Kazza
Member
The analysis was done by an indie game publisher No More Robots' founder Mike Rose, so I can't personally vouch for its veracity. It does make for some interesting reading.
If I understand correctly, he is trying to argue here that demand for indie games is somewhat inelastic (i.e. the price doesn't affect sales numbers) so they could increase in price, selling the same number of units and making more money:
I don't agree with this at all. I think it's more likely that the publishers of those $10 or less games know they aren't high enough quality to sell for any higher than that, and so set their prices accordingly. With the market so saturated, they might not even sell at all at a higher price point. For the games selling at $21+ it's likely that the publishers are already confident of that the demand and quality is there and so price accordingly.
Although I feel for those developers who see their life's work of a game get buried in the avalanche of new Steam releases, I think they need to adjust their perception of reality. For example, I've recently started to learn to play the guitar and to learn to code. I don't think anyone would be surprised if I were to release an album a couple of years from now and not experience any success. I think the same expectations should be applied to if I decided to release my own game. People should see developing an indie game the same as starting a band with your friends - something you do as a hobby, and if you're successful, then great, if not then at least you had fun.
Oh, and one last message for Epic Games Store critics :
Mod Edit:
If I understand correctly, he is trying to argue here that demand for indie games is somewhat inelastic (i.e. the price doesn't affect sales numbers) so they could increase in price, selling the same number of units and making more money:
I don't agree with this at all. I think it's more likely that the publishers of those $10 or less games know they aren't high enough quality to sell for any higher than that, and so set their prices accordingly. With the market so saturated, they might not even sell at all at a higher price point. For the games selling at $21+ it's likely that the publishers are already confident of that the demand and quality is there and so price accordingly.
Although I feel for those developers who see their life's work of a game get buried in the avalanche of new Steam releases, I think they need to adjust their perception of reality. For example, I've recently started to learn to play the guitar and to learn to code. I don't think anyone would be surprised if I were to release an album a couple of years from now and not experience any success. I think the same expectations should be applied to if I decided to release my own game. People should see developing an indie game the same as starting a band with your friends - something you do as a hobby, and if you're successful, then great, if not then at least you had fun.
Oh, and one last message for Epic Games Store critics :
Mod Edit:
Soo yeah, it's not really useful..
Last edited by a moderator: