An interesting blog entry on sales numbers for the 'New 52' sales for DC. Not so new after all.
That's pretty much what I'd expect after the issues I read at the beginning. In my eyes, they made the enormous mistake of making a fresh break...
except all of this stuff, and a bunch of history that's probably like what we had before, but eh, we don't actually know. Batgirl was a prime example, where the premise was that Barbara Gordon's entire history came over intact, and for some secret "miraculous" reason, her legs are healed and she's a costumed hero again. So, the fresh start still requires you to understand thirty years of history, yet forget everybody else's history.
I think another aspect of the decline might have been the advent of video games.
Funny thing, gamers are starting to gripe about some very unfamiliar problems: The companies are creating shorter games for more money, then trying to sell add-ons that don't improve the game, the stories are more shallow, and they rely more on high-end graphics than anything else in the experience.
Meanwhile, the game companies are apparently trying to convince the console manufacturers to making gaming a "remote" activity, where you don't actually have the files on your computer.
Hmmm...
Great thoughts. I do think a dollar price point for digital makes sense. It has worked for music.
As a guide, it's probably a good start, yeah. On the other hand, the exact pricing may depend on the sales pitch.
Speaking for my own spending habits, I'm very unlikely to buy music or movies at a retail price IF it's a corporate project. If it's on clearance, sure, I'm there. But my tastes (for better or worse) aren't mainstream.
On the other hand, I surprise myself how much I'm willing to pay for media when it's just some plain old people telling a story. For example, I donated to support the Pioneer One web-series (highly recommended and free) back when it started and bought a few copies of the season DVD as soon as they went on sale. Kickstarter has also shown me that I'll drop a surprising amount of money on a reasonable idea, and even more if I get a good feeling from the creator.
So, for "payment," a dollar is probably a fair limit. If you can convince me it's "patronage," or if the product is extremely novel, a dollar might be very low.
Everyone wants to get rich but how rich. The previous billion dollar company profits are now able to go directly to several individuals pedaling their own products. If you create something good enough that enough people want it you can still get rich.
And that's another problem with the existing economic climate. It's not enough to "get rich." If you're a company beholden to shareholders (or a parent company), you're basically required to not stop until you have ALL the money.
I'm not against money, but that sort of short-term thinking isn't healthy for the company, the consumer, or the economy.
When the only cost is your time you can afford to take chances and hope to hit it big.
Or even not so big! For every "professional" who won't work without a good income, there's a hundred others who'd be happy for people to see their work and maybe get some extra beer money. From a publishing standpoint, the former deal is less risky overall, so it's better. But for the customer, I'm not sure that's true at all.
