Oh the Price of Games

[Indiepath.T]

£19.99 or $19.99

I'd like to charge £19.99 but prefer to pay the later..

Comments ?

[bentlegen]

Well, look at it this way. 20 English pounds is roughly $43 Canadian. This, I can assure you, is a price I am not willing to pay for an indie game, since triple-A titles up here usually cost between $49 and $59 new.

- ben

[Coyote]

<tangent>
I was just looking at the price I paid for "Epic Pinball" back in 1994.

$59 + $4 shipping and handling.

Of course, I could have bought only one pack for a mere $29 + $4 S/H.

Astonishingly enough, the price of games (including shareware) has dropped quite a bit in the last 10 years, even as inflation has raised the price of everything else.
</tangent>

Depends on your game. Are you primarily selling in the UK or in the US? And which is your primary audience? U.S. consumers tend to freak out when they see the price in something other than dollars.

[Mark Fassett]

I don't freak out :) I do, however, do the math and figure out what it's really going to cost me. Not about to spend £19.99 on most indie games...

[DavidRM]

Charge what you want to charge. Let Plimus (or whoever) do the adjustment to local currency for you.

-David

[Jim Buck]

Epic Pinball - wow, that brings back memories. I still have it on my computer - that and Silverball. Both excellent pinball games.

[Gnatinator]

Just ask yourself how much would you be willing to pay for your game if you were planning on buying it yourself.

Be honest and you can come up with some good figures.

You could also post the demo here and get some of us to suggest if you need it from an outsiders view.

[Sybixsus]

I think the same applies here as applies to the "charge for a demo" thread. Apart from anything else, your game is going to be competing with a whole bunch of people who are selling at $19.99 or $24.99 at most. You might hope that a few would follow but a good number are making a good living at $19.99 and probably not going to fancy an experiment which charging ( practically ) double that.

Ultimately, you're making it very difficult to compete when almost all the other games are half the price. But if you think it's going to put off less than half of your customers, you'd get more money.

[Antdizzle]

You should charge $19.99 because most people wouldn't pay £19.99 outside of the U.K., so $19.99 is good. :)

[Indiepath.T]

$18.47 it is then....

Interesting fact.... I used to sell IBM Websphere software, you know that eBusiness on Demand stuff, and customers would quite happily pay list price BECAUSE list price was something like $76,437.59. Which made it look as if I had already applied a discount... GENIUS...

[Evak]

yeah, I'd only pay $15 - $20 for the best indie games, and wouldn't buy 90% of them for $5. 20lb's is a lot with todays exchange rates. Really sucks when a lot of things I want to purchase aren't avaliable in the US :(

[Fry Crayola]

20lb's is a lot with todays exchange rates.

You planning to pay in flour? :D

Anyhow, $19.99 is the standard and what people expect. If you're going to charge more than that, you've got to justify it somehow. What makes your game better than the countless other indie efforts?

[gpetersz]

Quite offtopic:

"number are making a good living at $19.99"

Is it so? I think I should start a new thread (or search back for older ones).
How much can be made from indie developed games?

Thx.

http//gportf.uw.hu

[gpetersz]

Oh and I don't want to look into anybody's pocket, so no personal data needed or anything. Just a rough guess and stating if one can be earn hers/his living...

[Coyote]

I'm still in the hole on my first indie game, so right now it's in the negatives!

Fortunately I'm not trying to make a living doing this right now.

[Evak]

Gpeters,

that just depends on your game how good it is, how much interest people have in your game, th eprice, value for money and how well you can market it.

you could sell 1 copy every couple of months, 1 a day, or $50,000+ a year. Just depends on your product.

[bentlegen]

How much can be made from indie developed games?If you browse the Indie Business forum you'll find a fair number of threads where members have shared their sales data.

- ben

[OgreMaster]

yeah, I'd only pay $15 - $20 for the best indie games, and wouldn't buy 90% of them for $5. 20lb's is a lot with todays exchange rates. Really sucks when a lot of things I want to purchase aren't avaliable in the US :(

yes, I agree 100%... the best indie games worth $15 - $20 or 19