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To all of you who want something for nothing


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It is not surprising that we have people complaining about the $10 charge for a MAJOR upgrade to CMBN. Also not surprising that it amounts to people wanting something for nothing. Let's look at the facts...

1. We offer CMBN v1.0 for those who want it. When you make a purchase you are buying only what is included, not what is not included. Crazy concept, I know, but it's a pretty standard transaction for the last few thousand years. As such, people can either buy our products BASED ON WHAT THEY ACTUALLY HAVE or not. There is no third option.

2. No game is ever without room for game experience improvements, new features, new content, etc. But since the initial purchase transaction is based on the features included, not those imagined for the future, there can be no expectations of future improvements beyond whatever the software developer promises. We promise technical fixes to existing features and occasionally some small improvements. That's all you get for your purchase price because that's all we're offering.

3. Since new features don't magically appear out of thin air, we have to instead find people to make this stuff. Now get ready for a surprise... those people actually... stay with me now... want to get paid. Money! Yeah, WTF is up with that? Crazy stuff, but trust me it's true. If you can follow that logic so far, then maybe you can see how an Upgrade like this actually costs us a significant amount of money. Where does that money come from? You, of course. One way or another you, the customer, must pay for this work or there will be no Battlefront at all. If you're still confused, might I suggest some schooling in basic economics?

4. The traditional game developer approach is to not offer Upgrades. Instead, when they add some new stuff they call it something different. Battlefield 2 players out there... how much did your upgrade to Battlefield 3 cost you?

OK, so where does that put you, the person complaining about the $10 upgrade? In a world of make-believe world, unreasonable expectations based on absolutely no concept of our costs or industry standards. You therefore have some options going forward:

1. Do no buy the Upgrades. They are for people who want new features not originally part of their purchase.

2. Buy the Upgrade and be thankful we offer it at all. Most game developers do not offer an extension of their existing product, but instead charge full price for a new experience.

3. Don't buy the game at all until you feel it is "finished". At some point we will stop making CMx2 games, and at that point you can pick it up for one price and have ALL the features everybody else paid for along the way. Of course they will have been playing for many years and you will have to instead wait many years. But that is your choice.

4. Get so disgusted with us you stop buying our stuff entirely and instead buy someone else's highly realistic, 3D tactical combat games. Or just don't buy wargames at all. Your choice.

The truth of the matter is we probably spent more making the Normandy 2.0 Upgrade than we will receive in revenues from it at $10 a unit. Does anybody think it's a good idea for us to lose money on what we produce? I mean, really... how long do you think we'll continue supporting a small, rather whiney niche market AND lose money doing it?

The market will decide if this is a good strategy or not. The alternative is to either not make the Upgrades at all (i.e. you will NEVER see an improvement to the games you buy) or we will simply charge everybody $100 per base game and offer 3 or 4 Upgrades at no extra cost. But under no circumstances will we go out of business trying to satisfy people who obviously take great joy in being unreasonable.

Bottom line here is if you don't value the features we've provided for $10 then don't buy it.

Steve

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I was going to come here today anyway. But man, I'm so busy with stuff these days. More on that sometime soonish :D

Forgot to mention sone things. We've stated this explicitly before, but now is a good time to post a reminder.

1. When we release an Upgrade the pervious version gets a $10 discount going forward. If you go to the store right now you'll see CMBN costs $10 less today than it did yesterday.

2. As soon as we can we'll get a new version, which includes the Upgrade, on our store for the same price as it was before the Upgrade.

3. Bug fixes and gameplay fixes to existing features will continue to be FREE as they always have been. We might even include minor new features, but we promise none.

Steve

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Steve,

Will you please comment on the pricing structure and what not related to the upcoming Market Garden module and the 2.0 Upgrade?

Also, will there be a Market Garden/Commonwealth bundle?

I think the price of the 2.0 upgrade is totally reasonable, and may I suggest that you raise the price to $20.

Thanks for the hard work.

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"...we will simply charge everybody $100 per base game and offer 3 or 4 Upgrades at no extra cost."

+2 to that. You get more money upfront and save time and energy from not having to deal with online orders and CC fees etc that add up at later dates. And more satisfied happy customers who have the illusion of getting upgrades for free. :)

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Thanks!

Market Garden will require Version 2.0. We are planning on offering a bundle with the Upgrade for $5 off. Considering the Upgrade only costs $10, that's as good as we can make it.

No doubt there will be a bundle with Market Garden/Commonwealth. Usually we bundle these with the Base Game, but we are considering bundling the Modules together on their own.

As a side note for conspiracy theorists... we did not purposefully set out to make Arnhem require Upgrade 2.0. In fact, our original intention was to make it available for both v1.0 and v2.0 customers. HOWEVER... once we made the changes for Upgrade 2.0 we realized that was simply impossible to do. Arnhem requires specific features introduced into Upgrade 2.0, many of which are not evident to the end user.

Trying to maintain two code bases going backwards, with customized features on/off depending on the version, is impractical for us. In the unlikely event we ever find ourselves with a Module which is effortless backwards compatible, we will market it as such to older version customers. That's because we do not see Modules or Packs as a way to increase Upgrade sales.

Steve

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Reminds me of people who bought a new car in 2009 then the 2012 model year comes with a built-in phone. Did you angrily march into the dealership and demand they give you a free phone upgrade because you deserve one? If the dealership is nice they might be able to install the phone upgrade into your old car. But they certainly ain't gonna do it for free.

