Recently, I purchased the boxed edition of iClone3 Pro, which came bundled with 3DXchange (for importing virtually any prop my heart could imagine). The software is brilliant, no doubt about it. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get the basics down, you start to see the true potential of this software.
I almost didn't buy it, though. The reason: cost of extra content (and I know several other people that felt the same way and opted to take the Moviestorm route as a result).
How much does extra content cost, I hear you ask? (you know you did...) - put simply: TOO BLOODY MUCH.
The basic level of purchasable content is WAY OVERPRICED. Reallusion (the company that makes the product) charge very high prices for their content packs (of which there are many, I might add).
Take at look at their Content Store to see what I mean (I'll wait why you do that...)
OK, an example: The Wedding Planner Deluxe Pack costs a whopping $199.95, I kid you not (the same price I paid for my boxed edition of the base software). Sure it has a fair bit of content, but $200 bucks worth? No way.
They've managed to offset this by giving us BackStage, which is a system that allows you to trial and buy individual pieces of these packs, so you don't have to mortgage your house to make a 10 minute machinima movie. One of the problems I've noticed with that is that NOT ALL of the content is available through BackStage, so for certain things you are still forced to buy the entire pack, or go without.
This overpricing tendency seems to have bled over into the ranks of the individual content developers as well. One item (a simple, but unique variant of the ubiquitous CloneCloth system) is priced at a RIDICULOUS $96!! Just outrageous, if you ask me - it's just ONE ITEM!
Of course, it's not all doom and gloom. As has been said by many others before (including myself), the software comes with pretty much all you need to do, build and create everything you need. It just takes time and effort to do so (and did I mention skill, which you might not have?) But if you want to take the easy route, it's gunna cost ya, buddy.
In a recent email exchange with a Reallusion employee (I was doing a little experiment which I might touch on in a later blog), I suggested the obvious (to me) approach of selling the content for LESS, and thus making it available to more buyers. Seems to me if you sell the same item more times for less money, your profit will even out, with the added bonus of having more loyal and happy customers that can AFFORD the content packs (and future products).
Am I wrong in this assumption? I'm no businessman, but it seems very straightforward to me.
Honestly, I think they are shooting themselves in the foot by overpricing the content this way. Is it greed or ignorance? Or maybe it's just me?
I dunno, Biggs....
ReplyDeleteYeah, some of the content is pricey - but I recall TMO days with people saying "I'd pay for new (fillintheblank)" At least with iClone, we can do it two ways:
(1) Buy the content. Buy the animations. Buy the 3D models. Make the freakin' movie.
or
(2) Create the content. Make your own animations. Get a copy of Blender and make the 3D models (or do like Gabe (animatechnica) does and create stuff out of the 3D primitives. Make the freakin' movie.
As untalented as I am, I bought the software for both (1) and (2). I've dropped a few hundred bucks on content at Reallusion, maybe as much on various models, sets, etc. elsewhere. I picked up the whole TrueBones animation collection (2500 or so animations) for another couple of hundred bucks.
But....
A chunk of change I spent at Reallusion was to buy all the CloneCloth stuff so I can, in my pathetic, untalented way, do some of my own costuming. I'm adjusting the animations I bought, using them as a starting place for the animations I want. I've bought nice sets for under $10, in some cases under $5 - sets that I can retexture or use as is depending on my needs, or sets that I can break apart and make new sets from.
I'd like it all to be cheap - hell, I'd like it all to be free. But the ability to buy what I need, make what I need, or bully talented people into making what I need covers all the bases for me, so I can't really complain....well, I could, but even I wouldn't listen.
I do agree that they'd probably (without seeing their books) sell more content if it was less expensive. But there are also alternatives, like CoolClones or that other one, the name of which escapes me right now.
And in the end, I'm less concerned about the bucks and more concerned about being to make the movie I want to make....
Maybe the answer is make the bundles available for the set price, but also make the individual items available for a LOT less?
ReplyDeleteIt may well be that you want 2 or 3 things out of a pack, but not everything. The current model means those 2-3 items end up costing you $50-$100, which is (quite frankly) outrageous and unsustainable beyond a select few who can afford the prices. Not exactly a good way to expand the mass-market appeal of your software, if you ask me.
Yes, there ARE models available from other sources (and some very good ones) but, again, if you want your model to look something like, you're gonna have to lay out the green for it (or spend a lot of time trawling Warehouse for a decent model; there are some very good ones there, but also a hell of a lot of crap).
If you have the time, ability and talent to make your own stuff, it becomes less of a problem. Sure, most of us in the anymation community have the ability to do at least some basic modding and costuming, but what about the "newbie" who wants to get into machinima, knows nothing about modding, can't afford the packs or even the individual models, and doesn't know anyone that can do any modelling on their behalf?
I think the current business model has a horrible chance to backfire on them and lose them a huge potential market if they aren't careful, especially in the current economic climate.
I'd love to spend time (and money) on learning iclone and making it do what I want it to do, but there's just no way I can afford to buy the stuff I need to do what I want to do. It just can't compete with what I can make or cobble together in the Movies right at the moment and, for that reason alone, it will have to remain on the distant horizon for me for now, and I'll be sticking with the Movies, at least for now (with all the hackneyed scenes etc, that has; at least I can afford to mod in that :P)