Well, I'm hanging around waiting on the TR beta. And have been wondering if D-G will do it right...
I won't bother to comment on how they have released L2 in NA. In a way it's not their baby...
They've spent 6 years now on development approx and Sept 1st should be my departure date for the war if I'm lucky. First round would be nice :) And I'm getting antsy waiting... lol
So I keep wondering if they will launch it right. Will there be a collectors edition? I know I gladly spent the extra money to get my WoW collectors edition box.
Will they market a box with a headset inside? Now that's a good question!
I'd think it'd make them a ton of money if they did :) Lots of game companies just give away their profits, throwing an item into the box that they can make money off in addition to the game software is the right move.
Plus there are many many casual gamers who don't have a headset. All they're gonna do when they buy the game is buy a brand new one. Why not sell them one in the box with the software? A nice logo on the sides... :)
With my WoW collectors box I also got a nice book. You guys could also do the same with a book of lore with a ton of nice artwork. :)
I did also like my in-game pet w/ my collectors box from WoW. Some sort of *token* included in-game would be nice. Does'nt need to do much of anything, just be viewable.
Good marketing in advance will insure the game does better at release.
We're not talking about reviews and such here, I'm going under the assumption the game is going to do well, from all I've heard it should. I just know that your initial playerbase will be your hardcore base and believe me, I loved riding around on a white stallion epic mount in WoW, which was only sold for the first few months of the game, before the mount's "skin" was changed, with a small diable pet chasing after me. The horse made my charactor probably one of 15 people left on the server with a white stallion (very rarely seen) with a pet you can't have unless you bought the collectors edition at launch.
Maybe a pet is not appropiate for TR. Maybe a small token or medallion for your inventory that looks like a triskellion and glows with the power of Logos? lol just a thought.
Anyways half their battle is going to be market exposure beyond the reviews. Two different boxes on the shelves doubles your shelf space and exposure :)
The reason I've always been keen on this stuff is because long ago this guy handled "Tyrant" and I used to have these talks on the old uo boards and he'd explain why they could'nt do extra things, one was the fact that the amount of profit determined how many extras we got. More players equaled more revenues for all the good stuff. The more they make, the more they have to hire more key people to do the jobs needed to fufil the players requests.
And I just hate seeing a good game get screwed by bad marketing. And also... lol yep i'll say it... It's been on the tip of my tongue as I've typed the whole thing. UO was off the shelves more than it was on them. So, I'd also recommend you think about scheduling your updates close enough to keep the boxes on the shelves in between expansions. I expect them to promote TR heavily, but who knows...
Dein
*tired of playing games underfunded because of poor marketing*