Cheaper Chopper

[Andy Sjostrom]

<a href="http://www.handango.com/PlatformSearch.jsp?siteId=311&jid=291EE17765A8FFD83473D22C246D4E26&optionId=1%5F2%5F2&txtSearch=chopper+alley&platformId=2">http://www.handango.com/PlatformSearch.jsp?siteId=311&jid=291EE17765A8FFD83473D22C246D4E26&optionId=1%5F2%5F2&txtSearch=chopper+alley&platformId=2</a><br /><br />AmazingGames, maker of the stunning helicopter game <a href="http://www.handango.com/PlatformSearch.jsp?siteId=311&jid=291EE17765A8FFD83473D22C246D4E26&optionId=1%5F2%5F2&txtSearch=chopper+alley&platformId=2">ChopperAlley</a> experiments with price point! I don't remember the original price (was is $19.95 or $29.95), but they have lowered it to $5.99. AmazingGames says: "If this turns out to be a success, you can expect to see more high quality games at rock bottom prices in the very near future." If you haven't seen ChopperAlley before, I recommend <a href="http://www.amazinggames.com/download/ChopperAlley/ChopperAlley.wmv">looking at this video!</a><br /><br />Is ChopperAlley worth $5.99? Yes. Will they sell more at this price point? Yes. Will increased volume beat decreased price per unit? In this case, I certainly believe so. It will be interesting to find out, if they'll tell us!<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/choppera.gif" />

[helloboys]

Fantastic! I'm about to purchase it right now.

[surfaday]

Can someone report on the brightness in an ipaq 38xx? Otherwise I might be doing a lot of night missions. :roll:

Walt

[Kathy_Harris]

I'm buying it just to support the price and hope this becomes a trend.

[ChezDoodles]

Thanks, Katalin!

I would just like to include a couple of thoughts behind this experiement. Some of the ideas have also been discussed over at PocketMatrix (http://www.pocketmatrix.com) lately - by what I would characterize as small time developers. I've been a strong advocat for the idea that lower prices *will* lead to higher volumes for a long time, and in sum a higher profit for the developer.

Just a year ago, when Chopper Alley was released you would find that most PPC games were priced in the $25.00 to $45.00 range. As the potential market has grown, prices have been lowered as well - although they seem to have "stuck" in the $16.00 - $19.00 range. However, in the last couple of months we've seen a steady stream of quality game titles being released at $29.00.

I think both the consumer (PDA game player) and small development teams will be able to benefit from *lower* prices, due to the following reasons:

1) Higher quality.
If the best titles sells in the $5 - $10 range, there will be very little room to charge anything at all for low quality titles. With such a low price, you're dependent on a high volume. You cannot afford to release low quality titles, simply because you will not sell enough games

2) Competition
We're bound to see the big brand names of gaming entering the PDA zone eventually. Because of their well known brand names, they will sell huge amounts even if they charge premium prices ($25-$30). We can compete on quality, content and price - but not brand recognition. By optimizing the three factors which we can control, we can still carve out a market for ourselves. And because the big brand name games *will* sell - we can piggyback on their sales - rather than compete. People purchasing the brand name game will think - "hey, another game in the same category. Never heard of it before, but with such nice reviews and a cost next to nothing, I'll give it a try - since I'm already into this genre." They will install our game and maybe realize that we have more and better content than the big brand name game they originally bought. The next time around, they will have been educated to check out our games (the small time developers) as well - and *then* we're actually competing with the big boys.

3) Bulding a reputation
The most important asset we have is our reputation. If I can sell 5000 games at $20 - or - 15000 games at $5 - I would pick the low price/high volume option rather than the high price/low volume - even if the total amount may end up less. Simply because the 15000 customers are an investment, an asset. Having the email addresses of 15000 customers that are willing to pay $5 online with their credit card is my investment into the future. Even if I cannot afford full page ads in the big magazines, I can still contact my customer base when my next game is ready. These people are more likely to think they made a great deal nine month ago when they bought my game at $5 than if they had paid $20 - and hence they are more likely to purchase the new game as well.

