[gameprogrammer] Re: Indy MMOG - How much to charge?

With the 15$ a month plan it's true that players save 50$ in the first
month from not having to go to the store and buy the game, but when i
read that, my initial reaction was "thats the same price as WOW, how
am i saving 50$?" so even though people do save money i dont think
it's very apparent and perceived value counts more than actual value
in marketing.

Another thing about marketing and perceived value is that if you don't
charge very much, people won't think much of your game or will expect
it to be not so great thinking "it doesn't cost that much, it must not
be very good".  Instead of lowering your prices, you might make them
MORE expensive than the WOW standard, like 20$ a month maybe (or
atleast sticking to the WOW standard).  If you do that, instead of
projecting the image "we are an indie game, don't expect much", it
will help towards an image of "we are a real game charging real
prices, come in and see why we have the balls to do so".

When you go to a store to buy a game, do you go to the budget bin
first and check out what games are there?  I know I don't...games are
in the budget bin for a reason, cause mostly they aren't fun (with
some exceptions of course!)

People for the most part don't buy games for value...if there is a
game that is 3 stars out of 5 for fun and is 15$ and another game is 5
out of 5 for 50$, gamers are going to buy the 50$ game even though
it's less of a deal for the amount of fun.

So bottom line, if you want your game to succeed, act like one of the
big boys: charge at least full price, project an image of
professionalism on your website and don't let your players expect
anything less than awesomeness from your game, and then deliver it (:

my $0.02


On 4/28/07, Kevin Jenkins <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

With my Indy MMOG coming near it's time to decide how much to charge.
 I'd like to ask the list advice on what is good price from both the
perspective of the developer and as the owner.

For background, my MMOG is a action-based space shooter.  It's based
on short-play sessions that are fun, and your interactions with other
people in a competitive context.  While there are levels and items,
they are a minor side part of the game.  It is not like a traditional
MMOG where the point it is explore a huge world and collect stuff.
It's closer to Planetside in that regard, though on a much smaller scale.

The MMOG value in the game comes from that the server zones can have
up to 500 players - not something you will see on a standard match of
Battlefield 2142.  Also, there are persistent rankings, characters,
and zone events.  The kind of stuff you get from hosted games.

So I'm faced with the question of how much to charge.

One argument is that I should charge something near what other online
games charge.  This argument goes that people value their time more
than the usual rate $15 a month - the market is quality sensitive over
time sensitive.  Charging $5 instead of $15 only loses $10.

The other argument is that I should charge much less.  The argument
goes that since my game is simpler and cost less to make, it should
according cost less.  People who are price sensitive will play and
having more people play is better than less since community also in
itself draws players.

A few differences:

I'm not charging for the game itself.  Other MMOGs charge $50 for the
first month and $15 for every month thereafter.  I am simply charging
$X per month.

Credit card transaction fees for me are very high.  If I were to
charge $5 a month, the transaction fees are about 5% of my total revenue.

I need to scale slowly because I don't have the capacity to support
more than 10,000 players at launch.

Right now I'm considering the following

$15 a month - I want to start high to grow slowly, and I'm still
cheaper as other games are $50 for the first month.

$7 a month - I should charge proportional to the development costs.
This will help me compete in a crowded market.

$20 for 3 months only - This minimizes credit card fees, and is still
affordable to the average person.

$8 for one month, $20 for 3 months, $35 for 6 months - Minimizes
credit card fees, allows players to pick what they can afford.

So as gamers on this list as well as developer, what do you think I
should start out charging?

Thanks.

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