34 replies to this topic

[1ceTr0n]

Yeah yeah, get your noob comments done and over with, I just started beta this week because I just REALIZED that I could actually play the beta for free as I was under the impression I had to buy a founders package to play even if i was invited for closed beta. I know, silly me

ANyway, i've been doing a bunch of forum searching all over and im getting the sense with people talking frequently about how so important it is to be"supportive" of company and the people for PGI and to buy a founders package.

I was hearing this so much and about the "value" of the founders that I can't help but ask, is MechWarrior Online not going retail for people to buy off the shelf?

If thats the case, why the hell not? It would dramatically increase their revenue doing so and if people wanted "bonuses" for paying extra online like an MMO going F2P, let them.

Or did I miss the reasoning for this in the great digital archieves that is the interwebz?

Edited by 1ceTr0n, 30 September 2012 - 11:09 PM.

[MrLexx2k]

It might be at some point in the future, similar to WoT, where you technically buy gold, premium time and a little bonus.

[Bloodshed Romance]

the game has more potential to grow/expand if its FTP... though most of us already shelled out $120 for it..

[Bloody Moon]

PGI couldn't find a publisher who'd support a retail game in the Battletech universe, well atleast that was the rumor about it. So i think that is the main reason (check the Mechwarrior 3015 intro that was from the old game).

After that PGI's choice was to make an online F2P Mechwarrior title, so this is it.

Pure online games can rarely support themself from retail money (an exception is GW for example) so no reason to have a retail version, anyway PGI initiated the founders program which is what counts as "retail" in this case.

Edited by Bloody Moon, 30 September 2012 - 11:44 PM.

[The Basilisk]

At first be careful dude you're technicaly already breaking the NDA even if i belive nobody does give something about it now.
Next thing is the concept of MWO is a mix of kickstarter (founders) and to be free to play.
That means their buisines concept is based on beeing supported by a fan base at first. Later the game will be downloadable and they will sell little goodies gimicks and nice to haves like skins, accessoires for your cockpit and xp boosts or similar buffs to quicken your progress

[Sir Roland MXIII]

Of course the flipside being is they drastically reduce up-front costs by NOT going with retail release. They have to pay to have the boxes designed and made, the manuals written and art produced for them, and the discs have to have art as well as being made at all, etc etc etc.

All of which is major money, and is a frontloaded, hopefully self-correcting bankruptcy that can be difficult to recoup, even if the game sold well. One should keep in mind that games sold by retail cost enough to put on the shelf in the first place that the average game takes several months, if not a year or more, to recover what is essentially a loss before the game even gets to the store.

Going F2P has it's own problems, sure. But one shouldn't think of it as an inferior route to retail, merely a different one.
~Sir Roland

Edited by Sir Roland MXIII, 01 October 2012 - 12:02 AM.

[Lawrence Elsa]

I think the primary goal of making this game Free to Play was to market the fame of Mechwarrior and Battletech among the populous of the gaming world.
sadly, Mechwarrior has been slowly dying since 1995, and has hardly improved since,

• moving from tabletop games that frequently switched companies and died out (such as Mechwarrior Darkage),
  
• to TV shows (the Battletech TV show)
  
• and games that where forgotten and buried by their own fans (like Mechassault).

Mechwarrior 5 was even canceled until a fan group run by WhiteFeatherMoon, Pukenetto, and several dedicated fans developed an expansion for Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries that even sparked a total conversion mod named Mechwarrior Living Legends.

the very fans who loved Battletech and Mechwarrior revived what little hope Tom Wiseman had in the franchise, and moved him to devote his support into making new Mechwarrior games.
the development for Mechwarrior [reboot/5/2025] was most likely moved to a Free to Play online game for the sake of one thing: To make MechWarrior more famous

obscurity has been Battletech and Mechwarrior's greatest enemy for the longest time, and hopefully this project will do everything it can to save my most beloved franchise of all time

[1ceTr0n]

Yeah, I feel blessed being able to play the golden era of PC games from 1993-1999 like Mechwarrior 2 and Half Life at their glory days of apex. Tweens just don't know what they missed out on

[INKRO]

MrLexx2k, on 30 September 2012 - 11:22 PM, said:

It might be at some point in the future, similar to WoT, where you technically buy gold, premium time and a little bonus.

