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[Reives]

Places like the Philippines seem to have a considerable number of players, especially for casual and indie games. But due to the income level, purchasing legit copies at standard USD/Euro prices may be out of reach for many.

So, what do you guys think about segmenting the prices to be more compatible for each region? Perhaps it could open up new customer bases. For example, the sales could be segmented via language dub; there'd be an English version sold at regular prices, then perhaps a Tagalog version at a price more acceptable to local standards.

[SaturnineGames]

Different price levels for different regions makes sense, but if it's too obvious, you run the risk of alienating people. People don't like to pay $10 when they know you're asking someone else for $5.

This is one of the reasons Nintendo and Microsoft sell downloadable games using a point system. A game will cost 1000 points everywhere, allowing it to be advertised worldwide at one price level. When the customer goes to buy points, the price of the points changes based on their location.

Microsoft has also had other solutions to this issue. Countries with lower average income levels have a special edition of Windows available to them at extremely low prices. This version is lower end than the most basic editions available in the US, with restrictions on things such as the number of programs allowed to be open at once. This edition is fine for people who just want to use the internet or type a paper, but for more advanced tasks they'll have to pay up for a higher end version at regular prices.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

blizzard does this with world of warcraft. it's 15$ a month in most of the world, but only 5$ a month in china

i think it's fine, but indie games are already so inexpensive that going much lower would be suicide. for instance, i currently sell my game at a name your price with a minimum of $1.75 (since any less and it wouldn't even cover all the various fees involved in the transaction). that's probably within the range of at least half of the undeveloped world -- i do occasionally get sales from brazil, china, russia, eastern europe, etc., where incomes are lower

i do think the name your price model (not as a sale, but as a perpetual thing) is the way to go, since it allows people to pay what they're comfortable paying. even within a country, there are the rich and the poor. a lawyer from malaysia is usually able to afford more than an 12 year old in a poor city in the US.

[MM]

In my experience you should totally forget about places like that and only focus on USA, England, Germany, Australia... It's not worth the effort. Save your time and release the game for free in other countries. It will make the game popular, which will give you more profit than actually selling it outside the Anglo/American regions.

[Booger]

I agree don't bother with developing countries (for now) until they're developed and start paying for games.  They only play famous hit games anyway (Plants vs Zombies, Angry Birds, Mystery Case files, Machinarium)