I recently got my dad a big boxed set of every "Star Trek" movie ever made in special edition DVDs for his birthday. As I was wrapping the present, I had an epiphany that the subject of bundling in video games might make a fun blog topic. We see bundles all the time, everywhere we go, in other industries. Yet, they are relatively rare in the video game industry. Here are some bundles that I am aware of: Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition (Morrowind plus the two expansions) Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (Ninja Gaiden 1-3 on a super nes disk) Final Fantasy Chronicles (Included Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger) Final Fantasy Anthology (Final Fantasy V and VI) Grand Theft Auto packs Everquest Evolutions and Everquest Platinum Warcraft Battlechest Starcraft Battlechest These obviously aren't the only ones that could/would do well in a bundle. Now, before I go on, I realize there are some obvious downsides to each and every bundle I'm about to describe below. We're dealing with just theory and conjecture after all, that each of these, if done right, could work out nicely for both the game developers and the consumers. I realize that each approach has strengths to be exploited and weaknesses that would need to be overcome. Now, here are some bundling ideas that I think could sell well if they were released: Any trilogy (Halo Trilogy, God of War trilogy, etc.) What I like about this is that it allows anyone who has missed the beginning game or what have you to come in and be immediately caught up. As an added bonus, you could update the graphics of the early games to match the later one. Who wouldn't want to see God of War 1 and God of War 2 with updated PS3 style graphics included on the disc that is released with God of War 3? Oooh baby! Don't talk dirty to me! Or rather, please do! Yes, I know that some will argue that they'd rather game developers be working on a new game, but that's ignoring the possibility of increasing business leading to increased hiring in a given company. In other words, who says a company can't do both? Just as an example, Sony isn't just a video game developer after all. Saying that companies that release as many and as varied of products as Sony does can't work on more than one game concurrently is like saying that you or I can't walk and chew gum at the same time. The same could apply for any other major company. (Nintendo, for example, sure works on plenty of first party games at a time.) The complete...(Fill in the blank, long running franchise series The Video Game industry is replete with long running franchises, and, frankly, the technology finally exists to allow us to put entire franchises onto one little disc. For example, who but the most rabid hater of rpg games wouldn't be at least mildly interested in purchasing a disc that had Final Fantasy 1-12 on a single bluray disc? Certainly it would be better than Square Enix releasing the old games one at a time for the PSP, getting them rated a 6.0 or whatever, and then trying to justify selling 20 year old games with a couple of new textures thrown on as a brand new game right? That's like putting on a new coat of paint on my 1995 Toyota Camry and trying to convince people that it's a 2007 Toyota Camry instead. And Final Fantasy isn't the only good candidate for this sort of bundling. What about Mega Man, Dragon Quest, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear, Suikoden, Grand Theft Auto and Virtua Fighter to name just a few? Bundle it with the new title in the franchise This is related to the trilogy bundle above, but slightly different in that some games have been going on longer than a trilogy. Surely a great way to justify a newly pricey $60 for a new game would be to do this? Shelling out that much cash at a time would be much easier to swallow if, while getting Devil May Cry 4, the series threw in Devil May Cry 1 as well. After all, after a game has been out for a couple of years…or longer…this would be a great way to not only revitalize interest in the older games, but also sell more copies of the new game. And after a game has been out for a certain number of years, how many copies of the older games are really selling? Hell, who can even find some of the older games in stores after a few years? And, if you forego updating the graphics like I suggested earlier, then it wouldn't really cost game companies that much more to throw an older game or three on the disc now would it? As an added bonus, it would even allow gamers to be more easily awed at how great the newest game in the series is when they could go to the very first game and compare. If the economics of doing this didn't work, then maybe you could up the price of the new title just a bit to compensate. A sweet spot has to exist that would make this a greater overall value. Rather than paying $30 to find a used copy of GTA: San Andreas and then paying $60 for GTA IV when it comes out, I think some people would love paying $75 for a combo HD-DVD or Bluray that came out with both games included. The consumer likes it because they get both games for a lower overall price than they would have and in one, convenient package. The company loves it because they don't make a dime when Joe Gamer runs out to ebay to buy a used copy of GTA: San Andreas. Crossover releases… This one would be a bit dicey, but I think it would be doable and at least a little bit worth looking into. Not all game companies hate each others' guts and are setup as direct rivals like, just for example, Sony and Microsoft. The basic idea would be that both companies would sell more copies of their game(s) bundled together than they would individually, and the value to the customer would be that they get the combined bundle at a cheaper price than they would otherwise pay. That's what I mean by crossover releases bundled together. In certain situations, where the synergy of releasing together two or more games made by different companies makes sense, it would have to be a huge selling point. If the two games sold separately were $120, then why not sell them together for $100? The two companies involved could jointly share the costs of marketing and distributing the game, therefore reducing the overall cost burden to each company individually, and pass along the savings to the customers. Each company by itself could lower its overall risk a bit as well by sharing the burden. Would a combo pack of Knights of the Old Republic 1 and Knights of the Old Republic 2, released by Bioware and Obsidian, interest anyone? Or would a combination of buying "Fear" and "Bioshock" together get anyone a little flushed and excited? Precedent exists for this type of co-branding in lots of different places. The most common one I can think of is with regards to computer equipment. For example, it wasn't so long ago that computer Company X was using printer Company Y's printers to help sell their computers, and vice versa. "Buy a Company X computer before the end of month ABC and we'll throw in this Company Y printer absolutely free!"

Greatest Hits Collections

Let's face it, this is an idea that the music industry has been using for years to astonishing success. It doesn't matter that I own just about every U2 CD ever made, it didn't stop me from buying U2's Greatest Hits Collection when it came out. Some game developers are equally as iconic. The value to the game developers, of course, is that they sacrifice a touch of profit margin on a percentage point basis for greater profit overall. In other words, let's say that Bioware would make 35% Gross Margin profit if they sold one copy of Jade Empire, one copy of Knights of the Old Republic, and one copy of Baldur's Gate. Now let's say that they bundle the three games together and sell them as some sort of Greatest Hits collection at a reduced price and they sell three copies of each game at a 28% Gross Margin. They may not be making as much money on each game, but by selling many more games overall, they make more money as an absolute value. Square-Enix tried this one with Final Fantasy Chronicles, but I think that this technique could be used in a more wide-ranging and extensive manner. Obviously, the greatest drawback to some of these approaches is that fans of a given developer or series probably have several of the games already and therefore a bundle that includes duplicates of a game they already have loses value, but again, I think if done right each of these above approaches has potential. So those are just a few simple ideas. They are far from perfect, and indeed some of the bundles are probably wishful thinking, but fun anyway. Comments welcome and appreciated!

This blog has been edited for formatting and to remove one joke I later decided was in bad taste.