Horizons price discussion

[Soliluna]

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 I am with you also and I'm not that old. It is tiring to see people used as pinata's, I want to see more of this expansion so that I can evaluate whether or not the content being added is worth the price of the base game again. Was the same amount of work put in? The same hours? What determines that the cost should be the same as the original game.

I am interested in finding that out, but ultimately what makes or breaks my purchase is the continued development of VR. VR was the kicker for me to actually purchase the game in it's unfinished state, elsewise I would have waited a few years for the content to mature.

 

[B4DD4WG]

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?

Expansion implies that it is expanding on a finished product. Since when is ED finished? You you really feel this ground stuff will be worth a full game price, don't let me stand in your way. But, Im not paying that for ED's version of "space engineers".....

 

[jabberwalkie]

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

Skynet is listening.

 

[askavir]

People spend a lot more in stuff like music festivals, movie screenings, sports events, parties, dinners, an afternoon of beer, things that are done and finished in just a couple of hours. What FD is asking is not that much money for something that people will spend hundreds or thousands of hours playing.

Put things in perspective.

 

[SentineI]

Won't Horizons kill ED sales until it's released? (Osbourned themselves?)

I think that FD may have just made a major mistake, by pre-announcing Horizons months ahead of it's release. It seems to me that almost no-one in their right mind would buy ED now, when they know that Horizons is coming "soon" (probably December), so they might as well wait until it's released before buying it.

Why? Because potential new buyers must now choose one of these options:
1. Pay £30 now to play ED (Season 1) right now.
2. Pay £40 now to pre-order ED:Horizons (Season 1+2), but not be able to play it (at all) until December.
3. Pay £50 now to pre-order ED:Horizons, and only be able to play a buggy Beta at some undefined future date (November?).
4. Pay £60 (£30+£40-£10) now to play ED (Season 1) right now AND pre-order ED:Horizons (Season 2) so they can play it in December.
5. Wait until ED:Horizons is released in December, and THEN pay £40 (or so) to play it. Especially since it might go on a Steam sale...

Option 1 would be daft, because you'd be missing out on the potentially-awesome Season 2 expansions.

Option 2 would be annoying, because you'd have bought the game, but be unable to play it until December. Pre-ordering is only for great fans of a series, but FD have probably already sold ED to the majority of those.

Option 3 doesn't seem much better than option 2, and you're paying more, so probably just as annoying.

Option 4 would be daft, because you'd be paying over-the-odds (£20) to play the game a few months early. £20 for just 3-4 months of gaming seems rather expensive. Only great fans of a series would do this, but FD have probably already sold ED to the majority of those.

Option 5 seems the least daft, and is what I think a lot of potential new buyers will opt for. Unfortunately this option means that FD won't receive any money from new sales for 4 months. Ooops. Have FD just Osborned themselves?

NOTE TO MODERATORS: PLEASE DO NOT MERGE THIS THREAD (without my consent first). I'm sure there would be a great temptation to do so with random Horizons threads, but this thread is about a very specific issue. THANK YOU in advance

EDIT: AAARRGH. This thread has been merged with a MOSTLY UNRELATED THREAD. I really hate when the mods do that. I even asked politely for them to not do it. SIGH.

 

[jabberwalkie]

No I am with you also and I'm not that old. It is tiring to see people used as pinata's, I want to see more of this expansion so that I can evaluate whether or not the content being added is worth the price of the base game again. Was the same amount of work put in? The same hours? What determines that the cost should be the same as the original game.

I'm right along with you and Monk. I'm not entirely sold on essentially purchasing the game again on such little information has been provided. I'd like to see some functionality first to buy Horizons alone, but I'd really like to see a list of planned expansions with additional estimated release dates (like Q2 or Q3 2016) to justify the lifetime pass. I think the plan is there, but I think that a broad plan should be communicated to the consumer (us players). As it stands, I think ED is a great game, and that the base game is certainly justified in its price but I don't think that the expansion quite warrants the price as listed with the information provided. Just my opinion.

 

[Tenshi]

You forgot the 5th option. That is to buy the Lifetime pass from the ED store now before they are taken out of offer.

 

[Monk]

People spend a lot more in stuff like music festivals, movie screenings, sports events, parties, dinners, things that are done and finished in just a couple of hours. What FD is asking is not that much money for something that people will spend hundreds or thousands of hours playing.

Put things in perspective.

I think they are, in perspective.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

There is a precedent in pricing for games and their expansions. This is pushing the upper liimit, in terms of sticker shock. And, that is mostly due to the fact that the cost of subscription is being rolled into a lump sum as others have pointed out.

No one is really doing things like that, that I've experienced. So there is a bit of creaking and moaning as we try to assess this new way forward.

The main thing is that we were expecting true expansions...like Dragonborn...but what we really have is something new, Seasons.

 

[o2thaZ]

I feel that's a tad disingenuous given that you guys admitted the initial release was largely 'bare bones', and much of the game remains in that state. PP and CQC hardly addressed the simplistic nature of mechanics and content in areas like exploration, for example, which are far removed from what was used to sell the game pre-release.

