I get what he's saying (Destiny)

by Earendil, Monday, June 22, 2015, 21:14 (3527 days ago) @ General Vagueness

The thing is they're not valuing that stuff at $40, they're valuing it at $20. There's a package with just the new expansion that's $40, there's a package with the base game and all three expansions for $60, and there's a package with the base game, all three expansions, and digital and physical swag for $80. They're putting the value of the swag at about $20. What's more interesting is that going by this they're putting of the base game and the first two expansions at about $20 too. Obviously these are package deals so the price is going to be lower, but presumably it's still in the ballpark.

I don't think you can ever look at packaged deals in such a simple light. It works in middle school math, but not in economics and marketing. For example, you can't subtract the cost of software from a computer you buy and arrive at the "real" value of the computer.

For example, Let's assume the following for a moment:

• That Destiny and the expansions have paid for themselves already, which means that the "$20" extra for them is pure profit.
  
• That the new swag costs $21 just to make, meaning if sold by its self they would actually lose money at that pricing.

Now for the economic trick, if Bungie packages the swag with something that is pure profit, and that causes additional sales they wouldn't have otherwise made, than they net $19 for each collectors addition. Even if the collectors edition cannibalizes some sales, the difference is only $1, meaning they only need to sell one new copy to make up for 19 cannibalized sales.

Note: I don't think the above is realistic, but it's an example of the way things are packaged, and why many companies don't break things out into individual parts. Economics are not basic subtraction math.

For the record, I'd love to have some of the collectors stuff too but don't want to pay $40 for it. That's too much for what I consider items of value in that package.