A friend and I were having a discussion about the recent price drops of all these games. He is currently developing a 2D RPG on Xbox Community Games, and i'm looking to start an App project sometime this month (have a nifty idea). Anyway we came to an disagreement on which method is better (sales, profit, and reconagition). So I decided to ask you guys here, and i know there are a few developers around =). Which do you think does better? Having a Dated Price drop, as in revealing when the sale will end. Or having a Limited Price Drop where the sale length is unknown. This isn't about which would you personally prefer, because i think we would all prefer to know when the sale would end =p. This is asking which do you think would be better for the developer/company/game.
I'd say Dated because if people like the game and knows when the price goes back up, they will most likely pick it up immediately. If it is Limited, then people might hold it off thinking that it probably won't end soon. For example, the Peggle Sale pulled in many customers because it specified a date and lured like everybody to buy it. (Well, maybe it's because the game is so well known.)
I dunno, a lot of dates mean nothing. GeoDefense, CJS, and Knights Onrush all had a set sale end date, and they all went over that, with Knights Onrush still being onsale, they just took out the date from the description.
If I was a developer I would choose the unknown date price drop. This forces people that are on the edge about the game to make a quick decision and buy it earlier than they would have. At least that's how I feel when I see a unknown date price drop...
Dated. I hate it when I see apps saying 'FREE FOR LIMITED TIME!', as in 'always free'.That immediately makes me want to navigate my cursor away from the app. And if it has a date, people are more likely to download it straight away than subconciously think, 'Naahh, I can't be bothered now. I think I'll wait a couple days.'
Rlly? I think people might just hold off on it if they dont know the end sale date. on the other hand, if they do know it, they they would make a decision fast and the pressure from the end date would likely influence them to buy the game
I think ideally, the developers should drop the price and drop it permanently. They should advertize that it is 60% off of the retail price or whatever, but shouldn't specify an end date for the sale. And they should just have the sale go on for ever and not end it. Why? Because of Peggle, I was considering getting the game at $5, but decided to wait. Then the price dropped to .99 cents one weekend, I missed it, and it went back up. Now there's no way I'll buy peggle for more than $2 or so. I doubt that anyone would buy peggle for $5 now that they know that it was just a dollar at one point (as many people mentioned in the user reviews). So while they got a short term burst in sales, but will not sell many copies afterwards. A smart publisher wouldn't do that. They find a lower price point that is sustainable, and drop the price to that level permanently. Peggle should have ideally dropped to $2 and just stayed at the price point forever, with the advertisement that it's 60% off of the retail price. It would have more sustained sales.
http://www.148apps.com/148-top-paid-games/ Peggle #23 Anyone is still buying it. I would guess it is making more money now than during the sale.
Heh all the points mentioned above was pretty much what we came to as a conclusion. I prefer and think the Dated method is best. One of my arguments was that when something goes on sale and while i'm mulling over the idea of buying it it goes back to normal price, i almost feel betrayed =p. Like "omg how could they do this, i was just about to buy it! now i'll never get it unless it gets on sale again". I think this method causes more ill-will toward the game/company which is not something I would want. Both sides have good arugments though and without any real statistics, both seem like a viable tactic that seems to work.
