I want to start out by saying that I am glad my suspicion that there were no >$10 RPG Maker games that had sold more than 1000 copies was incorrect. That's great. But I am still not convinced it's anything but an outlier, and that the vast majority of even very good RPG Maker games fall within a curve of percieved value (by the general consumer) that is less than $10. Haha, of course, if I was going to find a community that had people for whom this wasn't true, then this would be the one!
Seriously, though. That's great. Indinera, I'm actually quite familiar with your body of work - as are a lot of people. But Something tells me your didn't price your first game at $20 to go on and sell 1000+ copies. I have little doubt that a large part of your success is brand recognition, essentially. I hinted at that in my previous post - a huge part of what allows people to price their games at these higher price points is that people can say, "Oh hey, I've heard of Squaresoft and this fancy-schmancy Final Fantasy series. I've heard good things, in fact. That homeless guy publicly *********ing outside of Safeway was ranting about it so enthusiastically! I should check it out!" There are a small number of developers in this community who have made a name for themselves and seen mainstream success and can get away with those prices, but for a vast majority of the people here that is an ambitious, but far-off goal. One most aren't likely to achieve. Congratulations on that, again, I'm glad I could be proven wrong - but, no offense man, I still won't pay that much.
The other example here of the guy who sold 1077 copies of his $20 game, I've got to say... If I had a game that I thought was worth $20 and it only sold 1077 copies I would be depressed as hell. I mean yeah, sweet, $20,000 bucks. But I produced this great game and only 1077 played it?! How many would have played it if it was $10? $5? If I was just concerned about turning a little profit, and $20,000 was a profit for my project (I have no idea why people are paying so much for music, btw, but maybe I'm lucky in that I am close friends with multiple musicians). For me, and I think most of us, this is primarily a hobby in which I am making games that I want people to play. $20,000 isn't worth it if I could have had a much larger audience and still, potentially, made just as much money - if not more.
Can any of you really disagree that not many people are going to shell out $20 for a first time RPG Maker release from someone they've never heard of? Unless it is truly extraordinary?
Also, as for adjusting the price of FF6 when it first retailed to 2015 dollars... The original MSRP was actually $79.99, which inflates to just over $120. But like I said, when it hit the market it was a sequel in a series that had already sold millions, and it was the best looking RPG ever produced at that point. Comparing it to an RPG Maker game is like comparing a Tesla Model S to someone using a kit to build an all-electric Ford Model T in their garage with some custom milled parts.
I don't know. $5-$10 still feels right. When I mentioned that most of the games I saw were priced in that range, I was referring to steam where I scrolled through the top selling RPG Maker games. Way more than 50% were under ot at $10.
