Interview Brief IGN Q&A about NWN Premium Modules

[Spazmo]

Tags: BioWare; BioWare Digital Distribution; Tom Ohle

<a href=http://pc.ign.com>IGN</a> briefly spoke to Guy from BioWare <b>Tom Ohle</b> about the whys and wherefores of the new Premium Module store in a short <a href=http://pc.ign.com/articles/565/565311p1.html?ui=rssFeed>interview</a>.<blockquote>Tom Ohle: The Neverwinter Nights community has been extremely active since the launch of the game, and we've been continually impressed with the rapid growth and dynamic nature of the community. We want to support this magnificent community by both providing brand new BioWare-developed content, as well as showcasing the efforts of top community talent. By offering these Premium Neverwinter Nights Modules for download through the BioWare Online Store, we're giving fans quick, affordable access to brand new Neverwinter Nights content that will greatly extend their gameplay experience with dedicated BioWare-developed and supported content.
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To break this little on-message formula, it's kind of cool to note that the original Witch's Wake module (which has now been re-mastered with voice-over, some new subrace functionality, and other neat features) was downloaded more than half a million times. Who knew there was such a market for shorter downloadable adventures?</blockquote>It ought to be interesting to see sales figures for the Premium modules and compare them to that 500,000 number for WW1.
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[Volourn]

"It ought to be interesting to see sales figures for the Premium modules and compare them to that 500,000 number for WW1."

I thinkt he sale figures will be much less for obvious reasons:


A. WW was free. Everybody likes free stuff.

B. I'm sure WW1 was downlaoded multiple times by the same people for various reasons - computer breakage, rebooting, etc., clearing sapce by removing it, etc.,e tc.

I hope that when BIO dteemrined how many sales they need to break even they calcuated to be MUCH less than 500k as I don't think the expansions sold much more than that anyway if even that high.

 

[Mendoza]

B. I'm sure WW1 was downloaded multiple times by the same people for various reasons - computer breakage, rebooting, etc., clearing space by removing it, etc., etc.

But it doesn't include the people who might have got it off magazine coverdiscs or by other, non download means.

Not that I have any idea how many/few people got it that way, but I at least did.

But yeah, I'm pretty sure Bio aren't expecting 500k sales, I think they'd be happy with 100k to be honest.

 

[Volourn]

100k? That's still wishful thinking.

 

[taks]

yeah, even 10-20k per title puts a good amount of return in bio's pockets... overhead and costs for these mini-mods probably isn't that high, particularly given the maturity of their engine. devs have an easy time making new content, as do fans. in the case of fan-made mods, bio's responsibility becomes QA (does the fan get a cut?) and maybe general cleanup...

taks

 

[almondblight]

This whole thing kinda pisses me off, just like monthly fees for MMORPGs. Just because they can charge people, they do, and then they give some bullshit excuse. Why not just say, "well, it looked like we could make more money off of it this way"?

 

[Volourn]

Actually, BIO *has* said that.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

No. Actually I think I recall them saying something to the effect of "I've got a grand idea! Let's make NWN modules and sell them to the public so people will think we are greedy! Yeah! Whoo! Go greed!"

 

[Avin]

i'm probably not spending cash in it. i don't have an international credit card to pay for it... in fact, we use to group a couple of friends for buying books and games outside brazil with just one int. credicard.