355 réponses à ce sujet

[AgentWhale]

Dear Fernando,



Why should I pay for your mistake, bad move, or whatever you want to call it?



I don't have to. I've gone from being someone that wanted to pre-order to someone that will not buy this game until it is the Ultimate Bargain Bin Edition, and maybe not even then.



Thanks for getting me to shoulder the burden!



Please give a high-five to the EA/Bioware accountants/managers/marketing directors responsible for this mess.



Good day!

[Bann Duncan]

Kanten wrote...

StingingVelvet wrote...

They take a cut of each sale and brief developer comments over the years have estimated it at roughly 40%, which is a lot if you ask me.  The Garry's Mod guy confirmed they take 50% of his money. 

Possibly because Garry's Mod is on Valve's engine?

Ditto. It's fairly ridiculous to use an Indie game made using Valve's engine as an example.

[StingingVelvet]

Bann Duncan wrote...

Kanten wrote...

StingingVelvet wrote...

They take a cut of each sale and brief developer comments over the years have estimated it at roughly 40%, which is a lot if you ask me.  The Garry's Mod guy confirmed they take 50% of his money. 

Possibly because Garry's Mod is on Valve's engine?

Ditto. It's fairly ridiculous to use an Indie game made using Valve's engine as an example.

I said 40% seems to be the average and listed the Gary's Mod guy as a high exception, so I don't know what you are refuting.

[HomemComH]

"It's not a conspiracy guys, we're just terrible at our jobs"

[The Masked Rog]

How about they didn't want to sell the SE edition on steam because of what Steam demands, or Steam didn't want to sell the SE at regular price? What's outrageous about this. You aren't entitled to have the game on Steam you know? They could simply skip Steam for this release and nobody would have the right to feel outraged. Their product, their rules. You don't get to decide them, they do.

[Xewaka]

Inarborat wrote...

[...]rpgs this year.[...]Diablo III [...]

I lol'd.

[Planeforger]

The Masked Rog wrote...

How about they didn't want to sell the SE edition on steam because of what Steam demands, or Steam didn't want to sell the SE at regular price? What's outrageous about this. You aren't entitled to have the game on Steam you know? They could simply skip Steam for this release and nobody would have the right to feel outraged. Their product, their rules. You don't get to decide them, they do.

The second option doesn't work, since EA/Bioware determine the pricing of their games. The first option is possible too, but I think there's a more likely explanation.

With or without the SE, Steam is probably going to have a majority of Dragon Age 2's sales. By not giving one of their largest PC markets the $7 DLC, it's safe to assume that EA/Bioware will be making a hell of a lot of extra money from Steam users, who'll end up having to buy the extra character directly from Bioware's store.

I mean, for all intents and purposes, it looks like the timing of the SE was planned to coincide directly with the game being put on Steam's library, so it wasn't an accident or anything. It was a marketing decision, designed to make more money at the expense of their Steam-using fans, nothing more.

Also, before someone retorts with "you don't have to buy it on Steam", us Australians couldn't buy it elsewhere without paying an extra $20.

*edit* And I agree with one of the above posters. I'll now be saving my Dragon Age 2 money for another of the great RPGs this year - there are way to many to choose from as it is.

Modifié par Planeforger, 13 janvier 2011 - 01:35 .

[abbe6100]

The Masked Rog wrote...

How about they didn't want to sell the SE edition on steam because of what Steam demands, or Steam didn't want to sell the SE at regular price? What's outrageous about this. You aren't entitled to have the game on Steam you know? They could simply skip Steam for this release and nobody would have the right to feel outraged. Their product, their rules. You don't get to decide them, they do.

Steam have nothing at all to do with EA/Biowares DLC's, they aren't even handled on the same system.

Whats outrageous about this is the fact that theyve had this promotion for 2 months (or something), and the DAY AFTER it finally came up on Steam.

They weren't honest at all, they could have just said, we will have this promotion for 99% of all stores, except Steam, but here, you can preorder it on Steam anyway if you want it. But they didn't, they completely withheld any information at all of it coming to Steam. So now we feel quite miffed about this because they are so deliberately being biased against Steam. This is not just one of the normal "Buy the game here to get these pre-order incentives!" but a complete block against steam.

http://en.wikipedia...._(broadcasting)

Itslike EA's tactic at the moment is: "Shh! Keep quiet and dont release the games on Steam until after a few months later, maybe we will catch up to them without being a better service!"

This is doubly disappointing for me because for the longest time Ive thought of John Ricietiello as a pretty cool guy that likes games and providing of a good service.

Edit: formatting got all crapped up.

Modifié par abbe6100, 13 janvier 2011 - 01:46 .

[Dune01]

Won't be buying Dragon age 2 until the Ultimate (or GotY) edition comes.Would have bought if there was a sig edition on steam,but to pay 50 euros for standard one? No way.