I'm also struggling to see how the business model of giving away the base game for free to new players is meant to sit well with existing ones. We effectively pay near twice as much as new customers for all content and are expected to be placated by the promise of an 'exclusive' ship and a small discount? Are we not the people who backed you at (pre) release, and got you where you are today?

exactly this.
Rep for you Sir

 

[SentineI]

You forgot the 5th option. That is to buy the Lifetime pass from the ED store now before they are taken out of offer.

I just edited my post, so that would be *6th* option. But really, £130 for a Lifetime Pass is a huge investment, and I can only see a few existing hardcore fans buying it. I extremely doubt that potentially new players would go for it, when they don't even know if they'll like the game.

 

[Kayweg]

You forgot the 5th option. That is to buy the Lifetime pass from the ED store now before they are taken out of offer.

You mean like they're gonna be taken out "forever" ? I'm really worried now.

 

[Madbeard]

If you buy the Horizon pack and you own the game already, legally they have to give you another copy of the base game. Otherwise they will have a ton of lawsuits on their front door.

 

[Andromalius]

Except we're comparing online games with online games.

This is still ridiculous, WoW issues way more content than elite in a year. I got the lifetime pass when I first ordered the game but I sure as hell would feel a but salty if I had to pay the prices they are trying to pull today and likely would just not take it. FD has so far not shown they can issue meaningful content at all. Let alone finished and working.

 

[Noir_CZ]

If you buy the Horizon pack and you own the game already, legally they have to give you another copy of the base game. Otherwise they will have a ton of lawsuits on their front door.

Yaet you cant give your current account to even a sibling and I doubt you will be able to give you two separate codes one for expansion and one for core game, so you could gift the surplus code to someone

 

[Atinus]

Well why not just say, "Pre-order Horizons and start playing Elite: Dangerous right now!" ???

 

[Commander Debic]

Expansion implies that it is expanding on a finished product. Since when is ED finished? You you really feel this ground stuff will be worth a full game price, don't let me stand in your way. But, Im not paying that for ED's version of "space engineers".....

Since when is any game finished when it is released. Any games company releasing a game these days knowing there will be expansions to come has not finished the game. It is an expected and accepted method of modern video game construction, in the same way movies have individual movies forming a series. As for since when is ED a finished product, that would imply that there is no more to come if they had finished it. No ones asking you to pay for it, I am sure there are plenty of other games you can invest in, as ED seems to be a game that makes you unhappy.

 

[Surly_Badger]

This is still ridiculous, WoW issues way more content than elite in a year. I got the lifetime pass when I first ordered the game but I sure as hell would feel a but salty if I had to pay the prices they are trying to pull today and likely would just not take it. FD has so far not shown they can issue meaningful content at all. Let alone finished and working.

To you,
according to your opinion,
etc.

There is no absolute standard of "meaningful content" at all; you're just talking about your opinion of what is meaningful to you. For example, I'm perfectly happy with the content and the pricing.

I get so tired of people on web forums talking as if their opinion is some kind of absolute that is shared by all. Especially when a brief pause for reflection would show anyone but the most utterly obtuse that it is not.

Sorry to rubbish your opinion, but since I don't happen to share it, that's just the way it's gotta be. You're welcome to your opinion, of course, but, eh, mine's more important to me.

 

[Dhan]

Considering you will have to implement new game mechanics, it is a pretty big deal. The driving model for the buggy doesn't appear out of thin air, for example.

Could have sworn the sizes of expansions are based on the number features it brings and how game changing those features are, not how hard those features are to implement. Right now the features I know are coming are:

• planetary landing on airless planets
• stations to dock with on said planets
• buggies that you can store on your ship and drive around
• module for holding the buggies
• an orbital cruise mode to bridge the gap between super cruise and normal cruise
• bases and other random encounters to find on the planet

And that's about it. The bases and the other stuff I would imagine will be in the same vein as unidentified signal sources while you are moving around in orbital cruise. So no real difference there from what we already see in space. And we'll get to fly a bit closer to planets and land on the surface or on stations. None of these things are game changing, beside the buggy I guess, and the feature list is pretty small as it stands, so this "expansion" is anything but massive in my eyes, and definitely not worth $45.

 

[SentineI]

Well why not just say, "Pre-order Horizons and start playing Elite: Dangerous right now!" ???

They COULD do that... but it's not currently an option (unless you also buy ED Season 1 - see Option 4). I'm talking about FD's current sales propositions, not hypothetical future ones

And if FD decide to change their stance, then this will upset people who bought ED Season 1 along with Season 2 (Option 4), so they'll need to offer refunds to them. FD doesn't like offering refunds, so I'm not at all sure what they'd decide.

 

[Cradle2Grave]

Yeah.... new buyers, who buy ED with the additional H, can't play the original ED until H is released....

Guess Brabers et al know their onions though.