but do not carry PC games other then MMORP and then only the most popular.
Comp USA carries a decent selection of PC games but they do not carry war games anymore due to sells in the past. Best Buy also carries a goodly amount of games for the PC. But there policy is to wait until the game is released for at least a week to be sure it will be popular enough to sell.

All told me they will special order but none will carry this game.

I purchased a copy of HOI2 after special ordering it on line since this game was also not available.

Anyway Matrix should stop playing ostrich and bring there head out of the sand. Retail will not work. Hasn't for years. Make it available by DD and allow customers to buy the box sets on line. It works.

I live in a small town known as Los Angeles California so maybe if I lived in a bigger city they might put it on their shelves but there just are not enough population here to support it.

[Zap]

Make it available by DD and allow customers to buy the box sets on line

It will be available for DD the same day it hits the stores. Look in Erik Rutkins post about digital download in this Forum.

[Pippin]

Anyway Matrix should stop playing ostrich and bring there head out of the sand. Retail will not work. Hasn't for years.

Interesting.

[kaliyama]

Retail can work if people say, order the game and buy it. Look at Paradox. They've broken quite successfully into the retail market with games that are about as accessible as this one. But if everyone who knows they want to buy it, looks at retail, and says 'Gee, retail never works, so i'm not going to support it.', probably does matrix more harm in the long-run in lost sales from retail distribution than whatever MG gets in extra profit from the DD.
-drew

[Zap]

Its not the wandering customer that Matrix hopes to target (they may get lucky with a few of these) but they want those who specifically go to the game section in a store like Fry,s Electronics has a whole isle full of war games (I buy war games there and I see others looking in that section). It is the hope of Matrix to make a winner for the Stores with this one. They need those sales.
So, you might want to try and make an effort to send someone in that direction. Rather then "send out bad vibes" .
ravinhood, gave an example of one on one success story. We need to do the same.

[ravinhood]

Retail will not work. Hasn't for years.

Retail will not work eh? Hasn't for years? Man if that is so all these retail stores I see in my town must have been mirages for all these years. I've been eating air and playing air guitars and imagining all these games I am playing on my computer. lol

[mavraam]

ORIGINAL: Oliver Heindorf

I wont go for a european retail version. reason's simple : I dont want to wait till it is translated in german. I dont need a localized version. However, I am a fan of printed manuals.

You can take the PDF to Kinko's (or some other printer) and have it printed. I've done it twice and have been very happy with the results.

[Scott_WAR]

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

Retail will not work. Hasn't for years.

Retail will not work eh? Hasn't for years? Man if that is so all these retail stores I see in my town must have been mirages for all these years. I've been eating air and playing air guitars and imagining all these games I am playing on my computer. lol

Go to those retail stores, and come back and tell us how many wargames you find for sale at them.

[mavraam]

ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

Retail will not work. Hasn't for years.

Retail will not work eh? Hasn't for years? Man if that is so all these retail stores I see in my town must have been mirages for all these years. I've been eating air and playing air guitars and imagining all these games I am playing on my computer. lol

Go to those retail stores, and come back and tell us how many wargames you find for sale at them.

I know what you mean. I live in a city with a metro area of about 2-3 million and AFAIK there is only one computer store where you can find a reasonable collection of war games sitting on the shelf. Its called Computer Micro Center and they actually have things like Korsun Pocket and HTTR sitting on the shelf! But they are about the only one. But even they are stocked with 90% FPS brain dead crap. Games for people who want to actually think are very hard to find!

[Zap]

Go to those retail stores, and come back and tell us how many wargames you find for sale at them

I went to Fry,s Electronics (Similar to Best Buy) in Sacramento, Ca. they had one section dedicated to War games. I would say there were over 30 different titles. Too many were RTS/FPS games. Httr was one of those games among those thirty. That is why Matrix needs to get its games in the stores. As I have bought games in stores (there were people looking in that section.) If this title has some success retail stores will be more willing to give shelf space.
We are trying to reach a greater portion of the public are we not? I say use all avenues at ones disposal. Do you have a positive suggestion to increase access to more people? If so,please share it.

[Scott_WAR]

Here is another thing that bothers me. GGWAW went gold March 4rth, according to Matrix's homepage. Supremacy went gold March 8th. Supremacy was available for download or physical purchase March 9th. GGWAW is still unavailable.

[Zap]

According to Eric Rutkins thread in this Forum it will be available for DD the day stores begin to sell it. They must have a contractual agreement with retail vendors not to release before hand.

[Scott_WAR]

Oh I am sure they do. If it was available for download before the retail vendors got it, it could hurt the retailers sales.

The point is the amount of time it is taking to get GGWAW from gold to released status, compared to Supremacy. Yeah, I know ...."retail", but that usually takes 2 weeks for every other game out there, why nearly a month for this game?