Paradox Interactive & Obsidian announced today that Pillars of Eternity available for Pre-order worldwide, and released a new trailer to go with the announcement.
More information.
Pillars of Eternity - Available for Pre-order
- Thread starter Couchpotato
- Start date
$45 or $60 to pre-order a community funded game (and pre-order what will be months in advance since it *might* come out early 2015) - and you don't even get early access? Thank you sir, may I have another? Oh gee, thanks for the 10% off offer for a couple weeks on a game that may or may not actually come out early 2015 - $40 sounds so much better.
This kind of bothers me. I like seeing developers of the types of games I enjoy succeed, but I don't think we should be helping them win the lottery. I've been jazzed about this game since I heard about it but yikes.
I've seen reports (a few weeks ago) that Wasteland 2 has sold 500k copies (Divinity has done similarly well for the same price). At $40 (they were $60 during ea under the premise of not upsetting backers) that's 20+ million dollars. Take out the vampire's cut (etailers like steam, gog, etc, who gain millions for doing almost nothing) and it's still a hefty chunk of PURE PROFIT.
Maybe if the community is willing to fund your game for you, then you could turn around and say thanks by selling the game at a price that's better for the community? And still likely pull in multiple millions. For ex, if WL2 had sold for $20 per copy, it still would've made over 10m in profit, more than 3x the dev cost of the game (that was paid for by the community). Actually, if WL2 sold at $20 from the start, I bet they easily sell 50-100% more copies. Steam alone has 65m users and if you have a good game it doesn't take much to sell 1m copies at a lower price point (Rust, $20, Starbound, $15, both have sold over 1m, neither is that great of a game and both are very incomplete and have glacial development, for examples).
(I pick on WL2 but there are a few similar games like Divinity and SRR that have done this exact same thing - Hare Brained showed their appreciation of the community by creating DLC for an additional charge - very nice).
It just seems kind of lame that the people with extra faith/money/whatever in the community fund your game, and you turn around and charge as much as the market will bear for the game (and DLC), thus taking advantage of the generosity of some of the community while milking the rest of the community. And the millions roll in - and it's all profit - and maybe some good intentions, maybe it's a one and done, maybe it funds another game to be sold at maximum price - who knows?
Nobody else finds any of this a little iffy?
This kind of bothers me. I like seeing developers of the types of games I enjoy succeed, but I don't think we should be helping them win the lottery. I've been jazzed about this game since I heard about it but yikes.
I've seen reports (a few weeks ago) that Wasteland 2 has sold 500k copies (Divinity has done similarly well for the same price). At $40 (they were $60 during ea under the premise of not upsetting backers) that's 20+ million dollars. Take out the vampire's cut (etailers like steam, gog, etc, who gain millions for doing almost nothing) and it's still a hefty chunk of PURE PROFIT.
Maybe if the community is willing to fund your game for you, then you could turn around and say thanks by selling the game at a price that's better for the community? And still likely pull in multiple millions. For ex, if WL2 had sold for $20 per copy, it still would've made over 10m in profit, more than 3x the dev cost of the game (that was paid for by the community). Actually, if WL2 sold at $20 from the start, I bet they easily sell 50-100% more copies. Steam alone has 65m users and if you have a good game it doesn't take much to sell 1m copies at a lower price point (Rust, $20, Starbound, $15, both have sold over 1m, neither is that great of a game and both are very incomplete and have glacial development, for examples).
(I pick on WL2 but there are a few similar games like Divinity and SRR that have done this exact same thing - Hare Brained showed their appreciation of the community by creating DLC for an additional charge - very nice).
It just seems kind of lame that the people with extra faith/money/whatever in the community fund your game, and you turn around and charge as much as the market will bear for the game (and DLC), thus taking advantage of the generosity of some of the community while milking the rest of the community. And the millions roll in - and it's all profit - and maybe some good intentions, maybe it's a one and done, maybe it funds another game to be sold at maximum price - who knows?
Nobody else finds any of this a little iffy?
S
sakichop
Guest
Why do they owe the community that didn't back their kickstarter anything?
If they did give the rest of the community a cheap game would that be showing them respect or showing disrespect to those that took a chance on them and backed the Kickstarter?
Why does it matter how much they make? How much is too much to you? If they charge less and make much less for this game and their next game bombs will the community make up the difference so they don't lose money?
Of course not. They need to make as much money as possible because nothing is guaranteed. It's no different for a company than it is for you personally. Do you want to make just enough to get by? Or would you like to make more than you need and put some away for a rainy day.If your boss offered you a $5000 bonus would you say no I only need $2500?
Beyond that I never look at how much a company makes when I purchase a game. I only look at if I think the game is worth what they are charging. If I do I buy it. If I don't I won't.
greywolf00
Keeper of the Watch
If they dump the profit back into a new game with a bigger budget and actually make good use of it I personally couldn't care less.
No official numbers that I can find since the last announcement, but this forum topic on the games website has a bunch of speculation for anyone interested.
Link - https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9377
As for the price of Pillars of Eternity I agree with both sakichop & greywolf00.
Link - https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9377
As for the price of Pillars of Eternity I agree with both sakichop & greywolf00.
Well all we know is early next year as stated by the last announcement about the delay.
It's too easy to bash on developers and etailers like this, I see it happen quite often. As said by others the future is unclear for the developer so they need to get as much now as they can. It would indeed be nice to have a release date added to the pre-order, but there are more games out there that don't offer a definitive date on pre-order, so thats not bordering me too much. Also take in consideration that for the price of the game this needs to be maintained, bugfixed, etc on the developers part, next to that the etailers need to offer you a nice download speed, (unlimited) numbers of times you can download the game, develop their platform, etc.
