Gaming industry should desaturate Q4

[Teddman]

Yeah, maybe Swingin' Ape should have waited a bit longer to release Metal Arms, there were so many high-profile games on the market that it got passed over at first by the mainstream AND the hardcore crowd on messageboards. I don't know how many times I saw the comment, "Damn, I just spent all my gaming dough on SSX3/Prince of Persia/BG&E/Mario Kart: DD so I can't get it Metal Arms for awhile."

Sounds like Universal is tentatively supporting a sequel, so maybe all's well that ends well...

[Shapermc]

Like Bacon I would like to relate this VG thing to Movies. Unlike movies, VGs do not get a "theatrical release" so to say. If you consider their starting price at $40 - $50 their "theatrical release" that is about right. What happens is the people who are larger supporters go for the movie/game at this point. Others wait for rental or DVD release. "Theatrical release" only accounts for an estimated 40% of a movies profit. The rest of it is left to DVD. Movie companies are smart with releases. They put up their "Summer Blockbusters" (easily relatable to Tony Hawk, Mario, SSX and other such "safe" games) in the summer so that they can put out the Video for Xmas season to make more money. The movies then release their lesser but still good movies durring the 4th quarter (easily relatable to BG&E and others) so that people go who want to see them and then people with a bit of extra time.

Compared to the Movie industy games are still in a baby phase. I would not be supprised to see VGs adapt a similar release schedule to movies in the future. You get games like Prince of Persia release full price durring summer for kids with parents who want them to stop bugging them or who have summer jobs. Then for the Holiday season you get the same game re-released with a Greatest/Platnium Hits release. You then have the BG&E games (I am trying to use the same company) come out at full price and instead of competing with their own game for full price (as said earlier) you get the New Game and if they missed the $20 you just add it on.

There are alot of people who only wait for 1 or 2 games a year, say Madden and Prince of Persia. When someone goes to get them a gift (parents perhaps) they know that they got those games durring the summer or PRE 4th quarter so they will just go in and get the newest hottest game on the shelves. With the companies not competing against themselves they just win in this situation. The movie companies saw it and aside from a LotR kind of 4th Quarter release your sales just about pan out even.

Also; hardCORE!!!! is a very small percent. I use to think that I was an average gamer untill I moved for High School in the early 90's and found out that I lived in a strange neighaborhood that had VG as a high priority for kids. I know very few people who are as involved with games as I am. The ones who "think" they are tell me 2 - 3 month old news like I haven't heard it. I don't give them shit and say things like "That is so 5 days ago!" or anything, it just makes me realise that I am like that guy who goes to opening nights for every movie and then goes to "movie Poop Shoot dot com" to rag about it with everyone.

[Lordmrw]

I agree that it would be nice if they spaced out releases more, especially during the summer (i mean, fuck, there's no school during the summer, what better time to release a game), but for everyone game that flopped, there's another game that benefits from being released during christmas. Games like Tak and the Power of Juju, Yugioh: Falsebound Kingdom, etc. sold assloads, while some games i thought were sure things like Legacy of Kain Defiance flopped as bad or worse then Prince of Persia.

[Bacon McShig]

I'd liken the state of gaming more what the VHS market used to be; when they initially came out, they were only available to rental stores, at insane prices. A few months later, they'd come out to buy at retail for a reasonable price. Sales were okay... but then DVD came along, and they hit sellthrough right away. BAM. DVD sales are rocking. Because they hit when the movie is at the forefront of everyone's minds. With VHS, people went into Blockbuster, and even if they didn't rent a title, they saw the wall full of it, they saw the poster for it when they walked in. Then they go to a retail store and ask for it... "Oh, it won't be out for a few months". A lot of the time studios wouldn't have concrete street dates on VHS that had been out to rent for months! So the title's shiny new luster wore off, it faded from people's mind, and it hit retail shelves with little fanfare and "okay" sales. With DVD, you see that puppy on the shelf at Blockbuster, you can find it to buy. It's still got the sheen of newness, which does more for sales than you could fathom. Don't ask me why, but if it's new, people will eat it up with a spoon.