4) Building/changing the platform
By lowering the price to the $5 - $10 range, PDA owner will have the opportunity to buy *more* games. More people looking for a portable gameing platform will start looking into it, and over time we might change the average PDA owner from a 40+ yrs sales manager looking for yet another golf game or another round of tetris, to the 15 - 30yrs range whose appetite of games matches what we see on the other platforms. Then the PDA scene might end up as a recruitement pool for and a place to start a career as a gamedeveloper for the big platforms.

5) Scare off the big boys
If the PDA scene get a reputation for a place where quality games costs next to nothing, the executive suits in the boardrooms of the big brand name game companies will think more than twice before entering into what is essentially a niche market - if the margins are low they will stay away and consentrate of platforms that are more widespread and have higher software prices.

PROBLEMS:
The problem with all this is retail. If you want your game to go retail, you cannot sell it in the $5 - $10. Noone is interrested in giving shelf space to a game in the $5 - $10 range, so you'll either have to do bundles of several games - or you must add some kind of value to justify a higher price range - or both.

NOW:
Right now I must say the first wave of feedback and response is very encouraging...but we'll all see very soon. Personally I've invested 16+ hrs/day every day the last 12 months in my new soon-to-be released game, and I know that it will go head-to-head and crush a game with a well-known-brand (which will be released soon) in every department. I'm very excited to see if superior content, playablility, graphics, features and price is enough when you face an established brand and superior marketing power - and if our industry is strong enough to create our own heros. This experiemnt will at least give an indecation of what the right pricing model will be.

Regards,
Chez

[TMAN]

I just bought my copy. I too, hope this trend continues.

[Kathy_Harris]

I installed on my CF microdrive and it is very slow but still very playable. I'm gonna see if it plays faster on a real CF.

Neat game, pretty playable and I don't play games. I like the way they got around the multiple button issue by having some controls on the screen.

[Jason Lee]

does it actually work with the 38xx? I bought it along time ago and have never been able to play it on my new ipaq. :(

[mel]

Keep in mind that a very low price sometimes reduces the precieved value of an otherwise high-quality product.

Sometimes a low price actually reduces sales because certain customers won't bother to try it - and will wrongly assume that the product is not as good as the competitors (hence the low price).

I was recently at Office Max shopping for a good accounting program for my desktop PC. While comparing QuickBooks and Peachtree (both of which are about $400), I noticed a "non brand-name" program that was for about $25... can't remember the name. Sure, $25 is a lot more afforable than $400.....but my instinct was ... there has got to be something wrong with this if it's priced so low. So I didn't bother looking too much into it, and ended up buying Quickbooks. Now that I think about it, if that box has been marked $149 or maybe even $99, I would've taken a closer look, and maybe even bought it - thinking wow...this seems like an "expensive" product, yet it's a steal compared to the others.

Product pricing is usually a difficult process and you need to know your target customer very well to do it right. It's not as simple as low price = more sales. You have to factor in the psyche of the buyer - will he/she be "turned off" by the low price? Are you pricing at par with similar products in the category? Also, sometimes it's better to offer rebates, bundle deals, or other "free stuff" for the higher price than to lower the price itself....thus sweetening the deal, yet keeping your perceived value high.
Anyway, hope it works out well for Chopper Alley!

-Mel

[Boxster S]

I find the game to be choppy at best at high rez, and it looks like crap at anything lower (and it is hard to make out details). I use a Audiovox Maestro BTW

And I paid the original $19.95 for it back in the day :cry:

[ChezDoodles]

Mel,

You have a very good point, indeed.

However, there are two factors that might help leveling this a bit:

1) Having a demo, reviews, descriptions, pics and movies available should enable a customer to make a valid judgement on that. I mean - you actually took notice of the $25 product - your main problem was that you had no way of checking the quality of the product.

2) The entire industry should move towards a lower price. I think most developers would actually benefit from that, since the number of sales would increase and maybe even create a bigger total revenue. New Pocket PC users might be attracted to invest in a couple of games and start looking at the Pocket PC as a viable gaming platform alternative, and each customer would proably buy more games.

