A few months ago I posted the first blog of this series, which you can view below:

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/blog/2005/04/15/a-blast-from-the-past-part-1/

The point of this series is to let our new friends know about the history of our company and our core principles. So, with that in mind, here is another article from our intrepid leader Tim Brooks. This was originally posted back in 1999:

What You Actually Pay for a Game
Or How the Big Boys Work

It was only a couple of months ago that I was having an ICQ conversation with a fan of 101: The 101st Airborne in Normandy. At least I assume he was a fan since he said some very nice things about 101. Of course he could have just been being kind. But, it is much better for my self-esteem to think that he truly liked the game so I’ll stick with that view. Anyhow, the conversation turned to the industry, the need for stronger computers, and the price of games. It was while discussing the price of games that this very likeable and knowledgeable (he liked 101, remember) gentleman said, “You know, I won’t pay more than $40.00 for a game. If it costs more than this, I just wait a couple of months and pick it up in the bargain bends.”

Well that got me to thinking, which is always a dangerous thing. So, I did a little research, went back over conversations in my mind (not conversations with myself, but conversations with Publishers), and came up with what shall be forever known as The Game Publishers’ Pricing Policy Guidelines.

You see, all the Big Boys have these guidelines. They don’t tell you they have the guidelines. And if you went into their very nicely furnished offices (paid for with profits from Hopscotch Wars) you wouldn’t see them posted anywhere. But they do exist. They keep them on their bookshelves in the black binder entitled: How To Make Really Bad Games. Or in the red binder with the title: How To Fool the Public Into Buying Really Bad Games. Either place, though, you will find the guidelines. Just sneak into one of their plush offices (paid for with profits from RoboWarrior XX, the Video Game) after work (say 2:00 pm) and you know what you will find? I mean besides the Windows solitaire game they having been studying so they can make their wargames more profitable. Yep, you will find The Game Publisher’s Pricing Guidelines right where I told you they would be. Just sit down (you have plenty of time – it’s only 2:00 pm and they won’t be back in until 9:00 the next morning) and read. They really do make interesting reading. If they didn’t, why would I write this article?

So without further ado,
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The Game Publishers’ Pricing Policy Guidelines
Confidental
Privait
For your I’s only
Don’t show two any 1

Introduction:

These guidelines were developed over a period of days (ok, hours) in late 1993 at The Conference for Big Game Publishers and Used Car Salesmen. They are the Bible for our industry and must be taken out and have read to you before you release any new game. Please be aware that if this information fell into the gaming buyers’ hands that we would lose a lot of money and would have to give up our plush offices and wouldn’t be able to play Windows solitaire all day. Our expense accounts would be cut meaning that we would have to stay in the Holiday Inn when we went to E3. We would also not be able to tell developers that we want to publish their games and then see how bad we can screw them up so that we have interesting stories to tell each other about pissed off game designers at the Game Developers Conference. So, keep these Guidelines in a safe place (we suggest either the big red notebook like you had in hi-school or the big black notebook because it has that neat pocket on the inside front cover).

Introduction Number Two (uhhmmm, he said number two):

Whereby we have already fooled the general game buying public into thinking that good graphics mean a good game. And whereby we have found out that good graphics cost a bunch of money. And whereby we don’t know the first thing about how to make a good game. And whereby the people that do know how to make a good game don’t wear suits. And whereby we don’t want to associate with people who don’t wear suits because our wives will leave us for bankers and lawyers and used car salesmen. And whereby we couldn’t get into the country clubs anymore. And whereby we couldn’t drive expensive cars anymore. And whereby that would really piss our girlfriends off. We have set forth the following guidelines for pricing new game releases.

Guidelines for Pricing New Game Releases:

First Version of Game: $34.95 –39.95

Explanasion Xplanasion Why: This is only half a game. We didn’t know how to make a good game, so we took an overused, under developed game idea and put a lot of really pretty pictures with it. We then put the best of these pictures on the box and put a suggested retail price of $34.95 or $39.95 on it. The stores will sell it for almost 3 to 5 dollars cheaper because we pay them $50,000 to put it on their shelves and they don’t even need to make any money on the game. They will push it and sell it even though it stinks because they need to free up the shelf space so that they can sell that space to another Publisher.

