In his latest blogpost, game developer Jason Rohrer has spoken out regarding the sale culture that has PC gaming firmly in its grip, symbolised by the constant stream of Steam Sales that see games (indie and triple-A) heavily discounted four or five times a year.
Before he launched into his point, Rohrer took the opportunity to announce that his next game, The Castle Doctrine, is set to be released on Steam on January 29, at which point the game's alpha will end and it will start selling at full price.
The Castle Doctrine is a thought provoking home defence simulator, whereby players must set up defences to stop other players breaking in and stealing their belongings (and killing family members), and where you must sneak through other people's elaborate trap-filled setups in order to steal their money and build up your own funds.
After announcing the Steam launch date for the game, Rohrer then turned his attention to the issue of sales, and although he pointed out the benefits of this revenue stream, he went on to explain exactly why he thinks it's a bad idea in the longterm:
On its face, this seems like an obvious win for game developers: they get to revive their dwindling long-tail numbers with a big revenue boost, and a sale will bring more latecomer players into their games too. This also seems like a win for players: people who can't afford to buy a game at full price get a chance to play it later, for cheaper. The audience grows, and more people get to experience the game. Good stuff.
But I suspect that something different is happening. Something that is arguably bad for players, and possibly bad for developers as well. To put it bluntly: sales screw your fans.
Your fans love your games and eagerly await your next release. They want to get your game as soon as it comes out, at full price. But they are foolish to do that, because a sale is right around the corner. Even in economic terms, the extra utility of playing the game early, at release, is not big enough to offset the extra cost for most people . It makes more sense to wait, unless they love you and your work so much that they're willing to throw economic reason out the window. It's nice to have fans that love your work that much. And these are the fans that you kick in the teeth when you put your game on sale.
But forget the fans for a moment. A culture of rampant sales is a culture of waiting. "I'll buy it later, during a sale." Launch weeks become weak, and developers grow to depend on sales for financial survival. Even in my example from above, 25% is a pretty sad launch week. In my case, that represented something like $23K. I made more selling the game through my own website. Pathetic. Of course, sale after sale, later on, pumped my revenue up to way more than what I made on my website.
This waiting game is likely decimating your player base and critical mass at launch by spreading new players out over time. And your fans, who are silly enough to buy the game at launch and waste money, get to participate in a weaker, smaller player community.
When it comes to The Castle Doctrine, Rohrer says that he is going to buck the trend and follow the path laid down by Minecraft, whereby the game effectively gets more expensive, not cheaper, over time. During alpha the game has been available at a lower price, but once it lands on Steam it'll get an initial discount for launch week, then remain at full price forever after.