Wishlist for Marine Aquarium 3 and Future

[grape_jellyfish]

Glad you saw it too Cliff, thought I might just be seeing things.

[Jim Sachs]

It won't be finished by any means, but it should be stable enough to start testing on a variety of computers. I need to make sure that some of my off-the-wall techniques are going to work, or if I need to go in a different direction.

[ESHIREY]

I can't wait.

[Tiny Turtle]

Originally posted by cjmaddy:

"... within the next few days." ? - - Did that really say what I think it did? ...  

October comes early this year...

[Jav400]

Yeah, but I think Jim counts days as being 96 hours long each.

[patscarr]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

I plan to release it to the Beta testers at about 60%. That will happen very soon, within the next few days.  

Wow! Cool!

[Highlander]

If Jim needs a beta tester on a Vista x64 quadcore machine....I am the man

[Andrew Jenkins]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Regarding the 80-20 rule, I plan to release it to the Beta testers at about 60%. That will happen very soon, within the next few days. Yesterday I added the feature that Beta testers love most - an expiration date

The price of MA3 will probably be the same as MA2 was before the price reduction - $20. Current owners will be able to upgrade for a small charge.  

Don't want to spoil the party before it begins but the price surprises me (you must think I'm mad). I would rather see investment & development and my take is that happens quicker when there's more incentive.
I guess you know the market for MA3 better than me, however I am not complaining!

[Jim Sachs]

Pricing is always tricky. Though I consider the Aquarium a simulation, people think of it as a screensaver. I had to resurrect the concept of paying for a screensaver, which was totally dead when I came out with the product. I picked $20 as a price because it seemed to me that it's something that most people could afford -- the price of dinner, or a movie for two. But it's high enough to be taken as a real purchase and not just a throw-away. People could consider it a real gift for birthdays, Mother's day, etc.

The price was just a shot-in-the dark, but quickly became standard for many other programs that copied my business model. Though it worked out extremely well for me, it didn't for anybody else. I was hoping that someone would try different price-points so I could use them as a test-case, but most either gave up or continue to limp along with the same plan.

A few months ago, I lowered the price for MA2.6 to $14.95. This was done so that people who recently bought the program wouldn't feel cheated if they get charged $5 to upgrade to MA3. When the price was lowered, the volume went up a proportionate amount so that revenue was virtually unaffected. But when you increase sales by lowering prices, you have a lot more customers to deal with and need to pay more people to deal with them.

I'm always open to suggestions, but it would be difficult for me to change a formula that is already known to be successful.

[nytiger73]

Hi Jim,

I think your price point works very well. I personally can't think of anything that you could change to make it work out better. As you said, it's proven to be very successful. You basically have it all. A gorgeous screensaver / simulation. Very reasonably priced upgrades (such as the forthcoming creature packs and the discount for upgrading to the latest version of the product).

In regards to the Freshwater Aquarium, I know that you have said that you might want to return to developing it after MA3 is released along with the creature packs. You have also stated that the Dream Aquarium is a wonderful product and that if you hadn't already put so much time into the Freshwater product that you would just turn the market over to him. Has there ever been any thought or discussion with Alan to perhaps integrate some of your artwork / backgrounds into his product? I would love to see what you have done with the Fresh Water Aquarium and would love to see some more backgrounds for Dream Aqaurium.

Just a thought, however I think logistically it might be impossible, because I would imagine you both use different programming and art methods which would make compatibility a big issue.

Can't wait to see the beta of MA3!

Keep up the great work.

[johnblommers]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Pricing is always tricky.....I picked $20 as a price because it seemed to me that it's something that most people could afford....I was hoping that someone would try different price-points so I could use them as a test-case......When the price was lowered, the volume went up a proportionate amount so that revenue was virtually unaffected. But when you increase sales by lowering prices, you have a lot more customers to deal with and need to pay more people to deal with them....  

You've described the Economics 101 (that is where I learned about it) ideal supply-demand model perfectly. So if revenues remain constant when the price is dropped then I'd recommend increasing the price to $25 since you will make more money.

Let me preface my next comment by noting that your behavior in the marketplace demonstrates one of the highest ethics I have seen. We need more such business people in the country.

But I did not feel cheated when Apple dropped the iphone price from $600 to $400, I did not feel cheated because I got no upgrade credit for Leopard, and I would not feel cheated if you charge $25 for MA3, because IMHO it is a new product, not an upgrade. Adding fish to a tank, that is an upgrade.

