Are AMD Game bundles hurting Game developers for PC

[Xarick]

I ask because I see you can now buy crysis for less than $30 and Tomb raider for $25 on Origin. That is if you don't want to buy a set for $40 or less on ebay. I can't imagine anyone paying full price for these games due to the bundles, but ultimately what does that do to game developers.. do they even care?

 

[blackened23]

Personally I seriously doubt that's the case - They make the gargantuan share of profit from console sales, I believe. All of the titles in question are multi platform.

I don't mean to be rude or anything here, but let's be "real" for a moment. To be completely forthcoming, I think your assertion is really silly. Publishers do have a choice in the matter. Do you think a publisher would allow something like this to happen, and intentionally lose money in the process? Do you really think an American capitalist firm would allow this? Don't be naive. These companies live off of money.

 

[3DVagabond]

Is this abnormal that they would go on sale like this?

 

[blackened23]

Is this abnormal that they would go on sale like this?

Pretty much what I was thinking. I was seeing Dead Space 3 for 29.99 not too long ago. It's just the normal cycle of things with PC anyway.

Besides which. Console sales always have the highest profits, which is why all of these games are designed for consoles first PC second.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I can't imagine anyone paying full price for these games due to the bundles....

Right. So when I want some new games I just buy a new graphics card, it's much cheaper that way. :hmm:

 

[(sic)Klown12]

All these Gaming Evolved keys have already been paid in full with cash from AMD, but also in additional marketing and technical support. The last two means developers have to spend less cash to offset lost revenue from the high volume deals they made with AMD.

 

[Eureka]

Basically the game devs already received their payment through AMD. They don't care that they're being resold for less. Not to mention it attracts customers who normally would wait for a sale but now the game is subsidized by AMD.

 

[tviceman]

If it hurt developers and/or publishers, then the deals wouldn't happen nearly as frequently. EOT.

 

[cmdrdredd]

They also have more people to sell DLC too and market the season pass for MP content to.

 

[Xarick]

I guess that is true. I wanted both games so I got both for $40...which is $20 a piece, but hadn't thought about the fact that AMD already paid them for the games. It just seems like lost revenue to me because I would have likely bought them for more if the bundles hadn't existed.
Also you don't usually see newly released titles discounted less than a month later by 50%

 

[cmdrdredd]

The retailers can discount anything they want. If something isn't moving off the shelves so to speak.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

Think of it as promotional too. Not only do their games get promoted, but they probably give only the base versions of the game with AMD, so that whoever that uses those keys will still need to buy other dlc. To those publishers, they probably see this as worth it I guess.

 

[Will Robinson]

A publisher sure as hell would like a fat cheque from AMD well before game release to off set all the capital expended on development in contrast to waiting for retail sales to develop and profits to dribble in over time.
"Pay me now" has gotta be worth a lot to them and so their price to AMD for the keys stands to be heavily discounted and therefore smart use of advertising money by AMD.

 

[3DVagabond]

The retailers can discount anything they want. If something isn't moving off the shelves so to speak.

^This. First we have to know who is backing the promotion. If the retailers are just selling it for less, then the Devs aren't taking a hit at all. It's the retailers. I know that Tomb Raider didn't hit expected sales numbers. This is even with all of the sales made to AMD. This could be why the price has dropped.

 

[UaVaj]

game developer already got paid. it is amd that is passing the game to its gpu customer at cost.

bundle game is a much better sale, compare to discounting price.

it is all marketing. just like at the mall vs walmart. at walmart - sell it cheap with no discount and is still a hard sell. at the mall - raise the price 50% (compare to wal-mart) then offer 20% discount and it sells like hot cakes.

 

[Leadbox]

game developer already got paid. it is amd that is passing the game to its gpu customer at cost.

bundle game is a much better sale, compare to discounting price.

it is all marketing. just like at the mall vs walmart. at walmart - sell it cheap with no discount and is still a hard sell. at the mall - raise the price 50% (compare to wal-mart) then offer 20% discount and it sells like hot cakes.

AMD would have to be pushing a shitload of graphics cards for the market to be saturated enough with games as to force margins for developers down. So are they?

 

[Arkadrel]

All these Gaming Evolved keys have already been paid in full with cash from AMD, but also in additional marketing and technical support. The last two means developers have to spend less cash to offset lost revenue from the high volume deals they made with AMD.

^ this.
Doubt it hurts developers.
It helps consumers (cheaper games, or free ones with GPU).

It hurts AMD.... however if the free games, make you buy AMD instead of Nvidia, they probably off set the cost of paying developers from it.

Basically everyone wins from it.

They also have more people to sell DLC too and market the season pass for MP content to.

^ this.
PC market space is big on DLC content, and micro transactions.

^This. First we have to know who is backing the promotion. If the retailers are just selling it for less, then the Devs aren't taking a hit at all. It's the retailers. I know that Tomb Raider didn't hit expected sales numbers. This is even with all of the sales made to AMD. This could be why the price has dropped.

^ so the game bundles are "competeing" with retail stores/shops in the streets?
And the consumer wins because prices drop?

That sounds good to me too, I like the idea of cheaper games because of competition.

 

[lagokc]

It's the same type of deal that attracts so many businesses to groupon: Sell your product at a massive discount but you get the money NOW rather than several months from now (in theory) when the customer actually buys the product unless they don't end up wanting the game/product in which case free money.

Whether or not it's good for game developers probably depends on how accurate their prediction for demand for their game is.

 

[GaiaHunter]

It is just a code.

What will the developer lose? 100-200K sales at release price?

The game will be on sale in less than 6 months regardless...

 

[Keysplayr]

Also, does anyone think that AMD pays full price for the game keys?

 

[exar333]

The key is to sell more GPUs so your future sales pool for higher-end graphics games will be good. Any way they can sell more GPUs (bundled or no) is a great way to ensure more platforms to purchase your games later.

 

[SPBHM]

Also, does anyone think that AMD pays full price for the game keys?

I'm not sure, probably not, but AMD is paying for more than just the keys,

 

[railven]

Also you don't usually see newly released titles discounted less than a month later by 50%

Probably not as steep as 50% off, but if you factor in the bundles/perks some digital distro companies are offering, the savings is ballpark 40-50% or more off a combined purchased. For example:

Bioshock: Infinite Pre-order from Green Man Gaming included the following:
$15 Store Credit (Bioshock: I is now $45 to you).
X:Com Enemy Territories (going price at the time was $30, so assume $15 off to you if you resold the key, Bio is now $30 to you, bam 50% off already)
Copy of Bioshock 1 (not much, but a nice gift to someone you know, bam $5-10 saved, now BioI is $25 to you)
Copy of 1-game (from a list of 5), cost range from $20-30 at the time for some of the tittles (assume a flat resale value of $10, Bio: I to you is now $15).

Again, anyone paying console MSRP for new PC games is doing it wrong. With all these companies fighting for your dollar, now is the best time to be a PC gamer. Don't trust GMG? Amazon was running a similar deal except they gave you $20 credit towards any 2K Game, plus X:Com Enemy Territory + Bioshock1.

EDIT: Deals like the ones above just reinforce to me that digital sales are lucrative at even $10-15 dollar price points. There is no shipping involved, no warehouse storage, no store front, no overhead costs that retail sees. Even a giant like Amazon can still run such a good deal to compete with Steam/GMG/others - that tells me they did the math and they know the chance of selling a few thousand extra copies at ~$30-40 to them is still far more profitable than selling copies at $60.

As blackened said at the start of this thread, these companies don't do these sales as favors to consumers, they calculated the risk and most likely know the ROI is worth the offerings.

 

[SirPauly]

I think it helps developers to receive this.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

Also, does anyone think that AMD pays full price for the game keys?

I doubt it. They probably get a set number of keys from the publisher as part of the deal, which includes a lot more then just that obviously. Also includes AMD logos, marketing, doing development with their team, etc.