http://www.puppygames.net/blog/?p=1574
הבעיה הגדולה שהם מעלים היא שברגע שהמשחק כבר לא שווה לך כצרכן הרבה, גם אתה כצרכן לא שווה הרבה עבור החברה. אחת הבעיות היא כזו שכבר העלתי בזמנו: הרבה עותקים כפול מעט מעד כסף זה עדיין מעט מאד כסף:
Then Steam came (and to a lesser extent, Big Fish Games).
Things changed fast. So fast that in other industries it would have been seen as a cataclymically disruptive event. The upshot of it is, within 5 short years, the value of an independent game plummeted from about $20 to approximately $1, with very few exceptions. Steam is great! You can sell loads of games! But only if they’re less than $10. Technically Valve don’t actually dictate the prices we charge. Actually, they do. Utterly. It’s just not talked about. In fact technically, I don’t think anyone’s allowed to talk about it.
Then came the Humble Bundle and all its little imitators.
It was another cataclysmically disruptive event, so soon on the heels of the last. Suddenly you’ve got a massive problem on your hands. You’ve sold 40,000 games! But you’ve only made enough money to survive full-time for two weeks because you’re selling them for 10
אבל יותר מזה, בסופו של דבר אני מניח שכולם שמחים על עוד מי שקונה משחק בדולר כל עוד האלטרנטיבה היא שהוא לא היה קונה את המשחק בכלל. אבל ברגע שאותו מישהו עולה להם בזמן וכסף של תמיכה טכנית אז כבד מדובר בהפסד משמעותי מהרגע הראשון שהוא שולח את בקשת התמיכה. צד מעניין שלא נוטים לדבר עליו כמעט בגלל החשש מinternet rage (ובעייתי במיוחד על הPC על הארכיטקטורה הפתוחה שלו):
Where does this lead us to?
You are worthless to us.
Where once you were worth $20, and then you might have become a fan and bought another 4 games off of us for $20, you were worth $100. We only had to fix your computer for you once, as well, so the next four games amortised the cost of the initial support. If we were lucky you were a gamer and already had drivers and liked our stuff and bought the lot. Sometimes you’d tell your friends and maybe one of them would buy a game from us.
But now?
Now you’re worth $1 to us. If you buy every one of our games, you’re worth $5. After Valve and the tax man and the bank take their cuts, you’re not even worth half a cup of coffee. So, while we’re obsequiously polite and helpful when you do contact us for support, even if it’s just the same old “please install some actual video drivers” response, you really should be aware that you are a dead loss. Even if you buy everything we ever make again. Even if all your friends buy everything we ever make again. You just cost us money. Not just fictitious, huge-piles-of-filthy-lucre indie-game-developer who made-it-big money. All our money. We barely scratch a living, like most indie game developers. You quite literally cost us lunch because the shop sold you a computer with broken software on it.
או בעצם לקנות אותו באיזה באנדל (ועכשיו עברנו ל30 סנט ולא דולר) ולבקש תמיכה, אבל רעה כזאת, עם מיילים על פני חודש.