XCOM: Enemy Unknown is $25 on Amazon today.
Gamefly/d2d cyber monday sale.
Nothing too compelling.
Use 20% off coupon code NOV20OFF on those and there’s some decent bargains. Spec Ops for $5.99 or Darksiders II for $13.60 is nice.
Daily Deals:
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - $7.49
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - $29.99
Alan Wake Franchise - $9.99
Castle Crashers - $4.99
Legend of Grimrock - $3.74
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition - $7.49
Wow, considering it’s one of the few big recent RPG releases, high-budget, and highly rated, The Witcher 2 sure got to below $10 fast.
I think people are coming around to realize that progressively exploiting all price points doesn’t mean your product is cheap and without value. You give the superfans a chance to buy your shit at $60, then get the people who are more value minded but really want your stuff to get it at $20, all the way down to getting the people who will throw $5 at anything to give it a go. You end up maximizing your revenues.
Now I used to think that people would get wise to this and never buy anything full price, but I see people all the time not wanting to wait even a few months, so plenty of people still buy it at $60.
Well, I guess there’s still a lot (even most) of people who play a game until the next big exciting release comes out and then they buy and play that. When you’re only buying 3-5 games a year at most, paying $60 a shot isn’t so bad. That’s not even counting the people who just play CoD or Madden for a solid 365 days until the next one comes out.
In comparison, I lay atop my giant pile of $5-$10 games like a little dragon and hiss threateningly at anyone who comes near me. It’s a completely different mindset but I don’t think it’s the majority one.
And the latest flash sales (first 3 expire in under 6 hours):
Grand Theft Auto IV Liberty City - $7.49
Crusader Kings II Collection - $12.49
Tropico 4 Steam Special Edition - $5.99
Bastion - $3.74
Just Cause 2 - $3.74
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes - $19.99
Part of the reason why the Witcher 2 is such a high-budget and highly rated game is that the first Witcher game sold so well at the bargain bin price point. It had some problems when it first came out and being from a completely obscure Polish developer didn’t help either, so it didn’t do all that well at first. But a lot of people decided to give it a chance when it started showing up for cheap on digital distribution sites and it turned into a cult hit. That in turn allowed the higher budget and very good early sales of the second one. CD Projekt definitely understands the value of those later, cheaper sales.
I always sing the praises of Just Cause 2 - if your computer can run it, $3.75 is a ridiculous steal. Plus Just Cause 2 Multiplayer. Bastion is a very cool game too.
Latest flash deals:
Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition - $9.99
Red Faction Collection - $14.99
The Binding of Isaac - $1.24
Dungeon Defenders is an Orcs Must Die-like third person tower defense. It’s got a solid multiplayer system, too, so it might be fun to get a bunch of Dopers playing.
I wouldn’t really classify Dungeon Defenders and Orcs Must Die as being very similar at all. I mean, superficially, they’re both tower defense games where you take an active roll, but Orcs Must Die is a thousand times better - Dungeon Defenders is a boring slog fest where 1 or 2 tower types do almost all the damage and there’s no skill whatsoever involved in the actual fighting you do. It doesn’t feel like the same type of game when you’re playing it.
Hmm, that makes a lot of sense.
It reminds me a bit Jeff Vogel, the guy who makes the shareware Exile/Avernum/Geneforge games. He didn’t discount his games for the longest time, so there’d be these 10-year old games (with really old-school graphics) that were never priced below $20, because he thought discounting would devalue the games or something. But he finally changed his mind, realizing that selling lots of cheaper games makes sense, and even wrote a lengthy blog post about his current pricing scheme and the thought process behind it.
That blog post talking about needing to maintain some minimum price (and unable to sell titles for a buck) was a little weird knowing that Avernum: The Black Fortress has been in indie bundles where you pay what you want. For a few bucks, I had it and five other titles for both PC and Android platforms.
I see he wrote it in 2011 though so maybe he re-did the math or decided to take a chance since then.
See, I think they’re very similar. It’s just that Orcs Must Die is a better game.
Also, Orcs Must Die 2 is on sale, with all DLC, for like six bucks. I’d love to play co-op with some Dopers in the coming year.
This is so worth it. Terrific game, with lots of replay value.