Listen to Matthew Doucette of Xona Games speak on software pricing (mp3 link) at InNOVAcorp's Business Over Breakfast:

Business Over Breakfast: Software Product and Service Pricing and Packaging Strategies
(mp3 podcast: 58.9 MB)

There were three of us on the panel:

• Matthew Doucette, Co-founder, Game Designer and Producer, Xona Games (xona.com)
• Patrick Hankinson, Director of Marketing, Tether (tether.com)
• Duncan Enman, Founder, Can Stock Photo (canstockphoto.com)

It was a pleasure to meet both of them.  This was an amazing experience for me, to pretend to be an expert!  The crowd was 30 to 50 people in size, mostly business and media related. There's amazing talent in Nova Scotia, Canada! Tether was the overall provincial winner of the I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition we entered and won.

Here's a breakdown of the session, as quoted from InNOVAcorp (some links added by me):

Hear from Patrick Hankinson, director of marketing for Tether, Matthew Doucette, co-founder of Xona Games, and Duncan Enman, founder of Can Stock Photo, as they discuss the logic of their pricing strategies and what they have learned about pricing’s impact on top and bottom line growth.

Patrick Hankinson, Director of Marketing, Tether (www.tether.com) – Tether has developed a simple and inexpensive way for laptop users to connect to the internet through smartphones, including the BlackBerry. For users who do not have free wired or WiFi access, but need to connect their laptops to the internet in an airport or a taxi, for example, Tether enables them to quickly connect through their smartphones, for a one-time fee, without incurring any additional charges. Tether has attracted worldwide media attention, including coverage in The New York Times, and has already been sold to thousands of users. In addition to his role with Tether, Patrick is president of Ninja Otter Inc., a marketing and advertising company.

Matthew Doucette, Co-founder, Game Designer and Producer, Xona Games (www.xona.com) – Xona Games is an independent game development studio targeting Xbox 360 and PC gaming platforms. The company concentrates on intensifying retro-style games and has already gained international recognition, placing 7th in the world and 2nd in Canada in Microsoft’s 2009 Dream Build Play competition. Xona’s game Decimation X is the number one rated Xbox LIVE Indie Game in Japan.

Duncan Enman, Founder, Can Stock Photo (www.canstockphoto.com) – Can Stock Photo is a microstock agency, a company that sells stock photos and illustrations very affordably. Duncan founded the company in 2004, and it soon became the busiest stock-photo site in the country, today representing 2.2 million photos and 50,000 members. In 2008, US-based stock-photo giant Fotosearch acquired Can Stock Photo and hired Duncan to run the company.

Panel moderator – Dan MacDonald, President and CEO, Innovacorp

(See more InNOVAcorp discuession at their Business Over Breafast Series.)

More Xona.com Links:

• I-3 Competition Awards Event - Xona Games Video
• Xona Games Wins $100,000; I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition
• Japan's Top Rated Best Selling XBLIG: Decimation X
• Decimation X now on Xbox LIVE!
• Acadia University Coverage: A Passion For Programming
• Xona Games feature in Develop Magazine and CBC TV News
• Duailty ZF #2 in Canada #7 in World in Dream Build Play 2009 (Top 20 Video Trailers)

External Links:

• Xona Games social: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and more.
• Xona Games subscriptions: RSS, Twitter. 
• Xbox LIVE Indie Games* (forums)
• InNOVAcorp
• Tether
• Can Stock Photo  

*Xbox LIVE Indie Games formerly known as Xbox LIVE Community Games.

About the Author:  I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning, team-of-two indie studio concentrating on "intense retro" games (Xbox LIVE, PSN, WiiWare, and Windows PC). We've released Decimation X (XBLIG), a 1-4 player shmup, #1 best selling and #1 top rated XBLIG in Japan. We're working on Duality ZF (XBLA), a groundbreaking 1-4 player shmup, which placed #1 in Canada and #5 in the world in Microsoft's Dream Build Play 2010 contest. It features dual play, the ability to control two fighters at once, and a massively upgradable 32-stage spread/laser weapon system. 4 player dual play allows up to eight fighters at once.  Many of these features are never before seen shoot'em up firsts. Both games feature beautiful electronic Imphenzia soundtracks.  Help spread the word with our official dualityzf.com and decimationx.com websites.

P.S. Watch out for Score Rush (official website scorerush.com), another 1-4 player shmup. Coming soon to XBLIG.

*Shmup also known as: shoot'em up, 2D shooter, scrolling shooter, space shooter, spaceship shooter, retro shooter, etc.