What will the Steam Early Access price be?

What will the price be for those who choose to opt in to the Steam Early Access version of Planetary Annihilation. I do not mean buying the game from uberent.com, I mean directly through the steam client. Currently to get the alpha from the website will cost $90 which is a bit high for me, but it also comes with extra goodies that I don't have an interest in. Hopefully the pricing will be a bit more reasonable for just access to the alpha/beta/full game.

Same pricing I believe.

Nope, steam price will be the same, 90$. This will probably change once we get into beta and launch, as reflects on the uber website, but for alpha early access on steam, 90$.

That's a shame.... I really am surprised that they are charging over double the price for the unfinished version so that people can help them make the game better... the people who are going to buy it at launch will get a cheaper version with all the balancing and the bugs sorted out already.

This should answer your question:

No matter what you have to buy through UberNet to get Alpha access.

I think you're looking at it the wrong way. Beta's and Alpha's aren't meant for the general masses, they are instead meant to get a dedicated group of testers to help fix bugs. By making beta and alpha cheap, you get the general masses, by making it more expensive, you narrow it down to the dedicated testers. It's not an uncommon practice, nor is it an undesirable one.

Also, remember that this was how they made the price points on kickstarter: the more you backed, the more benefits you earned.

STEAM generally takes a 30% cut of what is sold via STEAM.
if Uber charge $90 at the point of sale for alpha/beta then they are actually taking less than from people buying direct (unless VALVE have some special deal for pre-released products or indie products)

on the matter of paying more for alpha, its more to provide "support". A pay what you want with perks. Why did I pay the extra? because I appreciate linux support. Could I have pirated? sure. Remember they are not going via a publisher who would normally pony up the $$$ for the development BUT then demand certain things from the product. Its a price to pay for an independent development

The costs will be $90 until beta is released, $60 until game launch and $40 once the game is launched. If you don't like it... don't buy it. I would (and I think many others would as well) take it as a big F.U. to all of the Kickstarter contributors if they were to lower the price for early alpha and beta access.

Further Information Located Here
https://store.uberent.com/Store/PreOrder?titleId=4

This isn't a "you get to play a mostly complete game earlier than others" sort of alpha. This is a very raw alpha with very few features implemented at the beginning. The high price makes sure you don't have droves of people who don't understand this fact playing the game.

I wouldn't go that far... Usually people are paid to test a product OR they get benefits. Paying for just alpha access is quite a backwards mentality. BUT that isn't what is going on here, that is just a perk for believing/supporting this game when it was nothing.

I see your point although I still believe that the price should be lowered for an Alpha and not raised. I also do understand that the state of the Alpha is very "raw." I was simply talking about many of the mechanics being implemented in the alpha (although obviously not all of them and I am sure there will be some big additions along with re-balancing over the course of development).

Thanks for the responses.

But the price to gain Alpha access hasn't raised. It's stayed the same.

Sorry, I meant raised from the base price for the game. I simply hold the personal opinion that the pricing for an alpha should be cheaper than buying the full game or at least the same price if it acts as a pr-order. However, I understand why they are doing it this way in this case (it is what they did for kickstarter).

In the end these guys are absolutely fantastic and they can do whatever they want, I will still buy their game at full price, but it probably won't be until december when it is released as I simply don't have the funds to purchase the $90 version (and the $60 version is a bit steep as well).

You arn't paying 90 dollars for the Alpha and then buying the game when its launched. You are buying the game, the beta, and the alpha for 90 dollars.

So its not the alpha costing more than the game at all. You are buying the game plus stuff, so it costs more than the game. Having it cost more makes way more sense to me than having it cost less.

I am still not happy with this concept that is being peddled around here that "we payed for alpha access"
UberEnt needs us for the alpha, they need as much playtime as possible to iron out the bugs ASAP before release in like 6months time.

We payed what we wanted to support this company who does not have backing from a publisher (intentional). as part of that they are opening up the alpha.

REALLY bad precedent being set if the concept of paying for alpha access gets around ...

As I mentioned earlier, consider it as supply and demand. Uber doesn't need the masses playing the alpha. It might just be too much information for them, or it might be too much stress for the servers,what have you. So, according to the laws of supply and demand, how do you decrease demand? You increase price. Simple as that. And as knight has kindly pointed out in previous threads, with over eight thousand people signed up for alpha on backing alone, not counting steam or pre-orders, there certainly isn't a shortage of testers as is.

Your not paying for alpha, your donating funds to help the game, getting alpha access is just a bonus.

Atleast thats how the kickstarter advertised it.


Its like this, if you donate money to some starving children you may get a price.

But you didnt buy the price, you donated money, the price is just a bonus.

Well said mate

Actually that allows you to get in the alpha, before you signed up for it and if you got very lucky you were selected. There has been several times either me or one of my friends were in one and the rest wasn't, now we can all get in. I paid more then the $90 because I wanted the rewards and was happy to help kickstart the game. As someone else mentioned, I would be very peeved if the price was lower. They would owe me a refund or some other super commander to make up for it. :mrgreen:

Exactly, the pricing was set by the kickstarter.

We are talking about 3 months for each phase. If you don't want to pay more for a game that isn't finished then simply preorder the release version.

The alpha/beta phase is there for the people that are hardcore about their game to help us actually create it. By joining the alpha you are signing up for WORK.