Overpriced game stupidity...

[pheasnt]

Forgive me while I froth a bit.

What is it with game manefacturers and stupid pricing? There's a game Rio Grande have brought out called Pickomino. A Reiner Knizia game. Eight dice, 16 dominoes, some rules.

$25.

$25 for 24 componants. And small componants at that.

What's the point? You know, I know that we're going to see this in our FLGS, pick it up, whistle at the price and put it back down again. The game might be great, but we'll never know. Is that somehow a surprise to RG? Do they not want us to buy their games or something?

Zoch, the German originators of the game can sell this, and I think they will sell this for €9,50. With the English rules in there. And with componants that don't have any German text on them, so won't need remamefacturing for the anglophone market.

So RG are charging $15 to translate the text on the box?

What's wrong with this picture?

[Mr Face Man]

I'm not in the industry, but I think that there just isn't a big enough draw to the hobby anymore. They need to increase the price per unit in order to offset production and development costs without a huge quantity sold.

Just my $0.02

[pheasnt]

Originally Posted by Mr Face Man

I'm not in the industry, but I think that there just isn't a big enough draw to the hobby anymore. They need to increase the price per unit in order to offset production and development costs without a huge quantity sold.

Just my $0.02

I could buy that if the company in question actually had development costs. Repackaging an already translated game should be cheap.

What we see here is a price per unit driven by an assumption that they're not going to shift stock. If they priced to sell, if they got their games into shops at a 10 buck level then they'd do decent business over the holiday season. We'd buy small games like this as stocking fillers, gifts for nephews and neices, gifts to keep on hand just in case you meet an old friend you weren't expecting to see. They'd make money. Not as much price per unit as at present but they'd sell far more.

And selling more, getting games into kids hands can only be good for the industry. Instead they assume that they can only sell to hard core game nuts and since they are hard core game nutes they can afford to be gouged.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by pheasnt

What is it with game manefacturers and stupid pricing? There's a game Rio Grande have brought out called Pickomino. A Reiner Knizia game. Eight dice, 16 dominoes, some rules.

Dice and dominoes are common components, I wouldn't look at this game at all unless it was a PDF or a Cheap Ass Game. All you need are the rules.

[MIB 9966]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Dice and dominoes are common components, I wouldn't look at this game at all unless it was a PDF or a Cheap Ass Game. All you need are the rules.

The dominoes are custom made, so this argument does not totally wash.

As for "overpriced", that's an argument you may or may not have proper foundations for. If you have desinged, produced, manufactured and distributed a game and can still make a decent profit and call a game overpriced based on that knowledge, then you have a great foundation. If you know parts of it and can give reasoned arguments why you think it's still overpriced, you have a good foundation. Otherwise, it's pure conjecture and you might be laughed at by people who know better if your arguments don't hold water.

Consider: Give Me The Brain was $5 in the cheap early version. Color, better cards, and better packaging bumped the price up to $15 just for cards. And this is a rather simple game at that. Also, don't forget the repackaging costs, licensing, customs charges, overhead, etc. that RGG may have for Pickomino.

[xlyce]

The other thing you have to consider is the name. It is a Reiner Knizia game, and as such, many players will go "Oooh, must buy!", irregardless of the cost.