Comments on: Will the Radiohead experiment work on gamers?

By: Gaming Industry Tries to Pull a Radiohead, Doubt It Will Work - Kid Mercury's Blog

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:45:25 +0000

[...] is still slow to embrace these inevitable transitions. The game Championship Manager recently announced it will try the Radiohead strategy of “pay what you want.” Like music, gaming is fraught with [...]

By: James Myatt

James Myatt — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:09:42 +0000

@David
You’re right that it’s a very different situation, but the point is that by pricing it at the “nothing to lose” level, rather than the “can I really afford this level”, you’re going to get orders of magnitude more punters. This is what Valve and the iTunes App Store have taught us.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:03:50 +0000

Is it going to work precisely the same way as the Radiohead exercise i.e. pay money before download? A better mechanic for games may be to allow free play for the first week/month or so, and *then* ask for a donation before allowing any more play. If a game is pretty bloody good then I wouldn’t have a problem in splashing out £20-25 voluntarily if only to do my bit to ensure and encourage further development. However, if I had to fork out before playing then I think I would probably be paying the bare minimum with no further opportunity to pay more. The skint and mean will still pay £2.51, but at least they may get a higher payment from at least some of the audience. And for football manager style games that encourage long term play, it is highly unlikely that anyone will complete the game in a week or so.

By: David Bayon

David Bayon — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:34:03 +0000

@James
There’s quite a difference between halving the £27 price of Left4Dead for a weekend months after launch, and letting an unlimited number of buyers pre-order your brand new £25 product for £2.51 each.

I don’t doubt the numbers went up, but Valve were still getting decent money for a product that had already had its big peak at launch. Eidos will likely get the bare minimum from most at a time when it should be flying – so it’s surely more of an attempt to boost share than to cash in.

By: MerseyMal (aka malfranks2)

MerseyMal (aka malfranks2) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:17:25 +0000

I lost interested in Football Manager when Kevin Toms’ face disappeared from the covers.

By: James Myatt

James Myatt — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:57:02 +0000

You clearly haven’t read about Steam’s experiences in the sphere of cut-price titles. http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57308. 3000% increase in dollar value? Yes, please.
Coding Horror’s take on the same information: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001293.html