Understanding Paradox Pricing

[Lemont Elwood]

Based on your personal experiences, what seems to be the pricing strategy of Paradox?

A typical one of the Major Four (CK/EU/V/HOI) goes for $40, but it drops down to $20... but at what point? Some DLC released? So many months? Sales petering off?

And then there's DLC, Steam does 75% off for previous DLC just before releasing a new one (and those tend to run $20-10, depending on quality). Does DLC ever get a price drop without more incoming?

 

[Augustus93]

Based on your personal experiences, what seems to be the pricing strategy of Paradox?

A typical one of the Major Four (CK/EU/V/HOI) goes for $40, but it drops down to $20... but at what point? Some DLC released? So many months? Sales petering off?

And then there's DLC, Steam does 75% off for previous DLC just before releasing a new one (and those tend to run $20-10, depending on quality). Does DLC ever get a price drop without more incoming?

Yes, often during major holidays.

 

[mechaerik]

I assume prices drop after X months; dunno how many though.

DLC usually goes on sale along with the main game on Steam, whether during dailies,weekends, or holiday sales. In addition, Amazon actually had Heart of Darkness 30% off earlier this month (may still be on sale). Sadly my main Vic2 install is non-Steam (vanilla from Amazon, AHD from Gamersgate), and only the Steam version is on sale.

 

[Felicity]

'Release things at extremely high prices since we know our loyal fans will eat it up regardless of the price(especially DLC!), then drop the price later to try and attract more people.'

 

[Lemont Elwood]

I've already bought em, so I'm not complaining for myself, but I noticed that CK2's other DLC are still priced 5, 5, and 10. I would think that The Republic would have a reduced price, since it's not as much of a change as The Old Gods and not much more than Sword of Islam...

 

[mechaerik]

I've already bought em, so I'm not complaining for myself, but I noticed that CK2's other DLC are still priced 5, 5, and 10. I would think that The Republic would have a reduced price, since it's not as much of a change as The Old Gods and not much more than Sword of Islam...

I'm not quire sure what you're saying here. The Republic and Sword of Islam are both the same price ($10).

 

[Lemont Elwood]

I see. Weird, then, they dropped the price significantly and then raised it again...

 

[Variton]

'Release things at extremely high prices since we know our loyal fans will eat it up regardless of the price(especially DLC!), then drop the price later to try and attract more people.'

That's quite a negative perspective. Almost all (steam) games go on sale about 6-12 months after release.

Paradox:
1) First sales about 4-6 months after the release. (depending on success of the game?) March of the Eagles received first sale quite early on.
2) (Holiday) sales many times a year after that with 50-75 percent price reductions.
3) Almost always 50-75 percent sales on previous DLC's and base game when a new DLC/Expansion comes out.
4) Permanent price reductions... Much later

I think this is very common sales strategy, which almost everybody follows (except Matrix, damn them for their high prices)

 

[Felicity]

That's quite a negative perspective. Almost all (steam) games go on sale about 6-12 months after release.

Paradox:
1) First sales about 4-6 months after the release. (depending on success of the game?) March of the Eagles received first sale quite early on.
2) (Holiday) sales many times a year after that with 50-75 percent price reductions.
3) Almost always 50-75 percent sales on previous DLC's and base game when a new DLC/Expansion comes out.
4) Permanent price reductions... Much later

I think this is very common sales strategy, which almost everybody follows (except Matrix, damn them for their high prices)

The main thing about it is that they overprice their expansions a huge amount for only a perceived amount of large content (mods often have more content included than the real expansions do).

Not even going into the godawful DLC prices.

 

[mechaerik]

I see. Weird, then, they dropped the price significantly and then raised it again...

Probably on sale. Even if it did, Sword of Islam IS an older product, so I don't think the Republic would drop in price at the same time.

 

[Lemont Elwood]

They were both priced at $1.25, which makes it a 75% sale for Legacy of Rome, but a 87.5% of Sword of Islam.

Heck, that's a deal, but it doesn't make much sense to me. This was with The Republic just released, by the way.

 

[duhsveti]

As someone already mentioned Matrix Games are much worse in this regard. They rarely even do discounts and their game prices default at over 40-50$. Im mentioning them because i think they serve mostly the same gaming niche.