First time poster, long time lurker.
I work for a really big retailer, think wal mart but I'm not in the USA. I'm responsible for pricing policy, including the psychology of pricing and consumer choices.
The signatiure edition isn't the worst marketing idea ever, but it
IS the worst executed.
And, no offense, but some of the responses from the Bioware team display a degree of ignorance about how their customers make choices in their lives.
And whilst buying a game isn't that big a choice, really, compared to say a car or a house, once it gets over thirty or forty us dollars equivalent, they people do tend to put a fair bit of thought into trying to make a good decision - benefits to them vs cost to them.
If - if - the signature edition, and all the 'retailer exclusive item' retail editions, and all the distribution options (PC, PC or Mac, PC
and MAC, DD, console) had been clearly differentiated, priced, and presented right from the start, people might have been able, as Stanley suggested, to make an informed consumer choice to buy or not to buy, when to buy, and which version to buy, etc (although it would have been really complicated). it would have been possible.
But that's not the case. Promotions that are specific to unique retailers pop up all over the place, some after the signature edition expired. Promotions that were supposed to be universal, like the sword and shield, turn out to be retailer-optional.
DD options like Steam become available after the sig edition expired. The Mac version is on the same disc as PC, but that's announced after many people may have already pre ordered pc only through steam. A mac version may or may not come to Steam. We still don't know what DRM will be used for the different versions.
So you can't tell your customers it's over to them to make a rational choice, when they're not aware of all the choices. They
hate that. Fundamental consumer psychology dictates that even in a dollar store, people won't pick up merchandise that isn't clearly priced. Even though the worst it can be is a dollar or two, it is basic human nature to avoid making choices where the consequences are unclear. And if they do take a chance, all it does is increase the likelihood of them being disappointed with their product.
Worst case scenario for the seller is often though of as being "too confusing, I won't buy it", but actually "I bought it but wish I hadn't because something better got announced the next day" is
worse. It makes people feel bad about what they just bought, and does more long term damage to the seller's brand, reputation (and customer loyalty) than just about anything else.
Normally, people try to do the exact opposite to this - they buy something and then post-rationalise about why it was a good idea. Having your customers doing the opposite is really, really bad. We want shopping to make us feel good. It's not supposed to be hard. We kinda already feel guilty about buying stuff because we could, you know, give it to someone worse off than us instead, or save it for our retirement, or spend our time writing poetry instead of gaming, whatever, so making them feel like they made the wrong choice is really, really poor marketing.
Really, this is all about the second hand game market, and the way it drives game publishers nuts (2nd hand games count for about 20% of Best Buy's sales but over half its profits - the publisher hates this and lies awake at night plotting about how to change it).
Having benefits that only come with a 'new' copy make sense if the benefits are clearly articulated right from the start. Having benefits that try to encourage preorders - in an effort to get your money now before you spend it another game later also makes sense. But doing all of this crap, and revealing it at different times just gives the impression that despite its maturing into a multi billion dollar industry, gaming's maturity is only skin deep - it's being run by a bunch of amateurs.
Worst executed release and value / benefit / pricing plan ever? Probably. In gaming terms anyway. And Bioware clearly, based on the posts in here, with all due respect, don't get it.
Modifié par The Dread Pirate Thomas, 17 février 2011 - 04:24 .
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