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Plekto	Posted - 2005.12.13 19:17:00 - [1] As nice as 19,000 players is, the fact is that there is little or no activity from U.S. players because the game isn't available in stores here. It's the holiday season and people are looking for games. Yet there's not a single copy of Eve to be found locally. With a proper U.S. distribution campaign, and a free trial(fantastic plan, btw), you could get 30-40,000 online at once easily. Since the game is all about monthly fees, offer the game in the U.S. for a nominal sum to cover costs. No fancy manual - just a simple affair and a CD in a thin mailer/demo game type format - for $5 or $10. I'm one of only two U.S. players in my corp. There's tremendous potential here that's utapped.
Kaerin	Posted - 2005.12.13 19:19:00 - [2] The game is availible online obviously, and I have seen it in stores. However, it's delegated to the bargain bin more often than not. ~Kaerin Reality is nothing, perception is everything.
Plekto	Posted - 2005.12.13 19:24:00 - [3] So? My point is - do what E&B did - a thin one or two CD mailer with fancy artwork - and "one month free play" across the top. Have it at the counter with the impulse buys and demo CDs. $5. Get the players hooked with a free month's play. Who won't try a (hopelessly addictive) game for $5? It's not like CCP makes tons of money on retail sales anyways - it's all the 75,000+ subscriptions that pay the bills. With China and the U.S. getting involved, that number could grow to 200,000 easily.
Voidrunner	Posted - 2005.12.13 19:50:00 - [4] Where are you getting your information from? EVE has exploded in growth. Every month, for the last 3 months 10,000 subscribers have joined EVE.
Guillaume Yu	Posted - 2005.12.13 20:30:00 - [5] I got my copy of Eve from the self in Best Buy for $8.99. Love the game and I am glad I bought it. Although I wanted to play ever since it was released here in the U.S., but could not afford the system requirements until now. Sorry I missed out on all that training time
Karash Amerius	Posted - 2005.12.13 20:54:00 - [6] Just think if CCP showed the "Eve never fades" trailer in a movie preview???? I dont think they would be able to handle the volume of new players to be honest.
ManOfHonor	Posted - 2005.12.13 21:05:00 - [7] Noone will buy it for 5 USD becuase it will seem like crap... really, if I see something that is 5$, it screams crapola at me... And I have no idea why you think there are no americans in eve, I know several corps that are almost 100% american, and have plenty of members, and I know americans in other corps as well! _____________________________ NPC Asteroid Belt Bases Honor Above Self Glory For Self Strength Of Self
Lorengrim	Posted - 2005.12.13 21:06:00 - [8] Originally by: Plekto As nice as 19,000 players is, the fact is that there is little or no activity from U.S. players because the game isn't available in stores here. It's the holiday season and people are looking for games. Yet there's not a single copy of Eve to be found locally. With a proper U.S. distribution campaign, and a free trial(fantastic plan, btw), you could get 30-40,000 online at once easily. Since the game is all about monthly fees, offer the game in the U.S. for a nominal sum to cover costs. No fancy manual - just a simple affair and a CD in a thin mailer/demo game type format - for $5 or $10. I'm one of only two U.S. players in my corp. There's tremendous potential here that's utapped. Problem is that CCP currently dont HAVE a distribution deal. EvE is only sold as direct downloaf atm. "Then wtf can ppl buy it in stores you dumb idiot?" There was a recall by the ditributor of the original box. It was not done were well though. THus the game is still out there, but new boxes arent beeing made. "Then wtf dont they just print & ditribute it themselfs?" Doesnt work like that. Distribution is majoer buiness, and without a proper distributor they will never get shelf space. Besides a distributor takes most of the profit from the sales themselfs. They have been doing the next best thing though a coupple of times: Cover Discs on games magazines.
Phoenix Lord	Posted - 2005.12.14 00:07:00 - [9] Having the game in some cheap packaging for 5 bucks at a counter is not a good thing. New players will just pick it up and try it, then they get confused about the game and think it sucks just because it was 5 bucks. Then later on, they tell their friends the same thing and then EVE is clouded with rumors about it being horrible in the US. __________________________________________________ Originally by: CYVOK ASCN SPACE is now a NOW FLY Zone.
Micia	Posted - 2005.12.14 00:44:00 - [10] Quote: I'm one of only two U.S. players in my corp. There's tremendous potential here that's utapped. Every single member of our corp is in the U.S. I'd bet there are many more like that, too.

Lu Yan	Posted - 2005.12.14 03:39:00 - [11] Maybe you just got unlucky. My Entire Corp is 100% North Americans: Americans and Canadians, eh. Besides, with all the money CCP doesn't spend on adverts and distribution, they can give us much cooler upgrades and features. And the devs can afford fancy new Porches. Kittens give Morbo gas.
