You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought it

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by xnavigator, July 26, 2013.

  1. xnavigator

    xnavigator Member

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    I could understand the high price of alpha because kickstarter tier was like that.

    But now that many people bought PA alpha at full price, you cannot drop it at 64€...

    If the high price of alpha was not an error, this is definitively an error. Luckily for me I did not buy the alpha.

    You could wait the beta to drop the price.
  2. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    Main problem of your it's you consider paying of $90 as "buy game" while it's not, it's actually development funding. This price it's not some "software copy cost", it's actually way to get more money for development. So it's only question of "I agree to put $90 into this game development" or "I don't want to put so much money into this game".

    Most of people who give $90 or more won't play alpha for really long and all people who paid $20 or even $15 (kickstarter price) get more finished and polished product. It's might looks unfair for some people, but it's how crowd funding works. Higher tier backers usually give half of money, but everyone get better game.
  3. iampetard

    iampetard Active Member

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    My guess is that in November the Beta will be 50 bucks and at release the game will be 30 bucks. That's how business works and who cares, we need more people to play with/against anyway :p

    Anything less than 50 bucks is a good price for an RTS cause all others cost 50-60 so it will make people interested and once they realize you can blow up planets with asteroids = glorious success.
    Add a Modding feature and a special official place for mods to that and the fact that the community is already pretty awesome, it will make all our spent money worth it, regardless of how much the game currently costs.

    We elite Alpha people know each other and the devs know us since the first day, that is more than any regular buyer will have(unless they are a billionaire and fund the game with an extra million).
  4. Gorbles

    Gorbles Post Master General

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    They can, and will, drop the price. They are the devs, and to be quite frank they can do what they want.

    Other people have been far more eloquent than me, and this thread is the 25th or so we've had on the topic.

    The alpha has been going for months. It's perfectly fair to drop the price a bit for "alpha access" because they're not going to get as much alpha access.
  5. pureriffs

    pureriffs Member

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    I agree with petard. Building a strong community is whats important. As time goes on prices do drop thats how it works. We have has had the alpha for a while now.

    The only bad point is dropping the price and encouraging people to buy it when its not finished and then maybe losing gamers.
  6. zaphodx

    zaphodx Post Master General

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    We get more players, more testing, more hype, less price bitching. This is a good thing.
  7. cwarner7264

    cwarner7264 Moderator Alumni

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    Sure about that? ;) Look what you're replying to!

    But yes as I've said in the other threads that have popped up about this, this is a good business move on Uber's part.
  8. zaphodx

    zaphodx Post Master General

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    Well you might get price bitching from people who think they've been conned by paying $90 and getting earlier access, but the steam forums might have slightly less whining about how Uber is profiteering and setting a price precedent and causing famine around the world.
  9. kryovow

    kryovow Well-Known Member

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    it only makes sense with about 1-1,5 months of alpha left to drop the price.

    They should have a script that drops the price every hour by a formula

    price = Beta_price + delta_alpha_price * alpha_time_left/alpha_time_total
  10. Stormie

    Stormie Active Member

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    i think the only issue is that there was no warning that there would be a price drop.
    if id known there was a donut i MAY have considered delaying my purchase 2 days ago (probably not).
    i think dropping the price is a brilliant idea other than that.
  11. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    this would be quite epic :D
  12. iampetard

    iampetard Active Member

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    Every day is good, every hour is a bit too often :p
  13. YourLocalMadSci

    YourLocalMadSci Well-Known Member

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  14. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    While the idea of announcing a price drop in advance sounds like a good idea, the more I think about it the less appealing it is. For example given PA's current situation in that if Uber announced a price drop, chances are people who would make a purchase would know about the PD before or as they would make the purchase. There is also the effect that announcement would have on sales, a good majority would just wait for the PD before purchasing. At that point its better to just do the darn PD and announce it at the same time, the consumers get access for cheaper, sooner and without this weird gap in the sales figures.

    Mike
    Last edited: July 26, 2013
  15. neutrino

    neutrino low mass particle Uber Employee

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    You guys can assume the price is going to continue to come down as we move towards launch.
  16. kalherine

    kalherine Active Member

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    And wy you guys only tell us now?
    We new price off Beta drop it must be.
    On released comon its obvius that must be between 35 euros to 49.99 euros.
    But on alpha?
    Thats what we don´t understood,i don´t!
    But i won´t talk any moore about this,for me you guys iff want can put the game free play.
    Belive will be full off players :idea:
  17. paulzeke

    paulzeke Member

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    guys chill. They can charge whatever they want, they've been perfectly fair and logical about how they've gone about it. This is starting to seem infantile
  18. bongologist

    bongologist Member

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    I assumed the price would drop before I even paid for it.
  19. DeadStretch

    DeadStretch Post Master General

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    Time = Money. High price to get it first. Low price to get it last.
  20. sorenr

    sorenr Member

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    Re: You cannot drop the alpha price while many people bought

    Having been on the other end of a Kickstarter campaign, one of the reasons information isn't always provided when backers would like is that sometimes it's so obvious to the people who have it that they forget. This is especially true when you have to internalize the logic of a crowdfunding campaign (the price of everything is variable and dynamic, effectively negotiated between each backer and the creators by a voting system whereby you get exactly as much of the game as you're A) willing to pay for and B) is available at the time) before you can get started.

    When you buy the alpha, think about it this way: you're not paying for the game, which is very unfinished right now and not, in and of itself, worth as much as the final launch version. What you're paying for is greater influence over the final state of the game. That's a constantly diminishing good, with a constantly diminishing value as the alpha continues. People who bought in early are actually getting more of what they paid for, since it's time-limited. Not lowering the price would be kind of a **** move.

    To Mike, this game was worth a thousand dollars, so he backed at that level. And while I wouldn't say he's got twenty times the influence I do over the final shape of the game (I chipped in a measly $50), it's worth roughly twenty times as much to him as it is to me, as you can tell from his cracked-out hyperactivity on the forum.

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