Regards,
Chez

[Registered]

I think its a friggin' brilliant and VERY forward looking idea. I'm utterly impressed, that there are some cool devs actually seeing where the market will go and appreciate and analyse its potential in a sensible way.

If this gets rid of all the backroom coders who download some Tetris source, take the 6.5 mins it takes to port to eVB and then have the oddesity to try and flog it off for 20 bucks, the "experiment" was a success already.

Well done, to a (hopefully) sure success..

[jlp]

And why not making it clear that the regular price was $20. As in the example of the accounting program, if Mel had seen a sticker for example telling that "This program's regular price is $199, and for our 5th anniversary we are conducting a promotion...blabla...all the feature of the big guy's app and more...blabla...selling it for the promotional price of $25"

Almost certainly Mel would have bought it instead of the more expensive one, isn't it.

Indeed Handango's page has awards labels and all but saying it is regularly priced at $20 and it promoted at $5.99 will draw even more interest to it, won't it? Give whatever reason like the 2nd anniversary of PocketPC: 'twas April 19, 2000 folks.

Happy anniversary PocketPC !!! (just a little early, but I don't know when YOU the reader will read this ;))

[jlp]

Chez,

Another argument in your favor is that if someone buys an accounting app they will not get the competition's, whereas if they buy a $30 game (the competition's) and see yours at 5.99 and seeing that it does other things they might go for it too.

It's the kind of answer that Steve Jobs gave when AntZ and A Bug's Life both came out at about the same time and he said that because people see one doesn't mean they won't see the other as well.

[Kilmerr]

Just find the supply and demand curve equilibrium, sotospeak. Or the Laffer Curve point. Nifty experiment tho.

And I wholly agree with Mel...

Product pricing is usually a difficult process and you need to know your target customer very well to do it right.

But Econ 101 time of late...

1. Higher quality because you charge less? Pricing has nothing ever to do with quality. Perception of perhaps. Just like morale is unrelated to productivity. Whole slew of internal factors such as values or culture that are at work. Pricing doesn't determine quality. Quality determines quality.

2. Optimizing the three factors? Quality, content and price? Best of luck. Fortune 500's still don't have this down. Maybe God himself. Lower quality may be in fact worth a higher price. Pac Man, Dig Dug, all the 80s era games are in fact lower quality. Value is what people think something is worth. The Labor Theory of Value, went out with Marx. And only 3 factors? You are dealing in the realm of human behavior and emotions, and explaining that is never simple or logical. When people think that they can logically 'science' the market, that's the time to short...etc.

3. Most important asset we have is our reputation? Nope. Lotta failed companies with great reputations. Most important asset is PROFIT. Reputation is good, but it doesn't put money in the bank.

4. Lowering the price means people will buy more? Or maybe lowering the price is a dumping method? Or a 'we have 10 games that are all similar and we just tweaked them a bit', seen that concept in application suites. They break it down to 5 zillion pieces and then lower the price on each. And low prices don't automatically mean new customers. New customers have varied reasons...pricing is but one.

5. Scare off the big boys? Now you are dreaming. If you think the 'big guys' can't see the market and adjust and go toe to toe..then no hope. If money to be made, "big boys" will swoop down for their cut. PDA market is a sliver, and the games market is even a smaller sliver of that. But if WalMart comes to town, the Ma and Pa store might have some troubles. Specialize and might survive. etc.

And don't forget to factor in that a reduction in price can kill a product, as people see that the product was overpriced to begin with. If this is now $5.99 too bad for all the chumps that got it higher, eh? Pricing is a life or death issue for any company. Wild swings can kill.

http://www.econweb.com/MacroWelcome/sandd/notes.html#3

[surfaday]

Ok, I did my part - bought the program. Runs great and brightness is just fine. :D $5.99 is just my speed, though I still love my (full priced) RocketElite and Bubble Shooter. However, I wish I didn't pay $30 for Sim City 2000. I just can't get into that game for some reason, even though I fairly enjoyed it on my PC years ago. :(

Walt

[Chubbergott]

This is definately a significant step forward. To see such innovative software being made accessible to more people can only be a good thing!

There are many who would pay $30 for an application but feel guilty spending as much on a game, so to see this price on this game is good news indeed!