First one's free - or cheaper (business model amendment)

[Deda]

I'm assuming this has been posted before, but here goes.

Given that the current model seems to be long-term profitability of products by means of dlc, would it not make sense to have the base game be free (or much cheaper - around 10E)?

The issue with the current model seems to me to be that early adopters are disappointed by a lack of features, and it's common knowledge that PDX titles get better with time (dlc) creating a feeling that they've paid for an unfinished product, when in fact they're buying the basis upon which the game will be expanded.

I'm not saying the base game is worthless, and I acknowledge that most development time and effort goes into this part, but what I'm wondering is whether it would be economically beneficial to go for a broader audience by giving people the base game for free (or very cheap) and then making profit purely off the DLC.

This would give PDX titles a wider audience and consumers more choice. I'm assuming people who didn't or wouldn't try GSG would be happy to try them if the barrier to entry was lowered or eliminated.

Opinions?

 

[AndrewT]

Appears to be solely about PDS titles so moved.

 

[Rupmalya.K]

I have no clue if it would be profitable but I somewhat thought about it before.CK2 was free for some period anyways.I assume that making the base game free would increase the amount of player drastically and the amount of people that will purchase the DLCs so they can keep pumping out awesome DLCs.

But definitely not for a recent game like Imperator.Rather for CK2 which is now about 7+ years old.Maybe at the 5-10 years mark they can do that.Only they can tell the correct time as it depends on the sale.

 

[STABBY5]

Paradox completely overestimated the appeal of their games when they offered ck2 for free. All it got was negative reviews from people who don't like these kind of games but tried it anyway because it was free. It didn't help that ck2 is the worst to learn because you're in the middle of everything immediately and its do or die, and the event spam is bad. If they wanted a system like that then they should just let someone owns the game gift it for free. A very soft barrier of entry.

 

[SirAlexius]

Paradox completely overestimated the appeal of their games when they offered ck2 for free. All it got was negative reviews from people who don't like these kind of games but tried it anyway because it was free. It didn't help that ck2 is the worst to learn because you're in the middle of everything immediately and its do or die, and the event spam is bad. If they wanted a system like that then they should just let someone owns the game gift it for free. A very soft barrier of entry.

Where did you get this information? From what I understood, Paradox was quite happy with how the CK2 giveaway turned out.

 

[Rupmalya.K]

Paradox completely overestimated the appeal of their games when they offered ck2 for free. All it got was negative reviews from people who don't like these kind of games but tried it anyway because it was free. It didn't help that ck2 is the worst to learn because you're in the middle of everything immediately and its do or die, and the event spam is bad. If they wanted a system like that then they should just let someone owns the game gift it for free. A very soft barrier of entry.

I consider myself dumb and quite on the contrary I understood CK2 fast and had more fun with it since the beginning.
Problem in EU4 is that to have fun in EU4 you HAVE to blob/paint the map and to do that you HAVE to be good however in CK2 you just live /role play medieval life.And surviving is super super easy.

Where did you get this information? From what I understood, Paradox was quite happy with how the CK2 giveaway turned out.

Just checked the steam reviews of April 2018 and he is not completely wrong as there is a little surge in negative review at that time but there has been a lot of worse months before that.
Mostly people wanted Chinese.
There are some people with low playtime who rated it low because of how hard it is and also how costly all DLCs combined are.
But I don't know what Paradox can do about that.They are already giving free updates.
Except maybe only releasing major DLCs.
The reviews were still "Very positive".

People want both more features to be included in the base game and the game to be less complex and they can't have both.

Let's be real ultimately though it doesn't matter that much if they get comparitively low review if they make more money by selling DLCs.

 

[Supersotamies]

Well i think that they could merge those content packs with those dlc:s
Like el dorado expansion with el dorado content pack and make those small below 5€ dlc free.

 

[SirAlexius]

Let's be real ultimately though it doesn't matter that much if they get comparitively low review if they make more money by selling DLCs.

I think they've said that for old games especially, review scores don't affect how many games they sell or how much money they make at all. That's why I would be surprised if Paradox considered the CK2 giveaway a failure based on a few negative reviews, especially given how many new customers they probably brought into their ecosystem.

 

[Rupmalya.K]

I think they've said that for old games especially, review scores don't affect how many games they sell or how much money they make at all. That's why I would be surprised if Paradox considered the CK2 giveaway a failure based on a few negative reviews, especially given how many new customers they probably brought into their ecosystem.

You are completely right.
I think even if they cared a lot about review score they still shouldn't consider it a failure as the difference is so slight.I don't think anyone consider it a failure because of that.
Also it doesn't make sense that they wont try to reach new audience because most of them might not like the product.You have to reach new audience because most might not but they wouldn't like it anyways however the new fans you will get is worth it and that is what matters.
They won't force people to do a survey before starting this game lol

But if it was a success or failure IDK.It depends on how many people bought CK2 DLCs in that month and the subsequent months because of it.