Disappointed About the Pricing

I did read your "please do not troll" threads and I just want to preface this with this not being a troll post.

Before I saw this on Steam today I had no idea that this game existed. So Bravo, I've been a huge fan of TA since it was released years ago. I played TASpring extensively in college and am happy that someone is attempting to revive the game in a new and innovative way.

I cannot however justify purchasing this game at it's set price point on Steam. It's hard to even understand my reluctance, it's not due to financial reasons and it's not due to the fact that this is even an Alpha. I love the TA IP and I love the idea that was pushed in the trailer that I saw.

It's simply the strange combination of the two, it's a fear of an unfinished product. I've supported many of Steams other early release games and they get extremely boring very quickly. I also worry about features that will be added in for early adopters of the game that won't be there for those that purchase it at a retail launch date.

If there are competitive game mechanics that will not be available to someone who purchases it at launch then there's inventiveness for early adoption. Which then makes the end product less desirable. I'll spend the rest of tomorrow reading through the forums to try and figure out what the direction of the game will be as opposed to what it wants to be before I pass complete judgement.

Instead of jumping on this the way I should, I'm hesitant because of the price. Just as an FYI, I play RTS with friends, they'll be turned off as well. All of our instincts were "YES!" followed immediately by "But..." usually followed by "Let's just play TA."

I realize that there are lower price points for the game, but even then I had to dig to get that information. It's going to be a good year and a competitive year for RTS, getting out that there are other available early adoption price points should be your #1 marketing goal right now. I'm sure I'm just echoing other people, but this was intended with complete support in mind to your developers.

There wasn't any RTS game like TA since November of 2007 when SupCom FA was released.
There is no competitors for PA and probably won't be in next 3-5 years, so Uber really don't need care about any marketing goals.

http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/3/ ... ght-combat

PS: If you think that Total War: Rome II or Company of Heroes 2 is competitors for PA then you probably don't need to buy it at all because it's very different sub-genre of RTS.

Hey there,

Welcome to the PA community.

I understand your worries concerning the game and it's pricing on steam as of now.
90 bucks seem like an awful lot of money for an unfinished game.

That is because this game was not funded by steam just as other games have, this game had a kickstarter fund-raising. Early-access to the Alpha version of the game came with the 90 dollars pledge tier. To be fair to it's original backers, the price on steam is 90 dollars as well.

If you have concerns about the final product, you don't have to pay 90 dollars on steam. If you wan to help the project, there is two additional tiers, one at 20 bucks (full version of the game) one at 50 bucks (+beta access) I believe. You just won't be able to play before November 2013 (final release date), or Fall 2013 (if you went for the beta tier).

I hope I got the dates right

That's fine and I completely understand that, this is a niche RTS market and a good one at that but to turn around and then put it on one of the largest digital distribution platforms and then market it that way is foolish.

People are going to compare this game to Company of Heroes 2 whether or not it's intended because they're appearing side by side on the largest game digital distribution network. This isn't angry ranting, just how it's being perceived. It's like placing a jar of raspberry jam and a jar of sardines next to each other with minimal labeling, placing them in very similar containers on the same shelf and pricing them differently. People are stupid and will buy sardines wanting raspberry jam. They'll feel cheated, offended and angry.

Steam is a double edge sword, I know about this game because of it but now so do a million raving fanboys that are offended at no fault of the developers.

Most of us here cared for the whiners the first day then realized it has no impact whatsoever.

You can't be disappointed in a price that is fair towards everyone. This is a unique case where a huge game got funded over Kickstarter, of course people will flip tables cause they don't understand how business works.

The final game costs like any other but in this case, after paying a bit more you can be involved in direct development of the very game before your face.

Nobody needs to play the Alpha, its there for people who are willing to buy it and help.

I got your point, and developers already got it. What's they should do next?

I don't see any way how to complaining of internet trolls damage sales of niche RTS game.
E.g if same story happen with Total War game I'll buy this game anyway, because I love Total War games and I won't value it by random trolls opinion.

Same with PA, it's already got big community which more than enough to make a big "marketing" company around the world so every TA/SupCom/Spring fan will know about it's release.

It's problem of people and Steam, not problem of game. When GPG made Supreme Commander 2 they tried to appeal to both: mass audience and fans. You know what's happen then.

I was actually very concerned about the damage the price and the negative publicity would cause at the first day.
The next day I realized the internet is full of idiots (well I knew that before) and this is not gonna have any impact whatsoever.
When my friends found out it was gonna be this expansive they just said "Oh well I'll just wait then." which would be the normal reaction anyone with a brain would have.

All that matters will be the quality of the product.

PA early access is no different, you'll see the game develop and you'll be able to voice concerns or suggestions on the alpha forums. Beta will likely be much more developed and if you're reticent to commit to alpha I would wait until then. My expectation is that beta will be a lot more like a typical early access "alpha".

I'm not sure where you got that idea. Uber is not making a pay to win game or giving any gameplay advantages to early backers. Backers will have some different looking commanders but they will have the same abilities as regular commander variants. Company of Heroes 2 for example is giving preorders exclusive doctrines, that's a little more extreme but analogous to what's going on here.

I totally agree. Valve does not allow preorders for games 6 months from release, but I wonder if it's possible to put up preorders for Beta, which is 3 months away. Discounting the price of alpha by $10 each month until the $60 beta would be good too.

