Call of Duty: Black Ops - Discussion Thread
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spindoctor
Explorer
Re: Call of Duty Black Ops Discussion Thread.
don't blame the developer here. it's the publishers who set prices and decide whether or not to release stuff.
don't blame the developer here. it's the publishers who set prices and decide whether or not to release stuff.
Re: Call of Duty Black Ops Discussion Thread.
From an article I read in NYT, China has highest software piracy in the world. Now all the software companies like MS, Adobe etc in China are selling their products at much less price than the international market. The levels of piracy has decreased year to year.
What I am trying to impress is, people in different countries have different threshold of prices they can pay for a product. They can't sell a product successfully in all countries at same price. The purchasing power varies country to country.
Activision is stupid to expect that people in India will pay same price of a console game for a PC game. They should keep it around Rs. 1000 and it will sell good. EA keeps their game priced at 1000 and that's the reason EA is getting a market here. If software companies don't keep their prices competitive they are themselves to blame if they lose out due to piracy.
From an article I read in NYT, China has highest software piracy in the world. Now all the software companies like MS, Adobe etc in China are selling their products at much less price than the international market. The levels of piracy has decreased year to year.
What I am trying to impress is, people in different countries have different threshold of prices they can pay for a product. They can't sell a product successfully in all countries at same price. The purchasing power varies country to country.
Activision is stupid to expect that people in India will pay same price of a console game for a PC game. They should keep it around Rs. 1000 and it will sell good. EA keeps their game priced at 1000 and that's the reason EA is getting a market here. If software companies don't keep their prices competitive they are themselves to blame if they lose out due to piracy.
Shripad
Herald
Re: Call of Duty Black Ops Discussion Thread.
Games are not imported. Not anymore. Discs, packaging everything happens right here for most publishers. There is no logistical costs of all that involved anymore.
Costs of setting up game servers as well is no as high as you make it out to be. Keep in mind these are corporations and not the end user. So you even try to guess the actual costs these companies have to endure for that. Its very very less than your average consumer level server rental charges.
To top it off, you underestimate the buying power of Indian consumers. If its priced right it sells. It sells hugely even though it might be very small % of the population. We have enough people who will buy good titles at something less than Rs.1k. Why do you think EA is enjoying more than decent success in India.
Hell the shop from where I buy games sold more than 100 GTA 4 copies in first few weeks alone. I know 10 people in my friend circle alone who got original Mafia II. Price does make a lot of difference in Indian market.
I own a lot of games, but I have also skipped some major titles only because they were priced on par with US pricing in India as well.
I am not poor and I can afford fancy hardware, but I would rather wait for those special offers that pop up during holiday season or one of those steam game pack sales than to buy a pc game at 2499/-
I wont think twice before spending 10 times that much on a GPU, but I wont spend that much on game.
Hardware is something you cant live with. Games, you can skip or delay.
I have close to 100 original game titles with me. And I have only paid over 2000 once and that was for an exceptional game
Game cost is one of the reasons I am yet to embrace consoles.
Publishers have to understand the Indian market. There is a good market if price is right and if they ignore India, its their loss.
Nobody is doing us any favors, its just business. It might not give short term results, but if they have to tap the indian market. they have to start at low pricing.
Steam is the perfect platform for publishers to start selling games at low prices for Indian consumers. close to half my titles are on steam. And I prefer it that way.
I know you are just taking some random numbers to give an example, but you are grossly wrong when it comes to those numbers and procedures involved in getting the games in India.spindoctor said:
Games are not imported. Not anymore. Discs, packaging everything happens right here for most publishers. There is no logistical costs of all that involved anymore.
Costs of setting up game servers as well is no as high as you make it out to be. Keep in mind these are corporations and not the end user. So you even try to guess the actual costs these companies have to endure for that. Its very very less than your average consumer level server rental charges.
To top it off, you underestimate the buying power of Indian consumers. If its priced right it sells. It sells hugely even though it might be very small % of the population. We have enough people who will buy good titles at something less than Rs.1k. Why do you think EA is enjoying more than decent success in India.
Hell the shop from where I buy games sold more than 100 GTA 4 copies in first few weeks alone. I know 10 people in my friend circle alone who got original Mafia II. Price does make a lot of difference in Indian market.
