Comments on: D3 release date announced, and the annual pass question?

By: spinks

spinks — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 06:53:59 +0000

I thought it was interesting that for Guild Wars 2, it’s not actually a preorder, it’s a pre PAY. So you can’t cancel it if you don’t like the beta.

By: spinks

spinks — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 06:51:38 +0000

The digital direct prices are always highest, or that’s how it looks to me at the moment. They know the people who are desperate for day 0/1 access will pay it. The 40% markup is just the cherry on the cake though ;/

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:21:10 +0000

I agree. It’s a bit weird. I personally have no interest in trying Beta for games that I will definitely buy, it will just lower my overall enjoyment. The only time a Beta interests me is when I want to try out a game to determine whether it is of interest (I did this with SWTOR – and did not purchase and with Rift – and did not purchase). As I’m happy to lower my enjoyment of a game to save myself the cost of the box.

By: carson630000

carson630000 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:56:55 +0000

I’ve been ready to buy D3 ever since getting into beta and as soon as I saw this news I raced over to battle.net with my wallet in my hand..

..at which point I saw that Blizzard were going to charge me a 40% markup for being Australian. Guess it’s really expensive to ship those bits by priority airmail, eh?

Wallet instantly re-pocketed. They could have had $US59.99 right now from my digital purchase, but because they decided to get greedy, I’m having serious second thoughts.

By: Xintia

Xintia — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:22:58 +0000

I find the “pre-order for beta access” phenomenon interesting. To me it signals a shift in the purpose behind beta testing itself. It isn’t about finding flaws in your game anymore. It is about generating publicity and interest in your game. I’m not saying this is a good or a bad thing in and of itself, but it does indicate a change in philosophy on the part of game developers.