How to fix the Steam price concerns?

Recent F2P games on steam had different ''tiers'' aswel, like Warframe and Star Conflict.

18,99€ Star Conflict: Mercenary Pack
45,99€ Star Conflict: Galaxy Explorer Pack
73,99€ Star Conflict: Elite Pilot Pack

Looks like an solution.

I'm with Thefreemon and lordmd on this. No need to change the product being offered as it is perfectly reasonable. Making it abundantly clear what each product is however (and treating them like separate products) might help future would be ragers from going off half cocked.

It is my understanding that valve isn't allowing Uber to post different tiers as some of those tiers would amount to straight pre-orders. Valve has been catching flak recently after some pre-orders have turned out to be borderline scams, and may be trying to phase out reliance on pre-ordering.

Having said that, I'm coming to the conclusion that some sort of change might need to be made. I just did a quick check, and PA is currently the most expensive game on steam, excluding, non-game software, packs or collections. I'm fully onboard with the pricing model, but I'm not sure that this is a distinction that PA wants.

All this steam early access stuff seems to be doing is causing potential players to wholeheartedly call out such a ridiculous pricing scheme. The kickstarter has long since finished, you shouldn't be charging people nearly £70 just to play an unfinished game.

I backed this project for far more than that but it isn't the point, the point is this is only serving to drive people away from the game, my friends don't want to even touch it any more because of the price and even though it will come down as it gets to release I think the damage is already done.

I honestly think you should either pull the special commanders and lower the price or just remove at least alpha if not even beta from the store and just wait for release. Maybe I'm missing something but that kind of price would really make me think twice about buying it even at launch. What were you guys thinking anyway? No-one is going to pay that price for an unfinished game and it only hurts the community from people avoiding it because of this.

Here is the problem, you're assuming the intent is to PLAY the game, when it is clearly in no state for play, only TESTING.

Mike

Well would you pay £67 to test a game for Activision or EA or any other major game dev / publisher? No you would, if anything, expect them to pay YOU. This pricing structure is completely backwards, I don't understand how you can't see that.

What is backwards is you thinking that you deserve to pay less for something than the KickStarter backers did... even though you're getting the same thing as us, at the same time as us.

Don't be a selfish twat.

Well that was completely uncalled for, I've put quite a bit of money into this project's Kickstarter, however I think this whole situation is quite poorly constructed.

Would you honestly pay £67 for an alpha on Steam? This isn't Kickstarter, people expect playable games on Steam and this is where it all breaks down.

Yes I think it's because the other options Uber could offer would all mean later access(cause Alpha just needs to stay at 90$ because of the Kickstarter).

And Steam Early Access is... you know... Early Access - as the name says.

They are only allowing options that give access now... which leaves us without other options on Steam.

As someone above mentioned - other options(for Beta, Full Release) would be more like a PreOrder.

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Other solution if they really decide they can't do it with the high price might really be just to wait until Beta. Technically it still could be Early Access(still not the finished product if it is still in Beta) and they could set a lower price without angering Kickstarter backers. Also the game would be more progressed - meaning less whining people about missing features or bugs.

Pricing could also be changed... I think 40$ was Kickstarter Beta? 60$ their intended Steam price? They could lower this to something between 40$ and 60$ and then really no one could complain - especially for € prices if they managed to find a good exchange rate... new games in € are between 40 and 50... with the real exchange rate atm(according to Google) 60$ would be 45€....

Early access for steam users should be the same price or even higher than what the early starters have paid obviously.
Having a kickstarter and then later on allow people to enter the alpha for a reduced amount of money does not sound like a good idea.
It would be disrespectful to the people that helped making the development of PA possible.

Steam users have to understand the history of the making of PA.
This is a unique chance to be a part of the development of an epic RTS title.
Developed with complete artistic freedom.

Perhaps it is a good idea to explain that to the Steam community.

What? Don't be ridiculous, my understand of Game Development is much more informed than that.

The fact is the game lives or dies by it's bank account, and while Uber is self investing a lot into the game, they couldn't do it alone, thus the Kickstarter and the Pre-Orders, fact is even now there is so much more Uber can do for the game, but like anything else, they have to pay for it. Every Pre-Order or Steam Early Access Purchase gives the Devs that much more money it can do stuff with; Howard can pay the Orchestra to record more tracks, Artists get payed to create More Commanders or Biomes, Programmers get paid to make a better UberNet, Uber can get more servers in more places(like Australia), more content given for 'free' post release and more. All these things cost money, and even if it's not immediately evident, it's all thanks to us Backers and Pre-Orderes, and Steam Early Access-ers.

Frankly Uber could have completely stayed off of Stem entirely, it nets them less profit as Steam takes a Cut, but Backers wanted it, and they got it.

you say the Pricing is backwards, I say you don't understand how this game is being created compared to the rank and file AAA games.

