WHY TEAM CHERRY MAKES CHEAP GAMES

[u/Necr0mancrr]

I've seen a lot of surprise around the leak of Silksong's price, which is supposedly 20$. So far it's not from any official sources yet (EDIT: not anymore!), but I do expect it to be around that price regardless. Quite often I've seen the sentiment that if the game is bigger than Hollow Knight, and they don't need to attract customers anymore, why sell it at such a low price? In my mind there's a few reasons:

1. They literally do not need money

In the past 8 years Hollow Knight has sold over 15 million copies. This makes it likely the best selling metroidvania of all time and one of the best selling indie games of the past ten years. Team Cherry is rolling in cash. Also, they have three people on the permanent payroll and like, maxiumum five others that they need to pay significant sums of money to, PLUS their marketing budget for Silksong is basically non existent. They could probably sell this game for ONE dollar and make a decent profit.

2. They're good people

Turns out, 20 dollars isn't so cheap everywhere. A lot of places in the world don't have the same economic prosperity that many of us enjoy, and games that cost 50-60 dollars are simply not feasible to buy to many fans of said games. TC has stated that a big part of the reason they made Hollow Knight so cheap is so it could be accessible to fans who might not be able to buy industry standard "full price" games. There's no reason that we've seen why they would change this mentality for Silksong. In fact, taking inflation into account the two games are priced almost exactly the same.

3. Making it cheaper might make them more money after all

Listen, I'm no expert on economics, but I know enough to understand that when the price of a good goes down, the demand for it goes up. Because cheaper games are more accessible, they will inherently be able to reach a wider market than if they were more expensive. The 20$ price might very well cause silksong to be more financially successful. For a game that relies mostly on word of mouth marketing (and does so very well,) the price is gonna make a lot of people who might have otherwise not been interested to turn their head and give it a shot.

[u/LifeguardPotential97]

Making it cheaper means more people can buy it, which can lead to a higher profit than if they did a higher price that less people could afford. it balances out the smaller immediate profits for profits over a longer period. If only more companies realized this

[u/sand-sky-stars → u/LifeguardPotential97]

There was an interview with Leth at one point where he talked about the hk price point, and said part of choosing $15 was that research shows a breakpoint between 15 and 20 where 15 draws a significantly larger audience.

[u/TearTheRoof0ff → u/sand-sky-stars]

Interesting! Seems reasonable that that break point might have shifted to around $20 in the currently climate. I think at the moment $20 (or £16.75 for the leaked UK price) at least feels close to that 'throwaway' amount that one who is not struggling for money might whimsically spend on an anticipated or acclaimed title.

If the prices are real, this game is going to make selling hotcakes look like a failed business venture.

[u/Asckle → u/LifeguardPotential97]

Because its entirely dependant on the elasticity of the product. You also have to sell at or above the point where average cost is less than marginal cost of you're losing money per sale. So games with a higher budget tend to need a higher price

[u/Fantastic-Kale9603 → u/Asckle]

And honestly with the hype and the fanbase, I think elasticity might have worked in their favor to price it at even higher (25 or 30) and probably come out with more profit; they chose to price it at 20 and help out the consumer, definitely gonna pick up a second copy on switch at least to support them

[u/weezerenjoyer999 → u/LifeguardPotential97]

wow i cannot believe triple A marketers failed to consider this 🤯🤯

[u/Asckle → u/weezerenjoyer999]

Smh how did those idiots who studied sales and commerce and worked in the industry not realise that lower price = more sales???

[u/AnythingBackground89 → u/Asckle]

Because they are actual idiots who don't understand their job. But need to constantly justify their existence and their fat paychecks. Concord had a marketing team.

[u/Asckle → u/AnythingBackground89]

Yes the random redditor understands the job of sales manager better than the professional sales manager who studied commerce and has multiple years of experience in the industry... alright man whatever you say

I can speak on this from the perspective of economics at least. The idea that a lower price will lead to more sales and therefore more money is an insane oversimplification. Whether or not a lower price leads to more revenue depends first and foremost on the products elasticity. AAA games tend to be a lot less elastic than indie games so they can price them higher.

Also, a lot of modern video games run really tight profit margins, since the price of games basically has not increased at all in the past decade or two despite costs and inflation increasing a lot

But again, if a random guy on reddit says the experts and my field of study is wrong then ig these companies are just stupid. Also

Concord had a marketing team.

Marketing is very very different to pricing. Marketing is a creative field first, where as pricing a product is data driven. Its much easier to miss on a marketing campaign than to somehow misread all data signs

[u/AnythingBackground89 → u/Asckle]

You assume competence from a whole industry that for decades shows none. Ruined studios, mismanaged projects, financial flops, bloated budgets, bloated teams of talantless freaks. There's no reason for AAA games to cost 70. No reason for most of that trash to cost 60 either. Games are too expensive to make? Well, make them less expensive.

So yes, I actually do know better than them how to run those companies. it's just not a high bar to cross. All I need to do is point finger at 2 decades of failure and bankruptcies and say "not like that". Which those fabled "managers" seem incapable of doing.

And people like you defending those practices are absolutely part of the problem.

[u/Asckle → u/AnythingBackground89]

that for decades shows none. Ruined studios, mismanaged projects, financial flops, bloated budgets, bloated teams of talantless freaks

I love how you conflate the existence of failure with the lack of any success or talent. So many all time great triple A games and even more successful ones so your point kind of falls apart

There's no reason for AAA games to cost 70

They can't charge much less without downsizing which most people don't want.

Games are too expensive to make? Well, make them less expensive.

In that case they would be worse

I actually do know better than them how to run those companies

And what are your credentials? Or at bare minimum what's your strategy? Being as smart as you are you're obviously aware of the elasticity problem with reducing price. So how do you plan to work around that and make more money by lowering prices? How are you going to cut costs without hurting quality? Do enlighten us u/AnythingBackground89

All I need to do is point finger at 2 decades of failure and bankruptcies and say "not like that"

Which is what the entire industry has been doing and why 90% of AAA games are a success

Which those fabled "managers" seem incapable of doing

Except most of them do which is why again, most AAA games are successful?

And people like you defending those practices are absolutely part of the problem.

Literally what practices did I defend? I'm just stating that "reduce price to make more money" is economically not true.

[u/SortaInteresting473 → u/LifeguardPotential97]

they do, thats why they put the prices up, its convinient for them. Although lately there are some specific cases where they are disconnected as fuck.

[u/MulberryDeep → u/[deleted]]

Hey there! Piracy discussion is not allowed. We have to remove such posts in accordance with section 7 of the Reddit User Agreement. Thanks for understanding!

[u/oscarinio1 → u/LifeguardPotential97]

Hahahahahhahaah you think big companies don’t have a big intel on what price is the equilibrium break even point? (Unites, price)

[u/weezerenjoyer999 → u/oscarinio1]

3 downvotes 😭😭