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My only concern was to have a DVD as a safety. Someone mentioned that the download is not copyprotected so one can burn it onto a DVD. Is that correct? And there is no printed manual or any other reason to get the disk from BF then?

And thank you for all your xnt work...

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My only concern was to have a DVD as a safety. Someone mentioned that the download is not copyprotected so one can burn it onto a DVD. Is that correct? And there is no printed manual or any other reason to get the disk from BF then?

And thank you for all your xnt work...

It's just a file. I can't really see how you could be prevented from burning it to disk.

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Thanks!

Market Garden will require Version 2.0. We are planning on offering a bundle with the Upgrade for $5 off. Considering the Upgrade only costs $10, that's as good as we can make it.

No doubt there will be a bundle with Market Garden/Commonwealth. Usually we bundle these with the Base Game, but we are considering bundling the Modules together on their own.

As a side note for conspiracy theorists... we did not purposefully set out to make Arnhem require Upgrade 2.0. In fact, our original intention was to make it available for both v1.0 and v2.0 customers. HOWEVER... once we made the changes for Upgrade 2.0 we realized that was simply impossible to do. Arnhem requires specific features introduced into Upgrade 2.0, many of which are not evident to the end user.

Trying to maintain two code bases going backwards, with customized features on/off depending on the version, is impractical for us. In the unlikely event we ever find ourselves with a Module which is effortless backwards compatible, we will market it as such to older version customers. That's because we do not see Modules or Packs as a way to increase Upgrade sales.

Steve

Dont worry about the moaners. It is what works for battlefront that enables them to keep pumping this stuff out I am concerned about. I have so much crap sitting on my hardrive that I paid just as much for and dont get an ounce of play out of compared to the CM stuff. The single most important thing is not the pathetic whining about 10 bucks but that you stay in business and keep giving us the games.

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I'm more than willing to pay more for the upgrades if that is necessary to keep upgrades as an option. As noted, it is exceptional that an upgrade is being offered at all, much less for the pittance required.

And Steve, thanks for stopping by :) Hopefully your new announcement comes sooner rather than later.

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Good to hear the other side so we can actually talk constructively about perceptions and reputation.

For instance:

The truth of the matter is we probably spent more making the Normandy 2.0 Upgrade than we will receive in revenues from it at $10 a unit.

I don't doubt the truth of that but the other way to put it is how many CMBN's would you sell if it were not updated to V2.0? Not very many. So the decision to upgrade CMBN means BF have a highly saleable product rather than a lame duck and can recover the previous investment in CMBN v1.0.

Looked at it that way means BF took a rational decision to maximise previous work rather than an ungracious:

2. Buy the Upgrade and be thankful we offer it at all. Most game developers do not offer an extension of their existing product, but instead charge full price for a new experience.

Most game developers I suspect do not bring out the same game within months of the original utilising pretty much all the same theatre rules and scale etc etc. and if they did charging full whack might raise some hackles.

I did buy the upgrade a couple of days ago. I do try to keep you in business despite the opinions that seem to be held on pesky customers and the need to communicate.

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Good to hear the other side so we can actually talk constructively about perceptions and reputation.

For instance:

I don't doubt the truth of that but the other way to put it is how many CMBN's would you sell if it were not updated to V2.0? Not very many. So the decision to upgrade CMBN means BF have a highly saleable product rather than a lame duck and can recover the previous investment in CMBN v1.0.

Looked at it that way means BF took a rational decision to maximise previous work rather than an ungracious:

Most game developers I suspect do not bring out the same game within months of the original utilising pretty much all the same theatre rules and scale etc etc. and if they did charging full whack might raise some hackles.

I did buy the upgrade a couple of days ago. I do try to keep you in business despite the opinions that seem to be held on pesky customers and the need to communicate.

In what world was CMBN 1.0 a lame duck. ? You are arguing that the upgrade is not worth the 10 bucks and then saying it makes it a totally different "saleable" game. Seriously you need to look at just how lame your argument is and stop wanting to keep the box the cake you just ate came in as well.

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Most game developers I suspect do not bring out the same game within months of the original utilising pretty much all the same theatre rules and scale etc etc. and if they did charging full whack might raise some hackles.

John Tiller has been doing exactly that for the last 15 years and 60+ games. Panther Games have been doing that 10 years and four games.

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Good to hear the other side so we can actually talk constructively about perceptions and reputation.

For instance:

I don't doubt the truth of that but the other way to put it is how many CMBN's would you sell if it were not updated to V2.0? Not very many. So the decision to upgrade CMBN means BF have a highly saleable product rather than a lame duck and can recover the previous investment in CMBN v1.0.

How the hell do you make this stuff up? You have no idea what sales are and the rest of us were gonna buy MG with or without the upgrade - period.

Looked at it that way means BF took a rational decision to maximise previous work rather than an ungracious:

Most game developers I suspect do not bring out the same game within months of the original utilising pretty much all the same theatre rules and scale etc etc. and if they did charging full whack might raise some hackles.

I did buy the upgrade a couple of days ago. I do try to keep you in business despite the opinions that seem to be held on pesky customers and the need to communicate.

Let me get this straight, you bought an upgrade for a game you JUST said you don't play. Dude you have some serious issues.

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