Why Not Digitial Distribution?

[Gandalf Parker]

There isnt much you HAVE to go to college to understand. Its just a compilation.

But it includes more than cost/benefit. Many people dont understand why so many products are priced 5.99 or 19.99 or 59.99. Or diminishing numbers when operating on a niche market. Or the difference between marketing and publicity.

[Theonlystd]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

There isnt much you HAVE to go to college to understand. Its just a compilation.

But it includes more than cost/benefit. Many people dont understand why so many products are priced 5.99 or 19.99 or 59.99. Or diminishing numbers when operating on a niche market. Or the difference between marketing and publicity.

Well i understand why they havnt wanted to lower the price cause of a niche market and that good stuff at first ..


But its been 2 and a half years a price cut couldnt hurt or atleast digital distrubtion to help lower the costs on a allready expensive product wouldnt be that terrible either.

I really think a lack of digital distribution kills there chances at an impulse buyers.. I know when i bored i end up buying something off gamers gate or steam.. I wouldnt buy it if i was going to have to wait for it to ship to me threw snail mail .

And i dont think the game is that niche..

Kings Bounty has been pretty popular, The recently awful Heroes of might and magic series pumps outs expansions and sure another is in the work besides there browser one they are working on.. One of the most popular mods for Civ4 is the fall from heaven mod.. And Stardocks elemental war of magic is one of the more eagerly awaited games . All of these are turn based strategy fantasy games that are pretty popular .And these are just the ones i remember off the top of my head

Dom3 i've never seen it advertised anywhere , and it costs alot more than all those doesnt match up in the graphics department . So i know alot of people overlook it without a second thought.

But as said i harp on this everytime these threads pop up. And ill do it every time one comes up hoping something changes

. And no matter what the price is ill keep recommending the game to anyone i know who enjoys strategy games and maybe ill get someone to give it a try ..

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

There isnt much you HAVE to go to college to understand. Its just a compilation.

But it includes more than cost/benefit. Many people dont understand why so many products are priced 5.99 or 19.99 or 59.99. Or diminishing numbers when operating on a niche market. Or the difference between marketing and publicity.

Well the point is that if you had Shrapnel's sales figures, you had estimates of costs for DD solutions, and you had ballpark figures on the % of people who will only buy through DD, you can pretty easily see whether or not it would be cost effective.

I do agree, that I think it's silly that people who have not even one of those three pieces of information, try to argue the point.

[Gandalf Parker]

Another point is that DD is not a finalized solution. It is a proven one, but not a finalized one. There is no ready-made package for providing DD which is secure for both customer and distributor. Its not like shopping carts, or online sales. Basically the concept of DD is still alpha for each company doing it.

Figuring in the possible gains of a slightly increased market vs the possible losses of putting the biggest money-maker onto DD too soon is likely to also fit into the formula.

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Another point is that DD is not a finalized solution. It is a proven one, but not a finalized one. There is no ready-made package for providing DD which is secure for both customer and distributor. Its not like shopping carts, or online sales. Basically the concept of DD is still alpha for each company doing it.

I think this has started to change, or has been taken care of already. Valve's Steam has been around for a while, and it's offering services to third-party games. Steam's competitors might still have some quirks to take care of, but since they already have Steam to copy from they can focus on the security issues. Even the newest game consoles offer games (mostly small ones) through their network services.

Not that it necessarily affects Shrapnel Games' decisions.

[Omnirizon]

Originally Posted by Endoperez

I think this has started to change, or has been taken care of already. Valve's Steam has been around for a while, and it's offering services to third-party games. Steam's competitors might still have some quirks to take care of, but since they already have Steam to copy from they can focus on the security issues. Even the newest game consoles offer games (mostly small ones) through their network services.

Not that it necessarily affects Shrapnel Games' decisions.

in the ramp up to the Wii, Nintendo actively stamped out any trace of ROMs of Nintendo published games across the interwebs; all because they intended to make all these old games available as downloads on the Wii and didn't want the presence of ROMs cutting in.

Not that it had any effect, seriously. First off, the experience of playing a game on an actual console, with proper sound, control, and a big TV is leagues beyond a ROM on an emulator. If I had a ROM on an emulator that I liked, I wouldn't hesitate to purchase it if I could play it on my console and it was as easy as getting it through DD. Second off, Nintendo didn't really do much by stamping out the presence of ROMs through direct download except to push connoisseurs to package all the Nintendo published ROMs in torrent downloads and provide a large population of active torrents for these ROMs, allowing them to all be gotten at once for much easier; Iron Law of Prohibition strikes again.

Back to my main point. DD is beyond alpha. It's being used by major corporations to give greater coverage to their marginal products.