AI War Steam sale - 50-85% off!

[Spikey00]

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Hey everyone, and happy holidays!  This would be a last chance to obtain your copies of AI War and the expansions at Steam's holiday sale (and possibly others, like GamersGate/Direct2Drive)!

The base game is at 85% off, for $3.00 USD!
The first expansion, The Zenith Remnant is 50% off, for $5.00 USD!
The second expansion, Children of Neinzul is only $2.00 USD at 50% off, with all proceeds still being donated to Child's Play.

Our latest expansion--Light of the Spire--introducing a quest-like alternative winning condition (along with the usual content that a new expansion brings, from new map types, ships, AI types, alternative defender game mode, 'spirecraft,' and AI additions), will be officially released during Q1 of next year; for those who are eager to try the beta, it's available in our Arcen store, with the keys being compatible with the Steam version once it's out.

Please see the game's Store page here!

[keith.lamothe]

Thanks for helping get the word out

[Spikey00]

And thanks for being so terribly active on the IRC, Keith!  :<

[keith.lamothe]

I did actually hop on within the past week, but no one seemed to notice so I wandered off again

[Spikey00]

No!  Unacceptable behavior, Keith, for I'm afraid it is compulsory that you idle on the IRC--that shall be your new year's resolution.

[Mánagarmr]

Guys, are you even making money with all these "offs"?

[keith.lamothe]

Guys, are you even making money with all these "offs"?

It only works because the marginal cost of selling a unit is very close to zero (well, except taxes and all that, but that's a percent of revenue, not an upfront cost), but yes, we do still make a decent profit   We sell a lot of units on cut-price sales, which is obviously also prerequisite for it actually doing anything good to the ol' bank account

[Echo35]

Guys, are you even making money with all these "offs"?

It only works because the marginal cost of selling a unit is very close to zero (well, except taxes and all that, but that's a percent of revenue, not an upfront cost), but yes, we do still make a decent profit   We sell a lot of units on cut-price sales, which is obviously also prerequisite for it actually doing anything good to the ol' bank account

If anything, you make more money during these sales than regular time periods.

[keith.lamothe]

If anything, you make more money during these sales than regular time periods.

Oh, astronomically so.  Going by the statistics, 90% of people who buy indie games don't buy full-price indie games

[Spikey00]

Those people are fools, then. 

[tigersfan]

Those people are fools, then. 

Why?

I simply can't afford to buy full priced versions of the games I own/want to play. Isn't waiting around for it to go on sale better than pirating it?

[keith.lamothe]

Yes, it's actually a very rational behavior.  Personally I haven't paid more than $10 for a game in... a long time.  Don't remember exactly how long.  And generally I don't pay more than $5.

But that's largely connected with the fact that I have very little time to actually play games (so many of the games I get on steam I never actually play more than about 15 minutes), and have more fun making them anyway.

We don't expect any remotely high percentage of our sales to be full-price sales.  85%-off is quite a bit lower than we like to go but if it broadens our customer base and the number of folks getting their friends interested, etc, then it works out.

[Spikey00]

Mmm, apart from being sarcastic, AI War is worthy of being at the $20 price point, honestly.

[keith.lamothe]

Well, to be honest, AI War would still be worth-it (from a cost/benefit perspective) at a $50 price point.  But hardly anyone would buy it.  So we just deal with the fact that we're giving everyone a ridiculously good deal   And periodically make it even more ridiculous, to give people extra motivation.

[Spikey00]

You mean all mainstream games that oh-so-ludicrously inflate the game price while seemingly maintaining customer attraction through unknown, almost unethical means?