Books pricing themselves out of reach?

[JVisgaitis]

I'd hazard to say that most companies don't see that much profit on the average book.

Well, our situation is somewhat unique. The partners that I have (and myself) are writers and artists so our overhead is a lot less (i.e. we can get away producing full color work because 90% of the art is generated inhouse). Still, when a larger publisher has the luxury of producing 5,000+ copies, those numbers dramatically reduce costs.

Slinging pewter for Privateer, eh? Now that's a sweet job!

 

[Committed Hero]

That's not really true, though. Many, many, many games are released at $20 or even cheaper. Some suck, but some are surprisingly good.

Most of the video games I own were bought at that price. And most games go down to about that level a year or so after their release. Not all, ones that still sell well at $50 tend to stay at $50. But even a lot of big hits go down to $20 after a year. GT3 did. KOTOR1 did.

Released at $20? Not the hyped ones....

And would you wait a year to purchase a book you wanted for a current campaign?

 

[Crothian]

And would you wait a year to purchase a book you wanted for a current campaign?

Yes, I would if the price came down enough.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Released at $20? Not the hyped ones....

Sega's (hyped) sports games launch at $20 now.

Most video games launch at $30 or $40. PC games start a bit higher, by and large - $40 to $50.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Most video games launch at $30 or $40.

$30 to $40? Where do you get your games at? The last 5 or 6 I bought were at least $50.

 

[WildWeasel]

Well, our situation is somewhat unique. The partners that I have (and myself) are writers and artists so our overhead is a lot less (i.e. we can get away producing full color work because 90% of the art is generated inhouse). Still, when a larger publisher has the luxury of producing 5,000+ copies, those numbers dramatically reduce costs.

Slinging pewter for Privateer, eh? Now that's a sweet job!

Well, they reduce _printing_ costs. Larger company means more staff, more facility, etc. Bit of a trade-off. We do have in-house artists and such, but they are also drawing regular paychecks (albiet mostly off the WM line, but the RPG line needs to be sustainable as well).

And yeah, best job I've had, even when it gets crazy.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

$30 to $40? Where do you get your games at? The last 5 or 6 I bought were at least $50.

Wow... I see what you mean.

I haven't bought any in a few months and they seem to have gone up precipitously.

 

[KaosDevice]

Just to hop in on the Warhammer tip, there are cheaper drug-pusher modes into the minature gaming world. Mongoose did a really canny thing with the Babylon 5 ship combat game, they gave out counters. You can have a perfectly satisfying game blowing the crap out of Narn ships with your Centauri counters...but wouldn't it be so much cooler if you had the actual minis there when you are blowing the snot out of those upstarts?

Warhammer (and any min game really) is obviously going to be more expensive then any RPG, so if the rule books are cheaper, well it makes sense, the company isn't making the money off the expansion rules sets, but instead the figures that support it. Very simple buisness model and a good one. Where Mongoose did a good end around is appealing to the nerd factor inherent in us gamers and make us want to swap out those counter sets for $100 a pop fleet sets. Smart guys over at Mongoose, they just need to hire a serious editor of content.



As far as cost of video games go, look at a past rant (I believe it was Wednesdays') at Penny Arcade, Tycho had some interesting things to say about rising production costs on video games.

 

[twofalls]

But the point is that people really aren't buying the books with low production costs. It is in a publisher's best interest to increase production costs and, if anything, stint on the writing. This isn't the direction I'll be taking, but the facts remain the facts.

Thank you for inserting some truisms into this thread. What people like to say they want, and what they actually want are often not the same. Very often in fact. Art/layout matters, fluff matters, crunch matters, finding the happy balance between it all to apeal to the larger audience matters most.

When I was youger and had less money I was very careful about what I purchased. Now that I'm in the happy place of having more money I'm able to get pretty much whatever rpg book I want, so long as I don't go nuts. I probably drop $150-$200 a month on my hobby. Not a mint, but it gets me quite a bit of material. Eventually, many gamers will get to this point too if thier hobby is a lifelong love and they are collectors, it's the typical economic curve of middle aged Americans. Now I buy what looks interesting, and use mabye 10% of what I own, and just enjoy flipping through the rest. I'll bet that I'm representative of a lot more gamers who are just too busy to post on this message board. A lot of rpgers are hitting my age range now and are making better money.

 

[Sir Elton]

I really don't have a problem with the "overpricing." Cheeze. I had this explained to me some time ago. I hate inflation in general. Although I think World's Largest Dungeon is cheesy (where am I going to find the room to stuff that!), I really think that the "overpricing" is actually fair for the producer and the consumer.

RPGs are always luxury items. Unlike the science books I buy to support my learning habit (I habitually learn, every second that I'm awake), which I consider important, RPGs are lux items.

Strangely enough, the Science Books help me DM. I bought a book on the Dinosaurs of Utah, and a book on Desert Ecology. Strangely enough, they help more than hinder. I also have books on Roman Britain (which I will use) and Greek Society (which I use), and a Chinese History book (which I find very, very useful). Next on my buy list (between a recovered gymnophobe girlfriend [I need to find one!]):

* A travel book to Hong Kong.
* A book about Stonehenge.
* A book on Ancient Egypt.
* A book on Astronomy.
* The (apocryphal) Book of Enoch
* A book on medieval and Roman Cuisine.
* A U.S. Passport.
* Tickets to Bombay India.

Okay, I go too far on those last two. So, really, RPG books are not overpriced. And steadily, I get more use out of actual books on Ecology than I do RPG books written for that purpose.