Pricing and Sales

**Bagpuss2** · January 18th, 2005, 15:38

Are you selling many copies of the players cut down version? I'm just curious as to who is buying this, since there are no reviews of the players software at all on rpgnow? Is anyone buying it?

I've yet to write a review of FG because I've not used it in play, and to be honest its hard to find players since nobody is happy to pay $20 for something that might not work out for them.

$40 for the main game is a reasonable price, until you realise that an average group is going to be actually paying $120+ to use this software, which is a lot in one go, especially considering there are similair (although not as pretty) products on the market for free.

Surely dropping the price on the players version to some nominal fee or even free would speed the take-up of this software. Also players who gain experience with the software will probably be more tempted to buy the full version, later.

At the moment you buy a players license that money is dead when you get a full version as their is no upgrade option. Which means people who play mainly, but might GM are put off by the double price, and so don't buy the software at all.

**Dupre** · January 18th, 2005, 17:29

We are quite pleased with how the software is selling at the moment, but unfortunately the sales figures are not public information that I can share.

You can draw some conclusions from the RPGNow software category bestsellers list, where Fantasy Grounds is holding second and third positions. We are doing our best to improve and develop the product further and increase its visibility on the market.

**Visigodo** · January 18th, 2005, 17:29

Well i think the price is good enough, maybe a different licence policy could be implement i dont know the software well enough to talk more about this.

What i think we need now is groups running good campaigns that people talk about to bring more people to buy this software. We need a solid community but this can take time.

**Ilwan** · January 18th, 2005, 17:31

I could imagine that players already connected to a group before playing would get the lite-licence. I started out with buying the full-licence, then the players tried the demo and were excited about it. I got three players to buy the lite-licence and one player to buy the full (he will DM someday). All players are extremely satisfied with the lite-licence, except the fact that they cant reach notebook in offline modus and cannot copy/paste. I agree with U on the point of spending 120$ for a group is very expensive. therefore I made a post ealier about a group bundle, which would be nice for RL friends that want to play between we get the cance to actually meet. A feature to upgrade would be nice, but I dont think its about becoming experienced with the software. Its more about being a DM or not. A DM should always get the Full-licence. Compared to other types of entertainment on a computer as games and the like, I find the pricing reasonable. I have already used FG for about 20 hours in play and thats more than I use for most games in total. Also I am very comfortable with the fact that I pay a small group of developers directly, instead of posting my check to a large industry.

**Dupre** · January 18th, 2005, 17:40

We haven't forgotten about the need for bundling lisences or upgrades, but we are currently limited by the technology used by RPGNow.

**Bagpuss2** · January 18th, 2005, 18:49

Originally Posted by Dupre

You can draw some conclusions from the RPGNow software category bestsellers list, where Fantasy Grounds is holding second and third positions.

Yes but strangely the Full version is out selling the lite version, which considering you usually have more GM's than players in a group suggest to me that the number of player-only type people picking this up is much lower than the potential market.

**richvalle** · January 18th, 2005, 19:07

Originally Posted by Bagpuss2

Originally Posted by Dupre

You can draw some conclusions from the RPGNow software category bestsellers list, where Fantasy Grounds is holding second and third positions.

Yes but strangely the Full version is out selling the lite version, which considering you usually have more GM's than players in a group suggest to me that the number of player-only type people picking this up is much lower than the potential market.

That may not be 100% true. I bought the full version even though I've never dm'ed before and I seriously doubt I will using this software. I just wanted to see what the dm had to play with and the idea of buying software without the neatest features bugs me. The price differance was not big enough between the two to stop me from paying for full license even though I'll never use it.

rv

**RazorCut** · January 18th, 2005, 21:19

For software, the price of Fantasy Grounds is quite competitive. $20 for the player version is quite cheap, in my opinion. Besides, these fine folks need to make a living...eating hot dogs get sickening after a while. :P

-R

**Durak** · January 18th, 2005, 21:56

I bought full version. I dont plan to Dm. Just wanted to have it.

Maybe make some quests.

Stress maybe

**richvalle** · January 19th, 2005, 15:45

$120 for a group to play in your example. I'm figuring that is one Full license and 4 Lite ones for 5 people.

Some friends and I played Dark Age of Camalot for over a year. We'll say there was 5 of us playing for a year (they have sinced moved on to play City of Hero's and now Worlds of Warcraft).

The software was about $50 each and a monthly charge of $13. So 5 x 50 = $250 for the software. The monthly charge would be 5 x 13 x 12 = $780. So the total charge for 5 of us to play for a year would be: $1030.

Now DAoC had prettier graphics and more people working for the company but they are still both 'on-line' games of a sort. $120 vs $1030 .... not bad I think.

rv

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