Expansion Packs

A look inside the retail sausage factory

Published on April 17, 2006 By Draginol In GalCiv Journals

At some point we want to do an expansion pack. And by some point, I mean, we have a pretty good idea of what, when, and what would be in said expansion pack. But there's a lof of "Stuff" involved in deciding what will be in an expansion pack and when it would be launched and how it would be packaged.

First a little primer: Unless you're mega publisher, if you want to be in the stores for Christmas, you have to be released by September 30th. That's the magic date. Secondly, unless you're a large publisher, having both a boxed version and an expansion pack on the shelves is really really hard.

So if we want to do an expansion pack soon, we would have to release it either by the end of September (any earlier would be too close to the original release) OR wait until next year (February 2007).

There are also two basic ways of going about an expansion pack:

The Traditional Way. You release your expansion pack for $19.95 to $29.95 that requires users to have the original game. This is what big publishers tend to do because they can have both the mega selling original and the expansion. Civilization IV and Civ IV: Warlords would be a great example of this.

The Alternative Way. You release an expansion pack that plays on its own for $39.95 to $49.95. That is, you basically update your original game to include the expansion pack as an integral part of it. Disciples II did this.

I don't have a strong preference. If you take the traditional path, you risk losing shelf space entirely unless you are selling in significant quantity. If you take the alternative path, you need to find some way to enable people who bought the original game to get the expansion pack without having to pay full price (rebate in box for existing players, or direct download or something). It also has the problem of requiring the existing game be taken off the shelves first to be replaced by the "new and improved" version which can be a real bummer.

Or you could just bypass retail entirely and offer it direct and not mess with any of the problem and release on your own schedule.

Comments (Page 3)

Popup Target

on Apr 18, 2006

My biggest issue with the alternative method is that if it's done as a rebate, when I look at something with a rebate, I'm not thinking of the rebated price as what I'm playing, I'm thinking that it's the full price with a chance to get some of my money back. Maybe I don't mail in the rebate in time, maybe it gets lost in the mail, etc. I've had too many rebates go missing even after I properly mailed it in to have any faith in rebates. I'm not saying that I'd expect that same level in the case of Stardock, but I've conditioned myself not to think of rebates as affecting the "real" price.

Now, in my case, as long as a direct download for the lower price is available, I'm happy, but I dont' know how many people think about rebates the same way I do.

Dano13

on Apr 18, 2006

Personally I wouldn't even try to ship an expansion before Xmas. With 1.1 and 1.2 going full steam you guys must be close to collapse. I would vote for Feb 2007 with an open beta before. What's the hurry? We will still be here ...

Besides ... with the popularity of GalCiv 2 I think you will find Beta Pre-orders for the Expansion to be about a BILLION percent greater than GalCiv 2.

Just my two BC.

Dano

ben_sphynx

on Apr 18, 2006

I dont realy care how it's done, as long as it has multiplayer. Please....

Yarnith

on Apr 18, 2006

Start with digital Downloads for the expansion. Let us pay online and d/l it to enhance our already purchased game. Release retail a boxed version at a later date add in bonus material to encourage me to buy the box even if I purchased the Download. 19.95 for d/l and then 4months later i decide to get the box version for the same amount because it has 2 new hull design series and X other cool thing the D/L didnt.

My opinion.

S1Genocide

on Apr 19, 2006

Short and Sweet

I would pay full price $39.95 to $49.95. for just an expansion that included.
+Hotseat
+Multiplayer
+Tactical Space Combat
(1st mode Controlable real time camera (Ala Moo3, Conquest Frontier Wars Realtime)
(2nd mode turn based tiles (Ala Moo1 & Moo2)
+Tactical Ground Combat
(Moo1, Moo2, Imperium Galactica2?)
+More Races
At Least 4-8 More
+More Governments
At Least 4 more (8 more with all the normal governments of the world with Star in front would be nice Star Fascism, Star Communism, anyone?)
+Some Pre-made Spiral Galaxys for the square gamemap.
(I can't believe this isn't done already)

Haasen

on Apr 19, 2006

One thing that I would bite at is mini-expansions (ala Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights) that would add professionally done hight quality ships. I love playing with them, but am uncreative to the extreme. I'd drop $10 for a download with ships just so the game looked better.

