It is silly that past versions of the game are not available

[PocketsAintFull]

Originally Posted by Christopher19a

Who ? Or what is Sauron ?
Was he the old man with the goat that cursed the Cubs once upon a time ?
What happened to his other eye ?

I am totally down for a baseball/Sauron crossover, let's make it happen OOTP.

[Brad K]

Right now, what should OOTP 25 sell for? There are two angles here, someone who wants 26 but would buy 25 if the price was low enough, and someone who wants the lower price of 25 but would buy 26 if it wasn't too much extra.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by MAGA2024Winning

Sweed, you are the biggest OOTP ball washer I've ever seen.

When you don’t have anything of value to say go with name calling.

You keep on being you.

[WhiskyTango]

Originally Posted by Sweed

Niche meaning a niche baseball/sports game with a "career/dynasty" universe to play in similar to FM.

I'd say what allowed OOTP to stay in business was the way it stayed ahead of the competition it once had. 15-20 years ago OOTP was not the only choice for this niche. I'd say by 2010 OOTP had distanced itself from that competition and never looked back. Many of the decisions they made then were criticized with a lot of "if you do that it will be the end of OOTP" comments. Those critics were wrong.

I'd also give them a bit more credit than they are successful because they are in "this particular niche". If it only took a game maker to fill a needed niche to be successful someone out there would be having a nice payday with an NFL equivalent to OOTP. Many have tried and, so far, none have reached the level of success that OOTP has.

Again, totally disagree. If we look more closely at OOTP we notice many components which were added and then more or less abandoned (not one of which is the UI which has never been updated). Which reveals they have far more vision than resources. If a deeper pocketed competitor wished to grab the market away from OOTP they could simply borrow heavily all the concepts OOTP has introduced but has never done much with and develop their own versions of those. Why doesn't someone do that? Because the market share is not worth the investment. Besides, OOTP, being the stand-alone product, has the MLB license. Now, have they earned that? Sure, no doubt, but that isn't the question. Given the resources of OOTP there's no way they could graduate into a bigger pond of competitors and survive, but in this baseball-sim market they can. That's a niche.

[22tbrads22]

Originally Posted by WhiskyTango

I'd say the prime thing that has allowed OOTP to stay in business is DUE to being not just a niche but this particular niche. Unless you're suggesting that if OOTP put out this level of product against say the level of product of a Sid Meier's Civilization series they'd do even better. ( and by better I mean more market share)

The reason they do well is because they are the only product in this market. They make a solid game for the most part, one out of every 2-3 years they make a substantial change or addition (most recently dev lab in 25’) they do just enough to keep it fresh. Competition would be great but I’m not sure there’s enough money in the baseball strategy market to ever see that sort of competition. Still think it’s bad business to not offer past versions for cheap. But I’m not in the meetings!! I’m glad this thread sparked a conversation however!

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by 22tbrads22

Still think it’s bad business to not offer past versions for cheap.

I don't know why last year's version would be offered "for cheap". For someone who doesn't want to play current season or PT, isn't 25 worth almost as much as 26?

[Bobfather]

Perhaps they don't have the server space because you can't keep the main game and not keep PT. Even if you don't play PT, it is still a part of the product. How long would you expect to the older games to be supported and updated? Also, how much of the demand is there? I would think a Google search might find older unauthorized license keys. The old versions are readily available in demo mode. If you want a cheaper version, there are sales throughout the year. I think right before 26 dropped, 25 was selling for less than $19 US.
So to answer your question, NO, I don't think it is silly.

[NYMike44]

Per Lukas, it's due to licensing and approval issues now. That's all that was said.

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...11#post5006411

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by WhiskyTango

Again, totally disagree. If we look more closely at OOTP we notice many components which were added and then more or less abandoned (not one of which is the UI which has never been updated). Which reveals they have far more vision than resources. If a deeper pocketed competitor wished to grab the market away from OOTP they could simply borrow heavily all the concepts OOTP has introduced but has never done much with and develop their own versions of those. Why doesn't someone do that? Because the market share is not worth the investment. Besides, OOTP, being the stand-alone product, has the MLB license. Now, have they earned that? Sure, no doubt, but that isn't the question. Given the resources of OOTP there's no way they could graduate into a bigger pond of competitors and survive, but in this baseball-sim market they can. That's a niche.

I literally said it was a niche product. You're the one that tried bringing up Sid Meier's products, not me. And my response?

Niche meaning a niche baseball/sports game with a "career/dynasty" universe to play in similar to FM.

I'm not sure what you're going on about? There is no semantics game to be played here.

They are a small company, starting out with Markus and Andreas, that was never going to compete with the big boys. But what they did with that small company was petty much beat their competition into the ground and made a nice living with a niche sports game as their product. A particular small niche arena where many developers have tried and had a small amount of success (compared to OOTP) or failed. These other developers also had "far more vision than resources." In this niche OOTP succeeded where the others have muddled along or simply failed.

[22tbrads22]

Originally Posted by Brad K

I don't know why last year's version would be offered "for cheap". For someone who doesn't want to play current season or PT, isn't 25 worth almost as much as 26?

If that’s the case then they’d be admitting they don’t change their game apart from a roster update between titles which is not something they will do. If it’s a newer game with upgraded features why shouldn’t it be more than previous games?

[22tbrads22]

Originally Posted by NYMike44

Per Lukas, it's due to licensing and approval issues now. That's all that was said.

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...11#post5006411

I miss the thank you feature the community used to have. You’ll have to settle for a good old fashioned thank you.

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by 22tbrads22

If that’s the case then they’d be admitting they don’t change their game apart from a roster update between titles which is not something they will do. If it’s a newer game with upgraded features why shouldn’t it be more than previous games?

From the perspective of the type of person described in my post that is often close to reality.