Unhealthy interest in sales figures

[MediantSamuel]

75% off? Time to buy some gift copies

 

[Fenix]

I bought second copy for full price, you!...

:russia:

But actually I think it is a good thought - it is almost a New Year, and Vince and Co deserved a NY gifts more then many. )
And just for the sake of friendship.

 

[Fenix]

For the sake of honesty I should add that "full price" in Russian steam almost always mean that in rubles it cost ~twice less than it price in dollars.
So if I had not bought second as gift, I would feel that Vince had been robbed.

 

[Zanzoken]

I think 75% is the discount where a lot of people will go ahead and pull the trigger on a game they've been mildly interested in. Most games don't go any cheaper than that.

I'll be curious to see how you guys did once the sale wraps.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Vault Dweller

anyway i am always curious how the regional pricing works. is it set automatically on steam, or is it the devs/publisher who decided the price on each region?

for example, AoD is 7.50 USD atm, but in IDR it is Rp. 50,000, which is around 3-4 USD. 40~50% cut.

most game follow this pattern. a 60 dollars game become around 500,000~600,000 which is around $45~50.

but some games (publishers like bethesda games) have $60 directly converted into idr which their game end up being Rp. 800,000.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Vault Dweller

anyway i am always curious how the regional pricing works. is it set automatically on steam, or is it the devs/publisher who decided the price on each region?

Steam and GOG offer their own price matrix but developers can set their own price in any currency if they feel that Steam's regional price isn't good enough. In my opinion regional prices are a good idea in general so we go with Steam's matrix.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Steam and GOG offer their own price matrix but developers can set their own price in any currency if they feel that Steam's regional price isn't good enough. In my opinion regional prices are a good idea in general so we go with Steam's matrix.

thanks!

 

[Vault Dweller]

On Dec 7:

AoD: 66,228
DR: 8,924

On Jan 4:

AoD: 82,529, $1,412,614, avg.price $17.12
DR: 14,998, $94,981, avg.price $6.33

 

[HoboForEternity]

how much more till each crew can afford a yatch?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Not sure about a yacht but now we can expand the team and work full time for the next 4 years.

 

[Goral]

Hopefully this trend will continue throughout the years until CSG has been released. Reviews of a "The game is too hard" variety are a bit too common but on the other hand Age of Decadence has been noticed by quite a few gaming journalists who were comparing Tyranny with it. And once you will have something more to present (so some actual screens or game footage and not concept arts) they should cover it at least as well as they did with Age of Decadence (and with each mention, there should also be a small sales spike). /wishful thinking

 

[HoboForEternity]

Well, good news still. Wish all of you the bestest of luck.

 

[Darkzone]

Vault Dweller
I have also bought a copy on steam now in the sales, despite the fact that i have not played i once due to a lack of time.
So have a good german, czech or polish beer on me Vault Dweller. Prost and SIEG GEIL!

 

[Goral]

So have a good german, czech or polish beer on me Vault Dweller. Prost and SIEG GEIL!

Do they have Polish beer in Canadian stores?

 

[Howdy]

On Dec 7:

AoD: 66,228
DR: 8,924

On Jan 4:

AoD: 82,529, $1,412,614, avg.price $17.12
DR: 14,998, $94,981, avg.price $6.33

Wow. You beat indiepocalypse. With a game that looks like that in a year when sales all round are down. Great job men, restores some hope for the future.

 

[Darkzone]

So have a good german, czech or polish beer on me Vault Dweller. Prost and SIEG GEIL!

Do they have Polish beer in Canadian stores?

There are many poles in Canada (according to 2011 census it is over 1 mill), so Lech or Tyskie could be found somewhere. Beerstore according to thebeerstore.ca is selling Tyskie for $2.45.

 

[Vault Dweller]

So have a good german, czech or polish beer on me Vault Dweller. Prost and SIEG GEIL!

Do they have Polish beer in Canadian stores?

Lots.

http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/search?searchTerm=poland

 

[MediantSamuel]

Really glad to hear that ITS will keep championing incline for the years to come.

It's probably been asked before but how many copies of AoD did you expect to sell by this point, Vault Dweller?