Martimus

on Apr 19, 2006

[quote/]I preach, regularly, that you shouldn't rewrite code. Instead, you should try to learn how it works and fix it or extend it.

I have the exact opposite philosophy. I had that philosophy when I first started coding when I was little, but I have learned over time, that it is often better to rewrite code to be more efficient or more robust. You will need to keep track of the stack, but if you comment the stack contents on each line of code, this is not difficult. I have gone back and taken code I wrote years ago with 9000 lines, and re-wrote it with less than 2000. This is all because I was better at coding, and had a better idea of what the final outcome had become. That second point is why rewriting code after it is complete can be a very rewarding experience, because you already know how the code works, and can upgrade it to work better to accomplish the same task.

Frogboy

on Apr 19, 2006

We wouldn't charge $30 for an expasnion pack. The most likely amount is going to be around $24.95. But don't hold me to that.

Frogboy

on Apr 19, 2006

I think right now a lot of the thinking is to go digital only for the expansion pack to keep the price down and to not create confusion at retail.

LordFu

on Apr 19, 2006

I like the digital download idea. It gives SD the freedom to do things how and when they want. The way SD Central works, it would work for anyone. Even if you didn't have internet access at home, you can burn it to a CD, and take it there with very, very little difficulty.

LoneWolf0912

on Apr 19, 2006

Agreed. If you are going to go with any sort of 'non-traditional' release digital is the way to go. Again, I say release it when you guys are satisfied with it being done and not before.

Wheeloffire

on Apr 19, 2006

EB et al. want nothing to do with PC games. They didn't have GC2 and their personnel becomes nauseous at anything on that shiatty excuse for a PC section. They are in the middle of an exit strategy for the PC platform and no amount of reason is going to change their path.

Death to brick & mortar. I have no love for Microsoft but the xbox360 will be a hard lesson for game retailers. Microsoft is in position to kill retailer console sections as well when broadband becomes ubiquitous. Why they treat PC badly when downloading is an unstoppable market trend is beyond me.

Make it available for download at a low price, ~$20.

Death to rebates as well. Nothing implicates a company as criminal quite like rebates. Companies that use rebates should get hit with racketeering charges. Of course, that's a minority opinion

S1Genocide

on Apr 20, 2006

Sorry but it would have to be retail for me to buy it I don't purchase anything I can't buy with Cash im anti-credit (and that kiddies is why my credit IS so good.)

We want a box! We want a box!

Speaking of Xbox 360 or Xbox for that matter why don't you make a release for either when the game expansion is all done?

Suralle

on Apr 20, 2006

I would buy it, especially if the expansion has the Kat Lords as at least a minor race.

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

"The above is mearly a shameless plug at making sure everyone pays atttention to their cats today." I would still buy the expansion.

Zoomba

on Apr 20, 2006

Stand-alone vs Traditional:
Personally, I'd go for the traditional route, where the original game is required in addition to the expansion pack. This avoids customer confusion, and doesn't cut into continued sales of GC2 Core. That is unless you were building an MP-only expansion, where that was the entire focus. In that case I'd sell it as a stand-alone product since it's so fundamentally different. Then offer the SP content (campaigns etc..) as content packs to add into the MP expansion if someone wants it.

Digital Only vs Retail Mix:
Even with the large SDC install base you now have, the average gamer probably isn't going to notice the expansion sitting in the list so much. The ones who will see it and purchase it are the ones who keep themselves informed, and probably represent a small percentage of overall customers. Awareness is important, and I don't think you'll get enough of it with a digital-only distrib method. Boxes on a shelf, even if you don't go as big as you did with the original release, will help sales a lot.

Christmas vs February:
Unless you guys are going full-tilt on a good solid expansion already, unless it was just a campaign pack, you have at this point roughly 7 months to plan, build, test and release it. I know you did Political Machine in something like 8mo total, it may be pushing too hard and too fast. Giving it an extra few months can't hurt really. Do you think releasing GC2 in Feb of this year vs Christmas really hurt sales? I'd personally rather you guys take your time and turn out something really high-quality and polished for the expansion.

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