Second Version of A Game: $39.95 -$44.95

Why: This only happens if we have fooled enough people into buying the first game and it made us a lot of money. Otherwise, we don’t release a second version, but repeat the process with another game that isn’t really a game but that has really nice pictures. But, if we fooled enough people into buying the First Version, then we have enough money to do a Second Version. Now, what we do is collect all the technical support calls and have one of our secretaries or interns that knows how to read to watch all the forums. We learn from the customer what changes we need to make to turn this into a game. Now, if we pay attention and don’t get too carried away with the Windows solitaire tournament, we will finally have a good game!

Summary:

This is a really good plan. What we have done is sold one game for $74.90 – $84.90. Of course, the gamers think they only spent $34.95 - $44.95, but we know they didn’t. This is how you make money.

Now, you ask what do we do if the Second Version is popular and makes us a lot of money? Well, what you do is to make a brand new game based on the theme of the Second Version, but it is really a First Version with pretty pictures and no gaming value. If it does well then you do a Fourth Version, which is really a Second Version. This way the gamer always pays us $80.00 for a game.

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And so it goes…

Well, it has been a long time since I have had the time to sit down and write something. You see we are releasing many games in the coming months - we just released two new ones, Salvo! and The Falklands War: 1982 - and have another 8 scheduled for before the year ends. It takes up alot of my time, and our staffs time, to get these games into the market. So, that is why I have been visibly absent from the BLOG.

Origins 2005

We just returned from Origins last week. It is the first time we haven’t exhibited in two years. Our reasoning was simple, with the economy the way it is, especially gas prices, and with many of our new releases just missing the Origins date, we thought we would take a year off and go and enjoy the show in a different way. We were glad we didn’t exhibit. The show just seemed dead. The number of exhibitors appeared to be way down, the lines were much shorter and the exhibit hall less crowded. Our retail consultant was there, and she even said we should be glad we weren’t exhibiting, that traffic was way down. Why?

Gas. Does Anyone Feel Bloated?

Maybe one reason is that it fell this year over the 4th of July holiday. Although I think that is just a small part of it, as I have a theory as to why gaming sems to be down across the board this year. It has to do with the outrageous gas prices. I read somewhere that the average consumer is now spending an additional $60.00 per month on gas. Hey, that’s the price of a game! Interesting, huh. Does that mean that your average gamer is buying once less game a month so that they can afford to get to work each day? I think this may be a huge part in the drop off at Origins as well as the industry drop in sales as well.

Vaporware, Not Just for Computer Games

This year at Origins, in addition to meeting with developers and some of our fans (Annette and Mindi said, “Thanks for the gifts, Mac!”) we hoped to spend alot of time in the exhibit hall, specifically to see some the new offerings announced for Origins. How disappointing that a number of board games, as well as a new magazine weren’t there as promised. Between the vapor products and the fewer exhibitors, our time in the exhibit hall was shorter than anticipated. How a company can miss delivering a game or magazine to Origins that was announced to be there only a month or so before the show is a mystery to me. Maybe if they had announced it three months in advance, I could see this, but with the short announcement time, they should have known that it wouldn’t be ready. Especially when the gave us shipping date over a month away. It wasn’t lie they missed by a day or two. A month! I guess it happens to the best though, but I can’t understand it.

The Developer as Publisher

This year at Origins, we saw two games that we would have loved to put our name on. Unfortunately they were self published by the developer of the game. Doing this almost always makes the game unpublishable by us, as they undervalue their offering, thinking the way to sell more is to lower the price. It has been proven that price has very little to do with the success of a game. In fact pricing a game too low, can make it unappealing to the reseller markets, as they must have enough in their margins to make it worth stocking and handling. If I could just say to those devleopers with great ideas who are thinking of self publishing, please speak with us first. We have contact information on our website here. You can always self publish after talking to us. Hell, we may even be able to offer you some valuable help with self publishing, if that is the route you choose. After all, we are all in this business together, and I don’t believe for a minute that your game(s) being successful will hurt sales of our games. If anything, making this industry bigger and better will help us all to succeed.

Shrapnel Games Gets Weird!

And finally, we have heard from a number of you regarding our latest product announcement, Werid Worlds: Return to Infinite Space. Most of the e-mails we received praised our unique press release on this announcement. It was a little different, even for the warped minds behind Shrapnel Games. I wish I could take credit for it, but praise should go to Scott Krol who writes almost all of our press releases. I say almost all, because sometimes I will write one, so if it you read any lacking in style and flair, blame me for those.

Until next time,

Tim Brooks
President, Shrapnel Games, Inc.