Why Not Digitial Distribution?

paparapapa · #1 February 3rd, 2008, 02:31 AM

I've been hosting games for people in an off site community for a while now. One thing I've noticed is that beyond the price tag (which is helped at least by the periodic discounts you guys offer), the biggest reason people post about not buying the game is they literally don't want to wait for it in the mail and would prefer to download it.

Dominions is a great series (been playing since the second one) and it sucks that more people aren't exposed to it. Have you guys considered getting joining up with steam or offering your own download service?

Jazzepi · #2 February 3rd, 2008, 06:21 AM

I've said the same thing before.

I would *really* like to see this game out on Steam. D:

Jazzepi

S.R. Krol · #3 February 3rd, 2008, 03:06 PM

*sigh* Not again...

We do offer digital downloads. Not Dominions 3 though.

And really, what's the big deal about waiting a couple days to a week for it? They don't have it now, right? Is an extra seven days of not having it really going to make a difference?

llamabeast · #4 February 3rd, 2008, 04:01 PM

The thing is that you are missing out on the impulse-buying market. Occasionally I will just sit down in an evening and think "I'm bored. I haven't spent any money for a bit - I should treat myself", and then go and do something like buy the latest GalCivII expansion, or Portal, or something else like that. Since people can't do that for Dominions the decision has to be a more considered one. Upon further consideration, buying games often seems far from essential, so they just won't do it.

If you really wanted to sell more copies of Dominions, there is a lot you could do. Imagine a website with descriptions and backstories for all the races. You'd get people frothing at the mouth.

S.R. Krol · #5 February 4th, 2008, 12:33 AM

Quote:

llamabeast said:
The thing is that you are missing out on the impulse-buying market.

I'm not sure most people consider $55 an impulse purchase.

Cerlin · #6 February 4th, 2008, 01:08 AM

One thing I hate about steam, you cannot mod the games. They are in one or two different files and no modding is possible. This would be pretty big downside for Dom3. I know this because I got Medieval 2 Kingdoms on steam, and I cannot use any mods made by the community.
Also the internet access is a huge down side.
I dont think that its a big bonus.

Jazzepi · #7 February 3rd, 2008, 04:08 PM

Quote:

S.R. Krol said:
*sigh* Not again...

We do offer digital downloads. Not Dominions 3 though.

And really, what's the big deal about waiting a couple days to a week for it? They don't have it now, right? Is an extra seven days of not having it really going to make a difference?

You are kidding, right? Of course it's going to make a difference. That's why people offer digital distribution. The manual could be given out on PDF, and the game downloaded the same day. I really like the sales model this guy uses. I bought the game, and when you purchase it you download everything right away. You could even make corrections in the PDF, add player made content to the PDF, and/or add player made content to the game by bundling it with the download. It would reduce overhead and increase revenue at the same time. How cool would it be if you could download all the nice, polished mods when you bought DOM3 straight from the website?

http://www.basiliskgames.com/

It might be seven days in the states, but it's much longer for people outside of the US. I know some person had to wait a month+ for their game. Digital distribution would solve all of that.

Jazzepi

Shovah32 · #8 February 3rd, 2008, 04:10 PM

Even though alot of people seem to be against it, I support this too. I've spent plenty of money that I probably wouldn't have on things that couldn't be downloaded.
Digital Distribution is so much fun n_n.

Revolution · #9 February 3rd, 2008, 04:16 PM

With Gal Civ 2 I was able to Download the game/cd key online and pay an extra 5 bucks to get the CD's shipped to me. Perhaps with Dom3 they could do it where you could download the game and get a password for the "I want to play now" aspect and then the person would get the actual CD/manual in the mail a week or two later.

sector24 · #10 February 3rd, 2008, 04:20 PM

I may be wrong here (and feel perfectly free to tell me so) but I think Shrapnel is very sensitive to piracy, far more so than some companies. Digitial download opens the dark door to the scary place. Some companies believe that the increased sales outweigh the small percentage of pirated copies, but I have never seen any hard numbers on this subject.