Tom Kaczmarczyk, CEO and founder at business intelligence company IndieBI and video game sales expert, says that a lot of developers really shouldn't be pricing their games above $70. As we see constant headlines around $80 becoming the "new norm," Kaczmarczyk wants game creators to know that while it is possible to make money from an expensive game, $80 price tags only really work for one company: Nintendo.
"A rule of thumb that we also often give to clients and prospective developers is, more expensive games tend to make more money overall. So if you were uncertain between two different price points, then defaulting to the more expensive price point is potentially going to be the better option," Kaczmarczyk explained at a panel at Digital Dragons Conference (via GamesRadar+). The reason Nintendo gets away with its pricey strategy is that it has a closed ecosystem, meaning you can't really buy its games anywhere else, and that it has such strong brand recognition that people will pay whatever for the new Mario.
There are still ways to make money with expensive games, but they're a bit odd. "More expensive games seem to be making more money," Kaczmarczyk admits, but says that in order to do that on a platform like Steam, for example, they should get a big discount every so often. Great games can be so cheap on Steam, that a $70 game dropping by 20% doesn't hit that hard compared to better deals on the platform. Therefore, even if it sounds weird to cut your game's price in half on Steam on a Store Sale, it might have to be done to draw the eye of consumers.
