Planetary Annihilation: Total Annihilation IN SPACE

[Histidine]

There's also the fact that no-one else ever charges more for the alpha than the finished software.

[keith.lamothe]

I do think they shouldn't have put it in playable form on steam if they didn't want more players.  Just do a pre-order.

But it'd be worse to back it out now, most likely.

[Wingflier]

Just saw the EA advertisement on Steam.

I guess I can understand people's frustration, but seriously, it is *NOT* that big of a deal. Honestly, do gamers these days have nothing better to do than complain about overpriced alphas?

It was the same thing with DotA 2, which is technically still in beta, and which anybody could get into if they just asked around a bit (I have 6 extra keys for example); but which you can pay like $40 to get access to, along with some other cool features, and people FREAK OUT.

The stupidity of gamers these days is legendary.

[Cyborg]

I do think they shouldn't have put it in playable form on steam if they didn't want more players.  Just do a pre-order.

But it'd be worse to back it out now, most likely.

Definitely worse if they back down now. It's summer vacation which is generally the worst time for multiplayer gaming and events like this.

I will say this, it does look like a cash grab. In the case of kickstarter, it's clearly trying to encourage people to fund a grand venture for developers that do not have publishers. For a game that is already funded, to go on steam and try to lure people in for $90 seems off. They're not trying to raise money anymore, so now it's just who is willing to put out that kind of cash for a half-baked title. It's also a little condescending to the audience. Maybe younger gamers are emotionally infantile and unable to see the big picture, but it's also possible that they just aren't able to verbalize what's wrong when the scenario in front of them is bent.

They clearly spent their goodwill, and now what's going to be talked about on every review is their greed with this little incident.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, it does seem off.  I don't think it was intended as a cash grab (even if that were their goal, I think a Machiavellian analysis would predict and steer clear of the sort of PR disaster this is) but I see how it can look that way.

I think it was kind of a plinko-board-of-doom situation:
1) Community members really want to see this on steam (this is true, at least iirc, that they had a lot of people asking them to get it on steam quickly)
2) But we can't massively undercut the price the kickstarter backers paid for alpha, and we don't actually want people jumping in without realizing this is alpha, so we have to price it at $90.
3) And we can't back it out now because that's going to annoy Valve and in general be even more of a disaster.

2 & 3 I would agree with.  They couldn't "fix it" at those points.  They needed to back up to 1 before the steam availability and said "sorry guys, we know you want it on steam, but this just ain't gonna work".

But 20/20 hindsight and all that.

[LayZboy]

I was gonna buy the alpha thingy but then I read that they don't even have map control in it yet.
So I said screw that.

[mrhanman]

I'm just tired of everyone crying "corporate greed" about this.  i'm sure it seemed perfectly fair to them to set the early access price equal to the kickstarter tier that gave the same.  they could have made it more clear on the steam page that the final release will be much cheaper, though.

ultimately, i wouldn't care if they made it $10,000 dollars for early access.  even that wouldn't be greedy - it'd just be stupid.

[LaughingThesaurus]

I doubt making it clearer really would have helped though. I mean, it's made perfectly clear why the price is so high for now in the sticky on the steam forums. People just don't seem to actually understand, or they didn't read the sticky to begin with.

[chemical_art]

The effectiveness is very much related to both venue and previous history. PI has no previous good will, and the steam forums is like most a very acidic pool. So I'm neither surprised to PI for any fallout

[chemical_art]

addendium: if PI on the steam page offered the beta and retail versions at their ki kstarter prices i wonder if it would be better.

[keith.lamothe]

addendium: if PI on the steam page offered the beta and retail versions at their ki kstarter prices i wonder if it would be better.

FWIW, they asked for that for the initial setup and Valve said no.

[chemical_art]

addendium: if PI on the steam page offered the beta and retail versions at their ki kstarter prices i wonder if it would be better.

FWIW, they asked for that for the initial setup and Valve said no.

In that case, it was very foolish to do this. Considering how for very many this is their first experience.with the game, they have no context.for.the price. So it seems a cash grap. Its not the consumers fault they decided on a retail site among the most expensive alphas ever.

[LaughingThesaurus]

While that isn't the consumer's fault, I really complain more about the people who don't even bother to inform themselves on the subject.

[chemical_art]

While that isn't the consumer's fault, I really complain more about the people who don't even bother to inform themselves on the subject.

What is there to inform? They offer the most expensive alpha ever. Period. And they provide no avenue to obtain the game either in retail or beta. Why they do it may provide context, but doesn't change that fact.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Yeah, okay, the alpha's really bad, but the people who assume things like, say, the developers are greedy, or that they COULD have priced it lower, and stuff like that. Those are the uninformed ignorant people that are making the community really look bad. I absolutely understand complaints and problems with the alpha's price, but the uninformed people who get really mad about it are the ones that I do not agree with.