I suppouse blame is on steam for not offering better alternatives for tiered releases.
And on other hand they are in different situation than other games as they funded differently. Other early-access are trying to collect money and traditional published games want their cut before the quality of game is out.
And Beta is now mostly just marketing tool, but there is exceptions always...
Comment has been collapsed.
Everyone says it's priced this way because of the kickstarter. Then why the hell is just ~35$ in the RU Steam Store? The Russian dollar worth more or the Kickstarter was region locked, just I did not see it? That part is already unfair with the backers and you're defending the developers with this reason...
Comment has been collapsed.
prices are lower in russia for all games......lets boycott EVERYTHANGSSS
Comment has been collapsed.
they arent selling the game they are selling the game PLUS VERY early access plus the opportunity to help shape the game with the dev team. if they had offered early access for the low price of 30$ and then you buy it for full retail after it releases i dont think people would be so angry. but people are blind to the fact they are getting more than just the game.
Comment has been collapsed.
it might be the fact that the economy is different ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!! i have a feeling thats above a lot of peoples heads tho
Comment has been collapsed.
Regardless of Steam games normally being cheaper in Russia, the point is that they've said the reason the pricing is what it is, is because it's the same as the kickstarter price. However, the kickstarter price was the same for everyone - Russian kickstarter backers had to pay the same $90 as anyone else.
Comment has been collapsed.
yes and that being so im willing to bet that in comparison there were an EXTREMELY low number of sales in russia
Comment has been collapsed.
Perhaps, but that's not the point here because this isn't so much about buying the game - it's not finished yet, when it is finished, sure, sell it at an appropriate price for each market. This is them basically saying that "We value our kickstarter backers, but not as much as we value Russians" :)
Comment has been collapsed.
You're deflecting the argument. It's a fact that they say they are following the kickstarter pricing and yet are charging certain groups of people less.
Comment has been collapsed.
Interesting Facts about Player Count
This game is top3 in the "top seller" tab of steam store but only has 130 players at peak?
Hard to believe that it "outsold" skyrim legendary edition. A few hours ago it wasn't even inside the top 100 list :P
Comment has been collapsed.
Most people already had Skyrim. Skyrim LE was a last ploy from Bethesda to get some last minute sales from a nearly 2 year old game.
Comment has been collapsed.
People participating in the Alpha, including those who got it on Steam, can run the game from the launcher independent of Steam.
Also, Top Sellers is supposedly sorted by revenue rather than units sold, so a $90 price tag makes it pretty easy to jump up the list if even a trickle of purchases are being made.
Comment has been collapsed.
Even still, that seems to answer the "is it overpriced" question. If the game is selling well enough to make that list - whether it's an indication of volume of sales or raw revenue generated - it suggests that it wasn't overpriced. It looks like while they angered some, there were enough people who accepted their explanation for why the game is $89.99 and chose to pay that amount.
Personally, I like the concept of this game, but I tend to shy away from these kickstarter donations (and buying the game now is essentially that seeing as it's $90 to match the kickstarter price for alpha testing) because the idea of giving charitable donations to a for-profit company feels wrong to me. Maybe I'm just being up-tight about it, but I probably will buy the game eventually - after it's already released.
Comment has been collapsed.
You can debate "fair" and "unfair" pricing all day. The real problem is that people don't read; this is evidenced by the numerous people on this very site who continually ask about things in the FAQ. It is likely that the majority of users visiting the Store page do not know about the Kickstarter. The price of $89.99 is listed above the explanation of the price. Many people will go to the page, see the price, and leave. They won't bother to read any more and find out the reason, they just see the price and react. The information that the price will drop in the future is only located in a page that is linked below the price. Good luck getting them to come back later when the price goes down.
Note that I'm not saying $90 is a good price for a game, I'm saying the opposite: It's too high and most people's gut reaction, mine included, is to not look at the game any further. But when you know that it isn't intended to be the retail price it's not as bad. It's still an awful choice because of reasons I just mentioned, but it does make a bit of sense.
TL;DR: This issue is largely caused by a bad decision of where to place information on the store page.
Comment has been collapsed.
The reason why the shitstorm started was, when the game first went live they didn't even mention kickstarter or the galactic pledge rewards ANYWHERE. People only saw the 90 dollars with no explanation why. people didn't even know if they get the kickstarter pledge rewards for the 90 dollars or only access to the beta for 90 dollars.
After someone from the uber-forum brought it up to the devs, they changed the store page accordingly.
People were able to read, but if nothing is there to read, what can they do?
Comment has been collapsed.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention, I was not aware of that. When I first read the page the information about the Kickstarter was already there. It is very odd that they expected people to accept a $90 price without explanation, and by doing so they scared away even the customers that could read.
Comment has been collapsed.
For example, I can read very well but I was totaly alienated by that price. It took the devs about 5 hours (more than enough time to fill the steam forum with 250+ threads with rage) before they reacted and edited the store page. All those bad Metacritic ratings happened during those 5 critical hours on launch.
After the editing of the store page, they made some stickys on the steam forum but it was already too late. People were already in bandwagon mode and bashed the devs for even trying to "justify" that price. It was a really really untoughtfull and bad entry into the steam market and that led to the shitstorm
Comment has been collapsed.
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: If you buy early, you are paying for four things; the game, the alpha test, the beta test, and the privilege of direct input in shaping the game. This is what is known as being "an investor." In this particular case, you would be similar to an Angel Investor purchasing the finished product at reduced cost in lieu of a convertible bond.
Comment has been collapsed.
The problem is that all Early Access games list "get involved with this game as it develops" right at the top of the page, and they all allow access to the alpha, the beta, and the final. The store page does very little to explain why my input in this game is worth $50 more from me while other developers are willing to charge less than retail for what at least appears to be the same thing. This is where all the criticism is coming from; the store page does nothing to set it apart from other Early Access games in a way that makes the price seem appropriate.
I think the criticism being levied in this situation is valid, albeit overblown. The developers need to make some of this information clearer. The other problem, of course, is that Steam is not Kickstarter. People do not go to Steam to "invest", they go to buy games, so expecting people to react to the price in any way concerning it being an "investment", while ultimately accurate, is hardly a realistic expectation.
Comment has been collapsed.
"People do not go to Steam to "invest", they go to buy games, so expecting people to react to the price in any way concerning it being an "investment", while ultimately accurate, is hardly a realistic expectation."
This is actually a valid point and the crux of Skylark's inability to understand the pricing. Personally, I agree that the game should not have been currently available on Steam except to Kickstarter backers. Pre-order access, maybe, but not alpha/beta access. That only confuses people by appearing to be the same mistake other developers are making (i.e. releasing pre-builds early).
Comment has been collapsed.
Ah, thanks for finding that. I was originally going to use that as an argument, but I couldnt find a source.
Comment has been collapsed.
Just buy Arma 3, it's cheaper and has a bigger budget, approx $33 AU up to approx $60 on final release. The company also has a big budget behind them already.
Comment has been collapsed.
I don't really care about the game, but what people don't seem to realize is that KS and Steam have different purposes. One is a platform to support projects that can't be funded by the developers/artists/whatever. The other one is an online store.
Their game was already funded by KS, so it's time to move on, why are they still setting a premium price for a buggy and incomplete game? They are just trying to milk more money out of people... but well, it's their game, they decide the price, but having a $90 in the frontpage of the bigger online gaming store for an alpha access isn't going to promote your game.
Then again, I don't like the price and the game, so I couldn't care less about it... even if I liked the game I would just wait for the retail release.
Comment has been collapsed.
i beta test lots of games...90 bucks is steep right now....but mebbe you will get a payoff when its open beta...mebbe
i plunked down 60 bucks on mwo...already got my money's worth but its a dicey gamble on alpha buy in's
i would say dont buy into preorder crap....ruins gaming in general....look at aliens: colonial marines or the war Z
just research whatever first is my instinct..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5Uj4XIT1Y he's bad at games but great at reviews
Comment has been collapsed.
28 Comments - Last post 1 minute ago by JonathanDoe
744 Comments - Last post 9 minutes ago by RATT78
47 Comments - Last post 13 minutes ago by Gozu
16,406 Comments - Last post 53 minutes ago by Atro
7 Comments - Last post 55 minutes ago by lostsoul67
8 Comments - Last post 59 minutes ago by lostsoul67
10 Comments - Last post 59 minutes ago by pb1
454 Comments - Last post 3 minutes ago by venturercatt
95 Comments - Last post 3 minutes ago by eeev
90 Comments - Last post 5 minutes ago by tarikgoethe
95 Comments - Last post 5 minutes ago by Calibr3
33 Comments - Last post 6 minutes ago by Kurozzz
34 Comments - Last post 7 minutes ago by venturercatt
73 Comments - Last post 9 minutes ago by Hassat
Hey,
I've been waiting for this game to be available on the store, I knew it was going to be expensive, but I thought more like $50 or $60!
Guess what? It's 90 freaking dollars! What the hell?! Early Access game, an incomplete game, for $90?! No thank you...
What do you think about the price of Planetary Annihilation?
Edit: The Russian price is a lot cheaper! It's ~$38 and doesn't seem to be region restricted!
Edit: The Russian price was increased to 2499 rubles on June 15th 2013.
Comment has been collapsed.