🚀 go-pugleaf

Gail Eagle wrote:
> 
> Ok people.
> 
> Company's view--
> 
>         1.  100,000 people are doing the Quake crack thing around the U.S.
> Even more, maybe.  You lose, 100,000 times $45 which is $4,500,000. That
> money can be used to pay for a new 3d engine or pay the talents of
> gaming for thier familys.
> 
> Gamer's view--
> 
>         1.  They pay $45 for a game the company only paid $1 for the cd and
> files so it can be reproduced.
> 
>         But, either way you look at it, you both are right.  So be nice, do not
> argue over something that can't be resolved or can't be proven.
> Everyone is argueing and tearing and insulting each other over a simple
> arguement that can't be resolved.  It is pointless, forget about it.  It
> is over.  Don't come to me like I am the bad guy.  I am trying to
> staighten this out.  Think about it before you argue any further.
> Stealing from the company is wrong.  Stealing from the customers is
> wrong, too.

Ok, time for some home truths about the cost of Software,

Firstly the overall cost of your software is made of three main parts.
>From the gamers point of view the biggest mark-up on the price is that
that the shop takes, if you say that a game costs $50 (I cant speak from
experience of America, since I'm from the UK, but from what I hear this
sounds about right) then about  $20 of that price are the mark-up from
the distributor to the shop (most games in large shops are sold cheaper
than the recommended retail price), shops have to make a profit.
Secondly the distributor has a mark-up from the publisher, this isn't
quite so large, but the distributor deals in a larger number of copies
than the shop, I'm not sure what this is, finally the publisher pays the
authors for each copy sold, this is somewhere in the region of $5 per
copy (it varies from publisher to publisher), this has to cover the
salaries of all the people who worked on the game, I work in the
industry and earn just under $30,000 a year, if a game takes a year for
10 people to make then the development costs are $300,000 in wages, not
counting company taxes, equipment costs, heating/light, cleaners etc.,
so a game will need to sell 60,000 copies just to cover the cost of the
developers wages, considering the current sales figures for most games
today this figure is getting harder and harder to achieve, publishers
are having to subsidize the development of games, making large
investments (millions of dollars) in companies so that they can afford
to create games, of course gamers may think their paying too much for
their games, maybe they think that the games industry still makes money
hand over fist, the reality is that very few companies at present are
making money (most are making massive loses), and if this continues then
the price of games is likely to rise rather than fall.

Secondly, piracy isn't just going to affect the games developers
themselves, every link in the chain is affected, the smaller shops have
to close down, because then cannot afford to run any longer, the
distributors wont take on games because they don't sell enough on to
make it profitable, the publishers wont take on new games, since they
can't sell them, so software developers go out of business because no
one will finance their next projects. This is already happening to an
extent, I bet most people reading this have seen a small computer shop
that has shut down, most of these shops make their money from software
(since their is often little or no profit in hardware, take the recent
playstation price drop, I heard a guy in a local shop complain that they
were having to sell units brought at the old price for the new price),
although you cannot prove that this is due to piracy, piracy plays a
role in this since less people are buying the games, less of the sales
are going to the smaller retailers.

So before anyone tries to give price as a justification for piracy, just
think about where your $50 is going and how much is going to the
developers themselves.

Oh and incase you were wondering about budget ranges, the reason the
price is so low is because you no longer have to pay for expensive
marketing and advertising (most are advertised as a range of products),
you don't have to pay development costs (the developers get even less
per copy) so the game can be sold for less.

Finally, whilst where talking about product prices, lets mention OEM,
this are is becoming more and more of a lifeline for games companies,
bundling a copy of your game with hardware gives you guaranteed sales,
the company get $3-5 per copy in a bulk deal, this is part of the reason
that Myst has sold so many copies (I got a copy free with my printer),
prehaps if pirates keep on all games will have to be sold OEM, but I
can't see people buying modems,joysticks, printers, mice or other bits
of hardware simply to get the latest games.

Sorry if this has become a bit of a missive, but I felt that the people
arguing over this should know the true price of software, prehaps it
will persuade a few people that games aren't overpriced. The other thing
to remember is that games aren't essentials, they are luxuries, your
life will not end if you don't get the latest games, on or before they
come out.

-- 
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James 'Dudley' Watson,       Programmer SCi (Sales Curve Interactive)
Work E-Mail: dud...@sci.co.uk        Private:d...@geocities.com
Website: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/4625/SabWeb.html
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