Why Bundles and Steam Sales Aren't Good for Most Indies

Re:Why Bundles and Steam Sales Aren't Good for Most Indies by cageface on Thursday November 24, 2011 @08:38AM (#3274271)

I don't think there are many people making good indie games (or music apps, my domain) that are willing to work for nothing. We're all just slowly coming to the realization that venues like the App Store and Steam have eaten the middle out of the market. If you're not one of the anointed ones you might as well not bother. Things weren't nearly so lean before this.

The problem is that an "app" has now become a generic commodity, with an expected value that has zero correlation with the amount of work that went into it or the size of the potential audience.

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Re:Why Bundles and Steam Sales Aren't Good for Most Indies by fennecfoxen on Thursday November 24, 2011 @11:59AM (#3274807)

There are billions of possible projects out there whose expected value has zero correlation with the amount of work that goes into them. This is why I'm not spending a million man-hours building a ziggurat in my back yard.

Paying for an app based on effort going into making it is nonsense. An app should be paid for based on the value it provides. If it could have provided that same value with less effort, it probably should have.

Now, if you want to complain that it's hard to charge based on the value the app will provide, I'd believe you! It's still very, very hard to provide users with information which will let them evaluate your product and determine that it is, in fact, a quality product worth paying lots of money for.

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Re:Why Bundles and Steam Sales Aren't Good for Most Indies by georgemcbay on Thursday November 24, 2011 @03:56PM (#3275393)

App Stores (not just Apple's) have also served to erode the perception of value any one app (or game) provides as well, IMO.

Fun fact -- I have never bought a single app on Amazon's Android App Store even though I fire it up every day to see what I can get for free. Why buy an app for $1-10 dollars (even if I may get that amount of enjoyment/practical use out of it) when it MIGHT BE FREE tomorrow?

The same thing holds to a lesser extent on those giant Steam sales. I never buy any games on Steam full price even if I want to play them badly because I know if I wait a few months I'll be able to get them for pennies on the dollar in some crazy sale or other.

As a consumer this is great for me. As a developer, not so much.

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Re:Why Bundles and Steam Sales Aren't Good for Most Indies by philwelch on Thursday November 24, 2011 @02:58PM (#3275270)

> Paying for an app based on effort going into making it is nonsense. An app should be paid for based on the value it provides.

The price of an app (or anything, really) is based on both. It's not dictated by the supply curve or the demand curve; it's dictated by the intersection of the curves. This argument was settled centuries ago.

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