Gogamer.com is known for its weekend Madness sales, but it never puts new popular games on sale during them. To see STO reduced this soon after release is very telling.
Not really, its called competition. STO is selling pretty well, with a lot of retailers selling out of the collectors edition. For example its number one in the charts over here, with retailers offering it at various prices. Ranging from £17.99 to £39.99.
Not really, its called competition. STO is selling pretty well, with a lot of retailers selling out of the collectors edition. For example its number one in the charts over here, with retailers offering it at various prices.
Modern Warfare 2 was featured for months during Madness sales and it's price has budged a sliver down to $47.90 for the PC so the competition argument goes right out the window. They don't discount new games unless something disastrous happens (like Rogue Warrior lol) and they don't discount popular games for months after they are released.
So, still doesn't mean anything and it also depends on what version you are talking about. My local store was selling the Nintendo DSi at a reduced rate within weeks of them being released, just to beat the compitition.
STO over here ranges from £17.99 to £39.99 depending on the retailer and version and has done so even before launch.
For example the gold edition with Amazon was £24.99, with Play.com being £35.
Modern Warfare 2 was featured for months during Madness sales and it's price has budged a sliver down to $47.90 for the PC so the competition argument goes right out the window. They don't discount new games unless something disastrous happens (like Rogue Warrior lol) and they don't discount popular games for months after they are released.
Yes... Comparing a niche game to a FPS is the most brilliant thing to do.
FPS is probably without a doubt the most popular type of game for the pc. (RTS might share that throne but ehh) So it's no wonder that MW2 did that... Madness sale thingy for a long time or that it's price havent moved much.
Modern Warfare 2 was featured for months during Madness sales and it's price has budged a sliver down to $47.90 for the PC so the competition argument goes right out the window. They don't discount new games unless something disastrous happens (like Rogue Warrior lol) and they don't discount popular games for months after they are released.
That just means the publisher and IW didn't want to drop the retail price.
There also both different platforms and not everyone who buys ST:O will buy MW2 and vice versa.
Bioshock 2 is on sale
Dante's inferno is on sale
Mass Effect 2 is on sale
and Damn...FFXIII is not even out and its on sale too!!!
I guess those games must suck as well.
LOL "on sale" at retail prices doesn't = sale, or discounted for that matter. Seriously tho if you're that clueless you deserve to pay full price and think you're getting a deal. Watch the industry as long as I have (even having worked in it) and seeing a new release discounted so heavily this soon after launch is very bad omen. It's a sign they didn't sell well at launch and they don't predict they will sell very well after. If STO doesn't sell even when on sale the drop will become permanent. If you love the game that much buy an extra copy for a friend and show your support.
Regardless, here ya go you're going to need a few of these. I'm off to lunch. Attachment not found.
I'm glad Cryptic cashed in on the initial pre-order sales and raking in a killing with those that jumped into lifetime subs. I myself paid for the $60 digital deluxe edition. The lowered price seems like a good strategy to lure more people into subscribing. A bigger subscription base means more resources for Cryptic to keep developing more win for all of us. In the short term the huge infusion of money from lifers should be enough for Cryptic to support and improve the game for some time, so gratz to Cryptic. More money for Cryptic means more support for the game we all love.
this is funny it must only being discounted where you live. here in wisconsin the price has yet to budge. and alot of stores like best buy and both of my local game stops out have sold out of the collectors edition and are very low on the standard ones. and are surprised that it so far out sold mass effect 2 and actually slowed down the sale of mw2.
but being in retail myself for several years i know this isn't really any thing either. it can be a regional thing. some games will sell more in certain area and hardly sell in others so you see price drops i the area where it not selling well. i guarantee you that the other games you listed in other areas may have been reduced like sto in your area. so its really no way to come to a conclusion as to how well a game is selling so what matters is total global sales not the sales in one area. there has been games/software that did very poorly in the us and are still extreme successes due to tremendous sale abroad ect. and vices versa great sales in the us but poor sales abroad and failure happens. just nature of a global economy
LOL "on sale" at retail prices doesn't = sale, or discounted for that matter. Seriously tho if you're that clueless you deserve to pay full price and think you're getting a deal. Watch the industry as long as I have (even having worked in it) and seeing a new release discounted so heavily this soon after launch is very bad omen. It's a sign they didn't sell well at launch and they don't predict they will sell very well after. If STO doesn't sell even when on sale the drop will become permanent. If you love the game that much buy an extra copy for a friend and show your support.
