Hello Uber fans, We all know there has been a bit of controversy regarding the recent release AP on Steam. There is a great deal of misconception and antipathy between both sets of communities. This is unfortunate as we're all gamers with common interests. Now I am not an official steam community spokesperson but have come here to explain our concerns directly to you, the stakeholders of PA. Steam is a retail b2c digital distribution platform. We buy products and are objective in assessing them and have no vested interest. So its transactional based system and more linear in nature. Kickstarter and backers like yourselves are the hardcore supporters. You've donated funds, share the vision and influenced the design. It's fair to say, your both emotionally and financially invested in the project. You've been rewarded for your support by all manner of perks & enjoy close relations with the devs. So we have two very separate markets who place value on different factors. The problem has stemmed from offering the same deal to both communities. So steam users perceive this as being $90 for an alpha or early access and have ignored the fringe benefits that you value. They are also concerned about setting a price point precedent. That’s the crux of it. I would invite the devs to engage with their communities and take positive steps to manage the PR. Ultimately, this game looks great and we all wish for it to succeed. Peace. Flame shield on..
"The problem has stemmed from offering the same deal to both communities." You can't really offer a different deal to each community...
I think many Steam users just have not yet realized, that they can also pre-order PA for $40 in the Uber Store. On release in December they will get: Theta Commander Soundtrack Download Desktop Wallpaper and the option to turn their key into a Steam key. The $90 alpha access is an offer for hardcore RTS fans who want to participate in the alpha and support the developers. There was unfortunately no way to offer a pre-order for $40 on Steam since the release date is still too far out.
$90 is the standard price for games in Australia anyway.....even on steam!! I remember when PC games were around $100. damn geoblocking!
If they were allowed to put multiple prices on Steam, they would have. Unfortunately, Valve won't let them. That's a good enough reason, imo. They could have put out the finished game of $40 when it's released without the $90, but it wouldn't actually be different. It's perception, not actually anything different. (this is coming from someone who doesn't have the $90+ version)
A lot of it seems to come from Steam users who think all alpha and beta games should be cheaper than release. They might be used to it but that's not the only way to set pricing.
There are many games that put the beta keys in premium packages of the games. (O boy a soundtrack and an ARTBOOK!!!) Hell how many people bought the Halo3 beta? It came with Crackdown for free (I doubt the game would have sold on its own)
I'd be shocked if you got flamed for offering a well written, polite email on here. Well, maybe by a few people. Thanks for the letter, and the thought put into it.
IIRC there was similar griping in the Prison Architect Steam forums. PA got more of it naturally since the price is much higher. But here's the thing, I don't really see all that much difference between Kickstarter and Early Access in itself. And apparently, neither do Valve: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/di ... 628706/#p4 My take on that was basically on pg's 4 and 5 under "subetai". The Steam forums are very well aware of this e-mail. They just don't care because it doesn't fit with their established narrative on how this game is a massive betrayal of consumer confidence. EDIT: Ah the perils of browsing several forums at once.
The final product will be $40. Tell everyone that has a problem with it just to forget there is early anything. It will have the same result
and obviously all you steam guys can come hang out here in this forum, it will benifit all of you imensely.
Really nice post. I agree with garat you won't have to worry about a flame war. That said I disagree with just saying steam is only a retail digital distribution service. It's also social networking and crowd-funding/sourcing (via early access program) platform/service and optional DRM platform. Anything else that Valve what's it to be.
I realized this, I prefer using Steam for all my games as I can group them up. When I get of an older age I won't have to go about from page to page downloading things separately. (Plus I have a 4Mb/s+ to my usual 8, which is a big help.)
