Digital Storefront report: "Never discount less than 40%"

Video game metadata firm EEDAR has released a report with some interesting findings on digital storefronts and promotions.

Some of the more significant takeaways were that many small promotions are better than fewer large ones, that publishers should make "timed discounts aggressive" and never discount less than 40%.

"You're discounting as a means to stand out from the competition," Joe Dodson from EEDAR told GamesIndustry.biz. "You want to provide a compelling reason to buy right now that sets you apart from every other game on the platform. And you always want that."

Dodson shared a number of other insights into the world of digital storefronts, and what publishers need to consider in order to make their game a success.

"There are a lot of cases where one could successfully argue that games haven't been promoted aggressively enough," he said. "There aren't any cases I can think of where a game was promoted too aggressively. People are concerned about diminishing returns but that likely overestimates the reach of timed discounts, and it also underestimates the market for your game."

Dodson said there is no specific number or frequency because it works on a case-by-case basis. "But I can say I would rather be more active than my competition," he added.

The Digital Storefront Report also noted that the number of discounted titles has been growing on PlayStation 4 but shrinking on Xbox One. The reason? Well, Dodson says that it's largely due to the reorganisation of the Xbox One store in January 2016.

"The total promotional throughput decreased, and therefore the number of titles being promoted decreased," he said. "This is not a bad thing for publishers on the Xbox One; it's a fantastic marketplace, and the fact that it has less competition makes it all the more effective for titles that are being promoted there."

An Digital Storefront Report infographic can be found here.