No. I’m saying that market forces established decades ago are keeping prices low. Why do you think we have DLC, micro-transactions and lock boxes these days?
Games were worth £30+ a box when I had yet to reach 10 years of age, that they’re still not much more expensive now is insane but the market won’t tolerate higher.
I paid ~£60 for the collectors’ edition of ME3, inflation alone should have pushed that to over £200 - would anyone have bought it for £200? No.
Similarly, while I mentioned in my post that an author’s reasonable expectation of £ per hour is certainly higher than the £7 I’d cap my expected purchase price of a CoG/HG game to, I can get much more fulfilling gaming experience with graphics and sound for similar or higher prices.
I can hop on steam and browse the “games under £5” list and get games that likely too more effort to create than a CoG/HG game and have a better overall experience than all but a few of the games published under the CoG/HG brands to date. That is what these games have to compete with.
Pricing for games is broken and has been for a long time. That an authors time is worth more than they get doesn’t come into it. What the market will tolerate is the only thing that matters. If you sell higher than the market will tolerate, you won’t sell.
No worries, and we won’t derail the thread more. The main thing I was getting at was the number of work hours in a game…and how it may relate to a Hosted Game being on Steam, and what factors seem to influence it.
And in this regard, a larger work is more likely to get promoted by CoG, especially if it is by an already established CoG/HG writer. Positive buzz on the forums like with a public demo, would probably help as well.
Did they ask? I’m quite surprised by that… They seem like an “inclusive” bunch. Also, CoG humble bundle anyone?
You make a good point though; games development is a tough a industry. The consumer demands and expects more and more every year, development costs soar and yet no one is prepared to fork out for this (myself included!). It’s not dissimilar to our situation here. People just don’t (or can’t?) appreciate the man-hour value of a game, they can only rate it based on their enjoyment/satisfaction.
I actually agree. GOG would be an amazing place to sell IF. They already sell early IF games like the Zork series, and they focus on more old school play styles. Plus it’s not tied to a client like steam.