Plekto	Posted - 2005.12.14 07:31:00 - [12] Then make it $10. Or $15. Shoot, make it $39.95 with three months free gametime and some pretty graphics/manual. Also, offer gametime-cards, like Sony does for its games. These actually sell well, since many gamers don't have credit cards. Just getting something out on the shelves is critical, though, since 90% of gamers actually don't look at a game unless it's brand-new/"hot" or on the shelf at GameZone or simmilar. Searching online for the game - they'd be just as likely to run across half a dozen other games unless they knew about Eve directly.(in which case, they'd be likely playing it already - lol)
Zophi	Posted - 2005.12.14 07:40:00 - [13] Originally by: Plekto Then make it $10. Or $15. Shoot, make it $39.95 with three months free gametime and some pretty graphics/manual. Also, offer gametime-cards, like Sony does for its games. These actually sell well, since many gamers don't have credit cards. Just getting something out on the shelves is critical, though, since 90% of gamers actually don't look at a game unless it's brand-new/"hot" or on the shelf at GameZone or simmilar. Searching online for the game - they'd be just as likely to run across half a dozen other games unless they knew about Eve directly.(in which case, they'd be likely playing it already - lol) If life just were that simple. The is nothing easy about distribution. There is a reason you dont see all the small upcoming games from small companies like CCP just standing around like that: It VERY ENORMUSLY expensive. It hard enough to get a game out on the normal shelfs in stores, forget about it gettin primium display space. THere is a reason only major game distributors games get that kind of attention. Its a nasty buisness.... --- "Why can't we all just get along?"
sonofollo	Posted - 2005.12.14 09:03:00 - [14] word of mouth works best in the case of eve u want a certain long term comittied player not 12 year olds from WOW. Eve had a US distribtuion and it didnt work at all .... tbh it cost them more then they got (so word of mouth and positive internet feedback are driving its growth in a stable way) let em scale up the servers before we lag it with newbies
Expert Newbie	Posted - 2005.12.14 09:04:00 - [15] To give some examples of major distributors in the US, Sierra and Ubisoft are two of them. ----------
sonofollo	Posted - 2005.12.14 09:10:00 - [16] eve is now profitable and internet gaming websites as well as WOW and SWG refugees are flooding to the persistant and non game linked nature of eve (offline) its growing at a steady pace already we have ahd growing pains - so a slower growth is ideal.
Kipkruide	Posted - 2005.12.14 10:25:00 - [17] People still buy games in stores , get with the new millenium . There's way cooler eve store goodies to spend your cash on then a box. I mean i have a box which i ordered online from dome place in europe, can't remember where and i don't care. But that was 1 week after release when you could not get the game online yet
VaderDSL	Posted - 2005.12.14 10:39:00 - [18] I'd guess that free word of mouth advertising will bring in many more subs than advertising in newspapers or magazines ever would imo. A lot more effective and as someone already said, lets CCP spend money on more wages, or content :D
sonofollo	Posted - 2005.12.14 11:30:00 - [19] well its a very niche product to be honest getting mainstream attetnion might just ruin it. CCP making a profit and expanding so 100,000 by the first few months of 2006 is a good aim
Joerd Toastius	Posted - 2005.12.14 13:04:00 - [20] I'd guess that a massive explosion of growth in the US is about the last thing Eve needs right now. You remember the hoopla about hitting 15k online a few months ago, and 75k subscribers? There's every chance we'll hit 20k tomorrow night and 100k subs by the end of the year/end of Jan at the latest. That's a 33% growth in what, three or four months? Factor in the addition of Serenity next year, the recent lag problems and the expensive hardware just added and I suspect CCP have all the growth they need atm. One day they'll need that push, yes, but not right now

Sinari Galdrin	Posted - 2005.12.14 14:36:00 - [21] Something like Eve (or any MMORPG for that matter) needs a steady, regular growth, rather than an explosive growth, or it just won't cope unless it has massive funding behind it from another source and has been able to buy big servers before it knows if it will need them. CCP need to fund server & network upgrades from existing customer subscriptions, unless they want to gamble their business and take out massive loans on the off chance that they'll get big growth. If CCP are making a profit, and are coping with things (as they seem to be doing, with server upgrades, content upgrades etc all going on), then they should be more than happy with 5000-10000 new customers per month. Remember the customers aren't just making one off payments, so they probably won't actually need any new customers to keep going as they are.
Plekto	Posted - 2005.12.14 19:02:00 - [22] I see your points. OTOH, the game is gorgeous, has a silly level of detail and depth, plus the new expansion - almost doubles the number of potential play options and fixes many of the problems(like jet-can stealing, retaliation, clone-jumping...) It's a fully modern game that at least deserves press in the U.S. At least some ads or game demo discs that can be mailed out from the website. Place ads in the major U.S. magazines. This is about all that's required. Have the ad state in big print - "download the game online - (url)" When they get here, the top of the eve-online site should have a banner or something at the top pointing them to a free month's play/demo/promotion/whatnot. It seems to me that the U.S. is a easier and better market to try to get increased sales out of than China. Just place a few ads and offer free time/incentives. Planetside does this and it works nicely. They already have the game at Direct-2-Drive, but it needs the ads and whatnot pulling people to the site. EVE can surely use the players. Why? Because prime useage time for the U.S. is dead-space in Europe. I get on after work and there are maybe 7-9K people on. It's 2AM in the U.K. when it's 6PM here. The server wouldn't actually have much more load with more U.S. players every night, and apparently their new infrastructure model can handle something on the order of 50,000 or more players at once(!). They make more money and the game has less "off-hour" time. They might as well utilize it, since the machines run 24/7.
