May 2020! Oof!
The new Chip Theory Games kickstarter is up today too:
That Spirit Island kickstarter is ridiculously expensive. Also, why no tier with just the latest expansion and base game?
Also, as much as I want to back Omega Protocol, the shipping is insane.
You can add on the base game. I don’t know why there’s not specifically a tier for that but I guess they figure most people would want the other expansion also.
I don’t see $60 as ridiculously expensive in boardgame Kickstarterland, especially for an expansion that appears to be almost as substantial as the base game.
If the expansion is that substantial, I would hope they would find a way to release it as a standalone package. Also, $50 rest of world shipping is a bit pricey, especially considering US backers have free shipping.
I only just saw this on Twitter, and immediately felt it deserved it’s own thread.
I suggested to them they do a tier between 59 and almost 200 dollars. They’ve been pretty dismissive of the criticism about price so far, on the comments i mean. I didn’t criticize other than saying it’s a big jump for someone without the base game to give you almost 200 dollars, and that’s the USA price.
Unfortunately, international shipping is crazy. I’m sure companies outside the US will carry the expansion that would be able to ship you it much cheaper, once it’s out.
The MSRP for the base game is $80, so a tier that’s just the expansion being Kickstarted and the base game wouldn’t be all that much less than the existing one that includes the other expansion and the first promo pack.
Well sure. I can buy the base game for 60 dollars right now on Amazon. But even if retail is 80 and the retail for the expansion is 60 that’s still less than the next tier. Kickstarters typically go for a little less than retail too because that’s kind of the reward for the risk. I think they’re pricing is off. They don’t really care because they met their goal, but it’s not a great look to see some of those comments. I just suggested they might consider a another tier between 1 and 2.
This is almost never true in my experience. Sure, maybe they knock a little off MSRP (though not often), but virtually never as much as an online retailer will. The hook is nearly always either Kickstarter exclusive items (which thankfully G<G doesn’t use), promos, or content that will be released separately at retail. And that’s the case here as well.
The only time I can recall ever saving money over retail pricing for the same item was Gloomhaven - that was $64 for the version I got in the first KS, and now sells for $140+.
It has always been true in my experience… and I didn’t say they needed to meet online prices. I said they are usually under MSRP. You’re the one that mentioned MSRP.
I also purchased Gloomhaven, for less than it retails. I purchased Gloomhaven Founders for under MSRP too. I mean do you want a list?
I am not a KS newbie. They have a factor of almost 3 between their 1st tier and their 2nd. That’s a bit unusual.
Well, I still disagree that most boardgame KSes charge under their planned MSRP. Sometimes, yes, but in my experience less than 50% of the time and probably less than a third. But when you say the reward for the risk is getting it cheaper than retail…no, pretty much never, due to online retailer prices being even lower. (Shipping is also sometimes a factor.) They compensate with other stuff.
Regardless, yes, there’s a big gap between their tiers and I guess I could see that being an issue for them, but they also don’t have a lot of options as far as a cheaper tier goes because, as I say, including the base game immediately launches them well over $100.
Well their biggest issue is, and since they met their goal it’s only an issue of affecting the top they could do with this, is if you go to their comments section of this campaign, all you see, literally all you see is shipping price concerns and tier pricing. There is almost nothing, nothing about the game, the expansion, like stuff you would normally see on a campaign like that. It’s just a wall of questions about their prices. So maybe fans are excited enough to just jump in, but it’s not the best look. It’s not going to stop them, of course, they met their goal, but I’ve not really seen that before in a successful campaign. It’s not typical.
Well, their European VAT policy is certainly not the easiest to parse, and I fear might bite them in the arse once the shipping actually arrives into the EU. They plan on charging depending on residence of the backer, while customs are charged depending on port of arrival.
It also makes it 100% likely I’ll be able to get this at retail at 60-80% of the kickstarter price, at most.
Trying to justify it through some babbling about the US trade war is just insane (they are shipping from china, the trade war is more likely to affect US backers than EU backers).
Dead Matter, a Zombie FPS Kickstarter from 18 months or so ago, has announced their second delay - only about 7 days before they were going to have “streaming partners” do a private test.
https://playdeadmatter.com/2018/11/07/community-update-8/
this time they are saying 8-10 weeks delay, so at least three months is probably safe. I suspect if they miss the next date the backer majority may begin to get rabid since they originally promised 6 months to alpha post KS.
There’s an option to get all the stuff from the first KS. Is hero realms any good solo?
Totally not a game Kickstarter, but a really cool project from a friend. “The Invisible Father” is a a look at an amazing period of art, film, and music (60’s and 70s) from a woman trying to learn about her estranged father. He was an artist/filmmaker who worked with Warhol, the Velvet Underground, etc. It’s in the last day and nearing goal, and I thought the creative crowd here might be interested. Or at least, there might be someone who wants the Pearl Jam swag. :-)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pieroheliczer/the-invisible-father-documentary-film-on-piero-hel, via Kickstarter
This KS looks kind of like an adaptation of the exploration/narrative approach taken by 7th Continent but with more detailed card-based combat and diplomacy mechanics, which could be really cool:
(Take this impression with a grain of salt - I’m in wave 2 on 7th Continent so haven’t received or played it yet, and have only lightly ogled this one. That said, for a little while longer they’re throwing in another playable character as a first 24h backer bonus and otherwise selling it separately, so if you’re intrigued I’d just tentatively back now and cancel later if you decide against it.)
Thanks,
I tentatively backed. A sprawling solo game is my kind of thing, and the price is significantly friendlier than the 7th continent (which was a little bit too much). I specially like miniatures are an option.
Dmn you.
I took one look at it, and backed.
I will now forget about it completely and be pleasantly surprised in the Summer.
edit:
I also saw something else interesting.
Tactics game.
I’d have backed it if there were some graphics to looka t.
So there used to be an amazing virtual LAN program called Evolve. It made playing any game that supported LAN so super simple to play online. Better than either Hamachi or GameRanger.
Evolve got bought by Player.me, which incorporated their game tracking portion of Evolve, but not the VLAN. So the Evolve folks are now trying to crowdfund their new VLAN venture, called Bowstring, on Kickstarter.
Evolve was so amazing I’ve totally backed this. I want it so I can easily play stuff like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter or Starlancer easily. I implore you to check it out if it sounds interesting to you. Thanks!