Comments on: Developers: Stop trying to sell levels. The public don’t want them.

By: IPete2

IPete2 — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:02:00 +0000

I guess, taking Igor Pusenjak as a solid example of a successful developer, perhaps ‘levels’ and ‘santa hats’ in his case are the continuous additions he makes to “Doodle Jump” to keep it fresh? That strategy does seem to have racked up millions of sales and a huge following, as well as a huge revenue. Do you class iPhone as a console?

By: Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas Lovell — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:01:00 +0000

I agree with you that console developers prefer levels.

but elsewhere, selling items that engender feelings, impart status or build friendships are more successful.

My suggestion thereforep; give away the levels to build longevity. Find other things to monetise.

By: IPete2 (Peter Caddock)

IPete2 (Peter Caddock) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:54:00 +0000

If you ask a COD or MOH gamer what would they prefer, new levels or a santa hat, they’d be getting more new levels.

The answer is on one hand, much simpler, sell both, if that’s what they want. But therein lies the problem, the game, the platform, the player and the developer are far too complex an intertwined relationship to resolve or define as easily as “sell santa hats” – that’s a good way to make a fast buck in a holiday season, but the surely the more people that play a game for longer, due to extra downlaodable levels are exposed for longer to more opportunities to sell up to, so by adding more levels, you should be able to earn more.

Extra levels do not limit the number of people who can access an area, the arguement is no different to “if they want to pay $50,000 for kevlar, let them”, except in this case more people can afford the ‘kevlar’.

By: Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas Lovell — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:43:04 +0000

The answer to “why not sell levels?” is relatively easy. Every time you limit the number of people who can access an area, you are putting barriers to people consuming and enjoying your content (and eventually paying for it). The risk is that by selling levels, you *can't* sell Santa hats etc because only those people who have already paid for a level can buy one, and they don't want to because they've paid for a level. But I accept your comment that this is a complicated topic, and console gamers definitely behave differently to free-to-play brower-based gamers. In my opinion (and that of Diane Legrange, see the Meluzine tweet below) is that it is better to give levels away and sell content, because that gets the highest number of gamers into your universe to see if they like your world. Which means that people like you are more likely to get your levels for free. Isn't that a good thing?

By: Appleseeds

Appleseeds — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:36:14 +0000

I think your article is a simplistic view on a complicated topic. While you touch on a good point (levels are expensive), not all gamers are the same. I would personally pay for extra content while I would not look twice at a Santa Hat. From my experience, gamers do not have the same mentality but everyone wants to improve their in-game entertainment. So why not sell levels?

By: ChrisBateman

ChrisBateman — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:17:28 +0000

I agree with you; there is a market for extra content on console, but not in the “open market” where cosmetic items are more valuable than pure content. I also concur that the root of this is thinking in terms of the value of the work done, not on the sale value of the item. If developers want to make good money selling virtual items, they need to poll their users for what they would like, not guess that it will match the developer's assumptions.

Best wishes!