Cheaper boosters = more cash?

In the discussion threads for the last two boosters, (Dance and Origins), several people noted that they feel the packs would sell better (and presumably make more money) if they were one or two dollars cheaper. We can't tell if it's true for the Super Boosters, because we have no access to any sales data, but maybe if we looked at a similar market, we could at least get a basic idea of how price relates to gains.

This article on Gamasutra shwos the top selling (most sales) and top *grossing* (most money earned) games on the iPhone and iPad. The top-selling games are all in the $1-$3 range (no big surprise there), but half of the the top *grossing* games are $3-$4. The discrepancy is even bigger on the iPad, where only *one* of the top-grossing games is $1, and *five* are $10.

Despite this, you'll note that the top-grossing iPhone games are still $1, and they are the same two games as the top-selling ones (again, no big surprise there).

What does this tell us? Well, on the iPhone and iPad, at least, you're more likely to get a lot of money if you price your game up. The income lost from people who look at your game and go "I'd buy that for a dollar, but not for three" is less than the income gained from, well, people paying $3 for your game. You still have a chance of grossing more on a cheaper game, but it needs to be a vast, runaway success.

Extrapolating this to boosters... sure, *you* might have bought the Party Pack at $4 instead of $8. But do you really think it would have attracted *twice as many buyers* at the very *least*? Do you think pricing it at $2 would have made it a "must buy" to the entire playerbase?

Maybe the NCSoft marketing guys aren't as dumb as they look.

NOTE: Please do *not* discuss the relative merits of the actual games, as that is against forum rules. This thread is meant to discuss the idea that "lower prices mean more money earned" and the iPhone game sales are only a point of data in the discussion.

I have all the boosters up to the Party Pack and the Capes/Auras one.

There is no way I'll ever buy the party pack as it stands in its current price - but if it was significantly cheaper I'd strongly consider it.

Not sure about the latest one - and don't even get me started on the 30 day jet pack

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

I got all the costume boosters and even the emote booster, however, they did have some of the older boosters half off on the 29th.

So the question is, did they seel enough of those at lower cost to be seen as more people would by them.

Or did they do better selling at their normal price, then much much MUCH later, get a few more for those who wouldnt have bought them before.

Having worked retail I do run alot into the "You get what you pay for" mentality. I guess people are cynical by nature or at least in a purchasing environment and tend to cast doubt and start to look for faults and issues when a product comes long at a low cost. Despite the fact that it might be good or even better than the high cost models.

Some people's ideas of valid price points seem like absurd hair-splitting to me. "Eight emotes is worth exactly... six dollars and twelve cents to me." How do you come up with that?

Maybe they think they're haggling with NCsoft? "Eight dollars? For this, sir, I will pay you five and not a penny more!" And then you settle on six, of course. But it doesn't actually work like that.

I don't know that comparing a booster to a bunch of unrelated one-off games is the greatest comparison. The highest grossing games may have very well been legitimately the "best" games. I'm unfamiliar with all of them so I can't say but I wouldn't draw any direction parallels to booster pricing.

The response to the party pack left me with the impression that it was less well received than the Powers That Be expected it would be, including for that price point. And so it stands to reason that a lower price point would have netted more sales and potentially more profits. But we'll never know for sure.

I don't think that they would have doubled or tripled their profits or anything but I do think it could have been priced better and that they were more optimistic about peoples' desire to purchase a non-hero-related emote pack than the reality of it.

To be honest, I think 5 Dollars per pack would've been good. The Emote Booster Pack shouldn't even exsist, those were free back in GR Closed Beta and they should've been free now.

The beauty of digital goods is that since the initial costs are fixed and the per-unit cost is precisely nil, you can afford to sell all the units you can at $8, and then sell all the units you can at $4, and then sell all the units you can at $2, and so on. What do you get for $8 that you don't get for $2? The chance to have the items now instead of when the price goes down to $2 (which may be a long wait). The point is that there's no need to discuss a fixed price point when talking about earnings; you can hit all price points in the fullness of time. The trick is knowing what the initial price point should be, and when and how much to decrease it.

This is how Steam works, and it works great.

Well, speaking generally, you often see a failure to grasp the concept of slightly less price may net more profit.
It is difficult for some.
However, whether or not that is the case with the CoH Boosters, I can't really say.

I'm willing to venture a guess that the Party Pack could have netted equal or greater money in at a lower price.
It's just a guess though. Since I don't know how many people actually did pay for it nor how many would have if it were lower.
People can say whatever they want.
Like me... I raced a zebra down Madison Avenue today, but lost because I stopped in at Starbucks to buy some shoe laces.


I imagine that all of the previous Super Boosters sold rather well.

Honestly, I think the Complete Collection Extras Booster from Going Rogue was a bit under-priced (rather nice of them, for those who bought the regular Going Rogue or didn't buy the expansion at all).
You got equal or greater amounts of costume pieces and auras and a power for a cheaper price than the Super Boosters.

However, I've seen several posters claim that this Pack was a rip off (Of course, you can never please everyone and there will always be complaints on gaming forums... So, it's hard to get a proper read on things).

Just my scattered thoughts...

really good points Chase, stuff I knew but hadn't applied to the current discussion. I tend to think of big corporations as being mostly alike, but clearly Apple's customer base and business model would give them far greater leverage than NC when it came down to negotiating rates.

I took advantage of their "Cyber Monday" deal and picked up everything on sale that I didn't have, including the Mac Edition (I'd only ever bough the Magic booster before).

The reason? While I like extra goodies and I do like supporting the devs, I don't feel $10 is a fair price for what is added to the game while I pay a monthly fee. That being said, I don't have a problem with boosters either. I'd guess when Martial Arts and Mutants go on sale, I'll pick them up as well.

So, more to the point of the thread... Yes, I was more inclined to buy boosters when they were cheaper. I also feel that CoH, when the time comes as it seems to do in all MMO lifespans, goes to free to play with mini-transactions, it will live a long full life. If people are willing to pay $10 for what amounts to be very little in the aspect of gameplay, figure what people would pay for new power sets?