Ah. Yeah that is both sad and hilarious. Reminds me of a WKUK skit

Pretty low-brow so probably NSFW; relevant part is in the last 25 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbeE0iI2LZg

Haha, way to milk the fans for all they are worth.

The lengths some people will go to to avoid waiting...

The only time I buy an unfinished product is when I get a pre-release version of a digital computer sciences book and that tends to be because:

1) I need to learn the stuff right now

2) The book is discounted at 50%

I get the Kickstarter sentiment but it's past that. I get that some people actually like early access and would be willing to pay for it too. Do what you want. It's not something that interests me or many other people though it seems. To use another car analogy, it seems to me like going to a factory and wanting to test drive cars that are put together enough to be able to drive around a track but are nowhere near finished products yet. I wouldn't want to do that unless I really want to know everything I can about those cars. Some people might love to have the chance to do that. They would likely be curious car designers or master mechanics wanting to keep up on the latest though. If they did it because they wanted to give feedback too, well, people actually get paid to do that. Or maybe some people just want something to brag about. I would then call them hipsters.

Trying to think from the developer's side, I can actually understand the pricing a little bit in one scenario. It reminds me of a sign a mechanic shop that I frequent has on its wall. It goes something like this, "We charge $40 an hour. $45 an hour if you watch. $55 an hour if you help." I understood this sign immediately. It interrupts the flow and production of their work when people do those things (I can attest to that with my own experience). Usually people don't know what they're doing and you have to babysit them or go back and redo what they did. If a person wants to help and is any good, that shop would just hire you instead. People might think that they are doing work and putting in labor so they should get a cheaper price, but they're really just buggering it up. It's hard to tell them to stop though when they're willing to help.

Now in this game's case, people aren't going to be changing the game code or anything but I'd imagine that receiving a lot of tickets from people that don't know how to test or how to communicate in a way so the developers can deduce the problem would be disruptive. Let's say it takes 2 minutes to read a ticket and there are 1000 useless tickets. That's 33 wasted hours.

I can imagine developers not really wanting to have early access for everyone especially if most people would be a hindrance instead of a help, but if people want to pay for it, why not. If some people could be a help instead of a hindrance, I think they should get a discount, not pay more. I can see why developers would use Steam with its DRM to control access to an unfinished product and to have a way to still give people access to alpha and beta versions.

The strange thing to me is that in the case of the shop with the sign, it's meant to be a joke. They don't think people would actually want to take them up on the offer.

Kyle Katarn actually has his own face on.

nice. =)

Haha, I feel kind of dumb but I didn't think I'd be posting here when I made this account. Might as well have the avatar. . Maybe I should only post Katarn quotes too. He'd force shove Chuck Norris into the nearest star.

Don't you worry.. I'm sith but what ever.. Like I wouldn't remember ps1 dark forces game it infact hast best thing ever.. Stuff in PC it is better nowadays. =)

Yes, you are right. If they fail do deliver and file for bankruptcy I won't get my money back. But that's not a unique trait to Kickstarter, that's how every company works, every investment. So legally and factually they are obliged to give me my money back or deliver what was promised. If they fail I'd make my claim against the bankruptcy assets.
You could as well say when a meteor hits the earth I won't get my money back. But that's a worst case scenario, not normal expected circumstances. Of course there is a certain risk, but that's not part of legal contract.

So I assume based on this price that they're going to be charging around €50/$60 for the game upon release then?

I believe they're in for a very rude awakening if they are...

I don't know about that... Alpha access is on bestselling list right now on steam.

Although I am surprised as well, that they are going to demand full price for a game funded with third party capital. It's not like they need to ask 50 euros to get even - they already are even.

I was expecting something around 20 EUR, but hey, it's their business.

If you watch Steam's top sellers list, you'll realise after a while that it actually has very little bearing when you see that the best seller is more often than not a game that is over a year old and happens to be heavily reduced for the weekend or for the day. Daily/weekend sales - at least those that haven't been in indie bundles or haven't regularly been on sale - tend to eclipse all else on Steam during their sale periods.

Also, it was confirmed somewhere (although it escapes me where) that the top sellers are actually based on the revenue, not the units sold, making it all the more useless for its intended purpose.

They're selling the Combat Edition, which to my understanding is still a special edition, for $40.

Here's the confirmation: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24482701&postcount=14

Steam would not let them put up a pre-order 6 months ahead of the planned release.

https://store.uberent.com/Store/PreOrder?titleId=4
You can pre-order the Combat Edition for $40 on Uber's store and you even get the digital goodies minus the artbook. You don't get into the alpha or beta but you get the exclusive Theta Commander and the soundtrack. You can transfer the key to Steam which effectively gives you a Steam pre-order right now.

The Uber store has no regional pricing like Steam either which is very good for us EU guys, probably even a better deal for Australia. $40 is like €30. I find it hard to complain about getting a great RTS game + goodies for €30.

ahh, yeah I figured it would have been some stupid backwards steam rule, I like steam and all, but sometimes... yeah. They can thank Valve for a goodly portion of the hate they're getting right now.

Bohemia did it right. Arma 3 Alpha access is the cheapest, with the price increasing for Beta access and full retail. it rewards early adopters and at the same time reflects the unfinished nature of the product you're buying.

Planetary Annihilation pricing is ridiculous. even the finished game won't be worth full retail price to me considering it doesn't even have a proper singleplayer mode.