Thanks for NOT discounting the MiG too much

[Gladman]

Its all about what you consider the worth to be. I have not purchased the Mig-21 but will one day, however, if they put the F/A-18C out in alpha right now and said it was $150.00, I would probably pull a muscle getting to my wallet.

If it went on sale 2 months later for 30 bucks I wouldn't care because I wanted it and I got it.

 

Its very simple. If you think its worth it, it doesn't matter what it sells for later. My Dodge 1500 isn't worth what I paid for it either but I don't regret buying it.

 

Dale

[GGTharos]

Ever seen the 'steep discounts' of star citizen and elite betas? Just saying.

 

2. DCS is pretty much an anomaly. Most game releases I've seen are like this: buy the beta and you get a discount (because you are providing a service of beta testing to the developer). When the final version is released, the price goes up. Then, after a few months, you get discounts.

[NineLine]

Bottomline is that its silly to feel you got "raped" because a product went on sale later, it literally happens with just about everything you could imagine buying online or in a store. You know eventually it will sell for cheaper, but you dont want to wait...

 

Diapers are a little different. They're a consumable. One could argue that thinking ahead and knowing you're going to need another box fairly soon you might cash in on that deal and buy another box. You could certainly say diapers are expensive and I don't make a lot of money, so I can't afford to do that, and I couldn't argue. But many could probably swing it. There are also multiple manufacturers of diapers. The ones you buy meet your price/quality criteria the best, but if they were constantly doing something that annoyed you you could switch.

 

On the other hand, once I buy a MiG-21Bis module I don't need another. In some rare circumstance some might buy it for a friend who might otherwise not even buy it for themselves if the prices is right. There is also only one MiG-21Bis module in a modern flight sim engine (are there others at all?)

 

There are people among us (me included, guilty as charged) that can't wait to fly it and will pay a certain premium to get it day one.

 

Knowing that the development company will (hopefully) eventually get enough money to recoup their costs and make a profit, I fully expect that they will go after people less interested in the MiG-21Bis. People who wouldn't pay 50, but would pay 40, people who wouldn't pay 40 but would pay 15, etc. If $50 vs $40 means weeks of getting to fly it that is worth it to some. If $50 vs $15 means months, again that is worth it to some. To others it means very little. To me $30 for a handful of days isn't much of a bargain. Lets put it this way, if you could have it a week early for $300 or wait for release for $50 would you buy it? Maybe you could say yes, but I think most would not. Same principal, smaller values of money and bigger values of time.

 

When a company puts something on sale for 60% off, two weeks after it is released, before it's even out of beta, that is both unexpected, and very not worth it to most people. Now, ED and Belsimtek made good on that business faux pas and I certainly don't hold it against them because of that. Reproducing that same scenario seems inadvisable.

[xaoslaad]

Its all about what you consider the worth to be. I have not purchased the Mig-21 but will one day, however, if they put the F/A-18C out in alpha right now and said it was $150.00, I would probably pull a muscle getting to my wallet.

If it went on sale 2 months later for 30 bucks I wouldn't care because I wanted it and I got it.

 

Its very simple. If you think its worth it, it doesn't matter what it sells for later. My Dodge 1500 isn't worth what I paid for it either but I don't regret buying it.

 

Dale

 

We all accept cares depreciate over time. You would not be happy if there was an unannounced 60% off sale on all new Dodge 1500's (assuming you bought it new, and such a sale would ever happen) two weeks after you bought yours either.

 

One thing we can both agree on, I'd probably pull my back reaching for my wallet for $150 Alpha access to the F/A-18C module as well, possibly even knowing if it gets me only two months of play before it is generally available. Definitely if it was six months. F/A-18C is worth it to me. A MiG-15 on the other hand, not really. But it's different for everyone.

Edited November 26, 2014 by xaoslaad

[fearlessfrog]

People are kinda funny. It's not the price that determines the success of a module, but the revenue. In terms of short sales, often a lower price will increase revenue, not reduce it. It is how sales work.

 

If you sell 1000 MiG21 modules at $60 then that's not as good as selling 3000 MiG21 modules at $30. If you have 2000 people whose price-point isn't over $30 then, again, that's how sales work.

 

Often people just don't like to see stuff on sale at a value less than they paid personally, and it's nothing to do with wanting more or less success to whoever made the thing.

 

Now the MiG21 may be in such a niche market even compared to other DCS modules that volume sale revenue won't make a difference, i.e. you can't ever sell 3000 copies at $30 but just 1000. If that's the case then the ceiling is pretty much known on what you'll make before any sale - as you really only market to existing customers and aren't expecting many new ones. You go from competing with other purchases to being more a luxury item, and there isn't really much benefit of a sale either way.

 

:)

[Flagrum]

Prices do not reflect the "value" of a product. They reflect rather some sort of average between the seller's idea of what he needs to at least break even and the buyer and what he thinks is a good return - in terms of "fun" in our case.

 

Usually DCS modules are deemed and valued comparatively high on the buyers side - see this thread. But when the seller sets a price and a few days later he lowers it - that leaves the impression that the initial price was rather random and not necessarily the price for him to break even. (Compare to the "Hip incident" a few months earlier)

 

That said, I have no probelm with sales - if they happen a "decent amount of time" after the product has been introduced to the market. Sales as marketing instrument: yes, sales as indication of "oh well, any price will do ...": NO.

 

Therefore the diapers example does not really fit and also the fashion example is different from that as well: the product is at the END of it's life cycle, the seller needs to get rid of his soon-to-be-outdated stock pile. An analogy I don't ever want to see happening for any DCS product! :o)

[Exorcet]

The sale could have made the plane free. I wouldn't care, I bought to get it ASAP and no amount of discounting would take that away. If I wanted to wait for a sale, I would have. The Mi-8 for me is stuck in the bargain zone. I want it, but I'm not going to use it as much as other modules, so I'll just wait until the price hits so low that I'll pick it up on reflex.

 

Pay what you're willing to pay is my bottom line I guess.

[iFoxRomeo]

For me the MiG was a instabuy the moment I saw it in the DCS store. I don´t regret paying nearly full price(pre-purchase discount was included).

If you feel raped, I´m sorry for you. But why do you feel that way? It is not the first time a module got a price reduction on a sale. So why do you buy it on release, if it isn´t worth the money for you? Wait a few weeks and you will get it for a lower price. If you can´t afford it for full price, wait as well.

 

That said: Check Steam. -25% for the MiG.

 

Fox

[Fri13]

I grabbed Mig-21Bis when it was in Steam for -25%. It is most expensive module I have bought for ED and one of the six games I have ever paid over 50%.

 

I was little wondering is there sense to buy it now, as there could be a risk that it is -50% on Christmas sales or after Christmas. But I toke the risk and I love the plane already.

I just hope there would come soon(er) western planes to give challenge for it, like F-4 or Mirage III. Now I love fighting against F-5 but AI is little silly :-/

[313_Nevo]

Pay what you're willing to pay

 

Correct.

 

Dont be upset that you bought for full price, you are loyal fun and that counts much! And dont be angry that someone bought in discount shortly after release, he likes also this module but is not that great fun or just can not afford that much. But I see here the void..

 

Hey devs LN, ED, VEAO etc., what you think about some bonus program for loyal customers who buy full price modules? It does not matter from where (ED store, Steam store, etc.) but bought for full price deserves some little appreciation imho.

 

For example, I want MiG. I can have it now for full price. But I know that there are regular sales. What makes me buy it full prized? Maybe some bonus will avoid my hesitation... maybe some custom made skin, maybe some further MiG reading ebook, maybe some LN dev stories...