Prices are high, but that is ultimately the choice of the developer.
Perhaps the worst of it is that Epic doesn’t offer better support for Marketplace developers to regulate themselves.
-Price changes and updates require the run-around to push
-Submissions take months to finally go to market if they even make it, and those that don’t get no feedback on why until months down the road
-No search
-No analytics
-What is the policy on competing products?
-No C++
Even if developers wanted to charge a little less for products that don’t sell as well as they’d hoped, or they want to push a fix for something that was missed in QA, they have to contact Epic and wait. Developers should have much, much more control over their own products. Otherwise situations like are encouraged; pricing far above what the market value may be for fear of undervaluing their product and having to go through Epic to try something else.
It’d be best to be able to start with an introductory sale, or even start high and slash the price if it doesn’t go well. Something better than what we have.
Sorry, I did not want to appear trolling or something, the comments were directed towards the market place in general, not a single user. Apologies if it came across like that.
My main argument are the generally overprice assets, as compared to other asset stores/marketplaces, or the market in general, which eventually will pull users away from UE4.
In my opinion, you or epic doesn’t have any right to regulate the pricing on the market place for their products, it’s theirs, not yours or epics… Just my two cents.
really makes me think you are trolling. I mean if you really think that the marketplace is the selling point for an engine, then you’re warped.
your assets are worth that amount of money. People are not going to use UE4 just to make a nice lovely scenery. They use it for projects they will be releasing commercially or other ways to make money.
I really like these terrains and something we will need. We will 100% be in touch CM. Once our project reaches the development phase.
My first impression, thought, it must have been a typo.
Yet another reason for asset reviews but failing that expect such posting as a response to whats fair in the free market system.
Typical problem though of artist falling in love with their own work and transferring what they feel their effort is worth to the price tag.
The truth.
I don’t care how much you think your effort is worth as I will not pay for something that I feel is not worth the money that I made by my efforts so not a problem of me ignoring the price tag of a widget that is now the most expensive item on the market place.
The suggestion.
Take the time to read up on what skills one needs as to dealing with the free market as to selling products that people need at a fair market price and you will make more money on a one dollar hat than you would ever make on a product that is obviously outside what market will support.
Allow a star rating and review opportunity for those who have purchased the product, BUT ONLY AFTER YOU …
Speed up your moderation on updates - it’s pretty bad right now and pushing some developers away, WHICH WILL HELP TO …
Bring more products into the market along with the competition that a free market brings.
So yeah, let’s get market shaped up so we can have some friendly free market competition and give the buyer enough information that (s)he isn’t scared to buy a product that doesn’t deliver.
Another thing with static landscapes/meshes from the marketplace is that you can not revise parts of it if you do not like it.
You can alyways go like: yeah, I have to make 7 terrains before I reach the 100bucks for world machine if one terrain taxes in at 15bucks, but the more important part is that if or that bit of the terrain does not fit into your game or you do not like it, then you are stuck with it. Things like that should at least have the world machine file in the package to be able to change that slope or erosion crack and so on.
But then I kind of go with . Creating stuff is really easy and the reasons for not doing it yourself are quite limited. Once the workflow is set, having a terrain like that here in UE4 is done in no-time.
Late to the party. I have read all the previous posts but I’m going to ignore everything. Simply not going to put fire on fire.
I always believe quality sets the price not quantity. That’s just a side note.
Getting to the prices, There are landscape packs ranging from 15 to 150 and above. Why do you take the cheapest prices as a factor and go by that? No need to answer that question, I’d rather like someone tell us how to find the price factor? If it was me I’d say artists have an hourly rate so you look at how many hours you have worked and give it a price by that. If you wanted more sales you’d decrease the price then. What else you’d do?
I picked the $15 asset because it has the same quality, if not better.
adjusting price to hourly rate and time used for creation would maybe not work. One guy works faster and better than the other and needs a fraction of the time for the same asset.
That “quality of those landscapes are the same” needs a totally new thread for an in depth comparison. And still that’s not a reason saying $15 is the real price and $75 is expensive price. Why not saying $75 is the normal price and $15 is cheap? I want a solution if you have.
