Hey, is there a reason why I cannot upgrade my pre order? I purchased it on steam recently and would consider upgrading, because I already love PA. However currently it is not possible to do so? Will that ever change or am I forced to simply buy the cosmic edition for the full price?
As long as I know that's won't change because when you buy game though Steam developers get less money than if you buy it though Uber store. Steam also have regional pricing, more taxes, etc.
Based on how many ppl have posted that they would upgrade from the steam version (I had considered it before I found I couldn't), I would guess Uber has missed out on 30k minimum. Not huge, but not chump change either. Even with Steam getting their cut, it would behoove them to pass out some Delta commanders for 30k.
Basically they can't just sell any upgrades directly to Steam customers without giving % to Valve. E.g they technically can give you key, but I doubt Valve allow it and in general is bad business practice. Also I'm not completely sure about now, but when PA appear on Steam first there was some limitations for early access games on stuff like upgrades/DLCs/etc.
Uber simply doesn't have access to the information that would allow them to do it otherwise they would. If you purchased through steam it's all handled by valve software.
Well allowed by valve or not - this situation certainly gives you a little bit a feeling that steam users are second class and that the 30$ I spent there are not equal to the 30$ in the uberstore. Now that said I absolutely understand the points raised by you so far and they do make sense, but its still a shame. So did any steam user try to buy the game again and add that to your account? Does this even work? Or would I need to give up my nick and make a second account?
I'm not too sure. You should be able to activate another key on your UberNet account. Hopefully Valve will eventually allow early access games the ability to upgrade. If it is allowed now Uber would have to put that functionality on the steam store page in order to let people upgrade.
That's the sad side of it. And whatever people will say, it is a very bad business practice to give your customers that feeling. On the other hand, I also imagine that the sales Uber will do through Steam will largely surpass sales on their own store (if that didn't happen already). Therefore at some point, Steam customers and Steam itself, will ultimately take over, in the sense that if Uber saw a better revenue in Kickstarter's backers now, in future it will see a better revenue in Steam's customers. It's business, babe, and it's also pretty much unavoidable. It's not gonna change anything for us, Xonoth. But I can appreciate the ironic side of it. Specially because Kickstarter's backers feel oh! so special
Why do you have to be like that? As a backer I do not feel also special. I realize slightly influenced the game and Uber has the final say on everything. @garat Personally I hope valve and Uber can resolve this issue because I like to see win-win scenario. The community grows and everybody is happy.
I have no problems with kickstarter backers to get unique commanders and other fancy visuals, which don't change the gameplay. I mean you need to give them some nice stuff in order to make a kickstart successful. But that really has nothing to do with my issue here - It's just a *really* bad idea to not give people equal products for the same money they spent and not tell them about it until they find out. I did post a Thread at the steam forums and reviewed PA (negative) there in order to warn potential buyers, just because I wish I had known before. Now the only thing worse then doing such a thing in the beginning is to simply ignore it and hope it goes away. Please address this issue @uber - your game is great and I love it, but it's stuff like that which can give you a hit to your reputation if it doesn't get fixed.
Because it's true. Matter of fact, you did awesome to pledge this product on Kickstarter. I wish I had the same timing. But I did not, I discovered it only later. Regarding Steam, if you sell a product on a market place, you need to provide all the necessary information on that media. Period. It is a lame excuse that the customer did not go somewhere else to find out that you made a deceptive sale. Also, it is not correct to present the game on Steam with a Commander (the Delta) that's exclusivity of Kickstarter's buyers. That, again, is deceptive visual communication. Early Access buyers on Steam get the Theta? So on Steam it should be the Theta, not the Delta. It is that simple, really. Why the Delta is even visible on Steam? It's not on sale on Steam. Of course, the Delta is much nicer visually, and Uber cannot write clearly on Steam that buyers get less for the same price. But again, if you penalize your customers without even telling them straight, you're doing it wrong. By the way, on Kickstarter, there was the "Early access to the Beta" for 40 USD, and on Steam the "Early Access to the Beta" in December cost 42 EUR. And if you go checking out the differences, the word "Delta" is totally absent from the page on Kickstarter, as it is absent on Steam. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/659943965/planetary-annihilation-a-next-generation-rts http://store.steampowered.com/app/233250/ Of course Steam customers are confused. And when they come here to ask what they actually get, they get literally insulted by who pledged the game on Kickstarter. I discussed those points the other week and I got replies that let you judge. Here: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/i-dont-want-to-say-goodbye-to-my-sweet-delta-commander.56665/ I will not write a negative review about PA, because PA is an awesome game and project, and the people at Uber are super nice. I like them and I meant to support them when I purchased the Early Access on Steam the last December. But at the moment I do not feel like writing a positive review either, for reasons that I explained already. If I make a remark about, it is here, on this forum. This issue comes back regularly, and it is already affecting Uber's reputation. And that's a shame for such a silly thing.
Because it's true is not a valid answer. We're going to have to agree to disagree on this. I'm going to quote the post I made in the thread from other week. They really need to get better at communicating. So that there is no confusion caused. I have always said that it was not a good idea for Uber to use the Delta as advertisement due to its exclusiveness. Is it really unreasonable to expect a Google search from somebody when they want to purchase something. I would say no I spent a week and a half researching and to the making decision to back it. Now on the deceptive sale front a observation I've made from watching people on the steam forum. A large portion don't even look at the steam store page or any of the announcements made by Uber. The Delta is absent on the kickstarter because it was created after the kickstarter and as part of the $90 edition which was on steam as well as the Uber store. There was a kerfuffle about it in as a compromise backers at the $90 or more got it. I always try to be respectful to other people if I can't I will not respond to them and if they're not respectful to me will cease trying to help him. I can understand why people would be like that. It's simply gets annoying when you're answering the same questions over and over again. Especially when there are resources provided on this forum by the community. Those people who respond rudely simply shouldn't respond at all. This forum is not as bad compared to steam specifically PA discussions. The steam PA community discussions became so brutally toxic I eventually left. Occasionally pop back in just to test the water.
Steam probably has no support to upgrade pre-orders as it was probably never required before. Even if Valve wants to add this feature to their store, it can take a while beforeValve actually implements it ...
Thanks for your candid anser, LokiCML. I remember that post. It was one of the few that actually acknowledged how, indeed, there is a missing piece of information on Steam regarding the different editions of PA. Of course you can disagree with me Specially on a so subjective a quick analysis about Kickstarter's backers feeling different and special. Unfortunately I got that feeling, and you know how our brain works. I see evidence of my suspicion, and that makes hard for me to change my mind. Luckily we are not a herd, and everyone chooses for himself. Many are not affected by the *Kickstarter's pride*. But this is not a real problem. It's just a personal feeling, one way or another. The real issue is the not complete communication on Steam about PA, and the use of an element of the game for promotion, that is not on sale on Steam. We said a lot already about that. Plus we can do nothing about ourselves. I also like to take a look at the horizon. There is no issue that is not gonna be fixed, one way or another. Uber is not the worse. Actually what they are doing is a bit naive, and I can see why. It's complicated for them at this point. To be honest, there are much worse things on Steam.
I would think there could be an option to simply buy the remaining part of the cosmic edition. The only thing affected game-wise are the commanders, and since they have some sort of key system for getting commanders you'd think they could do this. It's all dependent if they want to devote the time to it though.
