I'm curious what people think about having the price in the game or not displaying it. That is... when the user reaches the buy or pitch screen in the game you have the option of redirecting them to the website not knowing the price of the full version, or alternately you can put the price right in the demo.

Some of my first thoughts on this...

If the price is in the game chaning it (especially raising it) can lead to some angry customers thinking they've been baited and switched.

If the price is left out of the game you have an extra opportunity to sell them on the benefits of your title on the web page. Also drawing people to your web page shows them other games. That may be a benefit or it might also be bad. Do the other games stand a chance at killing the impulse buy? Should they see other titles? Currently our games go to a store page that doesn't show the other titles except as a potential upsell.

Thinking from an end-user's point of view, I'd guess that if your price point were a selling point, (GET THIS ALL FOR $4.95!), you'd want to include it in the game. ("Thou Shalt Not Underprice Thine Game" notwithstanding.)

If your price point were slightly high for shareware, (GET ALL 10 LEVELS FOR $39.95), you might leave that out -- presumably, your user will have decided to buy by the time he got to your website. If it's $5 or $10 more expensive than he originally thought, he might think, "what the heck, I'll get it anyway."

This may be completely off-base, but I thought I'd toss it out there.

My game plays a lot better than it looks (even more so than many shareware titles) - therefore it's very critical for me to have the players give the game a bit of an extra chance so they can realize that. By having the $20 price in the demo I mean to have the players wondering "what is worth $20 in this game?" and play that extra minute I need to show them the gameplay.

I'd probably prefer to redirect the user to the website to view the price. The major reason being it's the more flexible option.

If you hardcode the price in your game to $14.95, then every time you want to make price adjustments you'll have to modify the game code.

Also, (this is the major reason why I'm against it) a user who downloaded your demo when the price was $14.95 (say around the initial release), will still see the same $14.95 price in the demo 6-8 months down the line when you may have modified the price. If they're expecting $14.95 from demo nag screen, but then see $24.99 when finally go to your website, they could really be turned off and you end up losing a customer.

I'd hate to have various demos floating around with different price points. I'd prefer to have total control (as possible) of what the user sees in the sales process.

However, if you don't plan on ever changing the price (or found a solution to this), then this problem is probably a none issue for you.

You could check your website for the price.

If you fail to get the price back from your site, then don't show it.

Of course you then have problems with firewalls, people not connected to the internet(and you forcing a dialup box to pop up) etc.

You could make workarounds for lots of that though. Ie detect the major personal firewalls, check if the internet is allready connected, connect to your website in a non blocking way.

Have fun!

Personally I would never hit the order button if the price wasn't listed. My whole mental decision making process about whether I want to buy a game or not happens BEFORE I hit the button (I never hit order without intent to order). Price plays an important role in this decision, so without that variable, that decision making process never occurs for me, therefore order button never gets hit. For some reason, I have it engraved subconsciously that once I hit that order button, I've committed to buying. Any impulse buys without price would be lost on me. If I absolutely completely loved the program to astounding levels, then I might still hit order to get the price, but that generally means I like it so much I'm willing to pay any half-reasonable price to begin with.

Looking at traditional business (like tv-shop and all other sellers that go for impulse buys), they state the price VERY clearly as a selling point. I think people are really used to this and will get suspicious if the price isn't shown.

In my first game, I will show the price in big green letters with a yellow splash underneath in a place where nobody can miss it. I'm going for the normal $19.95, and I have no plans on raising the price later on. Although, if I would like to raise the price, I'd add an extra level pack or some bonus not listed in the nagscreen, and state that the higher price point is due to that extra stuff included. This would probably keep the customers happy even with a higher price! :)

There's workarounds for displaying the price in-game. But is the benefit worth all the extra effort and possible backlash for price hikes?

Personally, I think you should always redirect to the website for the price. The real question is do you lead them directly to a sales page where no other games are displayed? Or do you have links to other titles displayed on the sales page to show them what else you have to offer...

Looking at traditional business (like tv-shop and all other sellers that go for impulse buys), they state the price VERY clearly as a selling point. I think people are really used to this and will get suspicious if the price isn't shown.

Maybe of instead of saying "Buy Now" in the demo, have a button or text that says, "Get Full Version", or "View Price of Full Version". or "Click Here for More Information on the Full Version"...and so on.

Just throwing a few different variations out there. At least the options I gave above, the user doesn't necessarily feel they're committing to a purchase when they click the button. Then you can give them the full on sales pitch on the website.

Having a visible price is absolutely critical in an impulse buy situation. It doesn't necessarily matter what the price is; just that it doesn't have to be searched for, because a decision can't be made until it's known, and if a decision can't be made there and then, then you lose the sale.

To solve the price changing problem, my game has an embedded code in it which tells my server what price to charge for it. To achieve a similar effect on a website you could use a coupon code. Or alternatively always advertise the full price in the game and delight your customers when they arrive at your site by offering them a special discount.

Cas :)

You can also add a little note saying: "Prices valid until at least (date)."

There are lots of good pros and cons in here.

I suggest that you decide if you will use impulse selling as your main selling strategy. This will help you answer many questions, such as the need for displaying the price in the game.

If you are going to sell based on impulse buying, which is a valid sales strategy, then there are some rules. Price is a major component of an impulse buy. Specifically, the price has to be just low enough to be removed from the consumer's mental valuation process. This is the reason the impulse-buy items at the checkout lines of retail stores are so inexpensive. Items like candy with generally known low costs do not require the price to be displayed. For items like mini-flashlights for $3.99, price is an important part of the impulse and should be displayed.

This is why you often see point-of-purchase displays in checkout lines with the price prominently shown. An impulse buy has a short time to close the sale. To drive the sale, you should condense the impulse-relevant information to get it across as quickly as possible.

The strength of the impulse is reduced if the customer has to pick up an item and find the price on the package. In fact, the more a customer investigates a product before buying, the less of an impulse it becomes. They begin synthesizing features, quality and price to determing value, rather than relying on the impulse.

If you were a client of my ad agency, I would recommend that you first determine if you will use an impulse sales strategy. If you decide you will, then you should prominently display the price on the in-game purchase screen. Without the price being displayed, you would be using a weakened impulse strategy. You should also go immediately to your product purchase page from the in-game button. No ads for other games, nor any similar distractions, should be shown. In fact, I would recommend going immediately to your BMT Micro page. Information about other available products and coupon-code discounts for them can come on a post-purchase web page or in a followup email.

If you decide to use another sales strategy -- which your pricing and web site pull-through seem to indicate -- then you should make your decisions based on factors relevant to that strategy. Impulse selling parameters can weaken other strategies. Pretend that impulse sales don't exist for you. Many of your sales decisions will become easier and work better for you in the long term.

-Tom