 

[Invictus]

Glad to hear the game sold so well VD, as to why it sold so well during the sale well it has 2 main components from a marketing perspective; the impulse buy price and the impulse buy snowball effect.
An impulse by refers to something that is readily available and its realtively low price makes it a very attractive purchase in the right circumstances; for example in the cashier line at any fast service station you always see chocolates or junk food like candies or bubble gum, and having an interesting promotion (say 2 for 1) incentives you to maybe try out a particular product that you were not actively thinking about buying but had done so in the past, knew about it beforehand or have a prior knowledge of the brand that sells it to warrant giving it a shot... the dealmaker is the price or promotion beign low enough to say "ah fuck it" and buying it
What constitutes this sort of scenario on a videogame in a Steam sale would be those 60% or 75% banners which have a $19.99 game for dirty cheap $6 or $8; that is the price at sale
In the case of GOG sometimes they have package deals where they group games and give you a base discount depending on how many games you get so buying more games give you a better discount and you might buy another game for almost the same total price because of the overall discount in a way similar to buying a $5 softcover on Amazon to get to the $50 free shipping option; the $5 book offsets the $8 shipping so you get it that way
Finally the snowball is a mix between those 2 means that the purchaser already has a set of products in mind and possibly a budget on how much to spend, say $50 $60
After getting the main products they might have a $17 left and seeing over the discounts on other games between the the actual interest and the price (which fits on the budget) the purchase is made
What determines that purchase is obviously affected by reviews and whatsnot, but the perceived value of the game itself; if the regular price is $20 and we can get it for $10 that is great value, but if we can get it for $5 then we begin to question the reason behind the price; is the game bad and they are trying to get as much out of it as possible? Good reviews and reputation help offset that idea, plus we know we can get dirty cheap games durong those sales but still it is a very
thin line between a good deal and a too good to be true deal too
As things stand, I can definently see the game selling at least 100k copies by Summer which makes a relatively niche and indy game a pretty good seller
Althouhh the concept of niche is beginning to blur a bit when games like this and Underrail can be sold in the same distribution channel as the AAA stuff on Steam or GOG
Kind of makes me sad to see this kind of success for Iron Tower where you can see 3 4 years down the line with the funds you already have to dedicate yourselves to full time doing games where Mr Blakemore cannot make the final push for Grimoire and easily sell maybe 20 30k and become a full time developer like yourselves

 

[HoboForEternity]

^ that's why VD is reluctant to do sequels and try to make their game as stand-alone as possible. alot of sales doesnt mean the same amount of returning customer. there are alot of cases that he posted where sequels while critically received well by the real fans, but alas they dont sell as well. the original post by VD should be in this topic somewhere

 

[Vault Dweller]

It's probably been asked before but how many copies of AoD did you expect to sell by this point, Vault Dweller?

35-50k copies tops. I didn't think the game would be so well received overall.

^ that's why VD is reluctant to do sequels and try to make their game as stand-alone as possible. alot of sales doesnt mean the same amount of returning customer. there are alot of cases that he posted where sequels while critically received well by the real fans, but alas they dont sell as well. the original post by VD should be in this topic somewhere

Sequels are usually perceived as 'more of the same' so unless you really, really liked it and can't wait to get more, you'll skip the next one. Series like the Elder Scrolls or Diablo seem to imply that sequels are a no-brainer but in both cases the player knows he isn't getting more of the same. Bethesda, for example, offers new cutting edge graphics, which is what their games are about, etc.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Sequels are usually perceived as 'more of the same' so unless you really, really liked it and can't wait to get more, you'll skip the next one. Series like the Elder Scrolls or Diablo seem to imply that sequels are a no-brainer but in both cases the player knows he isn't getting more of the same. Bethesda, for example, offers new cutting edge graphics, which is what their games are about, etc.

yeah. aside from that, i still think there are a good chunk of people who buy the game and had no idea what they are expecting, if it turned out not to be what they expected, they will skedaddle away. this sometimes blends with the "impulse buy" people too.

just look at the achievements statistics. people rarely finish a game nowadays, and it isn't really a problem only for niche games and genres. eh i guess growing up in relatively hard financial condition taught me how to cherish what little luxurious entertainment we can get. i finish most of my games that i started. so unless i really don;t like it or the game just unplayable, i usually finish it.

 

[throwaway]

It really is quite extraordinary how AoD has by now attracted more people than the Torment kickstarter, a game laying claim to being sequel to one of the most namedropped PC games ever.

 

[Infinitron]

It really is quite extraordinary how AoD has by now attracted more people than the Torment kickstarter, a game laying claim to being sequel to one of the most namedropped PC games ever.

Well, only one of them is a finished game that's been 75% off.

Torment does still have more people if you include post-KS preorders, though: https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com/

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

So how did the Codex poll the Best of 2012-2016 influence the AoD sales? It was shared across the internet so one may believe it is possible that new sales were made because of it. But maybe there weren't.