[Andrew Jenkins]

Originally posted by johnblommers:

You've described the Economics 101 (that is where I learned about it) ideal supply-demand model perfectly. So if revenues remain constant when the price is dropped then I'd recommend increasing the price to $25 since you will make more money.

Let me preface my next comment by noting that your behavior in the marketplace demonstrates one of the highest ethics I have seen. We need more such business people in the country.

But I did not feel cheated when Apple dropped the iphone price from $600 to $400, I did not feel cheated because I got no upgrade credit for Leopard, and I would not feel cheated if you charge $25 for MA3, because IMHO it is a new product, not an upgrade. Adding fish to a tank, that is an upgrade.  

Agreed $25.00... Still a snip.

[Enigma]

I would gladly pay $25.00 as well. I will be buying several copies for friends & family as soon as MA3 launches.

My customers are still highly impressed with the current version. We sold quite a few retail boxed copies back in the day at $19.95 and are still sending folks to the website to purchase it as a download. I can't see my customers getting in a snit over an extra $5.00 for the new version.

[Andrew Jenkins]

I appreciate I'm getting off the subject here- not exactly my SereneScreen Aq WISHLIST, but come to think of it wouldn't it be nice if every time you purchased a new upgrade to your laptop you got a 50% + discount from your current manufacturer, or software supplier for that matter (microsoft & apple please note).
New product, new purchase.
I am all for rewarding loyal customers but the reward should be comensurate with the risk of losing that custom if you don't. From my perspective
1/ I have had the enjoyment of the product I bought for the last 12mths.
2/ Nothing else that I see that might persuade me to buy elsewhere.
Jim, I think you should re-visit your pricing- your are more than generous.

...and before anybody suggests that I am on the SereneScreen payroll can I just clarify for the record that I am not.

[Jim Sachs]

Whenever I come out with an update, several things happen:

It creates a lot of buzz, which spurs a large number of new sales.

Existing customers can updgrade for a small fee, which makes them happy and adds to the positive word-of-mouth (which is our only advertising).

A lot of existing customers have lost their Key Codes, switched computers, or forgot they even had the Aquarium, and simply buy a new copy.

Each new update disables all the illegal Key Codes that have cropped up since the last update. Eventually, even hackers will catch on to the fact that by creating or searching for a new code for each update, they are working for far less than minimum wage. Much more efficient to just buy the thing, and spend their time in other nefarious pursuits.

So, thanks for your concern, Andrew, but you needn't worry. Marine Aquarium will be just fine.

[cohiba420]

Yay for progress!!! I'm doing the happy dance!

[ESHIREY]

[Andrew Jenkins]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Whenever I come out with an update, several things happen:

It creates a lot of buzz, which spurs a large number of new sales.

Existing customers can updgrade for a small fee, which makes them happy and adds to the positive word-of-mouth (which is our only advertising).

A lot of existing customers have lost their Key Codes, switched computers, or forgot they even had the Aquarium, and simply buy a new copy.

Each new update disables all the illegal Key Codes that have cropped up since the last update. Eventually, even hackers will catch on to the fact that by creating or searching for a new code for each update, they are working for far less than minimum wage. Much more efficient to just buy the thing, and spend their time in other nefarious pursuits.

So, thanks for your concern, Andrew, but you needn't worry. Marine Aquarium will be just fine.  

Enough said. I promise not to mention again.

[raygan]

hello everyone
i stop by and lurk here once in awhile and discussion in another forum made me stop by and check:
--I used the search button before I posted

Q: Is the company looking into Blu-Ray btw?
---reason: wife bought a 50" LCD flatscreen and a PS3...was wondering if the company has anything I can pop in the PS3/Blu-Ray so I can show SereneScreens awesome work

Q: finally bought the Dell UltraSharp 24" Widescreen---been saving for 3yrs will the new-soon-to-be-release (just adding pressure Jim ) j/k support widescreen?

[Tiny Turtle]

Blu-Ray: Nothing public so far, though ther has been previous suggestions. The DVD version was a disaster, but that was greatly due to poor production. A BR-version could look really cool IMHO. Probably a pretty popular thing to pirate though.


MA3 will most definately support widescren. the tank is actually two widescreens wide and will pan slowly left to right (unless you rather want it stationary of course).