This alpha access at premium on Steam is hurting you

Please, I really just want to see this succeed and hopefully lead to expansions and all that good stuff, but the 90 US$ tag for early access on steam is insane.

I already paid my share (it was more than 90 Dollars, btw), so I'm not complaining about the price for me. But this pricing is generating really bad PR. Regardless of the intent and reasons for it.

People see a dev asking you to fork over double the price for alpha access and they can only think you're greedy, trying to get your QA testers to pay to do your the job you ought to be paying for them to do. There's a definite difference between the kickstarter backers who invested however much for the project and the exposure the project will receive on Steam.

Only the most fervent fans of this project are even bothering defending it on the gaming media. Everyone else is seeing it as a greedy re-funding. Or just greedy in general if unaware it was a kickstarter project.

Please, we backers backed you for a reason. The goodies are nice, but we won't get offended other people are getting into the alpha slice paying for less than we did. Much less if it is going to be at the cost of ill-will towards the game.

Try and look like the good guys. People are much more receptive if you offer alpha access for a discount price that could later be used to complete the pay for the full game, if they so wish. Only fans look at alpha access as a privilege, for everyone else it is lazy way to get your QA rounds. Again, that's what it looks like. Heck, even previous backers are thinking this is iffy and losing their trust.

At the very least, diminish the exposure of this. It is only bad PR that'll hurt in the long run regardless of whatever benefit it generates in the short term. This is not a huge established IP with the fanbase to support this kind of move.

I kinda have to agree with you, the Steam retards are really hurting the game.

The Early Access should be simply changed to a Pre-order for 40 bucks. If they want Alpha and Beta they can buy over the Uber site.

Really poopy how this is turning out

Seriously, we need some people with a hint of intelligence over here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/discussions/0/

A mod merging the multiple duplicate threads would also be awesome.

+1

I'm a fanatic, in the alpha.... But this suggestion is sound.

I think they should set it as not release and change the price to $40 and not offer alpha through steam anymore, but rather generate keys through this site for steam alpha access. This way the steam page says $40 and releases in December.

I think they should probably go through asking and clearing any bad PA with metacritic and other crappy places of current misinformation.

I lastly think possibly, quite possibly, they should stop offering alpha anywhere but their own site. I mean, if some people didn't miss the kickstarter and ask for an extension, they wouldn't have opened alpha in the first place. It would be closed, if you missed it you missed it, that would be the end of that.

They need to do something soon. Please just change the main Store page on Steam from the Alpha at £90 to the pre-order the main game.

Its insane how idiotic the idiots there are, but if you force them to see with their own eyes that the game is £40...even they wont be able to troll anymore.

JUST DO SOMETHING

I don't see this as a big deal. The internet gets upset sometimes. This is not a long term issue.

Positive press. Positive press everywhere.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Planet ... 56700.html
http://www.vg247.com/2013/06/13/planeta ... nt-page-1/
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/06/13/plane ... -to-alpha/

This is temporary. The people who could read the text on the steam page wouldn't have a reason to complain, so they aren't posting. People who can understand that they aren't owed video games at a certain price (especially broken alphas) aren't posting complaints either. We are seeing an unthinking response from the loudest of the knuckle draggers. Give it a week or so, and they'll move on.

We panic cause we care too much :lol:

Great quotes from those articles;

Mike

At least Reddit gets it.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/ ... planetary/

I tried a bit of flame fighting.

There is a small group of 4 or 5 people, complaining the most.

It turns out on Steam, they have being using their early access program as a
you pay a heavy discounted price and get the game early on thing.
Under the pretense they are "testers". I totally believe that /sarcasm

They are horrified that a Alpha could be priced more than a Release game. What if other games do it, there source of cheap games will be gone! Etc, etc... That is what the flaming is all about.

The other issue is people thinking the retail price will be 90$. You probability want to make it clear that the price is going down for release. In steam the prices usually go up after alpha.

The way I see it

Final game = $X

Final Game + Early Alpha Access = $X+Y

It's only logical. You pay more, you get more.

To be fair, even if reddit is not as bile and vitriol filled as steam is currently, the general consensus is "Wait its $90? well that's dumb, guess I will wait to buy it. Now back to COHII"

So yes its not world ending negativity, but its not exactly positive either.

Exactly. In 6 months when the game releases for 50 bux, no one will even remember this. And the 1000 or so people stupid/angry enough to post on the steam forums don't matter.

While you are most likely right. Paradox learned the hard way that sometimes some bad PR can ruin a game long after whatever was wrong with it is fixed. Its unfortunate that this is what many people will have as their first impression of PA. Hopefully it won't stick in their minds when the game is released.

I don't envy the hard-working people who have to hold that gun to their heads and hope its one of those nine times out of ten you just hear a 'click'.

I like how people think they should pay less for an incomplete version that turns into the complete game

They want a heavily discounted game that they could then just forget about in their library until release when it's finished.

It doesn't work like that, that's what sales are for.

EDIT: italics dont work?

It isn't so cut and dry as you make it. Part of it is that they are paying for an uncompleted game, which even when released might not be completed to the level they desire so they are assuming a risk in buying in.

This happened to Star Drive which is a fun little game put out by a really hard-working guy. Unfortunately it has a horrid metacentric review and reputation because it people thought it didn't really live up to the promises it made. However if you were to see their steam forum during the Early Access stage and release, there was a bit of winging, but in general it was shrugged off because people only paid $15 for it.

it'd be nice if valve let them list preorders for $40

that would go a long way, my understanding is you can't sell preorders and EA at the same time though? maybe an exception could be made