Matrix Games Forums

That doing a sale and advertising a whole $5 or even $7 off (games price around $39.99)is actually abit insulting and lowers the name of the companies rep in your eyes. I'm thinking of one particular company here. I'd rather they never bothered with sales. With games to download once they've been developed there is little cost from then on..no shelf space being taken up, no printing costs etc. SO every sale is just extra money. Do them half price you'll sell loads, knock off $5 I'm surprised if there is barely an increase in sales. Also how your customers view you and if you are well liked and respected by your customers that can be priceless and doing a proper sale can really help here, not knock of a pittance and then advertise as if they are doing something really special for us.

Since we don't know their business model and their margins, our opinions of what they "should" do are completely irrelevant.

I have to admit that they fool me more often than I care to admit.... When I see a 10% off I get excited, it's only when I get to the payment screen I realize (that's it?) I saved $2 maybe $3.

It's a common idea that shelf space and physical product are a major cost. They are definitely a fixed overhead for every copy, but a game still needs to recoup its development costs and these vastly outweigh the physical overheads, especially for niche games with limited number of unit sales. The idea that every sale is "free money" is clearly wrong, certainly up to the point where a game has broken even (which, if the game has ongoing support, is a moving target).

Cheers

Pip

I've bought hundreds dollars worth of games from Matrix/Slitherine, probably more. I buy full price on stuff that I think I would like, and wait for sales for those that I'm not sure of. With WITPAE and Command MANO, I couldn't ask for better support, and my cost per hour is pennies.

Whatever your business model is, I don't care. Matrix/Sliterine consistently produce the kind of game I like and you support those games far beyond my expectations. Thank You.

People have opinions and most of he time they have no actual input to what they have an opinion on. So though I don't know their business model they have sent me an email about their sale so I now think I have the right under free speech to voice my opinion on it, irrelevant or not.

Pip I understand where you're coming from. However one purpose of a sale is to shift old stock so to speak. Or with games sell some of those old games whose sales are near dead and so not actually bringing you any money or hardly any money. You will be bringing in more money than you would otherwise have done if you didn't have the sale. It's not like you can run out of stock or have some reason to get the most money you can from a limited supply then I can see why sales and big discounts might not be beneficial. Plus there is no future production costs unlike say a boardgame. So really how many you sell is irrelevant it's just about how much money you have coming in and when a game gets to a certain age then it's sales will mainly be impulse buys or give it a go buy or sale buy which usually fall in the not risking much money bracket or it's someone new to the genre. I doubt many gamers will throw $30 at a game with a try it and see mentality.

Personally if your company can't really afford sales then don't bother with them. Making a song and dance over $5 and think we are going to be really happy and spread the word and for it to make you go from "no thanks" to "where's my wallet" is beyond me. Knock $15 off and we will make a noise on the net, have an increased feeling of loyalty to the brand as they treat us good and most of all actually buy the games you have on sale!

I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT MATRIX HERE BY THE WAY

I rather have sales with 10% off than no sales at all. Wargaming is a niche in the gaming world, whether we like it or not.

taking about anything in general, anyone can jump to any conclusion, sometimes it's better to make a point on what subject / topic or make it clearer sometimes on a given matters is on, or others can jump to the wrong conclusions

sorry Zakblood:)

Anyway had to get it off my chest..just when I get the sale email off them it niggles me. Not that they have anything I want. Haven't forgiven them for a certain tactical airborne game going to vapourware when that could have been a really special series.

no need to be sorry to me m8, i knew you didn't mean here[;)]

ORIGINAL: wodin

People have opinions and most of he time they have no actual input to what they have an opinion on. So though I don't know their business model they have sent me an email about their sale so I now think I have the right under free speech to voice my opinion on it, irrelevant or not.

Easy there, you absolutely have the right to voice your opinion.

I just said we can't begin to know what goes on with their business, so we can't make any intelligent statements as to whether they should be doing their sales some other way.

OK no probs Rebel:) Not very well so over sensitive.

Age old argument. They price how they want i buy what i want, works for me. I am more choosy on which developers i support beyond just a sale these days and its not like i dont have enough games for 2 lifetimes.

I still need to play the games I have but I like sales and have the ability to delay a purchase.

If I want something (a game let's say) I'll buy it regardless if it is on sale or not, sometimes I'll hold off on some games and watch the news about it, however if it's a sale on a car I want then It's time to really pay attention, plus car sales are very predictable. There's many a game I've purchased that turned out to be junk, be it was on sale or not...

I think I got the same email as Wodin and just laughed. They haven't published anything decent in ages anyway.

I think the 10% or $5 discount would be mostly appealing for recent release games where the offe is to stimulate sales early in the games life. But if the game has been available for sometime then that sort of discount would have a lot less appeal.

That being said I don't begrudge developers for trying - it's not just breaking even that's important, they need to make a profit otherwise there is little incentive for them to come up with new games. However from the buyer perspective, if the game has been about for a while a $5 difference is unlikely to induce me to buy if I hadn't already decided to do so.

ORIGINAL: Rebel Yell

Since we don't know their business model and their margins, our opinions of what they "should" do are completely irrelevant.

Agreed. I think many think that "their" pricing policy is the best policy.

Agreed Jason about the Airborne vaporware being disappointing, but, I have to disagree about the sales comment. Although it is skimpy and at first take, unsavory, any discount for any wargame is appreciated. In the end, to me it really isn't all that much more distasteful than 30% off a $80 game. Any effort, regardless of how self serving it may be, if it ensures this great dying hobby lives on, in as many forms and avenues as possible, I can't argue with in the end. Keep up your great work with your site and contributing here, though I disagree on this point, I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the discourse!

$5 off isn't enough to make me try a game that I otherwise wouldn't, but if I am somewhat interested I will wait for the $5 off.