Originally posted by mikel
2. The Matrix economic model may not work because they appear extremely stretched but that may be the only hope for getting the volume they need to survive so they might as well try it. However, as a former business owner, my experience is that you are far more likely to over-reach than under-reach. Don’t under-estimate the cost of complexity (and each new game adds to that complexity). The risk is burn-out among your critical core force and errors that drive your customers away. And yes, demand is almost unlimited for anything that’s “free” but can completely dry up when even a small charge is made. That’s life.
3. I would be willing to bet that the length of time that the LV problem has remained unresolved has already driven away some customers and reduced enthusiasm among others.
Mikel: Excellent comments!
I did want to add a couple of comments/additions to this post. This may seem like criticism, but my intent is to offer it as food for thought in the hopes it may help.
1. I just discovered Matrix from the PC Gamer magazine article on the Master Campaigns. Having played Steel Panthers before, I was familiar with the game, and was excited to learn that there was a free download available that updated and expanded upon the original game. However, the thing that got me really excited was that there were Master Campaigns available which greatly expanded the campaign concept of the original game. I enjoyed the campaigns in the original version(s) of the game, but always felt they were lacking in many regards. After reading the PC Gamer magazine, I came here looking to buy one right away and give it a try. I would think that there have been many others just like me over the past few days.
2. I checked out info on the three campaigns, and discounted the Pacific one because I wanted an emphasis on armored combat. That left North Africa or Russia. I asked a question on the boards here and was told that either is fine, but that I might want to start with North Africa. I went back to order the game, but it was out of stock. Ok, I think, no problem, I'll just get the Russian one. At $25 they aren't expensive, and even if I hate the game, it's not that big of a deal. I started to place my order and hit the "estimate shipping" button: the cheapest option for shipping to Minnesota was $10! Yikes! My reaction was that this was a bit steep for priority mail, and now I was looking at a $35 purchase. I realize it's not that big of a difference, but $35 is what I usually pay for new releases of games that I know I want, and I in such cases I always like to have a pretty good idea that it is going to be something I like and something that will run with relatively few bugs. So I went back to the boards, and read a bit more about the Russian Front MC.
3. Very quickly it became apparent that there was a problem with the campaign's compatability with SPWaW 7.0, and that experienced players were waiting for a 7.1 patch. I've had some negative experiences lately with games that had show-stopping bugs, and so the economic decision for me, as a first-time potential customer, was to wait. The product I wanted was not available in one case and not available in a sufficiently stable format in the other case. The point I would like to make is that I went from a "definite buy" to a "waiting to buy". I wonder how many others have done the same thing over the past few days, and how many won't come back: a potential customer's attention span is often equal to that of a two-year-old.
Along those lines, I would humbly offer the following for thought:
1. While you have this major free advertising (the PC Gamer article) that will bring in a lot of new hits to your site, I think you would benefit greatly by having the products available for purchase and taking care of the issues to make sure that the customers will be satisfied (i.e. the patch for 7.1). I had never heard of your company before and never heard of your games before, and I came hear to spend money. I bookmarked you website. If my experiences with the MC's are positive, I could see myself buying all your games. I bet there will be a slew of similar potential customers over the next month. But they won't wait forever. This is a golden chance that may not come by again.
2. It's a very minor thing, but I would suggest that you consider modifying the game price for the MC's to $29.99, and bring the shipping cost down to a figure comparable to other commercial websites. The current setup smells a bit of bait-and-switch: offer the game cheap but jack the shipping cost. The total would be the same, but the experience is different.
3. I would have bought a three-pack if the price was right. A buy-two-get-one free deal would have gotten you $50 of my money instead of none so far. Especially if your shipping cost format makes it more conducive to buying more than one product at a time.
4. Even though you can't charge for Steel Panthers, could you charge for shipping the game? Or put MC demos on the disk and charge shipping for the demo disk that just happens to include the full version of SPWaW? From a business perspective, I would think that you have a lot of expense with providing SPWaW for free, even though it is a critical component of your MC business. Although I was glad to be able to download the 600mb of stuff for nothing, I would much rather have paid you $10 to ship it out to me. SPWaW in a neat CD case with demos of the three campaigns, shipped to my door for $10 would have been a no brainer for me. Maybe you could even include a free shipping coupon or a $5-off coupon in the package to entice customers to keep buying.
Again, I don't mean to be critical of what is obviously a dedicated effort to produce outstanding products. But I do think that most all of your new potential customers come here thinking to buy a game from a "Company", and will leave if the product isn't available or doesn't appear to work correctly. They won't give a second thought as to whether you do this in your free time or whether you do this 100 hours a week: as cold as it sounds they just don't care. Having the product ready for them would bring you a lot closer to the 7,000 mark you speak of.
I wish Matrix games the best of success, and look forward to becoming a dedicated customer.
. Panters and Tigers and Crusaders are fun, but it has been a long streach without a good game with Abrams, Scorpions and T-62s, not to mention Cobras and Apaches and Hinds. Drool, drool.