> You can drop the price of a $70 game to $30 and not see a significant increase in sales
That's because that's still way beyond what most people are willing to pay to play games. You do not reach the threshold at 30 $ where you maximize your audience. It's like saying, "This sports car was 2 million dollars, I am selling it half price and still nobody buys it".
That's precisely why the humble bundle and the steam sales work well. Because they offer you games at a price most people WANT to pay.
A retail game is considered a failure if it sells less than 1m units at $50-70 but the Humble Indie Bundle sold only 450,000 units at an average of just under $6. Clearly there is a market for full-priced games.
Both Steam sales and the Humble Bundle are vehicles for games that have already sold at a higher price and the sales curve is tailing off.
That's because that's still way beyond what most people are willing to pay to play games. You do not reach the threshold at 30 $ where you maximize your audience. It's like saying, "This sports car was 2 million dollars, I am selling it half price and still nobody buys it".
That's precisely why the humble bundle and the steam sales work well. Because they offer you games at a price most people WANT to pay.