I picked up 5 copies of the boxed WoT retail copies when they were on sale at Newegg a while back for 40 bucks in total, come at me bro.

[Carebear]

They can do it later, hell, maybe they should make an expansion as retail, like 1-2 year down the line.

Edited by Carebear, 01 October 2012 - 01:26 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

Welcome to 2012

Lots of games launch without sitting on a retail shelf. LoL, Dota2, Tribes:Ascend, lots of other FTP titles never sat on a store and have millions of players.

Freemium games are here to stay, and digital storefronts like STEAM re becoming much more important than retail stores.

[Lightcaller]

I think MWO devs deserve props for figuring out how to get a lot of people to shell out $120 for a game that is still in closed beta and will be F2P. I'm sure the store will have plenty of things worth buying - both cosmetic and progress increasing.

With marketing smarts like that MWO will be just fine, if milking the diehard fans a bit too much for my taste. Still - excellent price discrimination tactics.

[Redshift2k5]

Lightcaller, on 01 October 2012 - 06:23 AM, said:

I think MWO devs deserve props for figuring out how to get a lot of people to shell out $120 for a game that is still in closed beta and will be F2P. I'm sure the store will have plenty of things worth buying - both cosmetic and progress increasing.

With marketing smarts like that MWO will be just fine, if milking the diehard fans a bit too much for my taste. Still - excellent price discrimination tactics.

Other games have don this before- many kickstarters have taken your money and promised you exclusive game content, as other ftp games like Tribes and even Planetside 2(among many more) are offering/have offered founder pack type deals

[Hayashi]

A F2P game can go retail. But it would have to include premium benefits inside the package, in addition to the installer, because, well, it's free to play.

Perfect World, World of Tanks and many other Free to Play titles have taken this approach before to reach out to the retail market.

Maybe they can include a Hula Girl too, if it's going to be in a box.

[Havyek]

Maybe a Hula Girl meta game?

Like part of the training range, shoot the targets and make her dance.

[1ceTr0n]

I'm old school, I just really like being able to see my PC games that I spent money on and physicall touch them and then add them to my collection to say later down the road "Ahhh good times with this game..."

[Exilyth]

Retail is probably something for 'later'. Maybe we get a collectors edition as retail. Who knows, the game isn't even in open beta yet...

BDU Havoc, on 01 October 2012 - 09:21 AM, said:

Maybe a Hula Girl meta game?

Like part of the training range, shoot the targets and make her dance.

USB Hula Girl^™ that can either respond to system events (e.g. incoming mail) or hook up to the game and react to your mechs movement, hits, falls, e.t.c....

well, were at do I have to throw the money again?

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

1ceTr0n, on 30 September 2012 - 11:09 PM, said:

Yeah yeah, get your noob comments done and over with, I just started beta this week because I just REALIZED that I could actually play the beta for free as I was under the impression I had to buy a founders package to play even if i was invited for closed beta.

NDA BREACH NDA BREACH!!!

[Hayashi]

Jade Kitsune, on 01 October 2012 - 11:40 AM, said:

NDA BREACH NDA BREACH!!!

http://mwomercs.com/...wo-closed-beta/

[Henchman 24]

INKRO, on 01 October 2012 - 01:08 AM, said:

I picked up 5 copies of the boxed WoT retail copies when they were on sale at Newegg a while back for 40 bucks in total, come at me bro.

WTF? Seriously, what's the point of this? All he did was state the obvious.


Oh and BTW

Jade Kitsune....NDA no longer covers talking about being in the beta(mentioning you are) since the founders got full access. You can save the ceiling mech pic for those actually breaking NDA, of course, you'd have to pay attention to determine this.

For the OP, basically, there was no feasible way to get this title out the door as a retail copy, and unless you've missed the last ten years of Steam, and all it's follow up competition....retail gets hammered by online sales in nearly all aspects, most important of which, is long term revenue streams. This also helps foster the game into the future far longer than relying on donated private servers to be your support structure.

Edited by Henchman 24, 01 October 2012 - 11:55 AM.