XBLA: How to Increase Trial, Improve Conversion Rate, and Sell More Ga Options

[Xbox-Scene]

XBLA: How to Increase Trial, Improve Conversion Rate, and Sell More Games Posted by XanTium | January 17 17:01 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From edery.org: [QUOTE] Having a free trial does not exempt a downloadable game from taking advantage of PR; not even in XBLA, where every game gets downloaded by a large number of people. Why? Two reasons. First, that "large number of people" could be a lot larger. 2x (or more times) larger, in fact. Just because a lot of people download every game that comes their way doesn't mean you can afford to ignore the people who don't. Plenty of consumers only think to download the titles they are familiar with -- that's why licensed IP is so popular with many publishers. Second, conversion rates are influenced by anticipation. This is easy enough to understand. Imagine being faced with two games, both of relatively equal quality. One has been hyped in the press for months. One is unheard of. Your friends are all talking about the first game. You yourself have been looking forward to it. But the other game is just as good. Which are you going to buy? The trial... it's not just the first five minutes of your game It's surprising how many developers don't think about their game's trial experience until the very last minute of the development process. A downloadable game's trial is everything! If someone doesn't enjoy your trial, then they probably won't buy your game. It doesn't matter if you licensed the three greatest IP of all time and fused them into the holy trinity of game design itself. If the trial stinks, most people won't bother to lift the curtain on the full experience. * Don't confuse or frustrate the player * Don't make the player wait for the fun * Don't make the trial too short * Don't make the trial too long * Intensify the player's curiosity * Work that upsell message * Show off your best features [/QUOTE] Full Story: edery.org

[SuperStition]

I Concur.

[bucko]

Tron is a perfect example of how I would never spend 800 points (I tried it earlier), it looked and played so naff, however Omega Five or what ever it's called was an amazing trial something I would consider. I have never bought any XBLA trials although I have every trial on my 120GB HDD. I just feel like I can put the money to a disk based game instead.

[scottmuller28]

Make the arcade games a lot cheaper & and a lot more would consider buying. Compared to Ps3 arcade $8.00 to $12.00 a game is still expensive. I value these games at $2.00 to $5.00 max....800 points is a lot.. Some of these games should be free as they are so old school & a lot of young kids would consider these games crap & boring.

Most have played these games on the PC and xbox emulators and still can for free!!
People winge & whine for paying for music online, so I don't think they are going to spend money on crappy arcade game downloads!!!

This post has been edited by scottmuller28: Jan 18 2008, 12:57 AM

[eyric101]

They missed one:
Don't ban people from downloading your trial no matter what they have done to their xbox, it just makes no sense. I know this isn't the publishers fault, but I don't really understand why a silver account would be banned when it only generates revenue and ip market share.

[scottmuller28]

Have been thinking about the xbox360 arcade and M$ is doing it all wrong. M$ should try to develop wii style games which requires wii like remote & other gadgets for live arcade. They need to encourage developers to develop unique games for all ages and party's. The success of the wii is the interactivity with groups of people in having fun, even if they are pissed and over 30. M$ would succeed if they produced these style of games allowing small developers to showcase their stuff using interactive technology. I would buy a sensor bar and remote to try out the new style arcade game downloads on live. If they used Japanese game developers in this way the 360 would outsell in Japan and the rest of the world. The style of games are really quite basic and would be cheap to produce and everyone would be talking about it & pay for the games.

I know M$ wants to get into this genre of gaming they should be using live arcade to experiment this type of interactive gaming.

This post has been edited by scottmuller28: Jan 18 2008, 06:23 AM

[HotKnife420]

Good observations. Hopefully the right people will read this article. I can't begin to think of how many people didn't buy Blue Dragon because of it's horrible demo...

[Elemino]

People in Japan are not going to buy the 360 because they don't like American culture, games, etc. 360 is still the best all around system out there, and they are making much more money than Sony and Nintendo. I like the throwback games, it reminds me of when I was a little kid. I agree they could have more interactive games, but I don't think there is anything that we could do to make people in Japan want a 360 more than a wii or PS3. That offends their honor or something.

I think if they REALLY wanted to make more money, they would team up with Sony and Nintendo and release old classics like Halo 1 on wii and PS3. That's how I would do it. I wouldn't turn down any money, so if the game has had it's run on my system it's time to start marketing to the rest of the crowd.

PS. It wouldn't hurt if they brought old classics like Super Mario Bros. 1 & 3 to XBLA.

This post has been edited by Elemino: Jan 18 2008, 01:38 PM

[Knasen]

One thing stops me from buing many live games: the price. While many of the game demos that I played were fun I still don't feel that they are really worth their current price. If they lowered the price to say half then I would buy atleat 10 games immediately. As the pricing is now though I only buy those games that I know is really good and have good replayability, like assault heroes and worms.

The same thing applies for all the other Live stuff. I would love to buy some gamerpictures and dashboard backgrounds, but their price is stopping me. I can understand the price on say game expansions (more MP levels for Halo3 or GoW) as they actually requires some work to make, but come on, how much work is it to resize a picture or two and put it on Live as gamerpic or background.... 10 minutes ?!

Why doesn't MS realize that its better so sell loads of cheap games than a few expensive ones ? Surely there must be many more people thinking like me.

This post has been edited by Knasen: Jan 19 2008, 10:32 AM

[scottmuller28]

Interactive live 360arcade : would easy allow home brew developers from around the to showcase unique interactive fantasy fun games influenced by different cultural groups & ages. Some stuff we would find weird and wacky but some we would find additive and outright fun. The wii & ds at the moment is flogging mind, sight enhancement games wii sporting games. Live should also have downloadable sing star type & buzz quiz game shows relating to targeted cultural groups.

I suggest at the beginning just borrow the concepts that are working on wii, ds, ps2 & implement them in flash style gaming using home-brew community developers. You could have some of these games being updated daily on live servers with new questions songs and community live sessions and live competitions. M$ could make this gaming so interactive at so many different levels. I could see groups of people getting together on weekends weekdays playing some serious "trivia pursuit" or "don't forget the lyrics" competitions.

When I heard about xbox arcade this is what I had anticipated it would offer, however the experience has been quite disappointing & lacklustre. I suggest at the beginning just borrow the concepts that are working on wii, ds, ps2 & develop a new live interactive platform.




This post has been edited by scottmuller28: Jan 19 2008, 10:41 AM

[MrMonkey]

Paying for gamer pics is ridiculous.

I just spent £40 on Mass Effect, yet I have to pay yet more money for 4 or 5 thumbnail images to use as an avatar?

What justifies that price?

They should just give us the gamer pics for games we actually own.