Pre Order Bonuses

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DaMuncha
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Pre Order Bonuses

Post by DaMuncha » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 07:35

Lets say they decide to sell the game as a preorder on steam, what would give you the incentive to preorder it?

Maybe..

Discount?

Fre DLC?

Free Season Pass?

Fancy title on the forums?

Name in credits?

Early Access the Beta?

Other?

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Morkonan
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Post by Morkonan » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 08:05

A box of foot powder.

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Axeface
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Post by Axeface » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 08:11

Absolutely nothing, please. A small discount should be as far as a pre-order bonus goes.

Jase555
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Post by Jase555 » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 09:14

Free loot box..... Runs for cover.

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Post by Jase555 » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 09:15

Axeface wrote:Absolutely nothing, please. A small discount should be as far as a pre-order bonus goes.
Actually, this.

linolafett
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Post by linolafett » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 09:38

I personally do not get the whole preorder thing with digital goods...
01001100 01101001 01101110 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 01110011 00101110 00101110 00101110

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BigBANGtheory
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Post by BigBANGtheory » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 10:22

Pre-order's are problematic:
- people expect a discount
- people expect exclusive content
- people think they are somehow entitled to more when you actually see the product in its weakest state
- you don't know what you are getting
- processing refunds has a net cost
- drama drama, we don't want no drama
- promotes artificial pricing
- misbelief that you are supporting a developer

The only purpose pre-orders serve is marketing for increased day one sales, the consumer rarely if ever see's a benefit.

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Morkonan
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Post by Morkonan » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 15:26

How about something different?

Why not break the traditional mold of "pre-order hats." An in-game space-hat? For me parting blindly with my hard-won currency in a speculative buy? No thanks.

Everyone has pre-order game junk. "Buy now and get exclusive pre-release access", "custom character for pre-orders","get noob-killer blaster if you order today","get free sex when you pre-order this game." WAT?

So, break the mold and innovate.

Pre-order today and get either the Superbox or X:R, your choice, as well as a custom forum-symbol/thingie for your e-peen.

Pre-order today and get an X4 exclusive poster mailed to your real-life face using real-life mail. (Yes, very difficult, requiring some deal-making and logistics as well as money... BUT, it's vastly more incentivizing than an e-hat.)

In other words, pre-order incentives that are "just like all the others" are boring... They're supposed to be "incentives" right? OK, make them truly interesting and incentivizing rather than "Oh, yet another pre-release DLC offer or in-game hat."

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Axeface
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Post by Axeface » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 16:45

linolafett wrote:I personally do not get the whole preorder thing with digital goods...
Im glad to see someone from egosoft say this (not that I think you are representative of what the company might do, dont worry :D ).
To see a consumer actually request pre-order bonuses is mindboggling to me. It's like saying "Hey, so what are you spending your valuable development time cutting out of X4, I would like to pay more for the a piecemeal game".


@Morkonan. Physical rewards are really problematic, time consuming and expensive, i'de rather they didnt do this. And offering the older games doesnt incentivise people that already own them, I really think a small discount is a decent incentive - you pay a little less, a fine tradeoff for your blind faith.

Graaf
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Post by Graaf » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 18:06

To get the actual X4 and not this Rebirth continuation.

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shea
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Post by shea » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 18:24

linolafett wrote:I personally do not get the whole preorder thing with digital goods...
Nor do i,the one time i pre-ordered was X rebirth collectors edition(70 euro) and got badly stung,NEVER AGAIN
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Post by Skeeter » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 18:49

If they offer pre order things id have lost respect as i hate companies who do that and who try to get exclusivity rights. I hope they keep old school in business practices as im sick of all the big games turning to microtransactions/loot boxes/exclusivity per platform, dlc abuse, preorder bonuses. etc...

Just make the best game you can launch it for a set price and be done with it till game 2.
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Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 19:48

Free pizza

Viperswhip
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Post by Viperswhip » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 19:52

Eh, pre orders. I don't do it much anymore, if you don't count Kickstarter, I pre ordered the Witcher 3, even though the only benefit I think was a free copy of the Witcher 2, already owned of course, and maybe a 10% discount.

I did this because I don't follow the news really, so I don't typically know the day a game has been released, it will just show up in my GOG app on whatever day its released or whatever.

But generally you probably shouldn't pre order stuff. Even like ME3, which I did pre order, but I didn't play it until mods fixed the ending, now I play the crap out of it, but I could have bought it at a discount.

Most of the triple A titles get a game of the year edition release or whatever they want to call it later, which includes everything and is 29.99 or less on a Steam sale.

Just wait, there are tons of games to play. X3 is always there.

The reason you don't pre order things is because sometimes there is Andromeda, or a game you might never like, Inquisition or Rebirth....runs for cover.

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Post by Lc4Hunter » Thu, 19. Oct 17, 20:27

I would preorder the game if i could play a Demo before it will be released to see if its that game i expect.

I will never forget XR and that super cool Collectors Edition i preordered :x

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mr.WHO
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Post by mr.WHO » Fri, 20. Oct 17, 09:27

How about wait for the release day and buy release day copy like most of the normal people?

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Vandragorax
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Post by Vandragorax » Fri, 20. Oct 17, 12:19

A 'customer loyalty' bonus of 5-10% discount if the customer already owns the most recent game (in this case, Rebirth) would be all I'd like to see. Amplitude Studios do this very successfully with their "Endless" series of games and it really does encourage 'brand loyalty' and encourages customers to try other genres they might not otherwise try.

Rewarding customer loyalty should be a no-brainer for ANY company!

However, there is too much dodgy business in the games industry these days with Pre-order items (gives people differing experiences based on how much their paid), loot crates (activates the same receptors in our brains as gambling), and day-1 DLC (already developed content purposely held back from customers). Any time I see these anti-consumer business practices in play I stay well clear of said game until I can either get it on a large discount, or play it on a free Steam weekend or something to see if it's actually any good before buying.

There is too much predatory anti-consumer practice going on lately in the industry, and I am glad that Egosoft are one of the few who are not buying into it all! May it serve them well in the long-run, as I predict this will all come to a head at some point within the next 5-10 years and then we'll end up with a load of regulations and consumer protections being applied to the industry as a result of today's greedy CEO's / shareholders.

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mr.WHO
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Post by mr.WHO » Fri, 20. Oct 17, 12:34

Well "customer loyalty" bonus could be fine - they did it with HoL DLC (if I remember correctly it was discount from 11 Euro to 8 Euro) and I bought it.

However this shouldn't be pre-order only, but e.g. for the first weel after release.

PabloRSA
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Post by PabloRSA » Fri, 20. Oct 17, 18:38

Xenon as a playable / flyable race....
Watch the pre-orders flood in.

Must admit im getting excited about the game, wasnt going to buy it straight away, wait for a sale or GOTY edition.

I liked how they did the X3TC, with the stream sale a sector with XL power station was given away. "A Sunny Place" DLC.
Something like that just adds to the pre-order charm but dont really impact the game in an real way.

Worst pre-order I have had was Fallout NV where the bonus is obsolete after 10 minutes game play.

Also the Taladi DLC for XR was free for who purchased the game before x time for awhile. I liked that aswell, I know that was a "sorry the game didnt work at the start" give away.

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mr.WHO
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Post by mr.WHO » Fri, 20. Oct 17, 20:20

Xenon gamestart and Xenon gameplay would be something fresh in X-Series.

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