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Jul 21, 2011 -- 4:19PM, Splattercat wrote:

Jul 21, 2011 -- 4:00PM, HieroGlyph wrote:

I mean we are talking about 30 million users for Xbox Live alone.

This is where your argument fails. X-BOX, PS3 and even PC gamers are by NO means a guaranteed market for a console based card game. Magic the CCG is a powerhouse. A Force of Nature as it were, in the gaming industry. In the Video game industry however, it's influence drops into "niche market". it's not competing with other card games, it's competing with other genres. And you're proposing that a game that makes millions off repeat sales in a market where it is a dominating force is going to have the same success in one-offs in a market where it has a tiny niche. All the while almost assuredly taking away sales from where it's a guaranteed success. 

Hundreds of dollars vs. $10. Be honest, which would you choose?

Fails?  Really?  Even a 1% market share is 300,000 users.  At $10 a pop that is a bonus 3 million revenue stream every time new content is released.  Even if the additional content is priced at $2-5 that is quite a large boost to Wizards' revenue.  And that 1% is easily obtainable and does not include Steam or PSN.  The best part is that increasing their market does not mean that every existing player will simply switch to the newer format either.  In many cases these players will 'double dip' and Wizards has nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Besides, we are in a world where printed material is a thing of the past and digital distribution is the best way to expand a market.  Imagine if Wizards developed a way to create a server that could be playable on iPads, PCs, consoles, etc.  Their market potential would be insane and they still would not lose the majority of their card-based market.

Jul 21, 2011 -- 4:30PM, HieroGlyph wrote:

Fails?  Really?  Even a 1% market share is 300,000 users. At $10 a pop that is a bonus 3 million revenue stream every time new content is released.  Even if the additional content is priced at $2-5 that is quite a large boost to Wizards' revenue.  And that 1% is easily obtainable and does not include Steam or PSN.  The best part is that increasing their market does not mean that every existing player will simply switch to the newer format either.

Yes, it fails. You're advocating an inexpensive feature with a risk of cutting into the sales of their most successful product and guaranteeing 7 digit returns from X-BOX alone. You're expecting a percentage of a widely varied demographic to buy into this game and not give up on the far more expensive version of that game. I think it would be interesting to take this line of thinking to the Dragon's Den (have you ever watched that show?). I would love to hear what they have to say about it when you tell them your projected number of buyers is set at three hundred thousand minimum. They would ask where you get that number and your response would be "well you can't go below 1%..."

Seriously though. If they don't make DotP fully customizable, they still rake in the cash. if they do, they run the risk of losing sales on the biggest product they will ever sell. I don't need numbers to back that up. You on the other hand, would need hard numbers to back up your confidence in it making millions overnight. Without those hard numbers (and who knows, maybe Wizards is crunching them as we speak. I sent them an E-mail a couple days ago and got an interesting response; they referrred me to MGTO ).

Again, everything we've touched on so far is only the tiniest tip of a ginormous iceberg (have you considered how many people will ragequit because the game would be near impossible to balance properly?).