That’s where your thought process is wrong, when you sell something that you can replicate for free the thought process isn’t “I need to cover my costs of Y and make Z% profit on top of that” the thought process is “What is the maximum amount I can charge without losing too many customers, maybe even make 1 or 2 different collectors editions to get the people what wanna pay even more” > you catch all the people that pay full price at launch and a couple months later you put it on a 20% sale to get everyone else.
Maybe for AAA devs. I’m thinking of indie devs as well, who may not be thinking of “big business extract max profit no matter what” optimizations.
You also seem to be leaving out of the equation that some customers will buy a game for $15 but not for $20. If selling at $15 on Steam would give too little money, but selling for $15 on Epic would give enough money, it doesn’t seem absurd selling at $20 on Steam (with the biggest market) and for $15 on Epic (with the higher margin) to reach a few extra customers with the lower price point.
The reason games go on sale so often is because lower prices can mean more sales. Lower middleman cuts can allow for lower prices.
That’s where your thought process is wrong, when you sell something that you can replicate for free the thought process isn’t “I need to cover my costs of Y and make Z% profit on top of that” the thought process is “What is the maximum amount I can charge without losing too many customers, maybe even make 1 or 2 different collectors editions to get the people what wanna pay even more” > you catch all the people that pay full price at launch and a couple months later you put it on a 20% sale to get everyone else.
Maybe for AAA devs. I’m thinking of indie devs as well, who may not be thinking of “big business extract max profit no matter what” optimizations.
You also seem to be leaving out of the equation that some customers will buy a game for $15 but not for $20. If selling at $15 on Steam would give too little money, but selling for $15 on Epic would give enough money, it doesn’t seem absurd selling at $20 on Steam (with the biggest market) and for $15 on Epic (with the higher margin) to reach a few extra customers with the lower price point.
The reason games go on sale so often is because lower prices can mean more sales. Lower middleman cuts can allow for lower prices.