| Sinclairvoyance |
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, so far, has been a traumatic year in the software market. In January software publishers forecast a gloomy future for the industry if the epidemic of software piracy was allowed to spread unchecked, predicting that the smaller companies could go to the wall.
It has been suggested that piracy might, however, decrease as an indirect result of the latest upset in the industry - the introduction of cut-price games by a growing number of new publishers who are bringing to an immature market their business expertise gained in other areas.
As reported in last month's Sinclair User, the onslaught was spearheaded by two companies, Pulsonic and Mastertronic. In March the former launched a range of cassettes for the Spectrum and Commodore computers priced at an absurdly low £2.95. That price seems almost inflated when compared to that of the Mastertronic games. That company has gone one better than Pulsonic, breaking the £2 barrier and selling its extensive range of titles, which is being added to monthly, at an unprecedented £1.99 each.
Other companies were quick to follow. Atlantis Software matched the Mastertronic price with Spectrum and Commodore games released at the rate of four a month and Advanced Computer Entertainment entered the fray with 10 Commodore titles at £2.99 each, previously sold at £6.90.
Of the four publishers, ACE is the only one to have lowered the price of existing software; the others are all newcomers to the industry which are launching new products. Yet all four have more in common than just their pricing policies. They have approached the market with a wealth of experience accumulated in the parallel home entertainment industries of records and videos.
The Pulsonic cassettes come from the same stable, Warwick Leisure, which produces the budget albums found in chain stores such as Woolworth. Two of the Mastertronic directors own the video wholesalers Video Tapes International, while Atlantis Software is brought to you courtesy of Atlantis Video Productions, distributor of such horror movies as Nightmare Maker, One Dark Night and Plague. ACE is another distributor of low-cost video tapes.
Each company has carefully considered the software market and reached the same conclusions - that the games on the market to date have been over-priced and consequently have not achieved volume sales. The manufacturers have labelled the low-priced games 'pocket-money software' assuming, no doubt correctly, that most computer games players are children who cannot afford to buy even one £6.99 cassette a week. The new pricing, it is hoped, will encourage impulse buying and to that end the cut-price games are being distributed through a number of previously unused outlets such as newsagents, garage forecourts, supermarkets and off-licenses. A far cry from the small ads where most of the long-established software houses cut their teeth.
The strategy is paying off already; within three weeks of launch Mastertronic claimed that sales exceeded 150,000 games - more than some software houses sell in a year.
The reaction from the industry was swift and predictable. Derek Meakin, head of the National Micros Centres, summed up the mood when he stated in April: "Many of the software houses are working on very tight margins already and a price cutting war could well bankrupt the more vulnerable ones." He suggested that the freelance software writers would be among the first to feel the pinch and they would be reluctant to work for months producing a first-class program for meagre royalties. "Standards will slide rapidly," Meakin predicted, gravely.
Many of the protesters have cited the case of Imagine Software, which announced a price drop in March but pulled back at the eleventh hour. The decision was taken, the company claimed, "after much soul-searching and to safeguard the growth of the software industry in its widest sense." Such magnanimity, it is argued, should set an example to the quick-buck merchants who might, unwittingly, kill the hen which lays the chuckie eggs.
Is there any justification in those fears and are we about to witness the collapse of civilisation as we know it?
To begin with let us look at the cut-price games themselves. Most of the them are, to be blunt, fairly dire. Of the games received at Sinclair User only a few can be considered better than average, while most are tired variations on well-worn themes, unashamed arcade derivatives. The titles are sufficient to confirm your worst suspicions - Spectipede, Gnasher, Monster Munch. Games like those have been around longer than we care to remember, but there is one difference and that is crucial. In the past such mind-numbing pastimes cost £6 or more.
The companies which have most to lose, then, are those which have been producing sub-standard software at exorbitant prices and getting away with it for far too long. The only alternatives open to them now, if they want to survive, are to lower prices or improve quality. Standards will not drop because standards were never that high to begin with, only the prices were.
| 'In most respects, pocket-money software is good news for the industry' |
On the other hand, publishers who have always guaranteed value for money need not be over-concerned about the pocket-money software. Programs like Jet Set Willy, Scuba Dive, The Hobbit, Halls of the Things, 3D Ant Attack and many others will continue to sell in sufficient numbers to justify the time and effort spent on their production.
Neither should educational and business software houses worry too much, for it is extremely unlikely that Pulsonic, Mastertronic and the rest will compete in those areas.
Will volume sales succeed in making software piracy less attractive, as counterfeiters find they are unable to guarantee reasonable profits? Sadly, that is not likely to be the case, because pirates will continue to concentrate on copying the most popular games - the Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy chart-toppers.
In most other respects, however, pocket-money software is good news for the industry. It will force publishers to keep on their toes, it should lead to marked improvements in quality, and it will ensure that users will no longer feel cheated when they have paid through the nose for a Pac-man lookalike which palls after half-an-hour.