14 DAY TRIAL // There has been a lot of discussion regarding the influence of mega sales and bundles on small development studios, and now further evidence to support their impact has surfaced online.
According to a new report by the NPD Group, half of all PC gamers in the United States wait for a game's price to drop before considering a purchase, and the trend is shown to be increasing.
Digital distribution is to blame
The report is based on a survey conducted in June this year, covering 6,255 gamers, and revealing that 46 percent of respondents who regularly use their PCs for gaming made at least one digital purchase last year.
The data also shows that those who prefer to download their games instead of paying a visit to a brick and mortar shop are "far less likely" to pay full price for their acquisitions.
"Since half of PC gamers who play digital and/or physical games on the computer are expecting there to always be a sale right around the corner, publishers and retailers alike need to better manage these expectations," NPD analyst Liam Callahan tells GamesIndustry.
"Consumers' expectations may be the greatest barrier to maximizing spending in the PC gaming space," he continues, apparently feeding the concerns of many developers, particularly small indie ones, who are growing increasingly dissatisfied with the effect of massive sales and bundles on the games industry as a whole.
Indie developers see this as a sign of trouble
Customers are expecting more and paying less, getting bundles and growing increasingly larger backlogs, and even accumulating games that will never be played even once. People are more and more tempted to wait before committing to a purchase, especially when it comes to less hyped games, which usually go on sale on Steam or through other digital distributors barely a few months after release.
While this could also be interpreted as a sign of digital video game buyers being more conscientious and sensible when it comes to their money, many voices in the industry point to the rise in sales as having detrimental long-term effects on the both developers as well as consumers.
Some indie devs have even gone as far as to claim that we'll soon witness a global extinction event that will affect small studios, with things going back to the way it was a while back, when a handful of megalithic publishers where pretty much the only active players.
Other people argue that the affluence of games that have flooded digital channels in past years are a significant part of the problem, as it becomes increasingly difficult for gamers to discern which titles are legitimately worth their money.
Furthermore, the wealth of choice offered them leads to commitments to purchase full-price games at launch being more difficult than ever, out of the fear of missing out on other games that might offer a more satisfying experience.