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LGP Gets Into Game Downloading, Rentals

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  • #11
    Basically you could use that way for markting too. like steam does with free play weekends and special offers to buy. But when you only can rent it and unrestricted variant is so extremely expensive, then i don't think that it will be succesful. When you remember the day where the games have been cheaper i guess much more was sold. You have got always 2 ways, sell few for a high price, or sell much more for a better price.

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    • #12
      Originally posted by Kano View Post
      Well the price is still too high just for testing. Most titles are budget, so maybe the way to sell more is maybe the double price of current budget market price. Lets say a title costs 5$ for 1month then you could easyly buy it for 5-10$ usually already. If you really like the renting idea, then consider something like a game flatrate with all games for one reasonable price.
      How cheap are you, really? You can rent Jets'N Guns for a week for 1$25, which is enough to finish the game (and replay it till you're sick of it).

      If you want to replay it many times aver the years, of course you'd want to buy it - no point complaining about rental prices here. Or did you want 1$25 to be a rental for 10 years?

      As for buying it for 5-10$, it 4 to 8 times more expensive than the one week rental - how is that cheaper if you just want to finish a game and be done with (then you can re-rent it in 5 years if you feel nostalgic)? The gas you'd burn running to the store(s) is probably more money than the rental already.

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      • #13
        Fine you rent it one week and you do nothing else than playing it the whole week, then the price would be ok. But when you have got only a few h to play with it in that week then it is not that good. There are titles which can be finished completely within 1 or 2 days, then you don't need to buy em. But if you like the game and want to play it lets say every month a few h then renting is more expensive.

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        • #14
          Originally posted by Kano View Post
          Fine you rent it one week and you do nothing else than playing it the whole week, then the price would be ok. But when you have got only a few h to play with it in that week then it is not that good.
          If you can't finish Jets'N Gun playing a few hours here and there in a weak, you've got more to worry than the price of the game.

          Originally posted by Kano View Post
          There are titles which can be finished completely within 1 or 2 days, then you don't need to buy em.
          So even the fact that it's interesting for at least a few games doesn't matter, as long as you'd rather be fussing?

          More thorough games can be finished in a month or so, playing a few hours here and there - you don't need to buy them if you just want to have fun, see the story, finish the game, and be done with it. If you want to spend 200 hours on a game over years, and find more than 10 bucks too expensive, again you've got issues that are bigger than the price of a game.

          Originally posted by Kano View Post
          But if you like the game and want to play it lets say every month a few h then renting is more expensive.
          Breaking news: that's what buying is for.

          Fact is, it's just not for you, and not for the vocal people that would find paying 1$ for anything a rip off. Those aren't really anybody's target in the first place, and they aren't really people you'd be happy to have even as paying customers, because they aren't fun to be begin with.

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          • #15
            What would be nice would be the ability to convert a one week rental into a full download purchase by paying the difference.

            That way almost everyone wins. LGP gets a far better chance of seeing a return on their porting efforts and consumers get the chance to have a cheap test period that effectively becomes a free demo if they purchase the game.
            I'm in a similar position to Kano in that I can only really spend a few hours a week on a particular game. While I don't mind paying less than a movie ticket to assure myself that the game will work and that I enjoy it, I don't like the idea of being penalised for being cautious.

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            • #16
              @miles

              I have got nothing agains buying, but when you look at the price differnece of the same game which is a budget title for Win for years and the price you should pay for the Linux variant then something is definitely wrong. I looks like that Linux games never get old and sell for full price. That price will only pay very few people, even if they like the game. Maybe they buy the Win version after testing.

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              • #17
                Originally posted by Kano View Post
                I have got nothing agains buying, but when you look at the price differnece of the same game which is a budget title for Win for years and the price you should pay for the Linux variant then something is definitely wrong. I looks like that Linux games never get old and sell for full price. That price will only pay very few people, even if they like the game. Maybe they buy the Win version after testing.
                The facts and reasons of the price differential has been covered many times...

                The original companies are not allowing their current games to be ported and launched alongside the Windows versions.
                LGP (or whoever) need to be able to pay their programmers a reasonable wage.
                The economy of scale is simply not there for the games to be cheaper. If they dropped the prices from ?30 to ?15, they would not sell three times the number of units - the market simply isn't there yet.
                Without the early-adopters (that's us, Linux games now, btw) willing to put their money where their mouth is, the market figures will not grow and things will not change.

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                • #18
                  I am sure a fair model would work. Maybe 10 ? for all Linux games/month - there are , and a pay 10 instead of 12 month discount when you pay for a year in advance. With installing games as easy as in steam. And please get rid of ? as only currency. Seam definitely has advantages - you do not need to make backup of your games, you can do of course, but you are not forced as you can download the games at anytime you reinstall your system. Internet connection speed is always getting better so dl does not take that long anymore. And when LGP can get 100 ?/year instead of getting nothing (if you only use Win for gaming) thats sounds a good deal for both sides - as long as you get new games relatively often, not that many want to play the same games over and over again.

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                  • #19
                    Originally posted by RealNC View Post
                    Are we talking about DRM here?
                    Yup!
                    These games are defective by design.

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                    • #20
                      I am definitely willing to pay for linux games, BUT I am not willing to pay the full price if a game is already several years old.

                      The rental service is a nice idea and the prices for renting a game are ok.

                      @miles
                      Playing a game is not about finishing it, but having fun with it over as long periode of time - maybe that's what Kano wanted to say in addition to his other points.

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