Regardless, here ya go you're going to need a few of these. I'm off to lunch. Attachment not found.
All those game I quoted are not on sale at its "retail price". Mass Effect for example is being sold at USD41 instead of USD 49. Bio Shock 2 is being sold at USD 39 and I am pretty sure that is NOT retail price.I am not sure who is the "clueless" one here. Perhaps you should keep the attachment to yourself. Pulling working on the "industry" does not make you more knowledgeable than others.
I started to write for game magazines at the age of 16 and worked in the game developing/publishing company till I got burn out and had no desire to even play any games. There are ways to get more people, one is to put things on sale for a few days. If you actually worked in the industry as you claimed, you should know how that works.
I'm glad Cryptic cashed in on the initial pre-order sales and raking in a killing with those that jumped into lifetime subs. I myself paid for the $60 digital deluxe edition. The lowered price seems like a good strategy to lure more people into subscribing. A bigger subscription base means more resources for Cryptic to keep developing more win for all of us. In the short term the huge infusion of money from lifers should be enough for Cryptic to support and improve the game for some time, so gratz to Cryptic. More money for Cryptic means more support for the game we all love.
Not how it works.
For Cryptic the payday IS the launch.
If they never produce another patch for STO - they've still made just as much money from all those suc.. err subscribers.
Even if they were to work night and day producing new content... the crappy platform that is STO isn't going to retain all that high a population. Most will move on to the next MMO.
Cryptic will spend just enough $$$ to keep whatever active monthly subscribers they have invovled... probably releasing patches and any updates right around account expiration bubbles.
For the rest of the $$$ they have made, I'm sure the better investment is to throw it back into a new MMO where they can once again charge $50 for the game + a few months of $15 AND snag a new group of hopeful lifetime subscribers.
Cryptic many not be good at making games - but they seem to be great at making a profit.
Have to agree. You dont discount a game to get more subs. You discount it because sales slowed down and you have a ton of inventory to move. While I am sure Cryptic wants to sell more clients, they can hardly handle what they have now. If anything its just a move by the seller to grab his share of business from the major retail stores. It may even be against his distributors policy to do so.
Next month or so is when I would expect to see a rash of discounting if the subs dont start coming in. Which is entirely possible due to the state of the game.
Agre with the other fellow about the cash grab though. Release day is really where its at. They sold enough clients and life subs on release to cover dev costs and do something new.
Star Trek Online prices have dropped $20 from the original price on Amazon.com. And to think I paid $80 for the Collectors Edition and now its selling for $60. Its only been out a week...
Gogamer.com is known for its weekend Madness sales, but it never puts new popular games on sale during them. To see STO reduced this soon after release is very telling.
And for you to rush here and post it is very telling.... TROLL!
Modern Warfare 2 was featured for months during Madness sales and it's price has budged a sliver down to $47.90 for the PC so the competition argument goes right out the window. They don't discount new games unless something disastrous happens (like Rogue Warrior lol) and they don't discount popular games for months after they are released.
No that doesn't throw the competition argument out the window.... it just PROVES supply and demand.
When Demand is high, the price will rise or stay the same. That is a game that is still in high demand.
If they never produce another patch for STO - they've still made just as much money from all those suc.. err subscribers.
Even if they were to work night and day producing new content... the crappy platform that is STO isn't going to retain all that high a population. Most will move on to the next MMO.
Cryptic will spend just enough $$$ to keep whatever active monthly subscribers they have invovled... probably releasing patches and any updates right around account expiration bubbles.
For the rest of the $$$ they have made, I'm sure the better investment is to throw it back into a new MMO where they can once again charge $50 for the game + a few months of $15 AND snag a new group of hopeful lifetime subscribers.
Cryptic many not be good at making games - but they seem to be great at making a profit.
Enjoy!
Not entirely correct. The initial influx of cash from launch goes to pay for the project development cost, that is, to pay back loans and/or venture capital investment. The MMO business model revolves around recurring monthly income. For example, a reason why a company would sell life time subs is to recoup development costs quicker. The sooner the project development cost is paid off, the sooner the monthly subscriptions become actual profit.
Most of the big box title games today aren't made with actual on-hand cash. They're made by getting loans or venture capital, as such, the sooner the entities are paid back, the sooner the dev and in particular, publisher starts to see a real profit.
