| To me, this encapsulates the decision to go online-only. Retailing video games, especially PC games, is more of a pain than one may think. My local Gamestops offer enough rack space to PC games to stock roughly 40 separate games (usually just one standalone, two-sided rack), and at least one doesn't carry PC games at all. Competition for that rack space is pretty tough, and let's face it -- unless your first name is Sid, a 4X game doesn't have a whole lot of muscle, and an expansion for a 4X is going to have even less. So most stores are probably going to carry one copy, if they carry it at all, and as Kryo already mentioned, they're free to charge less than MSRP. Now why would a company go to all the trouble of getting their product in one of those rack spaces and then turn around and drop their online prices below MSRP, a move that would be nothing but a blantant undercutting of those retail stores (especially those stores that don't cut their prices below MSRP)? |
I completely agree with the philosophy of selling the expansion online. Just do not agree with the idea that it should cost me more than MSRP to get it.
Think about this:
GCII was $40 when it was released I believe. On Stardock it was $45 (basically $5 more to actually have the product shipped to you).
I would much prefer to buy the game for $40 at any of my local shops & get it for $40 (not counting any discounts they may or may not offer). Yes there is some tax but not $5 worth. Should $5 make a difference? Probably not but I, like many others, do not particular want to give my credit card out to every game publisher that decides to start selling their products online.
On top of that if there are any issues it is a lot easier to return a product to a local shop than it is to say return something to an online outlet. In general this is not a problem with games per se but I could easily see myself not receiving my hard copy via UPS because they lost it or dropped it off at the wrong address. Then it is on my to spend an hour or two to get everything straightened out (needless to say something I have experienced more than a few times in the past). With a retail outlet this is simply not an issue.
To talk a little about the negative side of selling online only, what happens if someone is simply not able to buy something via CC or otherwise? Maybe they simply do not trust buying something online (cannot blame people with some of the things you read online every other month or so). In my mind your going to potentially take an honest person & potentially push them to get the game in a dishonest fashion. I would hate to see Stardock lose any sales to this. One of my favorite things about GC is being able to play the game without needing the CD. Personally I would hate to see Stardock change their mind on down the road about copy protection based on one expansion not selling nearly as well. Of course everything could work out great for them but I still think buying things online is still in its growing phase, as many people are still hesitant. As a whole you can probably look at GCII to get an idea of how successful the online aspect was to get the idea. If most of their sales come via the online channel then I can completely understand this direction, if on the other hand most of their sales came from retail then they take the risk of alienating some of their target audience. Most everyone hear probably made the decision to either buy online or via a retail channel & just from this thread alone it seems many went with their local shop.
Overall that is just my two cents. Either way I will buy the product online if that is the only way to do so. Just would like to see Stardock very successful in all of their products.
Runemaster
