Interesting Numbers... $14 (3%), 18 (.5%)

[amaranth]

I thought this was interesting, so I wanted to share it with everyone and find out if anyone else has had similar numbers.

I released a game, and for the first month, sold it for $14 as an early bird special. My conversion rate was 3%! Then, when the special ended, I started selling the game for $18. Frustratingly enough, my sales have taken a sharp dip and now I'm bringing in about .5%. Bummer!

My question is... Do you sell your game for $16 or less, and how does this affect your conversion rate? I'm very curious!

Another odd tidbit... When I was selling the game for $14, people were BUYING the game before they even downloaded it. I had some people request refunds because they couldn't get the game to run on their old machines!

[Grey Alien]

could it just be that initial hype made it sell well, then later people are just casually downloading it not with any particular intention to buy and that's why CR dropped off? Price may havebeen a factor but not as much as you think, or perhaps it was because it was on "special offer" more people downloaded it. Maybe if you sold it at $14 without the special offer tag, less people would have bought it. Just some ideas...

[Mike Boeh]

Why don't you a/b test it?

Best Friends sells a lot more at $9.99 than it did at $19.99... I ran several tests and settled at that price.

[ErikH2000]

Amaranth, if I'm not mistaken, you had many players who were fans of your previous freeware title, Ahriman's Prophecy, eagerly awaiting the release of Aveyond. These are your hardcore fans and many of them were probably ready to buy without even looking at the demo.

I had a similar release pattern with a freeware game building support for a commercial release. I also experienced 3% conversion in the first month of release. (Heh. Or in the first day, 50% conversion.) It gradually went down to 1% as less-committed players arrived to try out the demo. My price stayed at $19.95 throughout.

-Erik

[terin]

For the record, in the Great Book of Marketing (almost done! Final stages) I have a sub chapter that talks about promotional pricing.

I say AVOID IT for just this reason:

Amanda, who I have great respect for as the only female developer to attend the IGC (haha), has a huge fan base from her freeware products.

They were rabidly awaiting the release of her first game. The conversion rate would have been the same if she were charging 14, 18, or 24.99 in my opinion. Now we'll never know that for sure, but my experience and knowledge says that this will be the case. So, the result of promo pricing the item was 4 dollars less per sale.

The advantage of promo pricing is it compresses the sales cycle, but rarely does a promo price result in better overall sales. Look at it this way.

Over the space of the next three months a game may move 200 units in month 1, 100 units in month 2, and 70 units in month 3. Many of those purchasers in months 2 and 3 actually downloaded in month 1.

So what happens? You promo price it for a month and now you move 300 units in month 1, 50 units in month 2, and 40 units in month 3. Yes, you did move slightly more units this way and they were all front loaded (remember, money today is worth more than money tommorrow) but was it enough to offset a fairly sizeable % discount.

Almost never.

This isn't the same as a price reduction! Testing out a new price as a perminent fixture will have long term ramifications. A perminent price increase or reduction (or the test of one) may indeed show that your conversion rate is price elastic (whoa, marketing term!). However, my EXPECTATION is that an RPG is price inelastic.

This means while Amanda could try to price the game at 14, 18, and 24 dollars; my guess is she would find the conversion rate does not change that much between 14 and 24 dollars.

This would not be the same as a game like Best Friends, which I suspect players would have a passing fancy for and, a 9.99 price vs a 19.99 price is the difference between an impulse purchase and a thought-out decision. I can't think of too many people who purchase RPGs on impulse :) They are huge time sinks...

So my thought is, if you are going to try an A/B split on price- try moving the price UP from 18 to 24.99 instead of back down. Heck, you can offer them $5 off if they reach the end of the demo and STILL come out ahead :)

-Joe

[amaranth]

Uh oh, I've been spotted! Okay, I've listened very closely to what everyone has said. I am going to sit on my current price, market the heck out my game, and not freak out. :D

[terin]

Also, never listen to what other people say :) HAHA... actually if you really wanted to know if it was the price...

Say "Due to the success of our special promotion we are extending our $14 offer for one more week" and see if the numbers jump back to 3%. I doubt they will... but that would give you some indication.

-Joe

[Pyabo]

I would like to point out the fact that 0.5% conversion rate is actually not too bad. It only seems that way after 3%.

[Polycount Productions]

Why don't you a/b test it?

Best Friends sells a lot more at $9.99 than it did at $19.99... I ran several tests and settled at that price.
@amaranth: Re-read this. That's what matters. Test your pricing. Settle for the optimum.

[Grey Alien]

Yeah good advice and 0.5% isn't too bad, but if you can improve it, go for it!