Age of Wonders 3 - Pre-Orders & Release Date

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Triumph Studios has a development update for Age of Wonders 3 with news pre-orders are now available on Steam, and GOG. The official release date is also March 31st.

Here is a new trailer that comes with the news.



Now, after more than 3 years of development and more than 10 years of waiting from the fans, Triumph Studios is ready to confirm the release date for Age of Wonders III: March 31st!

Pre-orders have started at Steam and GOG.com and at retail in select territories. We have a Digital Regular and Deluxe Edition available. The latter adds the truly epic Dragon’s Throne scenario and a fabulous two hour soundtrack; don’t miss out on this! And we have added a free pre-order gift: The Elven Resurgence scenario, which takes the series’ back to its roots in the ancient Heartwood Forest.
More information.
 
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Releasing the same day as ESO early access starts. What the hell there wasn't anything to play last year and now games I want to play are being released on the same damn day. Happened with M&MX and Blackguards already. Anger rising :)
 
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Mars 31th is also around when EQN Landmark is moving to closed beta...

As if my backlog wasn't surcharged enough already.
 
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I'll be pre-ordering, but I won't be able to play it for a while. ESO is going to make sure most of April is booked. I might be able to squeeze in AoW3 between ESO and Div though, but that depends on the release date of Div.

I don't think there's anything else coming in April - June or so. Right?
 
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Just so it's clear - this is just a pre-order and not an early access sort of thing ...
 
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Just so it's clear - this is just a pre-order and not an early access sort of thing …
It's the full game. I have no idea why you think it's an Early Access game. The entire game was funded by the creator of Minecraft Markus Persson.^^
 
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Releasing the same day as ESO early access starts. What the hell there wasn't anything to play last year and now games I want to play are being released on the same damn day. Happened with M&MX and Blackguards already. Anger rising :)

We all have the same problem. Too many games, not enough time for all.

The best solution? Buy only games you are really about to start playing immediately. By the time you start others, they'll be on some sale, so no need to pay the full price now.

As I'll be playing AoW3 when it's released, I'm preordering it.
 
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This game looks awesome but some of the previews have been moaning about pace, especially early pace. I'm not sure if it's because so many gamers including reviewers have ADD these days or if there's something up with the game. You would hope reviewers realize they're not playing linear story based console influenced FPS shooter of the year number 3000.

But then, I wouldn't consider AOW to be an RPG. It has some RPGish elements but it's a strategy game, so not really sure why it gets mentioned on this site.

Since ESO is an abomination - bad representation of ES, bad representation of MMORPGs - bad overall idea for a game, it surely won't be absorbing any of my time.
 
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The entire game was funded by the creator of Minecraft Markus Persson.^^

I like that about Notch. He makes a lots of money with Minecraft, but in return he gives back a lot to the indie scene (through Kickstarters or others) and helped funding games as well (and I do not believe he is doing it for the ROI).

update:
But then, I wouldn't consider AOW to be an RPG. It has some RPGish elements but it's a strategy game, so not really sure why it gets mentioned on this site.

It has a lot of RPG elements (more than a few ARPG do) and the series is well loved here anyway.
 
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ESPN is an online site where I used to check lineups in soccergames so I can earn some beermoney on betting. There are better sites than it for some leagues though (kicker.de, marca.es, etc). Sometimes they also noticed things some others didn't, for example a club not scoring if a certain player is not in the first 11.
I used to… I'm not into that stuff for years as it takes too much of time. But I did have over 70% success on pairs I bet on (yea, tracked that too… also too much of timewaster just for the beermoney…).

Dunno about the other part of the question, can you please be more specific?
 
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I meant what is ESO (auto correct error). Does the stem version use the library feature forfan made content or stream multilayer matching. Also had anyone played the beta and can comment if age to pre order or if r we should wait for reviews? (Safe if we liked aow or aow-sm)
 
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Releasing the same day as ESO early access starts. What the hell there wasn't anything to play last year and now games I want to play are being released on the same damn day. Happened with M&MX and Blackguards already. Anger rising :)

Exactly!! :wall:

I've waited ages for an new AoW, I load up AoW-SM every 6 months or so. But I got addicted to ESO last beta weekend and I think all my free time will go to it. What the hell is up with this timing. Would of loved to play this in Feb
 
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I'll preorder this. While I wish there were more races at the outset, it looks pretty likely they will come as DLC. The wording on their website suggests that may be the case. While one can rage against the DLC machine, I don't mind it so much for games I truly enjoy.
 
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I guess if this one depends of GOG sales they will have a surprise, lots of people angry because of the price added to regional pricing...
 
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Fortunately for me I didn't like ESO so I'll be "free" (by "free" I mean I'll only be also playing Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis 4, Victoria 2, Might and Magic X, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some 3 or 4 more)
 
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I meant what is ESO (auto correct error). Does the stem version use the library feature forfan made content or stream multilayer matching. Also had anyone played the beta and can comment if age to pre order or if r we should wait for reviews? (Safe if we liked aow or aow-sm)

ESO is yet another MMO some believe will change the history of gaming while some like me just yawn when it's mentioned.

