Watch The Prices Change

The president of THQ thinks we’re going to see console games get distributed like PC games (and goodbye $60 box).  Ea is going Freemium.  Even with the massive Zynga downturn, it seems that the days of the $60-box-game-in-a-store is fading away.

Of course none of us are surprised, we probably saw it coming.  My guess is that the “fade” will pick up after this Christmas, and we’ll even see some titles start going pure DLC, dropping the box they were planned for.  We’ll also see more Freemium, more “try before you buy,” and all the general confusion that follows a shift in pricing plans.

Now I expect the changes are inevitable.  Gaming is a changing industry, technology is a changing industry, the world economy is staggering like a drunken sailor of the non-fuku variety, and people want to make money.

However, these changes, despite building on existing trends, are still going to seem a bit alien and are going to have some odd effects.  So here’s Steve’s takeaways:

  • Gamestop is clearly aware of this to judge by their promotion of the Nexus 7.  They’ll have to stay on top of gaming and on top of deals, probably becoming a kind of micro-Best Buy focused on gaming and entertainment.  I think they can make it, but they’ll have to change.  Career-wise, GameStop may need some savvy business people – and if they integrate with other companies, tech people as well.
  • Best Buy is pretty much hosed anyway, but I think that a move like this will make it tougher on them IF they’re even around long enough to be affected.
  • Though downloadable is fine and acceptable to people, the entire Freemium thing is going to be weird and hard to implement.  Frankly I’m expecting another round of pricing experiments in 2013, many of which will be stupid or fail.  This is an opportunity for you econogeeks to advise companies.
  • At some point the weird Freemium pricing is going to annoy people and there will be some “scandalettes” bouncing around the gaming industry about weird charges, ripoffs, exploitation, etc.  We have that now, but this will be more public because the gaming world is getting more public.
  • Eventually gaming is going go go away from physical media, and have to really blaze new trails in pricing.  These trails will be weird enough that establishing norms will be hard, and will take time (I think Freemium and it’s ilk have about 3-5 more years to get culturally normal without becoming an Intermittent Story In Gaming).

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

Flight Control Rocket: Taking New Payments WAY to far?

I have to say, it sounds like it.  It sounds like they’re monetizing the crap out of the game, and not in a good way, but in the “pay for anything, including a high score way.”

I’ve only just heard about this, but my first impressions are the game is a bit of an experiment/overindulgence in the free-to-play/more-you-pay strategy that’s way, way out of hand.  I’m not surprised – some people are going to take advantage of the model.  I’m concerned about how this plays in modern media.

Of course we know that even if this “isn’t it,” some egregious, bizarre variant of the Freemimum/Pay-to-play monetization model(s) is coming.  That variant will be so annoying, it will get a lot of publicity.  At that point, predictably, many will question the model.

The model in question is just that – a model.  How you use it is the real question, but I’m suspicious in the world of freemium and other different monetization models, mixing up the application and the model is a risk.  In a 25/8 news cycle, things move fast, including predictions of demise of something (ask Twitter), and the brave new world of  new monetization can be called into question in an instant, leaving us to sort out the reality from the bull.

So this story doesn’t surprise me.  But I’mm waiting for the inevitable “freemium/whatever-method is evil” news fest that I feel is likely.

Steven Savage 

The Fluctuating Future of Free

(Yes, I'm still analyzing Free, Freemium, et. al).

So as I've noted many times – and as can be noted elsewhere – giving things away for free builds trust and you can make money with Freemium.  Building trust with free items is an old technique that sadly seems to need to keep being relearned by people.

Free as is rather obvious, is common now with free game demos, free comics, free online books, Freemium games, etc.  We're awash in free things.

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