So games are pretty much where VHS was. When they have that new sheen, they're $40 or $50. They're basically out of people's reach, they're almost as good as only being available to rent. Picking up new games is incredibly cost-prohibitive and so it's no freakin' surprise people aren't getting games when they come out. People know the price will go down, but there's where it even lags behind the archaic VHS archetype... the length of the period of which it will drop varies so wildly and is marked with so little fanfare that people don't have any frame of reference to go by. I say that if a publisher is gonna lower a price, do it loudly. Print more copies, re-solicit it, do what you can to get it in retailers' sunday fliers; "hey, the game you were on the fence about is now more affordable". It's just a freakin' game of luck and chance the way it is now, that you'll even find a game when it quietly lowers it's price, from whatever stock is left over from the holidays. It's the worst marketing strategy EVAR.

But even if it gets with the flow on announcing price drops, sales aren't going to be as good as if they go with the DVD strategy: Affordable on release, while it's shiny and new. Sales in the game industry would simply explode. Profits would go up, games would get higher budgets, consumers would spend, spend, spend... It would be a renaissance for the game industry. But no one's ballsy enough to buck the status quo.

How am I the only person that sees this, by the way?

[Shapermc]

How am I the only person that sees this, by the way?

? Umm my post is pretty similar to yours...

[Captain Vegetable]

How am I the only person that sees this, by the way?

You're not. In fact, you are among the last. Roufuss and myself have been prophesying an industry price restructuring for some time now, for exactly these reasons.

[Bacon McShig]

I should hasten to add that I didn't mean the first person around here to see. I meant that in a sort of mock-inclusive tone towards people who are in charge of marketing games. They don't seem to get it at all.

[kingoffighters]

I have nothing more to add but the title "...and the power of JuJu" just sounds so dirty!

[Jeremy]

Game prices aren't all that high, they're pretty damn low in my opinion. $50 new is much cheaper than the $60-$80 norm of just a decade or so ago, and many titles come out in the $10-$30 range, which was an unheard of price for pretty much anything again, just a decade or so ago. The standardizing of disc-based media for game storage has done wonders for keeping game prices low. The $40 norm of PlayStation titles was amazing as well.

[burgundy]

I envy your ability to play Advance Wars 1 & 2, the three original Castlevanias, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Golden Sun 1 & 2, Mario & Luigi, etc. 10-15 years ago... slugger.

Seriously. I'm so sick of "I can't play GBA original software because I won't buy one because it has no original software! WAAH!"

I would say that lower-profile games would sell at least 10x better in the holiday season if they just debuted at lower prices.

I would say that all but the five highest-profile games in a given year would sell at least 10x better in any season if they debuted at lower prices.

Compared to the Movie industy games are still in a baby phase. I would not be supprised to see VGs adapt a similar release schedule to movies in the future. You get games like Prince of Persia release full price durring summer for kids with parents who want them to stop bugging them or who have summer jobs. Then for the Holiday season you get the same game re-released with a Greatest/Platnium Hits release. You then have the BG&E games (I am trying to use the same company) come out at full price and instead of competing with their own game for full price (as said earlier) you get the New Game and if they missed the $20 you just add it on.

This is basically what happens, except publishers are seeming oblivious to it. Movie publishers hype the theatrical release, profit, hype the video release, profit, hype the PPV release, and profit again. Game publishers seem to throw everything at the wall for $50, and after a month, they throw their hands up, cry about losses, and can any plans for a sequel.

Ask yourself what would happen if Ubi Soft ran some television ads for BG&E and mentioned its $20 price tag.

Game prices aren't all that high, they're pretty damn low in my opinion. $50 new is much cheaper than the $60-$80 norm of just a decade or so ago, and many titles come out in the $10-$30 range, which was an unheard of price for pretty much anything again, just a decade or so ago. The standardizing of disc-based media for game storage has done wonders for keeping game prices low. The $40 norm of PlayStation titles was amazing as well.

Not only are disc-based media cheap, but you're ignoring the fact that there's a lot more games on the market than there were 10 years ago, and and a lot more people buying them.

What this means is that the top games are going to do really well, and everything else is going to do really poorly. Lower the price of games, and more across the board get bought and are profitable.