Always keep in mind that these prices where determined not for steam, but for a Kickstarter Campaign to succeed. They were probably carefully calculated to get the money needed from KS. Without these prices the KS might as well have failed. So while the current pricepoint certainly isnt the greatest it is simply the downside of having funded the game through KS. Considering we all would not even be here without that KS I'd say it is the by far smaller problem to have a bit of a shitstorm on steam. Most of the people crying there probably would have never bought PA anyway.

If you dislike the price that isnt a problem. Preorder the release version for 40$ on Ubers store and wait till you get it. 40$ is definitely a fine pricepoint imho.

That's the idea. Most people are not supposed to buy it. Uber wants to keep the number of alpha testers small.

To be honest there isn't much to really do in the alpha compared to TA or FA so your fears are totally justified. The game just isn't finished yet. There are several things you get for $90 in addition to the base game though. What you get at each pre order level is outlined here: https://store.uberent.com/Store/PreOrder?titleId=4

The stuff you get by buying alpha or beta access will have no effect on game play or competitive game mechanics. They are either out of game perks or simply cosmetic differences in game. So you can feel safe buying just the game for $40 or even waiting till release.

This is completely understandable and even expected. It sounds like you and your friends might be happier simply pre-ordering the game for $40 at the Uber store.

This has been brought up many times and I agree with you. However Valve will not allow Uber to list more than one early access price in Steam at the same time. Since only the $90 and $200 levels actually grant access to the game at the moment Uber was basically forced to list the $90 level in Steam. So for now the best we can do is inform people who ask on the forums.

I am 99% certain that the Steam price will drop to $60 when the beta starts and then drop again to $40-$50 when PA is actually released.

@almondwagers: Thank you for sharing your mature thoughts on this.
This makes a rational discussion possible. And although you may not came to the same conclusion, I think you can understand our viewpoint (and the viewpoint from Uber) and we can understand your viewpoint very well.

I'm honestly trying to figure out why it went up on Steam at this point in time. What was the thinking?

I've heard that they do not want a large number of testers. Was the number of kickstarter people testing to small and they needed a few more?

I've heard that they more than doubled the funding goals of the game through KS. Are they low on funding and need more?

I've heard that this is not meant for mainstream, but maybe they wanted more publicity anyways?

I'm honestly confused as to why they felt this game needed to be on Steam at this point in time. I understand why they priced it the way they did. On the one hand I respect that they didn't want the KS backers to feel cheated, but on the other hand you look at how every other early access title on Steam has done it, with low prices at the beginning and higher prices at completion, and I think you can see why some people are scratching their heads.

I've heard that they wanted to do a pre-order version on Steam, but it wasn't allowed this far before release.

So why now? Why not just wait until it was ready for beta / pre-purchase? KS backers would have got exclusive access to alpha and the other perks, & Steam users would have had prices more in line with what they were expecting. Can someone provide some insight?

Why now? Because every bit of money that comes in for this project can go towards bettering the game. Why would you want that to happen close to release instead of long before?

Kickstarter and the Uber store do not have the infrastructure needed for regional pricing in local currency and international sales in all cases. Steam does.

I think its more about giving people who missed the Kickstarter a chance to still get in and help fund the game. It's also some additional publicity. They might actually have a few too many testers now that its out on Steam early access. Despite the high price.

$2.2 million is incredibly low budget as games go. In fact its so low its almost laughable. The average budget to develop a major title is about $23 million by comparison.

Publicity is the first step in marketing so this makes sense.

PA is not the only game on early access that has started off expensive and then gotten cheaper over time. Just because Minecraft did it does not mean that anyone else has to. The Steam community simply has the wrong expectations here. Mostly this is the result of Valve not allowing Uber to easily publicize the existence of a cheaper pre order option.

That is correct. Valve will not let Uber sell the $40 pre order and the $90 early access alpha on Steam at the same time and Valve will not allow pre orders more than 180 days before release so Uber's only option was the $90 early access galactic edition.

Once again, Uber wanted to give people who missed the Kickstarter a chance to still get in early and help fund the game and provide feedback on the development and balancing process. Launching the $40 pre order on Steam wasn't possible so Uber's only option was the $90 early access galactic edition.

I am 99% certain that when the beta starts we will see the Steam early access price drop to $60 and then when PA is released it will move from early access to general retail and the Steam price will drop again to $40-$50.

Hmmm. Fair enough, I guess I understand it now. Still don't agree with some of the reasoning, but I do understand it.

I mean the extra publicity makes sense (though I think they are getting mixed reactions at best, and I don't subscribe to the any press is good press theory). Not wanting to cheat their early backers definitely makes sense. If one of the goals was to not have too many testers, and now they may have too many testers...that doesn't really make sense to me. Doing it at this point in time and not waiting until at least beta to go for Steam doesn't really make any sense to me. I mean I kinda see what they were trying to do I think, but it seems like they just picked a somewhat strange path to accomplish it. *Shrug*

antillie, your post should be part of a STEAM faq

As one of the "naysayers" on Steam myself, I agree actually. I know some people are there just to express hate or whatever, but myself (and quite a few others IMO) are just trying to understand, while at the same time provide feedback as to why we think this was a bad way to go about things and why some of us will not be supporting it. Myself, I don't want to see this become a trend.

Anyways, I think his post was civil and informative, and more information is a good thing I think.

Not a bad thread here so I may let it live a little bit.

Thoughts?

Yeah, this is a nice, civil conversation.

There have been a number of very good explanations on the pricing thing written by a number of people in a number of different threads. Taking the best bits of each of them and consolidating them into a single post, locked and stickied, might be a good idea.