Renegade Games

I think negotiating is one of the most fun things to do. It gives you a big thrill, and a real sense of achievement. Apart from a few good negotiations, up until about 21 years old I didn’t really negotiate very much. It was scary, and I didn’t have the social skills to do it.

However, after doing a sales job for 2 years, and generally changing my opinion about negotiation, I have been doing more and more of it. Why? Well, deal making is a fundamental part of running a business, so it’s something I always wanted to learn.

I am also a bit of an adrenaline junky, and once you experience the thrill of winning a negotiation, it is hard to stop.

Another thing to consider is that, everyone is faced with negotiation all day long, you just don’t realise it. All the time you are making bargains with other people, even just your spouse. Love is war, as they say.

Just yesterday I saved myself £20 by negotiating a bit. The induction course for a martial arts course I started was supposedely £200, and they were doing a special offer of this week it’s £100 (bullshit). But a company like that is just asking to be negotiated with. A company that is good in sales will always be receptive to someone challenging them to negotiate. This £100 also included equipment and insurance, so is wasn’t pure profit for them.

First step of negotiation, set a goal. My goal in this case was to get 10% off, or £10.

Second rule of negotiation, never start negotiating at your goal, go much lower so you can negotiate up to what you really want.

So I went in asking the company to give me the induction at £80.

After asking them, the guy sat there for a bit calculating whether he could do it. If he was an experienced negotiator he was probably doing this to test my patience, as sitting there in silence for 2 minutes is actually quite a high pressure situation, staring at him waiting for his response.

This is the time to not say anything, it’s his turn to make a move. So, I sat there and waited patiently for him to respond.

Now in this situation, there would be no way I would accept, I would probably come back with an offer of £95. However, the guy actually went for my £80 offer. RESULT.

He made a few comments afterwards about me ripping him off, but hey. The most important part is making sure you feel you have nothing to lose. As Donald Trump said, negotiation is all about leverage. Does the other half want something badly (in this case my money). Since I convinced myself I have nothing to lose, I won easily.

Yesterday was just about fun anyway. I like testing people. But I was quite surprised how easy it was.

I’ve been researching micropayments for the games that we have.

The most obvious payment site that everyone usually starts with is Paypal, but since they have a flat fee of at least 20p on each transaction, taking smaller payments, even £1 is not worth it.

There are two things to consider, one is the transaction fees, the other is the accessibility of payments. The obvious problem with charging for a game is that a lot of users will not have a credit card yet (they are underage), and therefore payment is limited to bank account transfer or mobile payments.

In terms of credit card payments, the three companies to consider are Paypal, MoneyBookers and Amazon.

We will look at two examples, a customer paying £1 and £10

Paypal – Fixed fees for any amount

£1 – Fee: Approx: 23p – 23%

£10 – Fee: Approx: 54p – 5.4%

MoneyBookers

£1 – Fee: Approx: 21p – 21%

£10 – Fee: Approx 38p – 3.8%

Amazon

£1 – Fee: Approx 0.09 – 9%

£10 – Fee: Approx 54p – 5.4%

So, Amazon wins the micropayments battle, by a big margin, however differences are quite small at £10, with MoneyBookers being slightly better.