“Hey, honey! I got you a virtual ship that for a game that may never actually ship in the way the developers have promised. Plus, it was only $620!”
A steal! (No literally Chris Roberts robbed us)
“Happy Valentine’s Day honey! I got you a Vanguard Warden! What is that? It’s a virtual ship that you can’t fly in a game that won’t be finished for a few years…honey…honey, come back!”
Geezus these guys.
Nothing says “I want your sex” like the gift of a spaceship .jpg
All right all right all right
The vanguard warden is flyable, as are all of the ships in that sale.
RichVR
3612
So much salt down here. Thirsty. :)
jpinard
3613
Why do the Valentine’s start editions have “limited stock” ie. 1,600 left. Is that a joke right? Tell me that’s a joke.
Those game packages are $35 instead of the usual $45. The discounted price is artificially limited by both time and quantity. I’m sure it’s primarily a marketing tactic, although I suppose it also serves to inhibit resellers.
Calelari
3615
Bespoke upcycled artisan pixels aren’t easy, or cheap, to create.
Timex
3616
Creating an artificial limit on something to add an element of collectibility isn’t exactly a new marketing technique, folks.
jpinard
3617
I know but usually that’s durable goods. The fact it’s on a digital ship is pathetic.
Timex
3618
Here’s an example.
I have an Audubon print. A really cool painting of a giant crane. It’s a numbered print, there were only 400 made.
It’s a print, so they could have made infinity of them. But they instead only printed 400, thus making them more “special”.
This is exactly the same thing.
At least it won’t make a very big deal if this game fails. I mean, not many people really like space sims anyway.
wilykat
3620
It’s not that the concept is unusual in the real world, but I can’t think of another MMO that’s actually had a limit on how many of something is available. Usually it’s just a super-rare drop or something. I guess there haven’t been many MMOs that were distributing loot explicitly on the basis of paying for it though.
The promotion in this case is an actual game package. $35 gets you Star Citizen (the game) plus the chosen starter ship. They always mention that all of these ships will be earnable in-game on release.
Timex
3622
Yes, you don’t actually have to buy these things. Literally everything sold can be earned in game, without spending real money.
And honestly, I think this kind of thing is less sleazy than the slot machine loot box crap in other games.
JonRowe
3623
I am not one to side with CIG, but this is how kickstarter works though. And it is really clear that even though they are nearing 5 years from Kickstarter, their business model has stayed the same. The limited amount is for the “early bird customer” and I think that the limited number is for the discount, like you could buy these for more money if you missed out.
Oh, man. Look what just hit the New York Times:
[quote]
“Investing in Star Citizen gives you the tantalizing pleasure of looking forward to a deferred enjoyment, a slow, continuous build that stretches out the anticipation and taps into the power of our imagination to fill out the details of its imaginary world,” said Frank Lantz, director of the New York University Game Center.[/quote]
