Game Sales are wonderful problems

Sales on online games have become a part of our culture. Humble Bundle deals, along with Steam Holiday sales, and Good Old Gamer crazy weekends have pretty much filled my gaming catalog with amazing products that I can’t wait to play. The problem is that as I buy these games, there is less and less to buy. The well of amazing games from several decades is starting to run dry.

When I was young, I walked around with a JC Penny catalog during November and December to let everyone know what I wanted. Depending on my age, I might even tell you the truth, I wanted all of it. I had to learn to be careful about what I asked though. Asking for an entire section of a catalog might mean you get the one lame part of it. I might own a Nintendo, but get a Sega game. Toys were even more specific, my grandfather nearly went to a scrap metal shop to get me a transformer. It does explain the comic book I got about electricity though.

When we look at the wonderful supply of games in a Summer Sales event in Steam, we look at the catalog and do the same thing. We want all of it. This isn’t said out loud of course, our wallets would start screaming -as well as landlords, significant others, and random household objects that decide to stop working right when you’re broke.

When I know there is a sale, and that it will have games I really like, I save up, and set a budget. My little fund for this sale lasts pretty well, and I find out things about what games I enjoy, or even actually want to play. For example, I have looked at Crysis several times, and have never bought it. The game was just too much, or there was a better sale for something else I liked.

What I find interesting is that I want to complete series to the best of my abilities. I don’t want just one Thief, I want them all. When I am ready, I can play every last one in a complete row without having to worry. Until then it goes into a long list of unplayed games that have begun to accrue.

The games I do play end up being fun indie games, and flash games. I found myself losing days when playing Burrito Bison Revenge, or Plants vs Zombies. In fact the best game I have played recently was Bad Piggies. Not the iPod game, the PC version. Then there are games like Limbo, and the 39 Steps. I play them a bit, and then get back to work.

When a sale hits, most of the big games that everyone wanted last year is sold for $5, and I totally buy it. In fact, I wait for the sale to buy it. After a few years of this, the back catalog of games that were big, are either on my virtual shelf, or probably going to end up like Crysis.

Then we have Humble Bundles, and other sales. I have begun to hand out gamecodes to friends because I already got Bastion during the last sale. This sales dump increases the sales amount for everyone, and even pays for charities, yet I can see a point where I no longer use it. That point is when I have to hand out gamecodes, and my friends don’t need them either. We have all of the games, our shelf is now complete.

I started noticing it at the last big Steam sale, there were tons of great sales, and I already owned the games. It was great for someone else, and I did buy a few games. I just didn’t get even close to the budget amount I expected. In fact, my wallet doesn’t worry about these sales anymore.

I am sure that Indie game creators, and the big time game makers -because we never talk about middle range games- will continue to make games, and they will look like something fun. The amount I buy though will become less, because I can buy most of them in a bulk sale for a small amount. The entire way we think of gaming suddenly begins to stop.

The next problem is the amount of time to play these games. I have a list of 200 games on Steam right now. I have played through about 30 of them. There is 100 games I have not even touched since I bought them. If I tried playing every game it would take me a year. The problem is I have other things I enjoy as well. I enjoy writing. I enjoy making videos. I enjoy hanging out with family and friends. I do those things before I play a game, so game time itself is starting to shrink.

This well of games, or this entire catalog which seemed at one time impossible is starting to finish off. My time for games is also beginning to drop, though I remain a lover of them. As these two wells dry up, I find that the sales are starting to get ignored. Even for reviews, I have enough games to last me a long, long time. So my wallet is thankful, but I sort of wonder what will happen to the companies that make these games.

Let’s say you made the game for $40,000. A humble bundle comes along that sells your game along with 9 others. The average sale is about $10, and there are a million sales. Evenly speaking, you just made a million dollars. Well, to be honest you made about $300,000 because most of the money went to charity, and other stuff. Still, thats a lot of money to make from that small investment. The problem is that you first have to get enough recognition for that game to work. Not only that, you may need to make several games first before one gets onto the Humble Bundle or even Steam. That $300,000 may be what takes care of you for the next two or three years as you work on the next one.

You look at this, and say, “I’m reading, I wouldn’t say anything.”

To which, you are correct, however, you also know that you just nodded at the last paragraph and tried to figure out how you could get in on this gravy train. Heck, I did that while doing the numbers. So long as I can get my game to make $300,000 in profit, as I work to stay in a nice happy small budget, I am good. I even have some ideas for it.

The problem is that slowly the shelves are filling up, and the fans aren’t going to buy as much. They can spend the money, they no longer have a reason. Like me, they don’t have as many games they want anymore, and this means a few skipped Humble Bundles, great sales on Steam Summer Madness, and a Good Old Game Solstice Sale. All good game sales, but already on the shelf. The amount of sales begin to dry up as this happens. The only choice is to make more games, and try to get others to notice. The competition gets pretty hot right then, and we end up with another slump.

I get the feeling that a lot of the game sales world is something like this. The game makers try to make more games than the consumer can afford, and keeps the well as deep as possible. The problem is that the consumer waits for sales, and then buys in bulk. So the deep well of games becomes shallow. The only way to change this is to make a new system, or device so that a new well can be dug. Still, with sales as they are, I don’t think it is sustainable. I think my wallet is happy, and the well is starting to look dry.