I think that CodeCombat should focus on spreading itself, profit will follow. So, here is what I suggest:
Do something similar to the release in the US, starting small and when you have enough users so that the Brazil Team will sustain itself, then add in subscription, asking for advice on how to price it.
Actually just had another idea. For people not familiar with Humble Bundle, it is a service for gamers that offers bundles w/ varying amounts of content. You can pay any amount, even 1 cent, to get some basic stuff. Or, you can pay more than the average amount and unlock more content. Finally, you may pay a set price(usually around $9) to unlock the full content. Maybe we could do this, and every month release the new content, some of it free, and the rest of it with staggered price levels. So, you wouldnāt subscribe, you would just buy the extra content as you went along.
Is 19.99 - 24.99 BRL really that much cheaper than 9.99 USD for a Brazilian player? Well, Iāll also talk to my Brazil team to see about a sensible price.
We are trying out having the free content be available in the Courses version, where a teacher gets the core dungeon levels to use in her classroom for free, and the students can play that without being bothered to subscribe or buy gems or anything like that. Since so many of our players are in schools, it seems like this might align better. Courses is in rough beta now, but you can try it at /courses to get a sense of what we are doing there.
Yep, it is. 9.99 USD is currently worth 37.92 BRL. So, calculating a simple conversion at the current conversion rates, 19.99 BRL is 47% cheaper than 9.99 USD. Note that most billing services also charge a conversion fee or do conversions at a higher rate than the standard, letting alone other international transfer taxes. So, in reality, the price I suggested is currently less than half of the cost a Brazilian would pay for a subscription at the moment.
You probably noticed that I emphasized the word ācurrentlyā, and that is because our economy is really on the brink. The BRL to USD conversion rates are at their highest in history, here is the Google Finance chart:
The USD conversion rate almost doubled just in the last year. If not by that, the 9.99 USD monthly subscription price would seem reasonable to me.
Hopefully the economy will stabilize again soon (in a few years, maybe?) and get back to the usual conversion rates.
But until then, it would be great if your team could find a billing service that accepts payment in BRL, as to not expose players to exorbitant and fluctuating conversion rates.
Right, Iām saying if the economy is currently in chaos, I would expect the accessible price to be less than half the US price. But I donāt have a good sense of what people in Brazil normally like to spend on subscription services like this.
I tried to strike the balance between āaccessibleā and āfairā. Even when the economy was normal, goods such as electronics, software and gaming services are usually overpriced compared to other countries (relative to each countryās average cost of living). This is usually due to taxes.
Iāve shoot a price that I would be comfortable paying for my children (if I had any) to play and learn to code. Of course, if your team can offer subscriptions at a cheaper price, that would be great too.
China having the same issue now. Price seems a little steep considering few people here seem to pay for software. I am not sure if you have considered ads with subscription to removeā¦
Also, site should be updated so it no longer says 110+ free levels if there arenāt actually that many free levels. We spent days trying to work out why some of my students were running into a paywall.
@nick Iām not brazilian but french and the same phenomenon occurs. Is CodeCombat a free-to-play game or not ?
We are working on better pricing for Brazil and China; please hold on. In the meantime, if you want to run CodeCombat in your classroom, follow this route for the free Courses beta: http://codecombat.com/hoc
Look, to be honest, after playing five levels I wouldnāt pay over 10.00 BRL for a subcription because I donāt know if itās worth it (five levels is nothing, I think at least half the first world should be open without having to pay if you want to convince anyone of paying anything). Plus I donāt have a way to explain to my mother why I want her to pay 20.00 BRL (much less almost 40.00 BRL or over it, thatās what the credit card will probably charge in the convertion rate) for a thing I barely played and that sheāll think itās silly.
You guys will have to keep in mind that youāre dealing with a country where until six or seven year ago pirated even the consoleās games. Brazilians (in general) are not used to paying for softwares, much less web based games like code-combat.
In my opinion more thought should have been given before implementing this system. The way it is, without any warning and with the pricing at USD 9.90, the owners are shooting their own feet and loosing potential ācustomersā. Single persons (I mean, people who arenāt involved with schools, colleged, etc.) wonāt be easily conviced to pay the way it is.
I agree UltCombo, I wanted try help the community how āArchmageā, āScribesā or āDiplomatsā in the begin, but I donāt know how much this is good, because I donāt seen enough of CodeCombat.
Hey, @nick. Any news on a subscription pricing update for Brazil?
Iād been working on it, then got sick. Finally got it done. Should now be set at 3.99/mo USD. Note that in Brazil the subscription is now 1500 gems instead of 3500 to account for the lower subscription price. Players in other regions should note that this pricing is due to our need to support the Brazil-specific server, comes with no free levels after level 6, and is aimed at helping out our Brazilian friends in their economic crisis.
Hope this helps!
Uhh, donāt mean to be rude. But i donāt think weāre really helping @joshlayton1. Weāve for the past weeks been talking about codecombat across the world. But I donāt think that really serves the point of the topic.
Sorry if this sounds rude.
Thanks @nick, thatās awesome.
The monthly gems bonus scaling seems like a nice deterrent to people using VPNs to buy cheaper subscriptions (Iām not sure if that is real a problem for CodeCombat).
@Luke10 Iām not sure what you mean.
Well the point of this topic was because @joshlayton1 needed help because of a bug. And it doesnāt seem like weāre really helping. Weāre kind of talking about something completely different. Weāre not talking about the point of the topic.
Hope iām not sounding rude or anything. Just thought i should bring that up.
Actually, I think we are talking about the very exact point of the topic. The thing is, CodeCombat is trying a new pricing model on certain regions (Brazil and China, I think), but they didnāt communicate this with antecedence so it seemed like a bug that only certain users could reproduce.
Nick has then revealed in this thread that the reason for this behavior is the new pricing model, and that it is actually not a bug. As there is no longer a bug to discuss, the topic turned from a possible bug report to a discussion about the new pricing model, which is the actual reason for the originally reported behavior.
By the way, I didnāt intend to sound rude, either. Just wanted to be extra clear in case any other reader got lost in this discussion.
By the way, Iām retagging this to āsolvedā as it was not actually a bug and we donāt have an āinvalidā tag.
Ok thanks @UltCombo. Sorry if i sounded rude in my statement. I guess I kind of got lost in the discussion. Thanks for explaining. What does is talking about New pricing models on certain regions have to do about what @joshlayton1 needs help on?