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Originally Posted by garion333
I don't understand how you can claim Steam is "nothing but an impulse buy site". That's like saying "Target is nothing but an impulse buy site" and I simply can't agree with that. Sure, a metric ton of sales of games priced under $10 probably come through Steam sales extravaganzas, but I find it hard to believe that all game sales are "impulse" buys.
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If you say so. I was just passing along our experience with steam. If the only way our games sold was to get the price down to impulse buying prices, then that was our experience. Steam does not do anything to promote the games but sales (and in our case bundles). There are other ways to promote games.
Quote:
Originally Posted by garion333
Anyway, I think you'll find Jason Rohrer's post (linked in previous post, the Castle Doctrine blog) to be in line with your thinking.
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Exactly. He even shows evidence that his game had to go on sale for under $10.00 to sell. I would consider that an impulse buying price. Not many people will spend $15 or $20 on impulse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by garion333
...but the question still begs to be answered: Why is Approaching Infinity $40 while something like Tome is $7?
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It is called value added. You get a forum where you can come and talk about pricing or even how cool the game is. You get 18 hour a day support (with the exception of certain holidays). You can order a physical product online or even walk into you local game shop and buy a copy (and if your local game shop doesn't have it ask them to get it!). You get regular upgrades, both bug fixes and enhancements. All these things cost money. You can't do it for $7.00.
And finally you support independent game development. If you want Ibology to release more games, then support them through Approaching Infinity. Games that sell for $7.00 will keep independent gaming in the hobby category.
My last thought. Each gamer has to decide what gaming is worth to them. There obviously is a market for $7.00 just like there is a market for $40.00 games. Some will never spend $40.00 on a game, but we have found that our audience rarely buys a $7.00 game.