Questions about price policy (future addons/modules)

[rattler]

I get your point, I'm telling you it isn't realistic when you start mentioning pricing. Raising price above a certain level instantly halves sales. Just like that.

 

Well you could be right I will not disagree as I don't know. I do remember purchasing sims for around that price when we all got started at this and remember this is a very Highly complex simulation ED is offering. However like I said I can't dispute your point.

[EtherealN]

If they proceed down the cash cow road they have just turned onto , they wont be getting any more money from me or my mates.

 

Cash Cow?

You seem to be thinking that ED is swimming in cash and that this is all about getting everyone some new sports cars.

 

Remember that ED operates in a niché market that has a habit of killing companies - including the companies that make the best products.

 

I have bought an extra copy of A-10C for myself so that I may host

a server for my mates, with uncertainty about what ED is doing

in regards pricing worries me. So if they release a new aircraft does this mean Iam

going to have to pay $20 for A-10C, another $20 for my server copy and

then another $20 for the BS2 that I might own? + the cost of the new sim.

 

As has been stated openly and publicly, this was necessary at this time, but ED is constantly looking into ways of making this work better. They do not like the prospect of having to handle huge upgrades like this as separate products any more than you do.

 

It's just a very difficult thing to do, and if you want ANY products from ED in the future to even have the option of purchasing, ED needs to match expenses with revenue. No way around that.

 

It would be nice to know something more than

"everything is subject to change"

Which basically equates to we dont know what the hell is going on

 

That's both inflammatory, silly, and betrays a lack of understanding of software development specifically but also the nature of staying alive as a business in general.

 

Did ED's publicity & marketing department leave /get fired / abducted by Aliens?

I dont know about you guys, I have only been buying computer games

for about 30 years so I maybe dont have enough experience / knowledge

to work this one out.

 

I spent quite a few years working in reviewing computer games for a major publication and still retain a lot of contacts from that time, and just to put things into perspective: most software developers have larger "PR/marketing" departments to tap than the entirety of Eagle Dynamics all the way from programmers, management to the receptionist...

 

You are comparing Wal-Mart to your neighborhood hot-dog stand when it comes to marketing resources. ;)

 

In my limited experience generally products are marketed BEFORE they are

released , they advertise them , try to get people aware of their new

product and how awesome it is, so when it is released customers are waiting

and ready to buy.

 

Marketing costs money. I don't know the exact budget figures, but I would not be surprised if the marketing of, say Mass Effect 2 alone, had a larger budget than Eagle Dynamics total revenue since it's founding...

 

I'd definitely wish that things were different, but everything in here ties together and we have to face the facts.

[Hellfire257]

Remember that ED operates in a niché market that has a habit of killing companies

 

I'm not so sure it is entirely the market's fault... ;)

[rattler]

I know ED is a small company but there are still proper ways to handle what has just happened. Ok, it was probably a learning curve that maybe ED did not anticipate. Fine. Everyone including Companies make mistakes. Said and done with. Go from here.

 

The only thing that eludes me is what is ED,s main business? Is it producing Combat Flight Simulators or is their main focus on something else and producing Combat Flight Simulation and off shoot. If it is Combat Flight Simulation then yes they operate in a very small gaming niche and most certainly need our support as best we can. I appreciate this as I assume do many more. If this is just an off chute to their main business, I can understand why and how projects take so long to do and for me not enough time in the testing phase, as GG said as well as I that the product would cost a lot more and would cut the already small market smaller. I personally believe that if the price were higher for a more polished product would not diminish their profit line, again my personal opinion.

 

What happened to BS, well that is over with and we move on. One point I would like to make is if in updating the find a better engine or what ever that would affect the up coming Modules is to keep it for the next generation. Finish the Series and introduce the new software in a completely new Series. I think, and again my personal thoughts that this would eliminate the BS issue we have just gone through. Still an ED fan, just I question things that's all.

 

 

rattler

[EtherealN]

Cash cow relates to the methods of how they get the money from the customer , NOT the amount of money they get.

 

If by "cash cow" you mean the following:

"We either drop BS completely, or we charge money for this."

 

...then sure.