Rigsta	Posted - 2005.12.14 21:20:00 - [23] Edited by: Rigsta on 14/12/2005 21:22:10 Originally by: Karash Amerius Just think if CCP showed the "Eve never fades" trailer in a movie preview???? I dont think they would be able to handle the volume of new players to be honest. I'd probably **** myself with joy if I could see that played in a cinema. ----------------------------------------------- My Ideas: Drones wish list <-- 2 years old. I always knew the voice w
TotensBurntCorpse	Posted - 2005.12.14 21:39:00 - [24] Edited by: TotensBurntCorpse on 14/12/2005 21:42:01 Originally by: Micia Quote: I'm one of only two U.S. players in my corp. There's tremendous potential here that's utapped. Every single member of our corp is in the U.S. I'd bet there are many more like that, too. Ours is mostly USA but also Canuks I am playing since I played the beta version way back when and came back. Most of our corp is referral. But I would think running Eve never fades as an ad at a few select theatres would work quite well since printed material of the game doenst do the game justice and a $5 dollar bargin bin CD does scream "crapola". I have found EVE to be bar none the best game I have ever played MMO or not. TotensBurntCorpse Likes EVE, Starfleet Command Series, Earth & Beyond, Anything Battlefield, MOHAA, Call of Duty. Dislikes Not much.
Rabb Darktide	Posted - 2005.12.15 10:30:00 - [25] Originally by: Karash Amerius Just think if CCP showed the "Eve never fades" trailer in a movie preview???? I dont think they would be able to handle the volume of new players to be honest. Ads before movies are EVIL!!!! Rabb Darktide War Council Dissident Aggressors www.dissidentaggressors.com
SlyPanther	Posted - 2005.12.15 10:40:00 - [26] EVE isn't a game thats heard of in Australia as well, it's all word of mouth and tbh I prefer it that way. You talk about it when your out having a beer with the mates when they ask what you have been playing as they are gamers as well. So you explain to them the game, and being sci-fi nuts as well, they give it a go and more often then not, they subscribe to the game. I would love to see EVE Never Fades though on a cinema screen, and a few fleet battles, they would just be a top night. I wonder if it could be arranged at all, damn thats interesting. ---------- Steve Erwin - He's like Fosters, only for export and never for use in Australia
Ankanos	Posted - 2005.12.15 11:49:00 - [27] buying shelf space is a ludicrous and expensive business in the US. shelf space is more or less sold in everthing from game titles, to clothes to the food on your supermarket shelves. i'm a born and raised New Yorker.. tbh, i think a massive ad campaingn in the US would ruin the game. its a niche game and should remain that way. sad to say, but most US based mmorg's tend have a much more imature playerbase and resultant crappy community.. Eve's community is unique in this aspect.. lets keep it that way, shall we? -ank ---
Skarsnik	Posted - 2005.12.15 12:23:00 - [28] Originally by: ManOfHonor Noone will buy it for 5 USD becuase it will seem like crap... really, if I see something that is 5$, it screams crapola at me... /me quickly grabs a copy of PACMAN from the 1980's and repackages in a fancy box for $60 Flashy expensive boxes with little content. ------------------------------------------------- Statement of the Obvious Contrary to Popular belief - it is NOT possible to walk on water.
MOOstradamus	Posted - 2005.12.15 12:29:00 - [29] Edited by: MOOstradamus on 15/12/2005 12:30:39 /me agress .. PLEASE DO 'SOMETHING' ABOUT the NUMBER OF AMERICAN PLAYERS if topics like this keep cropping up MOOrovingian "Following & supporting EVE (since Jan 2001) is like wiping your arse with sandpaper."
Builder AlphaOne	Posted - 2005.12.15 16:01:00 - [30] Most of the posts on this topic lack information about the US retail gaming scene. In the past few years, it has become dominated by a limited number of very large stores; think GameStop, BestBuy, Walmart, Target, and Circuit City. Each of these has hundreds or thousands of outlets. Their market share has translated into power and they now demand product placement fees in addition to their usual 100% of cost markup. On top of that, the distributor (if the store doesn't act as its own distributor as Walmart does) also demands a 100% of cost markup. It follows that a $39.95 (3 month) retail package has to be sold by the maker at $10 to the distributor (fob US port of entry). And the maker has to pay product placement fees on top of that. Given this retailing scenario, it is not clear to me that CCP could break even on a US retailing campaign. It may, therefore, be far better strategy on CCP's part to use a "demand-pull" fanzine marketing campaign -- for which a free download and free trial policy makes great sense. Disclaimer: the author has no actual knowledge of the product placement fees at any retailer cited above other than previously published sources. The retailers cited are examples and may not cover all of the large retailers of computer games in the United States. Does it make sense now?



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