Don't ShrapnelGames *want* Dom3 to succeed?

[Innocence]

Ok, this is ridiculous:

Dom3 is available in the US for ~50 US$. However, if I buy stuff directly from the US I must pay additional customs on top of the much higher shipping cost, and it takes several weeks to get it.

So I look for European distributors only to find out that the few ones available charge ~50 *Euro* for the game - which at the current exchange rate is almost twice as much as in the US!

I know the game is very good, but having to pay twice the amount is plain robbery, and many people simply wont buy the game on those terms, meaning Dominions will continue to be a niche game - a real shame for a game with such a huge potiential.

I know it isn't ShrapnelGames' fault that EU distributors are over-charging, but I do think they have a responsibility to Illwinter as their main distributor to make the game available outside the US too.

Don't ShrapnelGames know about the invention of the Internet? Why don't they simply sell the game online (downloadable game+manual+mail the serial). If Valve and several others can make it work, so can they I'm sure.

I had this same problem years ago when I bought Dom2, but I honestly thought they'd done something about this in the meantime

[Endoperez]

Hi,

I'm not affiliated with Shrapnel Games, but since the last major discussion about the lack of digital distribution happened only last February I thought you might be interested in reading Shrapnel Games' answer to the queries then.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...&Number=579437

Tim Brooks said:

This goes to the whole digital distribution model. We have researched this and we use it with a number of our games so we know what is what. The assumption [online distribution sells more copies] is false when it comes to niche games. A game like Dominions will not sell noticeably more copies. It will just shift a percentage of sales from physical product to digital. And for publishers in niche markets looking to minimize costs this is unacceptable since you will print less physical product and therefore increase costs. Also, distributing a manual in electronic format for a game where the manual is almost a necessity just plays into the pirates hands. Want to know the most searched on term that leads people to Shrapnel Games? 'Dominions 3 Manual'. This accounts for almost one third of all searches that come to our site. We are sort of happy that the pirates have a hard time with the game. Actually that's not true, we are very, very happy that the pirates have a hard time with the game.

Based on the above the only answer would be to go to a totally electronic distribution model. I would love to do this. No inventory hassles, no printers to deal with, fewer employees... the list goes on and on. And one day we may do this, but right now we just don't see it as an option for a game as popular and as niche as Dominions 3. To limit piracy, we would have to go to a system like Steam uses and I personally refuse to do this. I don't think that the person buying the game should be the one penalized for spending their hard earned money in support of our developers.

A thought: Wonder why Steam doesn't sell physical products? I mean, your arguments are we would sell more if we had digital distribution. Wouldn't Steam sell more if they had physical products too? Funny how the digital distribution argument is never turned around.

Want some other interesting facts? We get about 1 support request for every 100 (approximate number) physical games sold. For every download product, we get about 17 support requests for every 100 games sold. Talk about costs. Know what the most expensive single component to a game is? Support. That is why so many of our competitors have such lousy support. So lets do something that increases that cost. In this thread people have talked about getting Dominions cheaper if we had digital distribution. Actually the opposite is true. Digital distributed products cost us more than physically distributed games.

I really want to write more, but have to leave for a meeting now, so I will leave this here and try to get back to it later.

[Innocence]

Endoperez said:I thought you might be interested in reading Shrapnel Games' answer to the queries then.

Brilliant Endoperez - thanks for the link

(I did do a few forum searches on "europe", "buy" and "buying" before I posted, but not on digital distribution )

[PvK]

It's not like the price of Shrapnel games in Europe doubled - just the value of the dollar halved, no?

Can't Europeans who want to take advantage of the dollar losing half its value, find a way to order from the USA?

[lch]

Hey! Those people that are doing photo shoots about how they are lusting for Dom3 have to eat, too! So don't just complain that the prices are too high! haaheehahaha

[moderation]

It shouldn't be a problem to pay for the game is USD if you don't mind waiting for the international shipping.

I won't comment on those photographers.

[kasnavada]

The international shipping is something like 2 or 3 weeks though. Better do it fast if you want to play anytime soon...

[Griefor]

I live in the Netherlands and I ordered the game from the official store here. It took about a week to arrive. I paid $62,45 for the product plus shipping, the price in euros was �40,36.

Considering that stores you buy games from IN Europe will convert dollars pretty much 1:1 into euros to determine their prices, I felt I got quite a good deal there.

[Innocence]

moderation said:
It shouldn't be a problem to pay for the game is USD if you don't mind waiting for the international shipping.

Waiting is one thing, but besides the $12 shipping cost, any goods imported into the EU is subject to customs taxes and VAT - so in the end I have no idea what my final cost will be.

Griefor said:
I live in the Netherlands and I ordered the game from the official store here

Interresting. Got an link for that store?

Considering that stores you buy games from IN Europe will convert dollars pretty much 1:1 into euros to determine their prices

First time I've ever heard about this - every online store I used in the EU will only let you pay in Euros.

[Endoperez]

I think moderation meant that the European shops will buy gmaes from US for X dollars, and sell those same games for X euros.