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Hey Folks!
A few people have noticed that some of our product lines have had a slight price increase. It's not massive in real terms ($1.99 products going to $2.99 and such), but it is a pretty big boost as percentage-increases go. We've discussed this issue when asked specific questions by specific fans, but thought maybe we should take a moment to talk about why that happened, and what it does (and doesn't) presage for the future.
When asked about our price increases, we've quite honestly answered that the past few products were bigger, offered more content, or involved more entirely-new material. That last is important, and is going to continue to be true going forward. Even our products that had things never released before in any form (such as the Genius Guide to the Godling) involved a lot of material I had on hand from canceled projects, design experiments, and my extensive home campaigns. Since it took less effort to create those products, we charged less for them that we would need to for all-new writing. Since any pool of old material gets drained eventually, and we've done a product a week since last year, we decided some time ago we'd need to make some changes to how we figured our pricing to cover the labor increase we saw coming.
So, one of the reasons we did a few products that were bonus-sized was to test the waters on slightly higher priced pdfs. It was possible that our popularity depended on keeping our price point were it was, in which case we'd have to look for ways to reduce total content to keep the work/money ratio in a place we could survive on. That likely would have meant smaller products at the same price, which we'd prefer to avoid. Thankfully, our recent releases have actually been among our most popular ever, even for those that weren't larger products. We feel that shows that as long as we keep the quality up and keep listening to our fans about content, we'll continue to enjoy your amazing support.
We want to let everyone know that we DON'T plan to raise prices by $1 every 6 months. I can't say we'll never raise prices again (business plans need to be flexible in this economy), but we believe this is the right price point for our Pathfinder-compatible pdf lines for the foreseeable future. Offering products that are inexpensive and tightly focused is a big part of how we want to make sure everyone can buy what material of ours they want, and we want to stick to that plan.
That brings up the prices for our backlist of older items. There's a concern that if we leave them at their current prices, new customers are going to wonder why earlier products are less expensive that more recent releases. (And it's unlikely that every new costumer is going to find this open letter of explanation for our fans.) Also, we have some cool ideas for things we'd like to try in the future, and a bit of extra money on the backlist sales may help us do them. We assume most of the existing fanbase that wants things like Loot 4 Less: Weapons and Armor or the Genius Guide to the Dragonrider have them already, so a price increase on old items shouldn't affect anyone currently buying our stuff. And to be candid, we think the new prices are reasonable even for the old content.
However, we don't want to pull the rug out from anyone who is looking to get something when their next paycheck clears/campaign begins/dragon hoard is acquired. So we're announcing the new prices now, but they won't take affect until June 1st. That should give everyone who wants to a chance to pick up anything they've been holding off on at the old price. Our most recent releases aren't going up any more, so don't worry about grabbing Godling/Ice Cave/Cloaks & Daggers in a hurry (but DO grab them eventually). But if you want to pick up any Pathfinder-compatible products we released before April of this year, now's the chance to get them cheap!
Warning our fans of an impending price increase may well take a few potential extra dollars out of our coffers, as everyone swoops in to grab the bargains before they go, but we're okay with that. It's the current fans who have brought us this far, and it's only fair to let you all complete your collections if you are so inclined. And if it turns out that making this price adjustment does have an overall negative effect, we'll certainly be flexible and re-reassess our business plan.
Thanks for your support and attention!
Owen K.C. Stephens
Super Genius Games
I blame Stan! & his Vegas addiction. ;)
If everything stays as good as Godling or better You got my lunch money :)