On pricing things too high, I agree with the notion that if someone wants more sales he’d put something up for a lower price. Its really up to the developer, artist, composer. If you put something up for high, you have to be able to show that its worth it. Thats already pretty hard given the small space you have to show and describe your product. Outrageously expensive stuff simply won’t sell. I do agree with the opening post on the point that some beginner might fall for paying too much for something of subpar quality, but as the Marketplace gets more content those cases will become blatantly obvious through competition with better price-quality ratios.
What I do hope though is that Epic makes sure that people don’t sell their products for too low. Its peculiar with digital content and a huge potential consumer base. When you’re selling physical goods you have to find a balance when determining a price, because you have a finite amount to sell, you need to get your investments back plus some profit. With digital content, once something is done you can sell it infinitely and forever without extra costs. It can be tempting for some people to put things up for ridiculously low. Since there will be no extra costs after production (I’m excluding support and updates here), it doesn’t matter how low you price it, if it sells a few per month then someday you will make a profit. But price things too low and it may ruin the Marketplace.
Say you have taken 300 hours and created the most beautiful 20-pack of landscapes ever. Then you decide to sell it for $10. Some may say thats fair, its your decision, etc. But the result is no one wants to compete with that and no other people are going to create new landscapes to submit. happening to any category of assets is what I fear.
maxdev, the solution is simple.
As long if there is one guy offering comparable quality asking for 15bucks for 10 landscapes, then 75 for 5 landscapes is expensive. If one asset like the linked Unity asset shows up for 15 on the UE4 marketplace, all other assets are goners.
And that’s just from a market point of view. From a personal point of view, knowing how easy stuff like is, I would rather eat 75 dollar coins and have them surgically removed afterwards (just joking).
I would like your opinion on the situation I described in my previous post. I think there is something as ‘too cheap’ that can hurt the Marketplace. What are your thoughts on that?
Price factor = < the amount of time that it would take to build the asset which is > than the time required to make it from scratch converted to dollars.
The unknown is what would be better
Sell 1 unit at $150 or 15 units at $10?
The other factor is whats the expected shelf life? Low cost assets encourage impulse purchase over time.
Nis, I think situation does not apply to digital content and hobbiests.
You have to realize how easy such landscape creation is. Even if there was only $1 as a price tag, then a hobbiest with 1 hour nothing to do and a ready to fire workflow could decide to squeeze a couple of landscapes out of world machine and put them on the market place. He would not have lost anything. There are no jobs at stake here if sales fail or something like .
That still doesn’t create an if someone is selling them on the MP. None of creates an. Buy it or don’t buy it, the only vote that matters is your wallet.
To be honest, our hourly rate is $12 which is by far much lower than many other artists. And if you see $75 for our pack which consists of 5 maps it means something around 1 hour for each map where I have spent 10 hours at least. So you see how talking about going any cheaper than is funny? we’re already on the dirt.
The author of the asset has the right to set his own price for the work. And it’s up to the buyer to decide for himself if it’s worth it or not.
However, could be really misleading for newbies and indies that have just started, because they can get a $15 tutorial about world machine or even a free one from Geekatplay™ Studio, Resources for 3D Artists. Tutorials. and learn all about it.
The solution I think is…
-Marketplace entries have softpass from epic
-Marketplace items have comment and rating system
-Marketplace items most-downloaded/most-viewed/best-rated sorting.
**-Marketplace items can be highlighted from Epic and the community to be separated from the junks
**
My idea is something like steam, review systems would be a great approach.
It’s clearly that there’s no right side. Some people will be mad that the guy will earn some relatively easy-money(I’m comparing it based on the work of the other market items, environments, materials .etc)
But in the end what epic should do?
It would be bad if someone start judging your work how valuable is, because that’s all relevant.
However, what happen with that @ guy? He had some great work, but never seen it released in the marketplace?
@ You’re not assuming that only one sale will occur, right?
btw, nice portfolio, like it!
The whole price thing comes down to 1) is it something you need to complete a product and 2) is it less expensive than it would cost you in time and software to learn how to, then do it yourself. If either answer is no, well then do not buy the asset.
The only problem I have with the marketplace is it is pretty empty, and I keep reading threads about new things that are headed there, or should have been there, but are not. Not saying it needs 1000’s of items, but a lot more that what is currently there would be nice.