On Tue, 28 Apr 2015 18:07:31 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> As I say, I would imagine the big customers are the *only* customers,
> and when you're expecting a game to make XXX million sales, you demand a
> big, fat cut in royalties.

Indie gaming shops aren't "big customers".  But as I pointed to in the 
link, at least with the $9.90/month (or whatever it is) subscription, 
there is a *0* royalty paid.

> ...then again, maybe they aren't doing so well lately, which is why it's
> on Steam in the first place? IDK.

Software subscription models are very different than perpetual license 
models.  With a perpetual license (ie, you buy the software, it's yours, 
and maybe you upgrade, maybe you don't) don't provide stable income into 
a company, which makes it a lot more difficult to project future growth 
for the company.

Software subscriptions have the potential to make it easier to project 
future growth - unless you completely piss off your customers so they 
drop the subscription.  You always have some attrition, but most 
"schedule and forget" payments end up keeping people paying for things 
they're not necessarily using (though in some markets, that's not always 
the case - SaaS models that involve data storage or some level of 
incorporation of a customer's data tend to be easier to justify because 
you have a cost involved in migrating away from the solution).

I imagine for the CryTek, the subscription model is more lucrative than 
licensing to a few people - you get hobbyists who want to play with it 
who could never afford to pay the $1.2 million (yes, I looked it up - 
that was the cost reported in 2012 - so I owe you an apology, because 
while it's not "millions" it is > 1 million.  So my apologies for coming 
down quite as hard as I did.) licensing fee now have a professional level 
tool they can access for a reasonable price.  Lower price, larger market, 
increases revenue.  Instead of 10 people paying $1.2 million (netting $12 
million in perpetual licensing fees), they can get, say, 100,000 people 
paying $10/month - or $120/year - which is a net of $12 million.

Those 100,000 people keep paying into year 2, but they keep acquiring new 
customers, and now your year over year goes up past $12 million per year 
- you have recurring revenue that far, far, *far* outstrips the money you 
made selling perpetual licenses to 10 customers.

Jim
-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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