Comments on: Casual Game Price Points and Conversion http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/ Phil Steinmeyer's rumblings on the game biz, programming, and life Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:33:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Phil Steinmeyer http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-1648 Phil Steinmeyer Sat, 17 Jun 2006 19:14:34 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-1648 Not sure what you mean... Most sites don't require you to register a player name at their site. Of sites that do, I personally have no knowledge of registration rates. Not sure what you mean…

Most sites don’t require you to register a player name at their site. Of sites that do, I personally have no knowledge of registration rates.

]]> By: Cosmic http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-1635 Cosmic Sat, 17 Jun 2006 14:09:40 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-1635 Does anyone know what the average player name registration conversion rate is for an online game site? That is, of the total number of new people who hit your homepage, what percentage of them can you expect to actually register a player name assuming the site is well-designed? Does anyone know what the average player name registration conversion rate is for an online game site? That is, of the total number of new people who hit your homepage, what percentage of them can you expect to actually register a player name assuming the site is well-designed?

]]> By: Arcade Game Central » Prices of Console Games May Rise http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-313 Arcade Game Central » Prices of Console Games May Rise Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:19:36 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-313 [...] Of course, as production values rise, budgets for casual games will likely rise as well, and eventually these costs may be passed along to consumers. There has been some discussion of changing the common $19.95 price point for casual games (Casual Game Price Elasticity, Casual Game Price Points and Conversion), but this does not appear likely to change in the near future. [...] [...] Of course, as production values rise, budgets for casual games will likely rise as well, and eventually these costs may be passed along to consumers. There has been some discussion of changing the common $19.95 price point for casual games (Casual Game Price Elasticity, Casual Game Price Points and Conversion), but this does not appear likely to change in the near future. [...]

]]> By: Phil Steinmeyer http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-77 Phil Steinmeyer Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:01:48 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-77 Oh, and it would be pretty hard for me to do the experiment myself. At the moment, I'm not even selling Bonnie's Bookstore myself, though I have the right to, and probably will, add that feature to my website. Still, as a one-off game web site, my traffic is too small to do a multi-part A/B test like this and have a large enough data sample to make the results meaningful. I think iWin did all this testing BEFORE putting the game out to other sites, using a limited release on their own web site (which does get a fair amount of traffic). I'd guess they used random cookies to determine which users saw which offers, but I don't know that for sure. Oh, and it would be pretty hard for me to do the experiment myself. At the moment, I’m not even selling Bonnie’s Bookstore myself, though I have the right to, and probably will, add that feature to my website. Still, as a one-off game web site, my traffic is too small to do a multi-part A/B test like this and have a large enough data sample to make the results meaningful.

I think iWin did all this testing BEFORE putting the game out to other sites, using a limited release on their own web site (which does get a fair amount of traffic). I’d guess they used random cookies to determine which users saw which offers, but I don’t know that for sure.

]]> By: Phil Steinmeyer http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-76 Phil Steinmeyer Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:59:26 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-76 Yeah, when I see guys selling games for $5.95 or $9.95, I wonder why. Half the battle for me is getting me to go downstairs, grab my wallet, get the credit card, enter all the info, and hope that I'll neither be scammed nor spammed afterward. I don't have any real price resistance up to $19.95. OTOH, because I'm used to seeing casual games at $19.95, it'd be a much harder sell for me to plunk down $29.95 or more for something. Yeah, when I see guys selling games for $5.95 or $9.95, I wonder why. Half the battle for me is getting me to go downstairs, grab my wallet, get the credit card, enter all the info, and hope that I’ll neither be scammed nor spammed afterward. I don’t have any real price resistance up to $19.95. OTOH, because I’m used to seeing casual games at $19.95, it’d be a much harder sell for me to plunk down $29.95 or more for something.

]]> By: Steve http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-75 Steve Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:55:47 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/33/casual-game-price-points-and-conversion/#comment-75 > I’d love to see others experiment with > this and publicly reveal their data. Well, um, you have a game out there Phil, why don't you experiment a little? :-) Interesting stuff though. Price, as long as it's within the bounds of reason, seems to have much less to do with sales than the game itself. There are plenty of people out there with the disposable income where the extra 10 bucks doesn't really matter much. As far as the 30 minute (or less) vs. 60 minute trial period though, I'd hate to see it become the norm for it to be the former. I purchased Zuma a while back, with its 60 minute trial. On the other hand, Fairies has a 30 minute trial period, but I had no interest in buying it because of that. Even though it was "pretty," it was too much the same as what's already out there. And that's the main downfall of the casual game market ... too many clones with revamped graphics and storylines. It all gets a bit boring, or at the very least, predictable, after awhile. > I’d love to see others experiment with
> this and publicly reveal their data.

Well, um, you have a game out there Phil, why don’t you experiment a little? :-) Interesting stuff though. Price, as long as it’s within the bounds of reason, seems to have much less to do with sales than the game itself. There are plenty of people out there with the disposable income where the extra 10 bucks doesn’t really matter much.

As far as the 30 minute (or less) vs. 60 minute trial period though, I’d hate to see it become the norm for it to be the former. I purchased Zuma a while back, with its 60 minute trial. On the other hand, Fairies has a 30 minute trial period, but I had no interest in buying it because of that. Even though it was “pretty,” it was too much the same as what’s already out there. And that’s the main downfall of the casual game market … too many clones with revamped graphics and storylines. It all gets a bit boring, or at the very least, predictable, after awhile.

]]>