I always like to think about how well RollerCoaster Tycoon did when it debuted at $19.95. It could have sold for more, (and it probably should have), but I bet at that price, it was an almost automatic buy for nearly anyone who saw it. I know it was for me. Serious Sam was another game that came in at $19.95, and seemed like an easy buy at that price.

Price is one of the hardest things to come up with for a product. Marketing people always tend to overestimate the number of people who will buy their product, and underestimate the price they will pay for it. So maybe you guys have it right, for the majority of buyers at any rate … anyway, just my 2 cents.

Steve

BTW, you can play a more limited version of Zuma on-line (at Popcap’s site) for an unlimited time, and there will be a similar version of Bonnie’s Bookstore up there in a couple weeks, too.

The other (non-PopCap) sell the game in one of two ways:
1) Direct sales (i.e. the bigger portals do this) - they get a custom build from PopCap that direct links to their payment system. Thus the end-user pays them, not PopCap, and they in turn pay PopCap, who pays me.
2) Affiliate system - Trymedia operates a big affiliate network. Under this system, pretty much any average Joe can start a website and put up links and game content that TryMedia licenses from the publishers. TryMedia handles the backend (including payments, royalties, etc). The small indie site can check on sales at any time by logging into the TryMedia site. Reflexive.net is another affiliate system.

While I think 30 days was being overly generous, 60 minutes seems to be on the other extreme end of things. I downloaded both your game and Zuma, and found myself slightly more consumed with each minute that past by than the games themself. I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy myself … I did. But I felt that an extra hour or so of time would have let me know if I really wanted to make a purchase.

But in both cases, the limited amount of time didn’t make me want to buy either. While I found both to be fun, I was a bit reluctant to spend $19.95 to find out if I would find both to still be fun after 2 or 3 hours. Especially since I’m used to finding bargains at that price (and often even less) at EBGames.com for my Xbox or PS2.

Perhaps I’m just not the type of customer that the casual game market is after. But I have to say that if the games had cost $12.95 each, I would have bought both without batting an eye. It’s just the psychology behind the pricing and the limitations of the trial period which, for me, stop the deal. I’m sure there are many who become so addicted that they immediately make a purchase. I can see that. But I guess I’m just not one of them … for now at least.

Steve

It points to “[http://www.newcrayon.com/]www.bonniesbookstore.com”, but it should be “[http://www.newcrayon.com/]BonniesBookstore.htm” or “http://www.bonniesbookstore.com”.

If you don’t put the http:// in front, the link is always threated as a relative path.

You mentionned a game’s advertisement on these portals is based on the amount of people who buy the full version. How do they know that data? Did you create a different version for all portals with custom purchase-trackers or do you / popcap have to tell them how many people bought it?