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I canna change the laws o' economics

By Rogerborg (Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 04:25:28 PM EST) economics 101 (all tags)

See if you can spot the flaw in the Galactic Civilisations II marketing:

From Amazon: £17.99 (~= $31 USD) boxed and delivered.
From the developers: $44.95 download / $44.95 + shipping/handling for download + delivered CD

See, what this tells me is that these guys value their game at about $5, which is the absolute maximum that they can hope to get from that $30 Amazon purchase. And yet they think that I'll pay a 50% premium in order to give them an 800% premium, just because I can get the game online right now?

Beeyatches, if I wanted to get it online, right now, I'd go to bittorrent, like you just recommended, and pay nothing.

I like their principle: more people will buy your shit if you don't burden it with DRM. But their practice leaves a lot to be desired.

What were they thinking? Any ideas?

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Galactic Civilizations 2 (PC) - Paradox (0 comments)

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Rogerborg from Hulver's site - Review: Galactic CiviliSations II

As intimated previously, I managed to obtain an... extended demo.....

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I canna change the laws o' economics | 17 comments (17 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

WIPO by ucblockhead (4.00 / 1) #1 Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 04:35:02 PM EST

Drank the koolaid and installed Steam, so waddyathink?

It's a contract thing. I am sure the retailers have it written in the contracts that the publisher not offer it at a lower price than their "suggested retail price". Then they offer a discount. It's intentional. If they didn't demand that, people would wonder why we need the retailers.
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_{ウセーバラケダ}

Steam has a genuine USP by Rogerborg (2.00 / 0) #2 Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 04:45:38 PM EST

The ability to install and play your games on any machine anywhere at any time is not insignificant compared to the POWAH of the Force.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.
[ Parent ]

meh by martingale (4.00 / 1) #8 Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 08:46:45 PM EST

I've been doing that with open source software for years. Next!
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$E(X_t|F_s) = X_s,\quad t > s$
[ Parent ]

That's too easy by Rogerborg (2.00 / 0) #9 Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 03:30:31 AM EST

Even I'm not going to bite on that one.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.
[ Parent ]

: see by martingale (4.00 / 1) #10 Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 04:08:17 AM EST

If you had the source to that comment, you could recompile it and bite to a completely different one, instead of being at the mercy of what I choose to write.
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$E(X_t|F_s) = X_s,\quad t > s$
[ Parent ]

Why do we need retailers again? by NoMoreNicksLeft (2.00 / 0) #3 Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 04:54:37 PM EST

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Do not look directly into laser with remaining good eye.
[ Parent ]

Checkout girls by Rogerborg (2.00 / 0) #4 Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 05:09:24 PM EST

They can't all run their own webcams.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.
[ Parent ]

: Heh. by NoMoreNicksLeft (2.00 / 0) #5 Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 06:50:45 PM EST

If my website idea pans out, I'm going to pay someone to deliver groceries to the doorstep. They'll just leave them there, don't even want to see their faces.
Also, I'll be able to afford my 40 cats.
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Do not look directly into laser with remaining good eye.
[ Parent ]

We don't by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #6 Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 07:04:18 PM EST

The retailers need use.
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_{ウセーバラケダ}
[ Parent ]

Amazon demands a 70% discount. by ambrosen (4.00 / 1) #7 Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 07:51:49 PM EST

Before it'll stock your goods, at least in the book trade. Typical distributor's discount is 45%. I imagine they probably have a no undercutting piece in the contract like ucblockhead said, too.

Sucks, because you need Amazon to live. If you don't deal direct, they'll put a hard to find surchage on your stuff to discourage people from looking elsewhere. They also won't ship it for a week or two.

: i.e., by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #11 Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 09:38:55 AM EST

They're charging Amazon £9 a throw for their game.
And I imagine they're happy enough for Amazon to deal with all the selling of it.

[ Parent ]

WIPO: walk to the fucking computer store by Forbidden (4.00 / 1) #12 Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 05:30:22 PM EST

You fucking first-world snob.

You once was.

: what is this 'walk' of which you speak? by Dr H0ffm4n (4.00 / 1) #13 Mon Mar 13, 2006 at 04:37:14 AM EST

[ Parent ]

The online purchasing by skippy (4.00 / 1) #14 Mon Mar 13, 2006 at 08:19:50 PM EST

Well, there's a few good reasons to buy directly from Stardock.

(1) if you enjoy their game, and would rather support an independent developer than a large churn-out-the-clones corporation, then buying it from Stardock ensures that a far larger percentage of the proceeds actually go to the company.

(2) during the intial retail shipping, the distributor didn't get enough units into stores soon enough (for instance, I only received my pre-ordered copy 7 days after the official release date). Some people out there cancelled their pre-orders and bought it from Stardock.

(3) you have too much money and need to get rid of a little bit extra.

(1) What's in it for ME? by Rogerborg (4.00 / 1) #15 Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 12:58:12 PM EST

(2) That was then. What's the reason now?
(3) Good point.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.
[ Parent ]

Hmmmmm by skippy (2.00 / 0) #16 Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 01:32:35 PM EST

(1) you can continue to enjoy excellent games in the future that are developed by a company that isn't just repackaging minor yearly updates as "hot new releases" and charging $69.99 each.

(2) I can't argue with that logic.

(3) Hooray!

[ Parent ]

: (1) GalCiv2 is a clone of Master of Orion 2 by Rogerborg (2.00 / 0) #17 Wed Mar 15, 2006 at 04:13:02 AM EST

So they're not exactly busting a nut to create fresh new content.
(2) Well then.
(3) I got myself a... tech demo. See (1). I already have a copy of MOO2, bought and paid for.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.
[ Parent ]

I canna change the laws o' economics | 17 comments (17 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback