Are AMD Game bundles hurting Game developers for PC

[ShintaiDK]

I think its a benefit for all parties. And PC gaming is expanding rapidly.

 

[Olikan]

I think its a benefit for all parties. And PC gaming is expanding rapidly.

i hope you are right..... q1 2013 wasn't exacly good

 

[ShintaiDK]

i hope you are right..... q1 2013 wasn't exacly good

For games it was, for hardware no.

 

[tviceman]

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

Totally guessing, I think they get 50-60% off day 1 retail price. I'm sure it varies per title though.

 

[SirPauly]

It would be nice to know the details but certainly would like to see the bundle wars continue, with both investing for the PC platform.

 

[KingFatty]

Well, if you were a developer, would you want to sell 10 copies of your game at $50/each ($500 total), or would you want to sell 250 copies at $10/each ($2500 total)?

The numbers are just for example, but I think developers are realizing they can maximize their profit by reducing price to move more sales. I think part of this view is being helped along by Steam and Gabe Newell who really showed how Steam sales can result in massive profits even if the developer had kind of given up on trying to sell more copies at the regular price.

 

[SirPauly]

It's why hardware vendors offer OEM's great pricing. Revenue is revenue.

 

[UaVaj]

Well, if you were a developer, would you want to sell 10 copies of your game at $50/each ($500 total), or would you want to sell 250 copies at $10/each ($2500 total)?

The numbers are just for example, but I think developers are realizing they can maximize their profit by reducing price to move more sales. I think part of this view is being helped along by Steam and Gabe Newell who really showed how Steam sales can result in massive profits even if the developer had kind of given up on trying to sell more copies at the regular price.

someone took business statistics. :thumbsup:

the figures are a bit off, but the principle is dead on.
imho - the figures are more like $60 each retail vs $20 each wholesale.
new math - 10x$60=$600 vs 250X$20=$5000

given how small the pc gaming market is (in comparison to the console market). this is a huge win for game developers. better sales for amd. cheaper price for pc gamers. we all win.

 

[BFG10K]

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?

The developers still get paid with bundles. It's also better to get paid from a bundle than to have your product pirated and get nothing. Since you can't pirate a GPU, even pirates are indirectly supporting the developer when they get a bundle.

As for cheaper prices, is Steam/GoG ruining PC game developers because of cheaper prices and sales? Of course not. In fact it's been proven from Steam sales that lowering prices makes more money (e.g. a half price game might sell 5x-10x more copies, so you make more money overall).

 

[djsb]

Even if the devs/publishers weren't paid for bundles it would still be a winning scenario because it's basically free advertising.

1. Gets word of mouth recommendations going among gamers.
2. Increases exposure for your franchise/developer.
3. Kickstarts the pool of multiplayer users, which will improve the experience for the paying customers, keep them coming back longer, and make them more willing to spend DLC money on a good experience.
4. The number of people who both need a new video card and are willing to drop 150+ dollars on one is such a small fraction of your audience that you won't take too much of a hit anyway. Also the number of keys are capped, so you know exactly how much the entire campaign will cost (I found my old unused bundle card, but none of the keys worked because I waited 10 months--silly me!).

Heck, as a marketing expense it's probably more effective per dollar than television ads.

 

[jiffylube1024]

The developers still get paid with bundles. It's also better to get paid from a bundle than to have your product pirated and get nothing. Since you can't pirate a GPU, even pirates are indirectly supporting the developer when they get a bundle.

+1000

A few years ago the head of EA lamented the state of piracy in the PC world and everyone has been charting the decline of he pc industry. People were talking about >50% piracy rates for some games for awhile on pc!!!!
Steam, with its focus on convenience has rejuvenated the PC market and made piracy much less attractive.
----

These AMD bundles may net game devs less than console copies going for $59.99 at retail, but I suspect they are having a massive net positive effect on the PC market.

For me personally, I bought an amd 7870 with the never settle: reloaded bundle and purchased an Xbox 360 to PC USB wireless adapter, and I'm playing these games on my desktop now rather than consoles. I never considered pirating any of these games - having them accessible anywhere from my steam library is so convenient!

I played bioshock 1 and 2 on Xbox 360 but I'm currently enjoying bioshock: infinite, tomb raider (surprisingly good) and Resident Evil 6 (so-so) on the PC.

 

[Riceninja]

Well, if you were a developer, would you want to sell 10 copies of your game at $50/each ($500 total), or would you want to sell 250 copies at $10/each ($2500 total)?

The numbers are just for example, but I think developers are realizing they can maximize their profit by reducing price to move more sales. I think part of this view is being helped along by Steam and Gabe Newell who really showed how Steam sales can result in massive profits even if the developer had kind of given up on trying to sell more copies at the regular price.

this is tiered pricing structure; offering a price, seperated by time, for each market segment that are willing to pay that price. normally a developer would only capture the market that are willing to pay $59.99 on release and $39.99 a few months later, completely missing the large trail end of people that would pay $29.99, $19.99 and most importantly $9.99 a year later. this is basic economics and frankly im surprised that the industry didnt catch on until steam came along. right now i see battlefield 3 for $9.99 on origin store - this was unthinkable for EA a few years ago.

Even if the devs/publishers weren't paid for bundles it would still be a winning scenario because it's basically free advertising.

1. Gets word of mouth recommendations going among gamers.
2. Increases exposure for your franchise/developer.
3. Kickstarts the pool of multiplayer users, which will improve the experience for the paying customers, keep them coming back longer, and make them more willing to spend DLC money on a good experience.
4. The number of people who both need a new video card and are willing to drop 150+ dollars on one is such a small fraction of your audience that you won't take too much of a hit anyway. Also the number of keys are capped, so you know exactly how much the entire campaign will cost (I found my old unused bundle card, but none of the keys worked because I waited 10 months--silly me!).

Heck, as a marketing expense it's probably more effective per dollar than television ads.

bolded the important part - their losses in terms of revenue from people that are willing to pay release day pricing are small, but the halo effect is very large.

AMD also wins because they might've paid $30 for a 2 game bundle to move a card they never would have sold otherwise. its brought them so much attention and hype that even casual "on the fence" observers like me picked up a 7950, and i'm traditionally a nvidia user.

so game devs win, AMD wins, and consumers get either free games or cheaper cards by selling codes on ebay.

 

[UaVaj]

Heck, as a marketing expense it's probably more effective per dollar than television ads.

now that is the million dollar reason.

buying a mid range or high end video card. force to buy the game with card (nothing is free - only free as bundled).

increasing awarness to the direct targeted audiance with a high level of penetration compare to indirect billboard n tv ads. win win advertising with force sale.

 

[Cloudfire777]

HD 7990 Game Bundle Price here in Norway:

Crysis 3: $39
Blood Dragon: $19
Bioshock Infinite: $46
Tomb Raider: $49
Far Cry 3: $34
Hitman: $25
Sleeping Dogs: $20
Deus Ex: $14

Game bundle worth: $246

Thats for a physical copy of the game. The CD-keys however would cost much less, so the value in these bundles isn`t that great really.

 

[railven]

HD 7990 Game Bundle Price here in Norway:

Crysis 3: $39
Blood Dragon: $19
Bioshock Infinite: $46
Tomb Raider: $49
Far Cry 3: $34
Hitman: $25
Sleeping Dogs: $20
Deus Ex: $14

Game bundle worth: $246

Thats for a physical copy of the game. The CD-keys however would cost much less, so the value in these bundles isn`t that great really.

Keep that in mind next time you argue a $5-10 Rebate on a videocard/CPU/Anything.

Why are people trying to find a negative for free swag? Are you guys not consumers? Hell ANYTHING FREE with a purchase is a "value." The only other better alternative is getting a discount on the purchase.

"Screw the free stuff, I just want to pay full price for the product" said no one, ever!

 

[Nintendesert]

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?

STEAM must have destroyed the PC market then. Go read up on STEAM sales with price reductions and how the lower the price you get an explosion in sales. PC games aren't console games and I'd argue that PC games are overpriced. Value of IPs on PC can't be measured per item but instead over total revenue of a product. Consoles do per item since there is limited shelf space and retail time frames. PC games have infinite retail time and shelf space. EA is learning this with Origin. They initially tried to not do sales to not devalue their IPs, but that's not how the PC market works. These bundles are nothing more than volume shipments the same as any weekend deal. The developers and publishers are making plenty.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

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?

Game developers are often at the mercy of the publishers who are the ones likely to make these choices. There's a certain devaluing of the product due to this, however it's a trade off against getting another guaranteed revenue stream.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

the publishers would not be participating in the promotion if they did not think it would be good for their business. the impact to the actual developer is harder to measure, but that goes for all publisher behavior.

 

[FalseChristian]

The developers still get paid with bundles. It's also better to get paid from a bundle than to have your product pirated and get nothing. Since you can't pirate a GPU, even pirates are indirectly supporting the developer when they get a bundle.

As for cheaper prices, is Steam/GoG ruining PC game developers because of cheaper prices and sales? Of course not. In fact it's been proven from Steam sales that lowering prices makes more money (e.g. a half price game might sell 5x-10x more copies, so you make more money overall).

Exactly. I know a guy who got FarCry 3 and Crysis 3 on a pirate site the day after they were launched. He says that he will buy both games when the price is 1/2 of what it is now. Seems reasonable.

 

[TheReaWarmonger]

In short, no. With AMD's bundles like Never Settle, AMD purchases thousands of licenses of the game from the developer in bulk. So they get them cheap enough to give away with new video cards for free, and to bundle up into a cheaper package. It may be in fact making the game developers more money, simply because the item is much more marketable this way. People don't want to pay $60 for each game. More sales = more revenue. Right now the developers are sitting on a stack of money that AMD just dumped onto them. You will see these games in packages, and video cards until AMD sells out of them. Even if they have to carry older games over to the HD 8000 series they will, and people will still eat them up.