[Sylvius the Mad]

abbe6100 wrote...

They weren't honest at all, they could have just said, we will have this promotion for 99% of all stores, except Steam, but here, you can preorder it on Steam anyway if you want it.

That would have confused consumers.  One retailer would have had a different product from all the rest.

[Sharuko]

Ossirian wrote...

DA2 Standard Edition before 1/11/11 = $49.99
DA2 Signature Edition before 1/11/11 = $59.99

There was no "Standard" edition before 1/11/11.

[Kronner]

So because BioWare's departement that handles such things (deals etc.) sucks, players will not be able to get DA2:SE on Steam? Way to go, Fernando

I really wish BioWare employed better people in PR, marketing, and whatever departement is in charge of negotiations with Steam, these departements are doing a very poor job.

Modifié par Kronner, 13 janvier 2011 - 06:03 .

[Sharuko]

I love the argument that maybe it was Valve's fault and maybe Steam is charging too much, if that were the case we wouldn't see DA2 on Steam would we?  The day after 1/11/11 no less.

There was an article recently about Steam's dominance in the digital download market. And even Steams competition said something along the lines of "Publishers don't care about customers, but Steam does".

The more I see how and were this market is heading, the more I believe it to be true.

Modifié par Sharuko, 13 janvier 2011 - 06:08 .

[flexxdk]

Believe me when I say how EA works.
They don't give refunds, they mostly sell half-***** games that hardly work, their patches never work and now they also like to exclude fans.

In a nutshell:

Welcome to EA City, where YOU can't say a thing and WE are everything!

Modifié par Whacka, 13 janvier 2011 - 06:06 .

[nabokovfan87]

I posted this twice yesterday and was told to move it here, aparently all discussions with "steam" in them go here....

Anyways, here is the link to the steam thread I created on the topic, and a reply to someone whom had said that wanting the content was dumb.

Steam users feel like they are entirely "left out" of the deal, and essentially got shafted by EA/Bioware. As the saying goes, "The customer is always right" and the "customer" is time and again on steam when it comes to pc games.

That being said, a large amount of people have this idea that Bioware needs to allow users to get the SE for free, quite honestly there is more then likely some behind the scenes money-getting that was made for steams comepetitors to try and drum up some sales. I do not want this thread to become a "give what we are owed", because that isn't the issue, but I ask the following:

Please add the SE on steam, be it 10, 15, 20 dollars more or whatever, but allow the steam users to at least buy the content and not be completely out of the loop when it comes to another playable character and other content that would have been lost.

If the items in the SE are simply DLC beforehand, then fine, we will get it eventually, but things like the Soundtrack I don't envision them as "DLC" for the game.

I look forward to the game, and hope this little issue doesn't prohibit my enjoyment of the franchise.

-nabokovfan87

The reply:

Let me make an example for you. Gran Turismo is the best racing game on ps3, whether it actually is or is not is not the question/point, but lets suppose a situation where Sony is selling it and says, "Everyone but wal-mart can buy it and get this super special car, a custom racing video, and the soundtrack if they order before X."

First off, the people who shop at walmart would be pretty jarateed off and those who only have a walmart around them have no way to get the item (I AM NOT SAYING THAT BECAUSE DA2 WASN'T ON STEAM THAT I HAD NO WAY OF GETTING THE GAME, I DO, AND I COULD HAVE!). That is moreso relevent to the places where d2d, amazon, EA store, and other retailers aren't actually available in specific countries, but steam is.

SO, X date comes around and then there is no way to actually pay for the content if you still wanted it, no way to say "OK, I don't want the free upgrade, but can I please order the collector's edition for 20 dollars more?" and the clerk at walmart says "NOPE!" it was an exclusive, here is the regular edition for 10 dollars more though?!

Don't believe me? http://www.amazon.co....4929927&sr=8-1

[Lycans4ever]

I want to pre-order DA2 from steam (just for extra content) but i'm not really sure i should cause i use a different email on steam. Will that be a problem? I mean when i play Dragon Age 2 it will let me sign in with my EA address, right? (kind of a silly question but i rarely digitaly purchase games). So anyone?

[EvilDonkey]

Hmm, couldn't buy from Impulse or D2D because of my region.



Was really hoping to pre-order it on steam and that is possible now. But no, not the version (SE) I wanted. Ill get two poo items and no soundtrack. Thanks... But no thanks.



So Ill just wait for the DA2 Deluxe GoTY what ever edition with all DLC included to hit steam. Guess that's almost a year from now. And a lot cheaper.

[Rage.Shifter]

DA2 only number 2 for top sellers right now on steam after being released yesterday. Pathetic, it would of been number 1 if they made the special edition available on steam and chosen not to ****** off their fan base that uses steam. I will be holding out as well and not purchasing DA2 in advance. I hope the executive that made this call gets fired over this from loss of revenue.

