FSTDT Forums
Community => Entertainment and Television => Topic started by: CaseAgainstFaith on June 06, 2012, 04:15:46 pm
-
Well, no, at least not according to David DeMartini, EA's senior vice president for global e-commerce. "We won't be doing that," he said in an interview with GamesIndustry. "I just think it cheapens your intellectual property. I know both sides of it, I understand it. If you want to sell a whole bunch of units, that is certainly a way to do that, to sell a whole bunch of stuff at a low price. The gamemakers work incredibly hard to make this intellectual property, and we're not trying to be Target... we're trying to give you a fair price point, and occasionally there will be things that are on sale you could look for a discount, just don't look for 75 percent off going-out-of-business sales."
He also suggested that despite giving exposure and huge sales boosts to indie developers and major studios alike, Valve's approach could actually be doing the industry more harm than good. "What Steam does might be teaching the customer that, 'I might not want it in the first month, but if I look at it in four or five months, I'll get one of those weekend sales and I'll buy it at that time at 75 percent off'," he continued. "It's an approach, and I'm not going to say it's not working for Valve. It certainly works for Valve; I don't know if it works as well for the publishing partners who take on the majority of that haircut."
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117725-Origin-Boss-Says-Steam-Sales-Cheapen-Intellectual-Property (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117725-Origin-Boss-Says-Steam-Sales-Cheapen-Intellectual-Property)
I read this and all I could get out of this is they are jealous of Steam's popularity. I also think he has this assbackwards in the sense that Valve's approach is better for the industry and EA/ ActiBlizzard types are the ones harming it. But I thought it was a amusing read.
-
*snerks!* Between Steam and the Humble Bundles, game developers have outright said that they're finding more success with those avenues than the old distribution methods EVER did. Just ask Tim Schaffer and the rest of Double Fine Studios what Steam and the Humble Bundle 5 have done for Psychonauts.
-
EA? Trying to pretend to care about the industry, or the people who actually make the games? Ha ha ha, oh wow.
What Steam does might be teaching the customer that, "I sure as fuck ain't giving EA 60 bux for half a game, but if I look at it in four or five months, I'll get one of those weekend sales and it'll be priced at what it's actually fucking worth."
Phixd.
-
Steam's sales and game packs are the only reason I've purchased most of the games I own. If they hadn't offered those discounts, I never would have bought the games in the first place, and I'm quite certain that there are many others who wouldn't have bought them either.
EA can bitch all they want, but a sale at 75% less is still better than no sale at all.
-
To be fair, a lot of Steam sales are actually so cheap, you pay way less than the worth of the game. For instance, my girlfriend bought me Civilization V and some DLC when it was on sale a bit ago. So I got the main game, tons of DLC scenarios, and every DLC civ for less than $15. The game even without DLC is easily worth twice that.
But sales that big aren't about recouping investments. If you're selling that cheap, you either failed miserably and are trying to recover as much of the damage as possible, or you've already more than made your money back, sales are slacking, and its a way to get some more mileage out of a game people have otherwise lost interest in.
In CivV's case, with an expansion looming in just 2 weeks, it was a way to drum up more interest in the series right before the expansion hits. By expanding the base of people who own the game by selling it on the cheap, it created a wider range of consumers who will have interest in an expansion for that game.
Should anyone consider 75% off sales as part of their normal business strategy? Probably not. But they can be a powerful tool if used with care and proper timing, like in the case of CivV. EA dismissing them out of hand just tells me they're not very good at marketing.
-
From Scimitar in the comments section of PC Gamer's website:
"He would have a fair point if games wouldn't be tremendously overpriced nowadays. When Publishers like Activision can afford putting $130 million (90% of the total budget) into the advertisement of a single game, I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't be more sane to save that money and instead make the game cheaper."
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/06/ea-senior-vp-comments-on-steam-sales-%E2%80%9Ci-just-think-it-cheapens-your-intellectual-property-%E2%80%9D/
-
*buys the Farcry1 and 2 bundle for 5 bucks on steam just to spite EA*
Never going to buy from Origin.