Steam version will not use anything different than GOG version, so multiplayer, if it's inside (sorry, didn't really checked as I'm not interested in that), won't have matchmaking between only samestore games.
And I think there was no public beta to play(test), even if it was, testers would have to sign an agreement on not to share details publically.

I'll preorder this. While I wish there were more races at the outset, it looks pretty likely they will come as DLC.
I will preorder as I don't expect DLC outside of "special edition" few maps, but if they do choose to spam DLC, they can stuff it up the same place Nazeem(Skyrim&ESO) is. And I forgot where he is, can someone remind me?
I won't buy any DLC.
 
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Is ESO elder scroll online?
Yes that is the abbreviated name for lazy people to use. It's shorter than writing the whole game title. I see this happen with most MMO games.:biggrin:
I guess if this one depends of GOG sales they will have a surprise, lots of people angry because of the price added to regional pricing…
The good news is you get a free game if the price is higher where you live. GOG also has a new post about Regional Pricing.

Link- http://www.gog.com/news/letter_from_the_md_about_regional_pricing

As many of you know, we announced on last Friday that we are going to introduce regional pricing for 3 new games coming up on GOG.com soon. Looking at the amount of reactions (over 3,500 comments at this very moment), it is obvious that this change is making many of you guys worried. We must have failed to clearly explain why our pricing policy for (some) newer games will change and what this means as a matter of fact for our PC & MAC classic games, which account for over 80% of our catalogue.

To be honest, our announcement was a bit vague simply because our future pricing policy is not 100% set in stone yet and we were just worried to make any promises before it was. You know, GOG.com has been growing quickly (thanks to you!), and the more we grow, the more we are worried to make some of you guys disappointed. This is why we were so (over-)cautious with our announcement.

We should have just been upfront about why we've made these changes and what they mean for us in the future and what we're planning. So let's talk. To be clear: what I'm talking about below is our plan. It's a plan that we believe we can accomplish, but while it's what we want to do with GOG, it may change some before it actually sees the light of day. Please don’t blame me for talking open-heartedly today and telling you about the plans and pricing policy we want to fight for and eventually achieve. The below plans aren't sure. The only guarantee I can give you is that we’ll do our best to fight for gamers while still making sure GOG.com as a whole grows (because well, we still want to be around 50 years from now, you know!). So, enough for the introduction, let’s get things started.

Why does GOG.com need to offer newer games at all?

We've been in business for 5 years now, and we've signed a big percentage of all of the classic content that can be legally untangled. There are still some big companies left we're trying to bring into the GOG.com fold, like LucasArts, Microsoft, Take2 and Bethesda, but what classic titles will we sign in the future once we have those partners on-board? We need to sign newer games or else just fire everyone and keep selling the same limited catalog. Either we bring you “not so old” releases from 2010+ or brand-new AAA titles, because these will become classic games tomorrow. It’s as simple as that.

Also, well, we want to expand beyond just classic games, hence the fact we have been offering you brand-new indie releases for almost 2 years now. Why expanding? Well, obviously, because the more games we sell, the more legitimacy we have on the market and the more likely it is that we can achieve our mission: making all PC & MAC video games 100% DRM-free, whether classic or brand-new titles.

To be straightforward (excuse my French):DRM is shit— we'll never have any of it. It treats legitimate customers like rubbish and pirates don't have to bother with it. It's bad for gamers, and it's also bad for business and our partners. We want to make it easy and convenient for users to buy and play games; rather than give piracy a try. Happy gamers equals a healthy gaming industry; and this is what we fight for. Anyway, I am sure you well know our opinions about DRM.

To make the world of gaming DRM-free, we need to convince top-tier publishers & developers to give us a try with new games, just like they did with classic games. We need to make more case studies for the gaming industry, just like we successfully did back in 2011 with The Witcher 2. It was our first ever 100% DRM-free AAA day-1 release. GOG.com was the 2nd best-selling digital distribution platform worldwide for this title thanks to you guys, despite having regional prices for it. We need more breakthroughs like this to be able to show all the devs and publishers in our industry that DRM-free digital distribution is actually good for their business and their fans. And when I say breakthroughs, I am talking about really kick-ass games, with a potential metacritic score of 85% or more, AA+ and AAA kind of titles.

And this is exactly why we signed those 3 games we told you about last Friday. We believe those 3 games can be massive hits for hardcore gamers, that they can help us spread the DRM-free model among the industry for newer games and we did our best to convince their rights holders to give GOG.com a try. One of those games, as you see already, is Age of Wonders 3. We're planning more titles even beyond these first 3 soon.

Alright, but why is regional pricing needed for those (only 3 so far!) newer games then?