[Sharuko]

Rage.Shifter wrote...

DA2 only number 2 for top sellers right now on steam after being released yesterday. Pathetic, it would of been number 1 if they made the special edition available on steam and chosen not to ****** off their fan base that uses steam. I will be holding out as well and not purchasing DA2 in advance. I hope the executive that made this call gets fired over this from loss of revenue.

The average consumer does not even know about the SE edition.  They will probably play DA2 and beat the game and be one with it.  No DLC and no extra content.

However, we on the forums and active participants and are power users.  We are influentials, we tell others about games, we write reviews, we rate games and are usually vocal about our gaming.  Starcraft 2 for example is a great game, but it has a 3 rating on Amazon because it pissed of the vocal power gaming community.

The "power" gamer is smaller portion of the overall gaming community, but holds a bigger voice.  Making moves that makes them feel "screwed over" is not a good business plan.

[Sharuko]

EA please take some lessons on how to sell games from Valve:

http://www.techdirt....124433835.shtml

From there, he noted that the reason "piracy" is doing so well is that the "pirates are ahead not just on price, but on service." In fact, he noted that since DRM decreases the service value for customers, it also tends to increase piracy, rather than decrease it.

Then, he showed how that combination of service and smarter pricing allowed the company to run experiments and make a lot more money -- competing quite successfully against piracy. The most stunning example: last weekend, the company ran an experiment with the game Left 4 Dead. It heavily discounted the price, and sales shot up 3,000%. And this wasn't just a case of building off a small base. The sales over the weekend were more than when the game launched.

In fact, it looks like a big part of the problem facing the industry is that they charge way too much for their products. Here are the numbers Newell shared from Valve's experiments with "sale" pricing:
10% off = 35% increase in sales (real dollars, not units shipped)
25% off = 245% increase in sales
50% off = 320% increase in sales
75% off = 1470% increase in sales

Newell then says when they decrease the price by 75%, they are making 15% more than when they were charging at full price

Credit to Revan312 for posting this in another thread.

Modifié par Sharuko, 13 janvier 2011 - 07:08 .

[Pugnate]

I knew this was going to happen. It makes business sense because EA want people to buy off of their digital distribution platform, but it still hurts.



$60 the regular edition on Steam is a terrible deal.



I will just get the retail signature edition, and The Witcher 2 on Steam.

[Rage.Shifter]

Sharuko wrote...

Rage.Shifter wrote...

DA2 only number 2 for top sellers right now on steam after being released yesterday. Pathetic, it would of been number 1 if they made the special edition available on steam and chosen not to ****** off their fan base that uses steam. I will be holding out as well and not purchasing DA2 in advance. I hope the executive that made this call gets fired over this from loss of revenue.

The average consumer does not even know about the SE edition.  They will probably play DA2 and beat the game and be one with it.  No DLC and no extra content.

However, we on the forums and active participants and are power users.  We are influentials, we tell others about games, we write reviews, we rate games and are usually vocal about our gaming.  Starcraft 2 for example is a great game, but it has a 3 rating on Amazon because it pissed of the vocal power gaming community.

The "power" gamer is smaller portion of the overall gaming community, but holds a bigger voice.  Making moves that makes them feel "screwed over" is not a good business plan.

I agree the average user would not know of the special edition, but if I remember correctly when the DA:O was released as well as the special edition they were the top 2 sellers if I am not mistaken. So the fact that they are even unaware of the fact their is a special edition they still lose out on having it available from the increased sales for when they would of have had it.

I could of cared less about the promotional offer and I would of paid a higher price with the special edition to be able to purchase it through steam. I am sure the average user would of not known about this but I am sure many would of still purchased the special edition if it were available.

With the special edition limited to a minority of the online distribution services (I said it, minority because I am sure all of them combined do not equal the selling power of steam)I do not appreciate as well being pushed towards other digital downloading services I frankly do not care for.

For all of those users that don't care about what digital service they obtain the product from. Are most likely oblivious to the advantages of having products on steam, I have achievements, I can communicate with my friends that are playing the game in game to talk about quests, automatic updating, etc. So why would I purchase the product from an inferior service, especially from the EA store which I have had nothing with problems with.

I am really hoping someone gets fired, what a bad marketing/PR call. I do hope that everyone makes a stand here and now and boycott DA2 so there is a visible impact on what they did wrong so they won't make the same mistake. I would hate to see the same thing happen for ME3.

[Ahglock]

Not that I matter, but they lost my money over this. I may get is when it costs $20 for the GOTY edition or whatever, maybe next Christmas when steam has there awesome sales. But this kind of deal puts a bad taste in my mouth and I may never get DA2 due to this.