Page 19 - The Bootstrapper Bible

ChangeThis A REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE OF TAKING ADVANTAGE OF YOUR SIZE (Or, how id software completely redefined the computer game market and made millions.) The software company that calls itself id is a classic bootstrapper. It makes violent computer games that run on home computers. Its software is usually developed by a group of 2 to 10 people, then published by a big company like Electronic Arts. It costs a huge amount to make a new product (sometimes more than a million dollars) but amazingly little to make one more copy (as low as 50 cents). They didn’t want to hear about investing in new markets. They wanted to hear about profits. So the idea in computer game software has always been to spend whatever it takes to make a great game, then spend whatever it takes to get shelf space in the software stores, then hope and pray that you sell a lot of copies. One hit like Myst can pay all of a companyʼs bills for years to come. Id became famous for a game called Castle Wolfenstein. As an encore, the four guys who founded id decided to follow their own rules in playing against the big companies. They did it with a game called Doom. They brazenly broke the first rule of software marketing—they gave Doom away to anyone who wanted to download it. Free. Millions of people did. It quickly became the most popular | iss. 6.01 | i | U | X | + | Please donʼt be afraid; PASS THIS ALONG to as many people as you want! h 19/103 f