 

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. :P

 

So basically no one knows

 

Do you expect ED to give you the full function of the internal nuts and bolts?

 

They know what they have to do, but they have to make it fit in the economic reality of staying in business. This is not a difficult concept.

 

I only have about 7 years experience of working within the software industry ,

but my experience is with large companies with a lot more money and a much bigger revenue strem.

 

Fixed it for you. Again, this is not a difficult concept.

 

We did things like this , we planned what features the software would have,

we worked out a timetable for getting this done based on previous releases ,

worked out projected costs / sales etc and then the development began.

Sometimes we had to work overtime to get things

done in time etc , sometimes we missed release dates by a day or two.

 

And you don't think ED does this? You don't think ED has budgets and feature planning?

 

Get this very simple concept: ONE false step here and ED could be gone forever. They do not have the advantage of a major corporation with vast money reserves, they cannot offset losses in one place with gains in another. (Get the military side out of your head - the military typically operates on cost+, you do not get huge profits from them unless your name is Raytheon and you have 200 people working lobbying in Washington for you.)

 

So they developed a new game , but did not have any resources both people and money to market it ?

Weird business method but if it works for ED......

 

You're not listening to me.

 

We aint talking about mass effect , but the fact that there was NOTHING about

this game before it magically appeared is a bit worrying.

It is almost like a dev switched on his PC last week and there was BS2

magically done and ready to be released.

 

Sure this is regrettable, and I personally would have preferred if it didn't end up that way. But as I have said elsewhere, my read os that it is the sim community itself that has taught ED to be quiet. Do you really think the raging you are referring to wouldn't have happened in equal fasion if it was announced a couple weeks before? Oh yes it would. Look at when ED warned that FC2 would cost more than originally announced.

 

So they took the lesson learned and decided to not say anything that wasn't 100% solid. And now you rage about that... ;)

 

Seriously now, this is silly. :)

 

And that's that on this topic from me.

Edited November 12, 2011 by EtherealN

[EtherealN]

The only thing that eludes me is what is ED,s main business? Is it producing Combat Flight Simulators or is their main focus on something else and producing Combat Flight Simulation and off shoot.

 

ED's business is Combat Flight Simulators. This isn't a secret. :)

 

Again, as mentioned, people need to drop the idea that there's wads of cash to be made working contracts for the military. ED does consumer flight simulators of a fidelity that is unprecedented, and they try to offset costs through picking up military contracts for knowledge transfer and development synergies when they can. But the bread and butter is DCS.

 

I personally believe that if the price were higher for a more polished product would not diminish their profit line, again my personal opinion.

 

Thing is, it would. This is not a question of opinion, this is market reality, something that gets researched. Prices aren't set on whim, there's actual data behind it.

 

Put it like this: if the price was what I suspect most of us on this forum would be prepared to pay - say 100 dollars - then DCS A-10C would not be in stores in the USA. Simple as that. Impulse purchases in stores would be 100% gone because no stores would bother carrying it. Similarly, those of us who end up on this forum represent an extremely small minority of ED's customers - you cannot draw any useful conclusion at all from our price sensitivity.

 

This also does tie in to the limited marketing budget - if you don't have aggressive marketing, you are increasingly reliant on people just seeing the product in a shelf (or on Steam or whatever) and thinking to themselves "hmm... this looks cool". But to make that happen, you need to make sure the product is in that store in the first place, and you also need to make sure that the people having those thoughts aren't immediately thinking "lolwut this costs like 2 games? NVM I'll go buy HAWX and Combat Ace instead for the same money."

 

Sad, but true. Trust me, it's not like ED wouldn't like charging more, but for ED the most important thing is always the total revenue stream. Sometimes you can make that bigger through increasing the price per license, sometimes you make it bigger through making licenses cost less, and sometimes you're at the good spot already.

[rattler]

EtherealN:

 

Must say one of the better posts. Thanks for your insight.

 

rattler

[JimMack]

EtherealN:

 

Must say one of the better posts. Thanks for your insight.

 

rattler

 

Yes, EtherealN is absolutely correct. In the USA, retailers and chains will not accept a PC game title that is more than $39.99, unless it is a major franchise, such as COD etc.

 

Retail is still important.