I have been listening to everyone post lot's of points and listening to what everyone has to say.
So with that being said I will point out a few thing's that have been said and what hasn't been said.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/659943965/planetary-annihilation-a-next-generation-rtsFirst off on kickstarter they asked for $900,000 they made $2,229,344 less five percent because kickstarter takes it's share which is $111,467 so they made about $2,117,877 dollars on kickstarter. That is $1,217,877 more than they asked for.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KickstarterNow let us start off with kickstarter. Kickstarter is a crowd-funding service thus meaning most donations you make on kickstarter are just that a donation. Thus it is tax deductible now while kickstarters policy has changed it is still consider a donation and the rewards are "gifts" given to people that donate to the project. By this respects you can write off your donation on kickstarter. While in most cases it is pointless because you rarely make a big enough donation to make it worth it. It is still an option in most cases. They have made changes to the policy at kickstarter to attempt to stop this from being the case because they don't want to deal with the taxes behind it and so they can take a cut of the project.
With this in mind when you donate to something on kickstarter you are donating to the project and getting a thank you as a reward. If you think something is worth backing on kickstarter you put money on it because you want to support the game not because you want to BUY the game or product right now because you know going into the donation you will need to wait.
This being said if you want to complain about how you could have got it cheaper had you waited for it to be released. Then you shouldn't be on a website like kickstarter where you are donating money to help FUND something be created. You know going into making that donation that you are donating more money to help fund the company not the game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(software)
Now onto steam.
Steam is a "content delivery and digital rights management system" it is not a crowd-funding service that being said it is a retail service. Meaning you can't write it off on taxes and odds are you are hear to buy a game. Now while I am not against early access for games but charging the same price for early access as someone that donating money and was gifted early access while it seems fair is silly. Why might you ask?
Well lets break this down first off people donating on kickstarter arent there to play games they are there to donate money to projects they believe in. The fact that they get rewards for the donation is just a plus. People on steam are there to buy and play games. Now for the hell of it let's just put that all aside for a moment.
https://store.uberent.com/Store/PreOrder?titleId=4Lets get down to the game and pricing. We have four pricing plans here first one.
Combat version.
- $40 dollars
- You get a game key, Theta Commander unit, Soundtrack, Desktop wallpaper
Warfare Version.
- $60 dollars
- You get a game key, Theta Commander, Soundtrack, Desktop wallpaper, beta access.
Galactic Edition
- $90 dollars
-You get a game key, Theta Commander, Soundtrack, Desktop wallpaper, beta access, alpha access, digital artbook.
Cosmic Digital Edition
- $200 dollars
- You get a game key, Theta Commander, Soundtrack, Desktop wallpaper, beta access, alpha access, digital artbook, Delta Command, Commander accreditation, Planetary naming, Pa founding commander badge, Pa asteroid pin and Pas asteroid belt flair items for SMNC.
Now with this being said let's look at this a bit more. First the only thing you are really paying more for between the $40 dollar version which is release price and Galactic edition which we are buying now on steam is beta and alpha access.
Hey lets dig even more! If you read the steam page it says current early access feature list. This means alpha okay... Alpha requires a 64-bit OS 32-bit will come later but you MUST have 64-bit... Okay.... Well most people can run this but really whatever. Now single planet comand land naval and air. 2 - 10 people 2 - 4 recommended. Army vs Army free for all.
Now this is the current game at alpha this alone isnt worth $90 bucks in content but hey everyone keeps yelling you get to help MOLD the game by giving feedback to the dev's no matter how you say it they will not add something you give feedback unless they think its a good idea. So saying well you get to help mold the game which is silly because it doesnt matter if I buy the game or not I bet you if I go on the forums and post an idea they like it will get added reguardless if I buy the game or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycleNow as people have pointed out about alpha and beta releases. Alpha is a phase in the release cycle that is the first phase to begin software testing and generally at this stage most programs are unstable and crash as well as normally have a lack of the features the program plans on having before release.
People use to get paid to do alpha bug testing but as the gaming market has developed paid testers have been phased out in place of discounted prices or free copies. It is not a privilege for user to test and debug your game for you. The fact we are paying for a game that doesnt work well yet and has most of the features missing and helping support and debug the game should be reason enough to offer it at a discounted price. We are doing you a favor so to be charged more than the release price is kind of a slap in the face. Now lets break that down in another way.
Let's say you "the reader" is making a game and you are looking for people to help you fund the game. You come to me as a backer for the game and funding it I say okay I will give you $5000 dollars to build the game but I want to be paid back in interest at release. This would be normally how it works it's called a LOAN well the way kickstarter works is for the small guys that aren't sure they can market it and offer rewards in place of that.
Now for the people that are like "IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT DON'T BUY IT!!!" Well I have no plans what so ever at buying this game infact I wouldn't buy this game until it was on a huge discount just so I could give the company as little as possible if at all just because in my mind they have damaged my view of the company. They have come off as totally greedy and I have no plans on supporting another greedy gaming company EA is doing a good enough job.
I get that they need to be paid for there time and work. I totally get that but lets go ahead and break that down a bit too. When starting a kickstarter page I am sure the lump of the money went into paying the coders for the time and work they have put into it but hell lets say they put it all into the game. (Though highly unlikely)
http://www.uberent.com/pa/the-team/They have 22 people on the build team and they made an extra $1,217,877 on kickstarter with that being said that split among 22 people is $55358.04 dollars now im sorry but I don't know very many coders that get a check like for a dev of a single game. That is more than most people make in a year but for the hell of it let me break that down for everyone. $55358 dollars a year before taxes is $4613.17 monthly / $1153 weekly / $28 hourly so with that being said even if they were working on this game for a year they made $28 dollars an hour this isn't counting the other $900,000 they used to create the game. So with this being said they don't need money. Now with this being said I understand wanting to release alpha at the same price offered to kickstarter but the kickstarter service is a donation service you are expecting to pay more for something.
Steam is a retail service you are expecting to pay retail value not donation prices. I just think the price is way to much for what the game offers and the whole way it's being done is foolish. Why its simple when you bought skyrim or anything like that on Pre-order you got it at a discount price from retail price. So to say oh you are paying $50 dollars more than release price just so you can help bug test our game and give us feedback is well frankly asanine.
Now before you go BASHING me for my post please read it all and give me a resonable reply and I will be happy to talk about it with you but don't just post because you think I am whining about the game costing too much. Give me a real reason why I should pay that much for a game that isn't even finished.
