plimus, bmt, keys etc ..

[Nikster]

Hi, my initial plan was to use Armadillo with plimus as plimus is able to create keys for you, however, i came to thinking that sure it can create keys, but what if the keygen required some machine ID to generate correct working ones ? anyway, if I was to use machine ID's what would be the best away for doing this ? would it make more sense to actually purchase via an actual demo of the title etc where the title could send home the machine ID so would be transparent to the purchaser ? has anyone else dealt with this type of software locking before and if so what were your solutions? Bear in mind this is not something I plan on doing for every title I ever do, but as always before I commit to using any type of third party software / providor etc I'd like to know the cons.

Thanks

Nik.

[Tom Gilleland]

I'm really surprised so many of you guys use Plimus/BMT/Kagi/whatever for your credit card processing. Maybe I'm just frugal, but these services work out to cost around 10% of each sale. If you write your own DRM and have some PHP scripts deal directly with the Merchant Card accounts like Costco or Pro Service International, then you pay around 5%. (Your games are probably more complicated to write then this DRM stuff/credit card stuff.) Make that 5% for yourself!

Business Tip # 391: Avoid those middlemen!

Tom

[Phil Steinmeyer]

(Your games are probably more complicated to write then this DRM stuff/credit card stuff.) Make that 5% for yourself!
Tom

Yes, but by writing a new game, I can generate another entity earning my $18 a sale. By writing a DRM system, I can net an incremental $1/sale. The DRM system would have to be trivially easy to write, maintain, and service to justify the effort NOT spent on the $18/sale generator.

[Tom Gilleland]

I did a ballpark cost analysis on this and it started making money for me at about 1,000 units sales. And more importantly I get to control the user's payment experience. I also think that if you design the payment process to be super easy and friendly it will affect you conversion rates. Plus, when it comes to things "money" it is to your advantage to control/watch it carefully at all levels.

I've talked to many long-term developers who have been focused on online sales for many years and just about every one of them started with a service, then ultimately wrote thier own.

Tom