GOG ‘pricing experiment’ amounts to savings.
Michael Johnson February 18, 2013 - 5:54 pmGOG have decided, based on what looks to be some rigorous scientific analysis that it’s in their (and our) interest to experiment with lower pricing.
It’s not really my role as an objective source of news and dubious wisdom to say to you, as a reader “Hey! Go and spend money at this company’s store”. However, I will break any rule in the name of science.
GOG have written a witty blog update on what they’re calling a ‘pricing experiment’ (rather than a sale) which involves lowering prices in the hope this will generate more purchases. Which, quite frankly, is the kind of consumer friendly experiment I can get behind.
The rhetoric behind the decision is as follows:
“STEP 1: Observations
#1 People who play computer games like games. This is mostly true, however some gamers who played these titles might disagree.
#2 People who buy computer games prefer spending less money to spending more money. It hurts us a little bit, but the truth is games don’t sell for $1000+
#3 GOG.com users are people who play, like, and buy computer games.
STEP 2: Hypothesis
If GOG.com lowers the prices of some games in our catalog, more gamers will be inclined to buy and enjoy those high-quality products.
STEP 3: The Experiment
We’re trying out some new pricing, and we want to see what you guys think of it.”
Clearly there are some exceptional minds at work here. Among the titles you can pick up at a reduced price are Realms of the Haunting, Lords of Magic and Rollercoaster Tycoon, now going for the paltry sum of $3.99. My personal pick of the best on offer here goes to Outcast, now at $6.99. It’s a bizarre game, that used a weird software rendering Voxel technique for its graphics. But it does a great job at depicting an alien world, where you (the delightfully named ‘Cutter Slade’) arrive and are heralded as the ‘Ulukai’ – a saviour whose arrival was foretold in prophecies. The screenshot at the top of the article suggests that my memory of a lush landscape is somewhat painfully rose-tinted.
