Why Casual Games Should Kill The 60 Minute Trial
I always eagerly await Vinny Carrella's Gamezebo casual game columns, and his latest is called 'Kill the 60 Minute Trial', and advocates plaintively: "We shouldn't have to buy a subscription in order to get a game for less than $19.99, we should get games for $9.99 across the board, and the way to do this is to sell games to 100% of the downloading audience, and the way to do that is to get rid of the 60 minute free trial."
Wow, many big ideas combined at once here! Carrella goes on to suggest: "The consumer doesn't need a free trial, what she/he needs to help make a buying decision is honest marketing, better online demos and more press coverage in the form of reviews and editorials. That's how it works in the industry known as core gaming, where games are marketed and promoted and demonstrated and reviewed and talked about, so that by the time the consumer gets to EB or Best Buy he knows what he's buying."
You know, I like the cut of Vinny's jib here, but the point of casual gamers tends to be that they don't check preview/review sites (like Gamezebo!) to work out what to buy before they buy it - though maybe the biz needs to change that? It is true that a lot of cloning is presumably based on the fact that consumers are not well educated as to who originated the concept or who did it 'best' - but we can't force them to, of course.
Carrella concludes: "I'm not an expert on business models, but I'll tell you, long before I was in the games business I was a game player and then a game developer, and as a game player I don't feel that I should have to download a twenty, thirty or even fifty megabyte file in order to find out whether or not a game is good enough to spend twenty dollars on it." This Flash demo point is a good one, I think, and the article is worth checking out just for the excellent comments.
Comments
[quote]The consumer doesn't need a free trial, what she/he needs to help make a buying decision is honest marketing, better online demos and more press coverage in the form of reviews and editorials.[/quote]
This is in reference to casual games correct? If so then what I'm about to say probably doesn't apply....
For me I don't care about "marketing", it's all BS and I automatically block it out.
I really don't care about reviews or editorials either. (Again, BS)
I also do not care for demo or trial versions before buying a game but they are better than nothing. (Demo or trial versions despite what's claimed are not representative of the full game)
1. What I do care about is online forums and friends that like the same games that I do and if they think the game is good or not.
2. If I can grab a copy of the full game before buying (either through rental\borrowing\downloading) then that really helps me to decide if the purchase is worth it or not.
For the past couple of years it's been pretty much #1 exclusively whereas in my earlier years it was #2 mostly.
I've been doing this so long and have such a vast collection of games that I don't need to really bother with #2 and can pretty much trust #1. I did get burned with Quake 4/Vampire Bloodlines since I trusted #1 and didn't use #2 but the games were not so completely bad that I regretted buying them. (but close).
Posted by: DosFreak | June 14, 2007 4:16 AM
I don't know about you, but by the time the 60 minutes are up I can pretty much tell whether or not I want to keep playing. I haven't regretted a purchase done this way. Moreover, I've often regretted games I've bought from retail that have got large amounts of buzz around them, but I've seen all I wanted to see in an hour. I rent most games these days because I've been burnt too many times in the past.
But hey, if he thinks he can convince the enthusiast media to pay any sort of attention to developers that don't have PR on staff, good luck to him. I just don't think it'll help.
And what's wrong with a $20 price point anyways?
Posted by: Merus | June 14, 2007 5:18 AM
He says, "I'm not an expert on business models", well, people who are have invested a great deal of time and money disagree. The people who have established these business models rely on study, data and facts, not some personal opinion. All casual game busines models (devised by experts) show that 19.99 is the pricing sweet spot for consumer purchase and profits.
Reviews are useless, playing a game and deciding if you like it before you buy is best. Saying thats how it works in "core gaming" and thats how it should work for casual games is nonsense. The "rely on (paid for? bias? ignorant?) reviews and spend $60 model" is a poor one.
Posted by: Brad | June 14, 2007 7:10 AM
There are some kinds of games that no amount of non-play information will give you a fair indication of whether to purchase it. Who would have bought Katamari Damacy if people hadn't been able to play it and sense its awesomeness? Some things do not translate well into words.
The kinds of games of which I speak, since they rely on the elemental feel of the play to be engaging, are also much more likely to be casual game types of things. Not all casual games, certainly, but a good number of them.
So I don't think that the casual game demo is going away, although Carrella does make some good points.
Posted by: John H. | June 14, 2007 10:50 AM
What Vinny is talking about seems to be focused on what's good for the *Industry*, not what's good for the *consumer*, or the individual game developer.
When you get rid of the free trial, you make games compete via marketing and press, which screws the little guy. Try-before-you-buy levels the playing field and means that people decide on what games to buy based on playing the real game.
I personally happen to think that try-before-you-buy
I just recently blogged about the Try-before-you-buy model.
I just recently blogged about this from a slightly different angle (DRM), but I have the exact opposite view:
http://blog.hanfordlemoore.com/2007/06/01/drm-phobia-and-its-impact-on-games
Posted by: Hanford | June 14, 2007 12:47 PM
i, too, am confused by his comment "that's how it works in ... core gaming". so wait, all those free downloadable demos on xbox live, playstation network, fileplanet etc etc don't count?
Posted by: bunnyhero | June 18, 2007 12:47 AM