article on Avault about how a game company can't make it on internet only sales

[tkobo]

Now it seems to me that shrapnel and the game companies with it ARE making it.
Am i wrong ?
Is this guy wrong?

Comments ?

[Lemmy]

link??

[zaphod-42]

http://www.avault.com/developer/getarticle.asp?name=bwardell10

[Lemmy]

if i'm not mistaken, all the games he mentioned are also available in retail, that would explain why they sell so bad on the internet.

[tkobo]

Thanks for posting the link,I cut the address but seem to have forgotten to paste it. D'OH !

[Dogberry]

HPS seems to be making it on a mostly internet based model. Matrix Games is trying for the same. I think that this is the way to go for all "niche" type games. You start dealing w/ big publishers & retailers .. & they think that you are a dirtbag if you don't sell a few hundred thousand copies & tend to treat you in that fashion.

Dog

[Richard]

I am a good friend of Brad's but he's wrong.

It requires a different approach to do such a thing Online. It also requires a fundamental understanding of guerilla marketing.

And your right it also requires that you do NOT sell your games in retail. The Online sales model takes awhile to get going, it isn't for those who are impatient http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

[CW]

Guerilla marketing? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Cylapse]

LMAO Its funny, he loses track and turns the 'article' into an advertisement about his new game. He is possibly bitter at the prospect of 'not being on the front page', as he puts it. Heh.

Although, he does have a few points... I would have bought the un-gold game long before 3/4 or whenever had I been able to find the fooker in a store....
but yea yea, retail is robbery (Not that 12 bucks for postage didnt piss me off for SEIV).

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Richard:
I am a good friend of Brad's but he's wrong.

It requires a different approach to do such a thing Online. It also requires a fundamental understanding of guerilla marketing.

And your right it also requires that you do NOT sell your games in retail. The Online sales model takes awhile to get going, it isn't for those who are impatient http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hey, if someone wants to lay down a chaff cloud to cover your business model, should you complain? The margins can't be good, they never are in retailing whether it's 'brick and mortar' or 'e-tailing'. So articles like this will cut down on possible competition by making people think it can't be done.

[Phoenix-D]

"So articles like this will cut down on possible competition by making people think it can't be done."

Then again, you'd think potential *developers* would listen almost as much as potential publishers..which wouldn't be a good thing for Shrapnel.

Phoenix-D

[PDF]

What baffles me with this article is that the author refuses in advance counter-examples to his opinions - that is success such as Combat Mission.
In substance he says "you can't say it's a success because you don't have the numbers"..
But well, he hasn't them either ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif
I discussed this with quite knowledgeable peoples (that really were in contact with BTS) and they told me CM should have sold 50-60 K copies - and that was before they were sold in retail (in Europe - the game then has a quite good place in shelves)...
So I can't agree to his point : Internet sales IMHO can be a success for "niche"/low sales products, where it will allow developers/publishers to just make a living (instead of just closing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif ). That's also what happens with traditional board wargaming (DTP)...

[Tenryu]

Originally posted by Richard:

It also requires a fundamental understanding of guerilla marketing.
...it isn't for those who are impatient http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It will be an interesting war. I predict the revolutionaries will win.

Then, they, in turn, will be overthrown.

I hope to have been filthy rich, and be long dead by then. LMAO!