First of all, you have to be aware of an important fact when it comes to newer games: GOG.com cannot really decide what the prices should be. Top-tier developers and publishers usually have contractual obligations with their retail partners that oblige them to offer the game at the same price digitally and in retail. When they don’t have such contractual obligations, they are still encouraged to do so, or else their games might not get any exposure on the shelves in your favorite shops. This will change over time (as digital sales should overtake retail sales in the near future), but as of today, this is still a problem our industry is facing because retail is a big chunk of revenue and there’s nothing GOG.com can do to change that. We need to charge the recommended retail price for the boxed copies of the games in order for developers (or publishers) to either not get sued or at least get their games visible on shelves. You may recall that our sister company CD Projekt RED got sued for that in the past and we don’t want our partners to suffer from that too.

On top of that, you have to know that there are still many top-tier devs and publishers that are scared about DRM-free gaming. They're half-convinced it will make piracy worse, and flat pricing means that we're also asking them to earn less, too. Earn less, you say? Why is that? Well, when we sell a game in the EU or UK, VAT gets deducted from the price before anyone receives any profit. That means we're asking our partners to try out DRM-free gaming and at the same time also earn 19% - 25% less from us. Other stores, such as Steam, price their games regionally and have pricing that's more equitable to developers and publishers. So flat pricing + DRM-Free is something many devs and publishers simply refuse. Can you blame them? The best argument we can make to convince a publisher or developer to try DRM-Free gaming is that it earns money. Telling them to sacrifice income while they try selling a game with no copy protection is not a way to make that argument.

Getting back to those 3 new upcoming games coming up. The first one is Age of Wonders 3, which you can pre-order right now on GOG.com. The next 2 ones will be Divine Divinity: Original Sin and The Witcher 3. We’re very excited to offer those games DRM-free worldwide and we hope you’ll love them.

Still, we know some countries are really being screwed with regional pricing (Western Europe, UK, Australia) and as mentioned above, we’ll do our very best, for every release of a new game, to convince our partners to offer something special for the gamers living there.

And don’t forget guys: if regional pricing for those few big (as in, “AA+”) new games is a problem for you, you can always wait. In a few months. The game will be discounted on sale, and at 60, 70, or 80% off, the price difference will be minimal indeed. In a few years it will become a classic in its own right, and then we have the possibility to to make it flat-priced anyway (read next!) The choice is always yours. All we are after is to present it to you 100% DRM-free. We are sure you will make the best choice for yourself, and let others enjoy their own freedom to make choices as well.

So, what is going to happen with classic games then?

Classic content accounts for about 80% of our catalog, so yes, this is a super important topic. We've mentioned here above that we can’t control prices for new games, but we do have a lot of influence when it comes to classic games. GOG.com is the store that made this market visible and viable digitally, and we're the ones who established the prices we charge. We believe that we have a good record to argue for fair pricing with our partners.

So let's talk about the pricing for classics that we're shooting for. For $5.99 classics, we would like to make the games 3.49 GBP, 4.49 EUR, 199 RUB, and $6.49 AUD. For $9.99 classics, our targets are 5.99 GBP, 7.49 EUR, 349 RUB, and $10.99 AUD. This is what we’ve got in mind at the moment. We’ll do our best to make that happen, and we think it will. How? Well, we have made our partners quite happy with GOG.com's sales for years - thanks to you guys :). We have created a global, legal, successful digital distribution market of classics for them. This market didn't exist 5 years ago. By (re)making all those games compatible with modern operating systems for MAC and PC, we've made forgotten games profitable again. When it comes to classic games, we can tell them that we know more about this market than anyone. :) Being retrogaming freaks ourselves, we know that 5.99 EUR or GBP is crazy expensive for a classic game (compared to 5.99 USD). We have always argued that classic games only sell well if they have reasonable prices. Unfair regional pricing equals piracy and that’s the last thing anybody wants.

What’s next?

We will do our very best to make all of the above happen. This means three things:

First, we will work to make our industry go DRM-free in the future for both classic and new games (that’s our mission!).

Second, we will fight hard to have an attractive offer for those AA+ new games for our European, British and Australian users, despite regional pricing that we have to stick to.

Third, we will switch to fair local pricing for classic games, as I mentioned above.

TheEnigmaticT earlier mentioned that he would eat his hat if we ever brought DRM to GOG.com. I'm going to go one step further: by the end of this year, I'm making the promise that we will have converted our classic catalog over to fair regional pricing as outlined above. If not, we'll set up a record a video of some horrible public shaming for me, TheEnigmaticT, and w0rma. In fact, you know what? Feel free to make suggestions below for something appropriate (but also safe enough that we won't get the video banned on YouTube) so you feel that we're motivated to get this done quickly. I'll pick one that's scary enough from the comments below and we'll let you know which one we're sticking to.

I hope that this explanation has helped ease your worry a bit and help you keep your faith in GOG.com as a place that's different, awesome, and that always fights for what's best for gamers. If you have any questions, comments or ideas, feel free to address them to us below and TheEnigmaticT and I will answer them to the best of our abilities tomorrow. We hear you loud and clear, so please do continue sharing your feedback with us. At the end of the day GOG.com is your place; without you guys it would just be a website where a few crazy people from Europe talk about old games. :)
 
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