One of the biggest headaches any game publisher must face, once the product is planned, tested, and produced, is HOW to distribute the title through the various channels available for filtration to the consumer. This is no small matter! Millions of dollars are expended in ensuring the distributor gets his or her cut of the profits in bringing the title to the market. Millions of dollars are spent in figuring out how to best utilize available channels (or create new channels) for product introduction and sales. Millions of dollars are exhausted in trying to figure out HOW to entice the buyer to a particular title.
Certainly one way to attract attention is to offer a title at less than the competition. This is certainly a sure way to attract attention, especially if the game publisher already has an excellent reputation. If this is the publisher’s first title, then it might be a good way to ensure enough attention is paid to the title BECAUSE of its price, as this is a prime consideration when buying products.
Suddenly, publishers run into the “perceived value” syndrome that seems to affect consumers. If a title is less expensive than a competing product, does that mean the title that is less costly is less alluring, contains less entertainment, and is, therefore, of far less value to the consumer? If such is the case, then lowering the cost of a title must be weighed thoughtfully before implemented.
Which brings us to the dilemma now facing CD-ROM products. Such a concern is currently being faced by Domark with their Flying Nightmares flight simulation for Macintosh and Power Macintosh platforms. However, they are addressing the problem in a very smart manner. Consumers will be able to purchase the product either on two 3.5-inch disks packed with code or a CD-ROM with about 12MB of code. As consumers have come to expect CD-ROMs to be mammoth in content, at least above 400MB or so, a CD-ROM with less than 20MB of data mighty seem to offer less value than the disks. After all, this is the EXPECTATION of the consumer.
In reality, publishers know that CD-ROM is far more reasonable a media, as far as production costs are concerned, for game distribution than floppy disks. It doesn’t matter if only 2MB of data are on the CD-ROM—it still only costs pennies on the dollar as compared with the floppy disk route. Domark is going to attempt a new approach: consumers will pay $5.00 more for the floppy disk version than the CD-ROM version! The price difference really doesn’t penalize consumers that may not have a CD-ROM drive—after all, $5.00 is the cost of most title backup 3.5-inch disks you must purchase from the game publisher should you wish a second copy of a game. But this price difference does signify the start of a new era of game distribution—as the CD-ROM is less expensive to produce, consumers who wisely consider the CD-ROM version save themselves $5.00 right off the bat.
We see this maneuver as the start of a new enlightenment for consumers, wherein they’ll slowly begin to realize that it doesn’t matter HOW much code is packed onto a CD-ROM, only that the CD-ROM saves them money when they purchase a game. Naturally, the lack of hundreds of megabytes of data is going to have to be overcome, and in Domark’s case, price is the winning solution. The winning argument for consumers is going to be (no matter how many packed megabytes are on the disc) that if the publisher has produced a super title that less cost on storage media that’s easier to store (and, for the publisher, package and display), they’re gonna buy the CD-ROM title. Domark is going to prove that this is a win-win situation for all parties concerned! —Hartley Lesser
Apple CD-ROM Drive Contest Winner!
Congratulations to Tom Carmen from San Diego, California! He's won the FREE Apple CD-300 CD-ROM drive. Our Grand Prize winner not only gets a brand, spanking new CD-ROM drive but also the following titles to start his CD-ROM collection; MYST, Jump Raven, The Iron Helix, Peter Gabriel’s Xplora 1, Spectre VR CD-ROM, and the IMG CD-ROM. Congrats Tom!
MACnificent 7.1 CD-ROM available from IMG
MACnificent 7.1 Education & Games • 2nd Edition Macintosh CD-ROM is now available directly from Inside Mac Games. Ideal for both home and school use, this comprehensive collection of the latest versions of over 7,000 educational, game, and children’s files has been gathered by the National Home & School Macintosh User Group for authors worldwide. The programs have been carefully tested for compatibility on several different Mac CPUs and Systems, including System 7. The programs are described, rated, categorized, and cross-referenced. The “Librarian” program containing this information allows the user to navigate among the many programs with ease and efficiency and even launch them!
MACnificent 7.1 is available directly from IMG for the low price of $39, plus $3 shipping and handling. Subscribers and non-subscribers can order the CD-ROM by filling out the subscription form at the end of the magazine and checking the line for the Macnificent 7.1 CD-ROM or by calling 708/486-0636 with your VISA/MC number ready. Subscribers can also fill out the Back Issues order form found in the IMG Extras folder included with the magazine.
Corrections
The author of the Valkyrie review in the March IMG was not Ross Scott Rubin, but rather Christopher Myrick.
We mistakenly left out the DOCMaker shareware doc last month. Apologies to Mark Wall. Please put the shareware doc in the same folder you have DOCMaker 4.01.
Special Thanks
As always, the editors of IMG would like to thank all of our writers, as well as Craig Fryar, Steven Lundin, Rod Whitten, Bob Nordling, Mark Rubin, Trey Smith, Jeff Morgan, Douglas Hempel, Jeff Rich, Mark Wall, Mark Adams, the Lessers and all of you who have given us your continued support.
A special thanks to Aladdin Systems for allowing us to use the StuffIt Installer.