Mike

You are absolutely correct. I think it was too early to put PA anywhere near Steam, but Uber is merely doing as the community requested.

There was a lot of people asking for a Steam release. Probably would have been wisest to release that at the Beta or Retail milestones, however.

I understand perfectly that this game differs hugely from other games with publishers, the problem is that the average Steam user does not. You honestly think the way it is now isn't poorly handled? If Uber wanted to put the game on steam to satisfy the community they should have done so with simply a pre-order retail price.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand that backers of the project should have priority on early access. Like I said most Steam users expect playable games on there, it really is not the place to ask users to pay (relative to other games) high sums of money to test a game. Just have a pre-pay pre-order on steam for the retail price and they have to wait until launch and then perhaps email them or specify on the Steam store page or on a sticky in the Steam forums that you can "upgrade" to alpha / beta access via Uber's site, that way I think it solves all issues while not looking stupidly priced.

Yes that is the problem, steam is full of people that want to PLAY. Two worlds colliding, friction unavoidable. The arguments will be perpetual, this is the internet.

Bonus points for guessing where that link goes before you click on it. Hint: Another unavoidable internet meme.

Precisely this, even my friends got the wrong impression of the game because of this and they don't want to play it any more despite me explaining it to them. This is only serving to hurt the community and lose potential players as it stands now.

So it's a consumer issue then. The Problem is that pandering to the lowest common denominator will never fix that problem. People want better games, and hate on companies like EA for all the **** they pull, but so few of them lack the conviction to carry thought on that. For example, I haven't bough any EA Games since BF: Bad Company 2 and Dead Space, not a single one, and won't until they provide a real quality game and doesn't treat me like an enemy. By doing so, I have accomplished more than most of the people that Voted EA as the Worst Company ever(twice), because EA doesn't care about some Magazine Poll, it cares about it's bottom line, and as long as people keep buying the games, they'll keep putting them out.

Similarly Hawken is in Beta(still) but still the F2P options are fully functional and fully used, this is something I don't agree with, so I haven't used it.

Thing is that Alpha/Beta is so buzz-wordy right now and a lot of Devs/Pubs have taken advantage of that.

It's a shame really, Consumers have so much power they can hold over Devs/Pubs, but we're still being taken advantage of in part due to our overall ignorance of that power.

Mike

From what I've seen, Uber has done a lot to try and explain everything, and frankly even being part of the early Access Program should be enough to get people to stop using thier biases, but seems as a group, we still have a long way to go to becoming mature consumers.

Mike

Yes, but also that PA isn't the right fit to be SOLD on steam at alpha / beta prices that were on Kickstarter because, like both I and Trialq have said, Steam is for games to be played and currently PA is far from that state, showing a price like that on Steam was just asking for trouble and can only hurt the public image of it.

I thought my suggestion of pay to pre-order retail price and then a link to Uber's site if you want to upgrade to alpha / beta access was far better as then people don't instantly shun the game without realising why they should pay that price, they are that price because of the Kickstarter but Steam is not the place for Kickstarter pricing and just shouldn't be there at all.

That's just it though, there will always be ignorant consumers and publishers have far more experience wading through the drooling low IQ masses.

No i would not pay that money for a Alpha, even a released Game i wouldnt buy for that money. So where is the Problem?
Noone is forcing me to pay that amount, the only thing that is forcing me is myself or better said impatience could "force" a player to buy a game for such amount of money.

Thats the whole thing, all those guys on steam want to play PA in Alpha stage because they cant wait until December when it gets a normal priceing. Because they cant afford to feed there impatience they are raging and crying to get the fix.

When they expect playable games then they wouldnt look at early access.
I buyed so many Early Access games and only played them a bit because they are unfinished and not even fun to play and a real interest isnt there to help out i buyed them because they are cheap and have a a new concept i wanted to support, and i bet i am not the only one with that mentality.

I backed for Beta . Why? I wanted tosupport a idea and a game concept but i didnt want to spend more money just to get into alpha i am not that kind of a guy that can calmly search for bugs ect epecialty because my english isnt clean enough to point exactly out a bug.. So for me it was reasonable to see that Alpha was at a much higher price then Beta. Good thing for Uber they didnt get a lazy gamer for the Alphatesting like me that would just clunch up the servers and at worst hinder the real guys that want to test.

90$ For Alpha reasonable? Maybe atleast to get the guys that want to Test and help out making "there mark" on the game.

Would be PA Alpha out there for lets say 20$ what would happend a bunch of backers being pissed, servers maybe for days not workable and there for no testing can be really done. 90% Of the new "testers" would stop playing after some days because "they saw everything and gotten bored" the rest 10% will be the same that are testing now.

Personal i am glad the testing is done in a tighter community with those that really want to help out make this game awesome, and thanks to that it will get done much smoother and less stressfull for Uber if that is even possible

And for those that dont want to pay that amount...patients it prize will get down over time.

So Uber thanks for being clever about Alpha/Betastages