I own a lot of games, but I have also skipped some major titles only because they were priced on par with US pricing in India as well.
I am not poor and I can afford fancy hardware, but I would rather wait for those special offers that pop up during holiday season or one of those steam game pack sales than to buy a pc game at 2499/-
I wont think twice before spending 10 times that much on a GPU, but I wont spend that much on game.
Hardware is something you cant live with. Games, you can skip or delay.
I have close to 100 original game titles with me. And I have only paid over 2000 once and that was for an exceptional game
Game cost is one of the reasons I am yet to embrace consoles.
Publishers have to understand the Indian market. There is a good market if price is right and if they ignore India, its their loss.
Nobody is doing us any favors, its just business. It might not give short term results, but if they have to tap the indian market. they have to start at low pricing.
Steam is the perfect platform for publishers to start selling games at low prices for Indian consumers. close to half my titles are on steam. And I prefer it that way.
hitman02in
Contributor
Re: Call of Duty Black Ops Discussion Thread.
^^ well written.
totally agree with 2 points there - 1) "not doing us any favor" part.when they price it at 499 - its just a business decision for tapping the Indian market.
2) the games priced competitively are selling more copies than spin's estimate.
but the thing is activision doesn't need the Indian market right now - they are making billions already - they can afford to not pay special attention to smaller markets like India.
And as long as they dont release them - people will go the piracy way and they cant be blamed either because they have limited options.
^^ well written.
totally agree with 2 points there - 1) "not doing us any favor" part.when they price it at 499 - its just a business decision for tapping the Indian market.
2) the games priced competitively are selling more copies than spin's estimate.
but the thing is activision doesn't need the Indian market right now - they are making billions already - they can afford to not pay special attention to smaller markets like India.
And as long as they dont release them - people will go the piracy way and they cant be blamed either because they have limited options.
jojothedragon
Discoverer
spindoctor
Explorer
Re: Call of Duty Black Ops Discussion Thread.
discs are still imported in spindles, while the rest of it is done in india. saying that there are no logistical charges is insane, even if it were all done in india. you think there are absolutely no costs involved in getting a game box onto your shopkeeper's shelf? 500 price = 500 profit for 2k games and no one else gets paid in between? at most the publisher gets 200-250 bucks, which is 4-5$.
no one is underestimating the buying power of india. so tell me, if you think 10,000 copies of gta4 sold is too little, how about 100,000. do you think there are 100,000 computers in india capable of running the game? and are there 100,000 gamers here who buy legit games? at what point will you agree that the figure of sold games is ridiculous?
100,000 copies sold is still the revenue equivalent of 17,000 copies for them. for a game that sold 17 million. 0.1%. when we go to absolutely ridiculous estimates, we still get a figure of 0.1%. these are revenues, profits are even lower.
or should we just throw out reasonable estimates and say that gta4 probably sold millions of copies in india because of it's low price, and that india alone is responsible for 10% of all gta4 revenues?
yea, it's good business because earning close to nothing is still better than earning nothing, but to expect that every publisher should jump in to the market just to satisfy your desire of getting massively subsidized games is crazy. and then to rip on them for not doing so is, well...
the profit they get from indian pc sales is a few thousand dollars at most, which is negligible. in other words, ignoring the indian market is no loss for them at all.
i find your last line interesting though. "if they have to tap the indian market. they have to start at low pricing." start at low pricing and then what? remain at low pricing for all eternity? they did price their older games reasonably btw... cod4 and waw were both 1000 bucks each. guess what, neither of them took off here either. even at peak there were only a few hundred people playing the games, with a handful of servers alive total. i bet almost everyone has played cod4 though. so which sales are activision losing exactly?
Shripad said:
discs are still imported in spindles, while the rest of it is done in india. saying that there are no logistical charges is insane, even if it were all done in india. you think there are absolutely no costs involved in getting a game box onto your shopkeeper's shelf? 500 price = 500 profit for 2k games and no one else gets paid in between? at most the publisher gets 200-250 bucks, which is 4-5$.
Shripad said:
no one is underestimating the buying power of india. so tell me, if you think 10,000 copies of gta4 sold is too little, how about 100,000. do you think there are 100,000 computers in india capable of running the game? and are there 100,000 gamers here who buy legit games? at what point will you agree that the figure of sold games is ridiculous?
100,000 copies sold is still the revenue equivalent of 17,000 copies for them. for a game that sold 17 million. 0.1%. when we go to absolutely ridiculous estimates, we still get a figure of 0.1%. these are revenues, profits are even lower.
or should we just throw out reasonable estimates and say that gta4 probably sold millions of copies in india because of it's low price, and that india alone is responsible for 10% of all gta4 revenues?
Shripad said:
yea, it's good business because earning close to nothing is still better than earning nothing, but to expect that every publisher should jump in to the market just to satisfy your desire of getting massively subsidized games is crazy. and then to rip on them for not doing so is, well...
the profit they get from indian pc sales is a few thousand dollars at most, which is negligible. in other words, ignoring the indian market is no loss for them at all.
i find your last line interesting though. "if they have to tap the indian market. they have to start at low pricing." start at low pricing and then what? remain at low pricing for all eternity? they did price their older games reasonably btw... cod4 and waw were both 1000 bucks each. guess what, neither of them took off here either. even at peak there were only a few hundred people playing the games, with a handful of servers alive total. i bet almost everyone has played cod4 though. so which sales are activision losing exactly?
kartikoli
Innovator
Re: Call of Duty Black Ops Discussion Thread.
we all have local cable [not talking abt. set top box] but still there is a diff. in tarrif between areas ... why?
ranging from 60-350
why they agreed to provide cable @ 60 [slums, homes of domestic servents....]bcuz they cant stop them from using unfair means (katiya) so they gave them the option to legally watch cable
i asked my servent and they pay 60rs and i pay 200 and in some areas its 300 etc... depending upon the location .... thats the way business is done
once i attended a call center training class and was asked a question
which 1 would u like to retain?
10 cust. who pays a bill of 2000 each
or
2000 cust. who pays a bill of 10 each
my answer was obvious 10 cust. but i was wrong as if out of 10 1 or 2 cust leave the comp. then i will be loosing 2000 rs monthly bill where as if i lose 20 cust. paying 10rs each i lose only 200
hmm... i know what answer will i be getting but still i would give an examplespindoctor said:
we all have local cable [not talking abt. set top box] but still there is a diff. in tarrif between areas ... why?
ranging from 60-350
why they agreed to provide cable @ 60 [slums, homes of domestic servents....]bcuz they cant stop them from using unfair means (katiya) so they gave them the option to legally watch cable
i asked my servent and they pay 60rs and i pay 200 and in some areas its 300 etc... depending upon the location .... thats the way business is done
buddy u are absolutely wrong in that calculation volume does counts
once i attended a call center training class and was asked a question
which 1 would u like to retain?
10 cust. who pays a bill of 2000 each
or
2000 cust. who pays a bill of 10 each
my answer was obvious 10 cust. but i was wrong as if out of 10 1 or 2 cust leave the comp. then i will be loosing 2000 rs monthly bill where as if i lose 20 cust. paying 10rs each i lose only 200
Re: Call of Duty Black Ops Discussion Thread.
*sneaks in like a stealthy ninja amidst all the hostile posts*
The intro mission of Black Ops is awesome!
*runs for life*
*sneaks in like a stealthy ninja amidst all the hostile posts*
The intro mission of Black Ops is awesome!
*runs for life*
XTechManiac
Forerunner
Re: Call of Duty Black Ops Discussion Thread.
@Ethan_Hunt Waiting for a nutshell review from your end.
Offtopic:-
*Finally* purchased HD 5670 1GB DDR5 2-3 days ago! Completed COD:WaW.
@Ethan_Hunt Waiting for a nutshell review from your end.
Offtopic:-
*Finally* purchased HD 5670 1GB DDR5 2-3 days ago! Completed COD:WaW.
Re: Call of Duty Black Ops Discussion Thread.
I ain't touching it for the 360. I repeat, I ain't touching the 360 version. Like the rest of us out here, I'm waiting for the PC version as well. No point in sacrificing even an inch of it's visual quality.
I ain't touching it for the 360. I repeat, I ain't touching the 360 version. Like the rest of us out here, I'm waiting for the PC version as well. No point in sacrificing even an inch of it's visual quality.
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