Now I can't say what Cryptic's or Atari's plans are, but it's in their best interest to create a solid franchise, then expand upon it, focusing on growing the user base as a long term plan. That would be the smart business model. Whether or not they actually follow that, or pursue short term gains is not something I will try to guess on.
Gogamer.com is known for its weekend Madness sales, but it never puts new popular games on sale during them. To see STO reduced this soon after release is very telling.
This appears to be a Cryptic generated sale. BestBuy.com lists it as a sale and Amazon.com shows it still having a list price of $49.99. There's no way to conclude what this means for the state of the game and everyone will have their own opinions (and STO players are already notorious for that ).
Still I haven't seen anything that indicates there are any problems with STO sales. In fact, the few indications that I've seen seem to be that they are doing fine. And the sell price of a game is much less important to an MMO that believes they can retain subscribers. STO will make more from retaining a player's subscription for 4 to 6 months than they made from the sell price of the game. For reference, someone playing WoW since launch has spent about $130 for the game clients and $900 for subscriptions.
To me, this sounds more like Cryptic is getting confident they will be able to retain a high percentage of players as subscribers.
Subscription games usually make more money on subscriptions than the client. Take the Mach III (or any other razor) for example. You give a college kid a free razor. He thinks "Hey, a FREE razor." He uses it, and gets used to using it. Then, he sinks $100's of dollars into buying razor cartridges over the next few years for his "free" razor. The profit for the initial sell is not bad, I grant you. The profit for the subscription fee is what is sustaining, though.
Therefore, if you think you will sell a lot more games (and, therefore, subscriptions) with a cheaper game, that is the best choice if it is projected to give the most profit. I don't have the data, but I would think that people would average at least 3 months subscription on games they may not even like all that much. Many of us will stick around to see if things get better that next rank, or want to see how that next ship handles. We are gamers. We like to play on for the next level, or next ship, or next weapon class, or that next mk level weapon drop. All the while, we secretly hope that things will get better with that next patch. We persist, and pay for it.
Inventory backed up maybe? I know they have at least one cancelled pre-order box sitting around
Ah well. Another 30 bucks and it might be worth buying. Or maybe I'll wait until they get really desperate and start throwing dramatically discounted lifetimes around
I'm guessing August. Nothing like looking at horrific 2Q numbers to make people do strange things.
Comments
Modern Warfare 2 was featured for months during Madness sales and it's price has budged a sliver down to $47.90 for the PC so the competition argument goes right out the window. They don't discount new games unless something disastrous happens (like Rogue Warrior lol) and they don't discount popular games for months after they are released.
STO over here ranges from £17.99 to £39.99 depending on the retailer and version and has done so even before launch.
For example the gold edition with Amazon was £24.99, with Play.com being £35.
FPS is probably without a doubt the most popular type of game for the pc. (RTS might share that throne but ehh) So it's no wonder that MW2 did that... Madness sale thingy for a long time or that it's price havent moved much.
Bioshock 2 is on sale
Dante's inferno is on sale
Mass Effect 2 is on sale
and Damn...FFXIII is not even out and its on sale too!!!
I guess those games must suck as well.
That just means the publisher and IW didn't want to drop the retail price.
There also both different platforms and not everyone who buys ST:O will buy MW2 and vice versa.
LOL "on sale" at retail prices doesn't = sale, or discounted for that matter. Seriously tho if you're that clueless you deserve to pay full price and think you're getting a deal. Watch the industry as long as I have (even having worked in it) and seeing a new release discounted so heavily this soon after launch is very bad omen. It's a sign they didn't sell well at launch and they don't predict they will sell very well after. If STO doesn't sell even when on sale the drop will become permanent. If you love the game that much buy an extra copy for a friend and show your support.
Regardless, here ya go you're going to need a few of these. I'm off to lunch.
Attachment not found.
but being in retail myself for several years i know this isn't really any thing either. it can be a regional thing. some games will sell more in certain area and hardly sell in others so you see price drops i the area where it not selling well. i guarantee you that the other games you listed in other areas may have been reduced like sto in your area. so its really no way to come to a conclusion as to how well a game is selling so what matters is total global sales not the sales in one area. there has been games/software that did very poorly in the us and are still extreme successes due to tremendous sale abroad ect. and vices versa great sales in the us but poor sales abroad and failure happens. just nature of a global economy
All those game I quoted are not on sale at its "retail price". Mass Effect for example is being sold at USD41 instead of USD 49. Bio Shock 2 is being sold at USD 39 and I am pretty sure that is NOT retail price.I am not sure who is the "clueless" one here. Perhaps you should keep the attachment to yourself. Pulling working on the "industry" does not make you more knowledgeable than others.
