Breaking into the market. How much will a shop pay?

Topic: Breaking into the market. How much will a shop pay? (Read 391 times)

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Ellie

#1 April 11, 2011, 11:06:20 pm

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Joined: Jun 27, 2008
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I am thinking of rolling out copies of my game and sending them to a shop. I have a shop in mind, they stock low budget items, end of lines, and misprints. It seems a good place to get an indie game into. Given that I can order the games in at £1.15 a pop, I would happily accept £1.50 per unit. I'd expect them to retail around a fiver, I could print a £9.99 RRP to make the store happy.

I don't know ANYTHING about doing these things though. I mean, what do shops even PAY suppliers for these goods? Is £1.50 way too cheap, or way too expensive? Surely they have to make a profit on them, and if I was to ship say 1000 of them (which is how the shop in question works, it's a large chain), that would yield me £350 which would be a nice egg to start from for aiming higher.

I don't know, I'm a fish out of water here and don't know anything about launching a game. I know it is nowhere near game store quality though.

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hobo2

#2 April 12, 2011, 06:46:27 am

guns or swords?
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Posts: 1018

Have you considered digital distribution?

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Ellie

#3 April 12, 2011, 10:54:58 am

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That would be the easy and boring option. I'm doing this way because I wanna see my game on shelves. :p

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Biggles

#4 April 12, 2011, 12:19:39 pm

I know your secrets
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I haven't done this before, but I've been on my business research recently. You need to make contacts in and around the shop and talk to the people who make decisions about which stock to buy. I'd expect that you need to be able to clearly explain how you plan to sell your game - i.e. what makes your thing a better choice than other things at the same price point. Who does it appeal to and why are they in the store? Business is highly ritualised, but you will need different mysterious rituals depending on the business wizards in question. If the people who run the counter own the store then you can probably strike up a rapport with them. Otherwise you may have to lure them out with the offer of a ritualised presentation of your wares.

One (underhanded) tactic that was used successfully by a business wizard from new zealand to sell glasses was to take out a full page ad in a widely distributed publication and then send his sister to every possible retail outlet to ask for that brand of glasses. Sales followed from store presence. Full page ads are expensive, though. You could simply poster bomb the local area instead.

Because the cult of business has a thick cellular membrane, you are expected to spend money to penetrate it. If you're clever you may not need to. Create the appearance that you know what you're doing. Don't undersell yourself.

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Ellie

#5 April 12, 2011, 12:33:04 pm

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Thanks.

On further research I found a cheaper company. They can provide a CD rom (large enough for my game) in a DVD box, with a quality printed insert (cover) and eight page booklet, at 84p per unit (69p without VAT - future)

My idea with the cheapo shop was to get the game out there and see if it sells. I don't mind not making much money off the first few if it gets my name out there. If it does then I've got a nice backbone to build from in the future; if it doesn't then I know it wasn't meant to be and I won't have lost anything (the store in question never sells back unsold stock).

Advertising and such is indeed a must. The main thing is, since my game is online and will be online before I sell it, I plan to get a decent following and use those figures as reasoning for stores to buy my game. ("There are already x thousand players!!!").

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Mikemc

#6 April 19, 2011, 11:51:42 am

Caboose
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Joined: Oct 7, 2002
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What added features will you get from buying instead of playing it (for free?) online?

Quote from: Evangel

You can't run from your past, S4D. YOU CAN'T RUN FROM YOUR PAST!

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Ellie

#7 April 19, 2011, 04:35:51 pm

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Posts: 149

Box, manual, nice game launcher client
Larger update ratio (the game is updated regularly)
Access to more of the game world
Access to more than just the base classes
No adverts in game
Customisable stat signatures

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Afr0Blu3

#8 April 19, 2011, 05:08:07 pm

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An important factor to remember is how much you want your your game, so, take how much you want, add the amount it'll cost to produce to that, then that's the price you offer stores.

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Ellie

#9 April 19, 2011, 05:41:27 pm

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I want to earn £1000 (above costs), that's my goal, as I am treating this as just a nice little summer project in order to pay my Dad board and get some experience doing something more interesting than sweeping floors. I'm not particularly interested in huge profits; making £1 per disk for 1000 copies would do me fine.

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Afr0Blu3

#10 April 19, 2011, 06:11:14 pm

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Posts: 7

OK, just out of interest BTW, what are you making your game in, how long has it been in development and are you using entirely original assets? One other question too, would YOU pay for your game?

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