New Pricing Model for Games

Stolen from /.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/10/21/0...rice-Experiment

2D Boy, the independent game studio behind World of Goo, recently celebrated the game's one-year anniversary by offering it at whatever price buyers cared to pay. They've now released some sales statistics about how people responded to the opportunity. The average price during the sale was $2.03; the game normally retails for $20. According to a survey of why people paid what they did, 22.4% said it was all they could afford at the time, and 12.4% said they already owned World of Goo and were buying it for a different platform. (Yes, there is a Linux version.) Over 57,000 people took advantage of the offer, which was enough for 2D Boy to term it "a huge success." Interestingly, they also saw a significant increase in sales through Steam, and a smaller increase through Wiiware. They've decided to extend the experiment until October 25th.

Statistics from the studio http://2dboy.com/2009/10/19/birthday-sale-results/

What does this mean for pricing structure?

BTW just to support this model I just purcahsed this game. Honestly I didn't even look at it again, likely will never play it (my impression is that the demo did nothign for me). But I wanted to support this model.

I'm hopeful that we'll see more of this type of pricing as well. This is one reason I'm liking DDO as well. You can pay monthly, you can pay for individual quests, you can buy equipment, and you can do a lot without paying a cent.

I think it's a great idea..... I read an article about Iphone games are driving down the prices of mobile games. The indie guys are pricing games at .99. So, EA released a game for 9.99 that they charge 40 for on the Nintendo DS. And it's just a port.

This would be a great way to sell mappacks or addons. Just pay what you can.