In short: How can you determine if a price is right for the companies involved? I don't think you can. However you can define the right price for yourself, if that's $ 40 rather than $ 60, don't buy the game at this point (assuming you didn't back them at the Kickstarter campaign).
I hope this game works out as did WL2 and D:OS, since I did enjoy these 2 games enormously
In short: How can you determine if a price is right for the companies involved? I don't think you can. However you can define the right price for yourself, if that's $ 40 rather than $ 60, don't buy the game at this point (assuming you didn't back them at the Kickstarter campaign).
I hope this game works out as did WL2 and D:OS, since I did enjoy these 2 games enormously
I don't see how 45$ it too much for the size of the game they offer. Also so many classes for characters that can be built differently, and so many races to choose from, and there will not be stupid MMO filler quests.
I am sure main story will also be more interesting than DAI.
They are going for BG size and complexity people, only thing DAI will have over it is better graphics and romances (are those worth extra 15$?). That means if they succeed this is a game that you will be still playing in 10 years, where you will be trying out different party combinations and so on.
I see that as being worth 45$. (EU are worse as it will be 45E) .
I need to be there for that live stream
I am sure main story will also be more interesting than DAI.
They are going for BG size and complexity people, only thing DAI will have over it is better graphics and romances (are those worth extra 15$?). That means if they succeed this is a game that you will be still playing in 10 years, where you will be trying out different party combinations and so on.
I see that as being worth 45$. (EU are worse as it will be 45E) .
I need to be there for that live stream
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mercy
SasqWatch
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While done by pro's and has beautiful visuals, PoE is very much animation restricted like ToEE. Always the same boring animations play out, the characters seem to stuck in one place during combat, as if they were rooted like trees. Not even human body physics simulation, very boring and annoying Baldurs Gate style combat: get close to the monsters, beat them like a peasant hits a haystack with a pitchfork.. Even Helherron had rudimentary physics in 2D in 2003, and what an amazing game it is!
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Not everyone cares for it. On the other end you got dwarves in fullplate in DAI that fly all over the screen and wizards wield those staves in combat like some supertrained and strong martial artists.. I would rather have PoE animations.
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Can't say I give a flying crap about physics. First time I have heard Baldurs gate combat being described as annoying.
That said I do have some concerns about PoE, mostly from what I have been reading on the forums. I'm hoping things can turn around and they have enough time to make it a bit more "fun" by the time it releases.
That said I do have some concerns about PoE, mostly from what I have been reading on the forums. I'm hoping things can turn around and they have enough time to make it a bit more "fun" by the time it releases.
P
purpleblob
Guest
I'm wondering if they've run out of $$ and trying to fund it somehow in this way.
That's a good question purpleblob as I remember Avellone saying funding was all used up, and Feargus saying the game couldn't afford to be delayed.
Its being speculated that it will be delayed to March. Most everyone who has played the Beta agree that combat needs to be improved and the classes need a little more balance. They also claim they set aside some money for a possible delay. If preorders help them get a little more polish on the game, though, I think it will help them in the long run. Good Steam Reviews=More sales. Look at what they have done for Wasteland and Divinity:Original Sin. A game like Jagged Alliance:Flashback, which is released without all of its content and fine tuning (even if some of it is getting released post-launch) has a page full of red reviews, and if you look at numbers of people playing it, you can see what sort of effect that must have on sales.
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I was also wondering about that bit. I believe he might have confused Divinity OS (500K confirmed by Swen Vincke's blog) with Wasteland 2.
The only sales announcement of Wasteland 2 seems to be the one where inXile revealed $1.5 million in sales in four days. At ~$40/copy that would be roughly 40K copies and a long ways to go to 500K.
Wasteland 2 dropped out of the Steam top 10 shortly after launch and never resurfaced so I'd be extremely surprised if they ever got anywhere near 500K.
Personally, I'd guess that they have maybe barely broken through the 100K barrier by now (even that seems doubtful because I strongly believe they would have used that milestone to make an announcement if it were so).
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I think d-os demonstrated they are better off delaying and trying to find an extra 2 million from somewhere if the game is seriously flawed. Also d-os demonstrated that the early access model can really help here (funding and improvements to the game) but not sure how that would work with their deal with paradox.
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I've read a bit here and there but really have no clue how flawed the game is with regards to combat being 'fun' which is the bottom line. I think they can suffer a few visual and imbalance issues but if the combat is outright un-enjoyable than the game is more likely to suffer.
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Then again the game might be in really good shape for a Janurary release
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Watched a few videos and so far it doesn't seem horrible.
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I've read a bit here and there but really have no clue how flawed the game is with regards to combat being 'fun' which is the bottom line. I think they can suffer a few visual and imbalance issues but if the combat is outright un-enjoyable than the game is more likely to suffer.
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Then again the game might be in really good shape for a Janurary release
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Watched a few videos and so far it doesn't seem horrible.
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It seems OE has finally accepted the combat is not good enough and are already planning changes for next patch. Hopefully they are ready to listen to beta players and make more changes before release to make the combat more tactical and less pause fest.
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ChaosTheory
Virtual Reality Hero
In my opinion, I'll allow a gaming company to do 1 Kickstarter and then milk profits on the final product, with the expectation that the profits will go to sequels, expansions or similar games in the genre that was crowd funded.
My issue will arise if they return to KS for something else.
My issue will arise if they return to KS for something else.