I started to write for game magazines at the age of 16 and worked in the game developing/publishing company till I got burn out and had no desire to even play any games. There are ways to get more people, one is to put things on sale for a few days. If you actually worked in the industry as you claimed, you should know how that works.
Not how it works.
For Cryptic the payday IS the launch.
If they never produce another patch for STO - they've still made just as much money from all those suc.. err subscribers.
Even if they were to work night and day producing new content... the crappy platform that is STO isn't going to retain all that high a population. Most will move on to the next MMO.
Cryptic will spend just enough $$$ to keep whatever active monthly subscribers they have invovled... probably releasing patches and any updates right around account expiration bubbles.
For the rest of the $$$ they have made, I'm sure the better investment is to throw it back into a new MMO where they can once again charge $50 for the game + a few months of $15 AND snag a new group of hopeful lifetime subscribers.
Cryptic many not be good at making games - but they seem to be great at making a profit.
Enjoy!
Next month or so is when I would expect to see a rash of discounting if the subs dont start coming in. Which is entirely possible due to the state of the game.
Agre with the other fellow about the cash grab though. Release day is really where its at. They sold enough clients and life subs on release to cover dev costs and do something new.
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Online-Pc/dp/B002673XJA
And for you to rush here and post it is very telling.... TROLL!
No that doesn't throw the competition argument out the window.... it just PROVES supply and demand.
When Demand is high, the price will rise or stay the same. That is a game that is still in high demand.
Economics 101 just kicked your AZZZ!
Not entirely correct. The initial influx of cash from launch goes to pay for the project development cost, that is, to pay back loans and/or venture capital investment. The MMO business model revolves around recurring monthly income. For example, a reason why a company would sell life time subs is to recoup development costs quicker. The sooner the project development cost is paid off, the sooner the monthly subscriptions become actual profit.
Most of the big box title games today aren't made with actual on-hand cash. They're made by getting loans or venture capital, as such, the sooner the entities are paid back, the sooner the dev and in particular, publisher starts to see a real profit.
Now I can't say what Cryptic's or Atari's plans are, but it's in their best interest to create a solid franchise, then expand upon it, focusing on growing the user base as a long term plan. That would be the smart business model. Whether or not they actually follow that, or pursue short term gains is not something I will try to guess on.
Still I haven't seen anything that indicates there are any problems with STO sales. In fact, the few indications that I've seen seem to be that they are doing fine. And the sell price of a game is much less important to an MMO that believes they can retain subscribers. STO will make more from retaining a player's subscription for 4 to 6 months than they made from the sell price of the game. For reference, someone playing WoW since launch has spent about $130 for the game clients and $900 for subscriptions.
To me, this sounds more like Cryptic is getting confident they will be able to retain a high percentage of players as subscribers.
Subscription games usually make more money on subscriptions than the client. Take the Mach III (or any other razor) for example. You give a college kid a free razor. He thinks "Hey, a FREE razor." He uses it, and gets used to using it. Then, he sinks $100's of dollars into buying razor cartridges over the next few years for his "free" razor. The profit for the initial sell is not bad, I grant you. The profit for the subscription fee is what is sustaining, though.
Therefore, if you think you will sell a lot more games (and, therefore, subscriptions) with a cheaper game, that is the best choice if it is projected to give the most profit. I don't have the data, but I would think that people would average at least 3 months subscription on games they may not even like all that much. Many of us will stick around to see if things get better that next rank, or want to see how that next ship handles. We are gamers. We like to play on for the next level, or next ship, or next weapon class, or that next mk level weapon drop. All the while, we secretly hope that things will get better with that next patch. We persist, and pay for it.
Inventory backed up maybe? I know they have at least one cancelled pre-order box sitting around
Ah well. Another 30 bucks and it might be worth buying. Or maybe I'll wait until they get really desperate and start throwing dramatically discounted lifetimes around
I'm guessing August. Nothing like looking at horrific 2Q numbers to make people do strange things.