0
GB: Why do you stick with a $20 price for Torchlight II, even though it’s bigger and has more features than the first one, like co-op multiplayer?
MS: We felt like Torchlight I’s price point was a magic price point for that kind of game and we sold more than we anticipated. So there’s a market for a $20 AAA game. Our idea was: let’s just make games that feel like an AAA game and play like an AAA game, but strip away all the extraneous stuff and the expensive marketing campaigns and all that. Just offer the game for a $20 price point and then we think people will flock to that. They did it for Torchlight I and Torchlight II is so much bigger and so much better that I can’t imagine that people will be disappointed when they pay 20 bucks for it. And what we want most of all are happy customers that tell their friends about the game.
GB: Are you considering additional revenue sources, like virtual item sales?
MS: No, I think we want to keep it a simple business model and not split our communities into people who buy extras and people who don’t buy extras. So if we do anything with Torchlight II [past its release], it would be – most likely – an expansion pack. We’d put together another package of stuff and sell that, but not try to nickel and dime with single items or anything like that. Torchlight is something that doesn’t lend itself well to item sales anyway because we give you the development tools with the game, so you can just make any item you want anyway. Selling something to players that they can generate themselves would be tough.
For the full interview follow the link below.MS: We felt like Torchlight I’s price point was a magic price point for that kind of game and we sold more than we anticipated. So there’s a market for a $20 AAA game. Our idea was: let’s just make games that feel like an AAA game and play like an AAA game, but strip away all the extraneous stuff and the expensive marketing campaigns and all that. Just offer the game for a $20 price point and then we think people will flock to that. They did it for Torchlight I and Torchlight II is so much bigger and so much better that I can’t imagine that people will be disappointed when they pay 20 bucks for it. And what we want most of all are happy customers that tell their friends about the game.
GB: Are you considering additional revenue sources, like virtual item sales?
MS: No, I think we want to keep it a simple business model and not split our communities into people who buy extras and people who don’t buy extras. So if we do anything with Torchlight II [past its release], it would be – most likely – an expansion pack. We’d put together another package of stuff and sell that, but not try to nickel and dime with single items or anything like that. Torchlight is something that doesn’t lend itself well to item sales anyway because we give you the development tools with the game, so you can just make any item you want anyway. Selling something to players that they can generate themselves would be tough.
Return to Full Article - InsideMacGames News
