STEAM

You seem to be the one stumbling about, as in all the main topics people are bringing up the fact that this is not kickstarter, and are mad that it is being treated as such.

I appreciate why the game is priced the way it is but IMO alpha and beta access shouldn't have been used as tiered pre-order incentives in the first place.

Surely you could offer some bonus content to make up for the initial investors exclusive early access while bringing the price on steam down to a more competitive level? What about holding a community vote? I'm sure there would be plenty of people happy to have the paywall lowered in return for a benefit while also knowing that they are helping the community grow just nicely in the process...

The way I see it right now is, the people who would have payed $90 for early access have already done so and releasing it on steam at that price is only reflecting negatively upon Uber Entertainment and Planetary Annihilation. It must be one of if not the most expensive single game there is on Steam right now and its only in alpha... it just isn't right, something needs to be done.

ok what i don't get is why do i have to buy a kickstarter pack for alpha access ?
when people spend money on kickstarter there funding a game they wanna see made and usually get some random stuff out of gratitude....

i just wanna buy early access into the alpha... i don't want a soundtrack... or a theta commander... or a artbook... i just want the alpha access... and " preorder the game".
And making a preorder cost more then the actual game just seems like thoughtless marketing...

i don't understand why kickstarter has to determine pricing... kickstarter ain't a "shop"
its a website were you "donate money"
having a price of a game relate to "donation tiers" just seems stupid...
giving the people who donate some stuff in return is just... a motivator.. its not a requirement...

i even find it slightly rude that you can still buy the kickstarter packs... it should be exclusive to people who helped crowd fund your game...
and i'm pretty sure the crowd funding ended... with great success...

and i know making games is expensive.... but.. so is my life... im not made out of money... and i recon with the crisis around im not the only one...
if you wanna make allot of money... then ask a decent price people can afford... so you can actually get a good amount of sales...

What should be done? Do you even understand all of our goals here? Early access is not the same thing as "game released" and I think we would get into even more trouble if we pretended the game is finished.

Personally I think they could lower the price every month...

Like: Start Alpha 90$
Start Beta x$

And not making a big price jump in 3 months but make small price jumps every month(since you don't buy the "full Alpha" anymore cause it already progressed).

But then not offering any additional stuff(if there is even additional stuff when buying at Steam like the 90$ edition on the Uber page).

The price will come down at release. I'm comfortable with waiting until the game is more finished to have big sales. People want steam, we delivered. The pricing hasn't changed from day 1.

Take it off steam and do an alpha signup if you need more testers. Seems pretty simple

Ding ding ding! We have a winner.

And end of thread? This is going to continue for days in circles if something isn't done mate.

Why? Steam has early access for a reason. I really am not understanding your objection here. Pricing is the same we ask for on our site and that hasn't changed.

Well even though you said "you don't care," it is bad for your game and your company. Seems like a lot of business has already been lost judging by the 60 threads popping up saying they will not even buy it on release because of this.

Honestly... It shouldn't be on Steam for alpha. Beta would have a better time to start (at least CoH2 has set the precedent for that pricing).

The Steam community pretty clearly cannot handle this. I don't think any amount of logic and reason will calm with raging **** tornado the Steam forum has turned into.

This is really bad.

And Neutrino, I know you have a blunt way of speaking, but you can't afford to snap at any of these ragers. They will just quote you and hold it up for the world to see with liberal applications of the labels "greedy, arrogant, condescending" and etc.

Ah, but you don't understand one thing neutrino. People expect stuff for free or at the least very cheap.

Having to pay money because one is impatient is seen as something bad. Some people will never understand that they could just wait some time and then pay less because the concept of having to wait instead of having instant gratification is alien to them.

Also, get off my lawn you young whippersnappers!


Edit: As for those people who say that him calling stuff as it is is problematic. Oh grow up. You're (well, here I'm just making stuff up of course ) not the target audience of this game.

I love him being blunt as he is and I'll hope he never changes that part of him. Being open and honest is much better for long term customer satisfication then being a weasily PR spokesmen.

You know... it's the same with tons of other games that are not bought cause of some XYZ reason(like some DRM or stuff)... and then later still everyone buying.

And since it's already funded by Kickstarter should not be a problem of money if really less people bought it...

But if it's finished and they like it they'd be stupid not to buy it if it's cheaper by then.

I'm in an alpha and 2 betas right now that all cost me $0. Buying the game on release will be the only cost, as it should be. Backing the kickstarter got you guaranteed access, as it should, but they should still do like every other game and just do alpha/beta signups for more testers instead of charging them extra money for an unfinished product.
Steam = Customers
Kickstarters = Donors
Steam =/= Kickstarter

Ah, but do they want more testers?

No they don't.

Simple as that. They will sell the game for a reasonable price when its finished. All the other options to buy the game early in an unfinished state is because people have asked for it. That's it.

If you can't wait, you pay more. They don't need you or anybody else as a tester at the moment. You're not paying to test the game for them, you're paying because YOU want to get the game early.

So they commit yourself to only take part in free alphas/betas and don't bother with Devs that choose an alternate pricing method.

Win-Win for all of us.

Mike

That is what I do, because other devs don't do this (for good reason.) Sorry that all the kickstarter backers don't know what kickstarter is for, but your hurt feelings over your foolish notions shouldn't affect the pricing of a game.

It's not just Kickstarter people, the Uber store has also been selling the Alpha and Beta versions. The Steam store is to make sure it's in line with their Pre-Order AND Kickstarter backers.

You seem to be missing that entirely.

This answered my question too. Too bad I had to skim the argument in the next few pages.
:mrgreen: