Horizons price discussion

[Commander Debic]

Sry Frontier, iam a little bit dissapointed over the pricings for the "Addons" "Expansions" "DLC" what ever you want to call it.

Back in the days i pre-ordered Elite for 40€ now i have to buy this addon for an much higher price then the core game? Yeah it is nice that you give us a small price deduction, but it still cost 9,99€ more then the core game!?

Addtionally, is this addon standalone? So if a new player buys just Horizon, is he able to play it? Or is the purchase of the normal elite still required? I mean that are +80€ for a starting player. Not good if you want a big playerbase Lets not forget that feature extensions will divide the playerbase!

Okay lets see. DCS 40US$ 1 airplane. Eve, free expansions but single month at a time nearly £10 every month that is £120 per year every year.
World of Warcraft similar to Eve plus you pay for all expansions and the initial game after level 20 if you want to maintain progression, and £40 if you want to start your character at level 90. The Witcher 3, great game but you buy all downloadable content and it is single player only. I could go on but what is the point.
If you are cribbing about half the cost of a single night out, with meal, which you promptly empty away down the toilet within hours, or a full tank of petrol in the average family car so you can have a day out and pay for stuff when you get there, then perhaps you need a reality check about how much entertainment you are getting from ED in comparison to other games and activities.

If they don't charge in some way there will be no more ED as they need to finance the game somehow. Oh and I don't have a life time pass, but I did put cash down to help get the game going. I won't buy the expansion pass as I do not know if I will be playing the game for another full year before the next Expansion after PL comes out. I did buy the beta version of Horizons today so I can get some early time in and do some bug testing. Finally I think its very good value for money for the hourly rate of entertainment, as I have been playing for over a year.

 

[Surly_Badger]

World of Warcraft's $15/month. So far Elite has factored out to $5/month. So the expansion is going to be a bit more, but if you think of it as annualized cost (basically we got a year of ED this year for the price of the first release) then it's going to be, what, $6/month? $7/month? Screw me sideways, that's a lot of money!!! Urrr, actually, no it isn't.

If you compare ED to other A list games, it's ridiculously inexpensive. If you want something to hammer FD over, you can hammer them for being so stupid that they charge so little. Millions of people are still comfortably paying $100+/yr for World of Warcraft or $60 for a one-shot wonder. It's what the market will bear, people!

 

[glynie]

If I offered you a chance to pay £40 now to play GTA6 (launching tomorrow) and then pay £30 for the expansion due in 12 months (i.e £70 in total over 12 months) or you could pay £40 in 12 months time and not play any GTA6 until the expansion came out in 12 months when you can play both.
:
Which would you go for?
:
Pay more but get the utility of playing GTA5 for the next 12 months
:
hold your excitement in check and save yourself £30?
:
Is playing GTA6 for a year worth £30 to you?

Personally I'd grab the final version after a year for £40. As for Elite, I was simply expecting the expansions to be proportionally cheaper. For me, the first expansion alone is an additional ~85% of the original cost.

 

[andrak]

you need to buy the core game to get horizons to work.

I sure as hell hope that people don't have to shell out for Horizons plus original Elite Dangerous to play the game.

I bought the core game. Unfortunately I'm still waiting for the core game to show up, instead of gimmicks like CQC and Powerplay.

 

[beelbeebub]

Personally I'd grab the final version after a year for £40. As for Elite, I was simply expecting the expansions to be proportionally cheaper.

That's a personal choice, like me not bothering to see the latest Avengers film and waiting a year or so for it to turn up on Netflix.
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My point is that the £30 "premium" existing users pay over newcomers is for the access to the game from launch (or whenever they bought the game) until the launch of Horizons.
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Which doesn't seem terrible.
:
The price of the expansion (£40 to £50) is another matter. Personally it doesn't seem out of wack from other games (D3's Reaper of Souls expansion was about £30). Whether it offers value for any individual is a variable issue, fr the space mad ED fan who loves the game and can't wait fir PLs, it's probably a bargain. For someone else, maybe not.

 

[Noir_CZ]

World of Warcraft's $15/month. So far Elite has factored out to $5/month. So the expansion is going to be a bit more, but if you think of it as annualized cost (basically we got a year of ED this year for the price of the first release) then it's going to be, what, $6/month? $7/month? Screw me sideways, that's a lot of money!!! Urrr, actually, no it isn't.

If you compare ED to other A list games, it's ridiculously inexpensive. If you want something to hammer FD over, you can hammer them for being so stupid that they charge so little. Millions of people are still comfortably paying $100+/yr for World of Warcraft or $60 for a one-shot wonder. It's what the market will bear, people!

Yeaaah and in comparision of the prices I dont think WoW or EVE are using the infrastructure of players to partially run the game, do they? No, they dont use P2P, this game does. Unless ED uses so massive background simulation that needs similar server support like WoW or EVE.

 

[glynie]

That's a personal choice, like me not bothering to see the latest Avengers film and waiting a year or so for it to turn up on Netflix.
.
My point is that the £30 "premium" existing users pay over newcomers is for the access to the game from launch (or whenever they bought the game) until the launch of Horizons.
.
Which doesn't seem terrible.
:
The price of the expansion (£40 to £50) is another matter. Personally it doesn't seem out of wack from other games (D3's Reaper of Souls expansion was about £30). Whether it offers value for any individual is a variable issue, fr the space mad ED fan who loves the game and can't wait fir PLs, it's probably a bargain. For someone else, maybe not.

Yeah you raise a valid argument but with a couple small issues: Elite was never marketed as a subscription based game. Usually when people buy a game, they have it for life - and I believe the vast majority of gamers only purchase games which offer that sales model. So it was reasonable to expect a significant reduction in price for the future expansions (partly because it's what I'm used to but) because otherwise, it's like having a subscription based model anyway. Players whom currently own the game have to pay (almost) full price again, meaning that they're literally just paying for the privilege of playing over a particular time frame. That's exactly what a subscription based payment model asks of you and I never would've agreed to buying the game if I'd known that. I guess I was a little naive if anything.

Of course it's not a massive problem - it's not ruined my life or anything - actually I don't even care that much as I rarely have the time to play...and of course, my arguments only stand on the assumption that everyone wants to play with the expansions (which to be fair I think is true right? Who wants to play without them?), but I think what I'm saying about the price being disproportional is valid.

 

[Commander Debic]

Yeaaah and in comparision of the prices I dont think WoW or EVE are using the infrastructure of players to partially run the game, do they? No, they dont use P2P, this game does. Unless ED uses so massive background simulation that needs similar server support like WoW or EVE.

And what the devil is your point. By not needing massive server farms they have effectively made it possible to make this game as cheap per year as it is. Oh and don't get me going on Eve's totally unrealistic time dilation battles with thousands of ships battling each other on their over populated servers. Or Blizzard closing down server after server as their player base sinks, breaking up guilds and friend groups without a single apology.

 

[Zerosum]

Trip said it.

With all the negativity I've seen on the boards lately, I'm surprised by the amount of Rainbows and prancing unicorns riding bacon sleds that I'm seeing.I love this game, I do. However, sadly, these days on elite consist of largely ferrying merits for cash to feed my anaconda. There is no indication of issues of which people have been complaining about in the existing game will get fixed, and you pre rendered 60ish seconds of landing on a rock and a dune buggy and bananas turn to granite. The expansion cost is steep, especially for those who have the base game already. a 15$ loyalty discount is nice but hardly covers half the cost of the base game right now on the store page.

People blast on Star Citizen too but if you are not a ship junkie, you can get everything Elite has + expansion (minus the 1:1 RNG galaxy) for about the same as the base game. Then again, SC may never come out. I'm thinking it will.

I'd like to throw down today to support development as I believe this game has a real solid skeleton to build on, but as of yet I don't see a whole lot of meat added for the cost of the food that has been presented so far.

Flame on. I love you.

 

[Monk]

Personally I'd grab the final version after a year for £40. As for Elite, I was simply expecting the expansions to be proportionally cheaper. For me, the first expansion alone is an additional ~85% of the original cost.

That was my feeling as well...perhaps I'm just getting older, but when I hear expansions I think of games like the Elder Scrolls series, where expansions were major additions to the base game but would cost like half the original retail of the full game.

I'm not up to hip kids and their seasons, subs and whatever else. I'm much more used to, you tell me what it will be, I will give you money, you give me what you said it would be.

Perhaps this is a new paradigm in gaming that I'm just not used to...idk...maybe I'm still trying to just make myself feel better for dropping 200 more dollars on this game.

Say what you will about value and hours played....I've put a a few thousand hours between Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim and all those together come out to just a little more than I've spent on ED so far. I'm not annoyed, just adjusting.

 

[B4DD4WG]

So, let me get this straight...FD/ED wants me to spend as much on the ability to land on a planet, as the original game cost me? You guys have GOT to be kidding...lmao I wouldn't mind giving 20-30$ for it, but I'll be a fool to pay a full game price for a DLC..I will quit playing all together..Just sell my account...I will not be held ransome to play your game...

Planetary landings should be free..

You want to charge for "special ground missions"?,,,fine..but to charge 50-60$ for this? Not from me!

It may be a little different if you actually "built" the worlds and . But, it's all Pro'Gen..No work or effort into it..And, you think its worth gold prices?

You guys may want to reconsider your marketing...

EDIT: So you guys gonna charge another 60 for the ability to walk around my ship or station next?..
By the time it said and done, someone would have 300+$ into a Pro-Gen game...I guess some will...

 

[EUS]

Holy crap, it's not often I agree with Monk's posts.

 

[Commander Debic]

Trip said it.

With all the negativity I've seen on the boards lately, I'm surprised by the amount of Rainbows and prancing unicorns riding bacon sleds that I'm seeing.I love this game, I do. However, sadly, these days on elite consist of largely ferrying merits for cash to feed my anaconda. There is no indication of issues of which people have been complaining about in the existing game will get fixed, and you pre rendered 60ish seconds of landing on a rock and a dune buggy and bananas turn to granite. The expansion cost is steep, especially for those who have the base game already. a 15$ loyalty discount is nice but hardly covers half the cost of the base game right now on the store page.

People blast on Star Citizen too but if you are not a ship junkie, you can get everything Elite has + expansion (minus the 1:1 RNG galaxy) for about the same as the base game. Then again, SC may never come out. I'm thinking it will.

I'd like to throw down today to support development as I believe this game has a real solid skeleton to build on, but as of yet I don't see a whole lot of meat added for the cost of the food that has been presented so far.

Flame on. I love you.

Sorry but MB made it clear that development of the base game will continue separate from Horizons. So I guess eventually bugs will be ironed out more and more until it is running smooth. Although if you are dead set against investing deeper then possibly after 1.4 and possibly a 1.5 more ships update, what we have at present with cqc also, may be the only content updates that the base game will have. They may improve PP and missions somewhat and smooth out the engine simulation but future content will be added through expansions as was always the way it was to be financed and grown.

So, let me get this straight...FD/ED wants me to spend as much on the ability to land on a planet, as the original game cost me? You guys have GOT to be kidding...lmao I wouldn't mind giving 20-30$ for it, but I'll be a fool to pay a full game price for a DLC..I will quit playing all together..Just sell my account...I will not be held ransome to play your game...

Planetary landings should be free..

You want to charge for "special ground missions"?,,,fine..but to charge 50-60$ for this? Not from me!

It may be a little different if you actually "built" the worlds and . But, it's all Pro'Gen..No work or effort into it..And, you think its worth gold prices?

You guys may want to reconsider your marketing...

EDIT: So you guys gonna charge another 60 for the ability to walk around my ship or station next?..
By the time it said and done, someone would have 300+$ into a Pro-Gen game...I guess some will...

Selling your account maybe difficult and if discovered after the fact would result in the buyer losing the account. It is far more than landing on planets. There will be exploring the planet, finding wrecks and gathering salvage, and mining it. Defending bases against enemies. Crafting and gathering rare items. Later Horizons updates will include habitable planets the horizons expansion should mean so much more than just land on a planet. Did you even watch the twitch interview with DB and Sando today?

 

[Monk]

Holy crap, it's not often I agree with Monk's posts.

All things are possible in the big wide Universe

 

[KING5TON]

Remember that Elite Dangerous: Horizons isn't a single expansion, it is a season of expansions - similar to the season of features and content we've done so far. There are new features and content beyond the initial release of Elite Dangerous: Horizons.

Michael

Releasing something in development over a year instead of releasing a complete expansion is not something we should be happy about.

 

[glynie]

That was my feeling as well...perhaps I'm just getting older, but when I hear expansions I think of games like the Elder Scrolls series, where expansions were major additions to the base game but would cost like half the original retail of the full game.

I'm not up to hip kids and their seasons, subs and whatever else. I'm much more used to, you tell me what it will be, I will give you money, you give me what you said it would be.

Perhaps this is a new paradigm in gaming that I'm just not used to...idk...maybe I'm still trying to just make myself feel better for dropping 200 more dollars on this game.

Say what you will about value and hours played....I've put a a few thousand hours between Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim and all those together come out to just a little more than I've spent on ED so far. I'm not annoyed, just adjusting.

No it's not just you, I'm with you buddy.

So, let me get this straight...FD/ED wants me to spend as much on the ability to land on a planet, as the original game cost me? You guys have GOT to be kidding...lmao I wouldn't mind giving 20-30$ for it, but I'll be a fool to pay a full game price for a DLC..I will quit playing all together..Just sell my account...I will not be to play your game...

Planetary landings should be free..

You want to charge for "special ground missions"?,,,fine..but to charge 50-60$ for this? Not from me!

It may be a little different if you actually "built" the worlds and . But, it's all Pro'Gen..No work or effort into it..And, you think its worth gold prices?

You guys may want to reconsider your marketing...

See? This is the kind of feeling it generates in people. I know how you feel.

The most frustrating part of it all is that my friends don't want to play Elite Dangerous because of the current lack of features, and dare I say, possibly the price? Not even my brother purchased it, which is unfortunate as he's the person whom got me into the Elite series in the first place - and without them, it's just empty.

 

[beelbeebub]

No it's not just you, I'm with you buddy.


See? This is the kind of feeling it generates in people. I know how you feel.

The most frustrating part of it all is that my friends don't want to play Elite Dangerous because of the current lack of features, and dare I say, possibly the price? Not even my brother purchased it, which is unfortunate as he's the person whom got me into the Elite series in the first place - and without them, it's just empty.

I would say that this method is sort of a subscription, in that to stay at the cutting edge you have to spend about £40 a year, much like you do with a games PC.
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That being said, unlike a true subscription, if you "get off" the escalator, you can still play at the level you got off at. So if you don't update to horizons, you can still play ED: Vanilla, you just won't be able to land or chase someone onto a planet surface.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

But, it's all Pro'Gen..No work or effort into it...

LOL. I guess the code just wrote itself right?

 

[Zerosum]

I''m thinking whatever support for base game from here on out to provide a sort of advertisement through good faith kind of setup, then cease altogether later. "Look we still support our base game, now buy our full priced expansions for even more features and support". We shall see how those resources, of course, are allocated. Almost a year since 1.0 and we got a powerplay update , a cqc for the xbox'ers and a few ship variations and a handful of new ships. Any updates after release will be database tweaks and ship variations.

Expansions are expansions though, built off the base game as a add-on. I'm not dead set against upgrading. I'll be there sooner than later but hell, make me come sooner, FD.

 

[Monk]

LOL. I guess the code just wrote itself right?

Shhh...it doesn't like when you talk about it