Posted October 03, 2012
EDIT: Topic title spelling fail on my part. I apologize.
So Company of Heroes 2 is up for pre-order on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/55300/?snr=1_7_suggest__13
What's interesting about the pre-order is that they have tiers of rewards based on how many pre-orders sell, along with a graph showing how far along we all are to the rewards. The rewards are as follows (for those who do not wish to click the link):
BASE (Available to all pre-orders, regardless of sales numbers): Beta Access, 2 in-game tank skins
1st Tier: All above rewards, plus TF2 cap and badge items
2nd Tier: All above rewards, plus free game Dawn of War II: Retribution
3rd Tier: All above rewards, plus in game XP boost/micro-transaction currency/commander tier
Now I manage to walk away with two conclusions here. First, the second tier reward is clearly the best, as you get a free game, and that alone would be enough reason to pre-order for me if I was even remotely on the fence about this (I LOVE COH, and have already pre-ordered regardless). I do wonder, however, if many people are holding back from pre-ordering the game until this tier is unlocked, creating a potentially slow ladder climb for the numbers and creating a situation where the game might possibly not reach tier 2 because many people wouldn't be interested until it's reached. My second thought is that this Kickstarter-like reward ladder is probably going to start being employed a lot more if this thing ends up reaching the top tier. Besides Dawn of War, these really are some shitty rewards (not to mention they hint at a micro-transaction and XP system for multi-player, which is extremely disheartening, but that's a topic for another thread) and I think that Relic are counting on the itch to fill the bar for pre-orders more than anything else. It's an interesting move that, if successful, will almost certainly be employed again in the future. I think something should be done if these companies want to keep pre-orders going, because frankly there really is no need to pre-order (besides bonuses) with a digital market. There's no need to hold goods, no need to wait, no need for anything that a pre-order might have satisfied in the past with a physical copy. I think this system is Relic's attempt to combat that idea. What are your thoughts?
So Company of Heroes 2 is up for pre-order on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/55300/?snr=1_7_suggest__13
What's interesting about the pre-order is that they have tiers of rewards based on how many pre-orders sell, along with a graph showing how far along we all are to the rewards. The rewards are as follows (for those who do not wish to click the link):
BASE (Available to all pre-orders, regardless of sales numbers): Beta Access, 2 in-game tank skins
1st Tier: All above rewards, plus TF2 cap and badge items
2nd Tier: All above rewards, plus free game Dawn of War II: Retribution
3rd Tier: All above rewards, plus in game XP boost/micro-transaction currency/commander tier
Now I manage to walk away with two conclusions here. First, the second tier reward is clearly the best, as you get a free game, and that alone would be enough reason to pre-order for me if I was even remotely on the fence about this (I LOVE COH, and have already pre-ordered regardless). I do wonder, however, if many people are holding back from pre-ordering the game until this tier is unlocked, creating a potentially slow ladder climb for the numbers and creating a situation where the game might possibly not reach tier 2 because many people wouldn't be interested until it's reached. My second thought is that this Kickstarter-like reward ladder is probably going to start being employed a lot more if this thing ends up reaching the top tier. Besides Dawn of War, these really are some shitty rewards (not to mention they hint at a micro-transaction and XP system for multi-player, which is extremely disheartening, but that's a topic for another thread) and I think that Relic are counting on the itch to fill the bar for pre-orders more than anything else. It's an interesting move that, if successful, will almost certainly be employed again in the future. I think something should be done if these companies want to keep pre-orders going, because frankly there really is no need to pre-order (besides bonuses) with a digital market. There's no need to hold goods, no need to wait, no need for anything that a pre-order might have satisfied in the past with a physical copy. I think this system is Relic's attempt to combat that idea. What are your thoughts?
Post edited October 03, 2012 by EC-
