So, I was looking over the Esdevium New Releases sheet, as I do every weekend and I was greeted with a nice message that Esdevium has been forced to increase it's RRP and Trade prices by 30% to accommodate the drop from £1:$2 to £1:£1.50. Maybe I'm being a tad cynical but I cannot remember a drop in prices the other way around...
ANYWAY, it struck me that of course, as mainly EXPORTERS of games to the US, this exchange rate shift effects us the opposite way - A £10 game used to cost $20, now it costs $15. Of course, if you priced your game in dollars, a $20 game used to get you $10 and now it gets you £13.30.
Has anyone
(a) Considered whether this shift in profits could have an effect on the way your price your game?
(b) Considered whether we can exploit this comparative drop in prices to promote our games in the US?
Neil
I think they did change them...
Submitted by Dom Mooney on Sun, 09/11/2008 - 14:05.
There was a change in prices, but I suspect they implemented it when new material came in rather than backdate across the catalogue. The existing stock would have been purchased at the old higher prices anyway.
I suspect that the blanket approach here is to avoid a lot of future price changes, and also to get a bit of padding in place with the current climate. It really depends how much stock they hold; if they're anything like a lot of other companies then they'll be taking the stock down to help liquidity.
The export side really depends on where you print the book, and how you get monies back in.
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Dom Mooney
http://www.bits.org.uk/
http://www.powerprojection.net/
We were just discussing this
Submitted by Shevaun on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 07:47.
We were just discussing this in Black Lion actually - I think there's a difference between certain types of product as to how this will look going ahead. Board games used to go for £50 pretty much across the board, but one day they just kinda dropped to £35-40. I only just now figured out why, because they're all going back up to £45-50; so in fact they're still a bit cheaper than pre-wartime prices.
Books, however, never really did drop, you're right there, and now for example, games like Dark Heresy are coming in at £45 - it was already eyebleedingly expensive, but this is ridiculous! Anima the RPG, another hardback full-colour job, is going up to £42, though I haven't checked D&D or White Wolf yet.
Lucy fears, quite rightly, that this is going to seriously hit the impulse-buyers, for both game types. She has also just put in an indie games order from Leisure Games, so we'll see if your consistent cheapness sees you in good stead over the holiday period.
Shevaun
I'm aware that the exchange
Submitted by David Donachie on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 10:29.
I'm aware that the exchange rate difference certainly puts up the effective price of my games in the US, while devaluing them here, but I have always priced them in the appropriate currency, so I intend for Solipsist to remain at $20 / £10 for now.
That does mean that a US sale is becoming better value for me, and pushing the retail sales through IPR up to a better profit margin, but considering the printing is done in the US and paid for in dollars that will all even out again quite quickly.
http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/ - http://cubicle-7.com/starblazer/