Chaos Faction Free for 1st Week

[Commissar Caligula_]

So Total War's newest youtube video has said that you get the Chaos Warriors race pack for free if you pre-order OR if you buy the game within the first week of release.
Thoughts on this? It does seem like a good move if you're buying from a system that does not have a refund policy, but otherwise meh.
You're still going to be screwed over if the game is buggy on launch, since its only a week extra time to see reviews and stuff, not enough time for substantial patches to come out.

This thread should probably go here? http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...cussion-thread

[HigoChumbo]

Hmmm... well, a nice touch, but does not really change a lot. I guess it depends on NDAs and whether they expect enough review material to be available during that week or not.

If there is enough material, then kudos to them, although now I'm curious about what's their interest there. If not, it's really not that different from pre-ordering. (In the other hand all of this does little to debunk my concept of Chaos being thought to be an integral part of the main game, sold separately just to increase the cost, otherwise they would not be so keen to offer so many ways to get it for "free").


In any case, definately not something negative and therefore not something I want to sound too negative about. Just giving my opinion. We'll see how it all turns out, less than a month to go ^^

This thread should probably go here? http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...cussion-thread

Nah, don't worry, it's fine. It's discussion on a recent announcement.

[Frost, colonel]

Seems fair to me, if reviews are out even 1 week before, and then it only needs to be out a few days for the average player reviews to come out and say "stay away" if it's bad.

[Jean=A=Luc]

Doesn't mean much or anything really, it's a matter of principle. Chaos simply should not be outside the core package the same way France shouldn't be dlc in Napoleon or Huns shouldn't be the same in Attila. They should've picked something else for that (a different non-Empire/Chaos faction at least) though I'm sure many will believe CA/SEGA to be vindicated by this. It's a clever way to make no concession at all while creating the appearance of one.

[Frost, colonel]

though I'm sure many will believe CA/SEGA to be vindicated by this. It's a clever way to make no concession at all while appearing to do so.

Well I don't think vindicated, but it's the best we are going to get from them. The majority of us will have something better to think about if the game is actually any good, even more so if it develops well over the triology.

[badbomb]

Doesn't mean much or anything really, it's a matter of principle. Chaos simply should not be outside the core package the same way France shouldn't be dlc in Napoleon or Huns shouldn't be the same in Attila. They should've picked something else for that (a different non-Empire/Chaos faction at least) though I'm sure many will believe CA/SEGA to be vindicated by this. It's a clever way to make no concession at all while creating the appearance of one.

It doesn't really change much. the full Chaos roster are still in the game if you have the DLC or not. Just it unlocks the faction to play as and i think adds a few units to a couple races if im not mistaken. I like this since if reviews and stuff will be out im guessing CA is confident they made a nonbroken game unlike rome 2 and this will allow people to read reviews first then decide to get it.

[HigoChumbo]

Doesn't mean much or anything really, it's a matter of principle. Chaos simply should not be outside the core package the same way France shouldn't be dlc in Napoleon or Huns shouldn't be the same in Attila. They should've picked something else for that (a different non-Empire/Chaos faction at least)

I don't agree entirely. The Golden Horde (mongols) for instance, was unplayable in Medieval Total War, and it was perfectly fine since they played the role of a mid-game invasion-challenge, some kind of big antagonist. Chaos plays the same role in this game, so even if they were completely unplayable it would be a perfectly valid concept.

the full Chaos roster are still in the game if you have the DLC or not.

I believe that's not the case. If I'm not mistaken the DLC unlocks new units even for the AI (in the gameplay videos they said that "everything you saw in the video" would be available to play against even if you did not get the dlc, but not all Chaos units were in that video).

im guessing CA is confident they made a nonbroken game unlike rome 2 and this will allow people to read reviews first then decide to get it.

What's then in your opinion their motivation to give it for free the first week? I imagine that if the game is so good it sells itself, they would have no reason to give away stuff when they could be getting profit from it instead. It could just be a completely unrelated attempt to improve their public image, but I imagine there is some other underlying reason to do this.

[Frost, colonel]

What's then in your opinion their motivation to give it for free the first week? I imagine that if the game is so good it sells itself, they would have no reason to give away stuff when they could be getting profit from it instead. It could just be a completely unrelated attempt to improve their public image, but I imagine there is some other underlying reason to do this.

I can't think of anything besides increasing goodwill and helping sales before launch. Seems a sensible compromise, and if they went any further they may consider, that we consider, that they are admitting they were wrong

[PeonKing]

I can't think of anything besides increasing goodwill and helping sales before launch. Seems a sensible compromise, and if they went any further they may consider, that we consider, that they are admitting they were wrong

I mean, if they have a good reason, I wish they would out and say it. I know what you guys are going to say it's going to be 'money money money' which is absolutely true. But if they explained what is going on, like 'Well, we need to raise x amount of cash the first quarter the game is out or we look bad to the overlords, so we are trying to provide a strong incentive for people to buy early' I feel like people would be more sympathetic. Or at least more understanding. This is a nice move, but a strange one. It's like they're going 95% of the way to just giving you Chaos for free, why don't they just give it to you.

EDIT: Well it's actually kind of obvious why they don't give it to us now. Because then the people who did preorder for Chaos would probably be a little upset because then they preordered for no reason, and those are people who already showed willingness to support CA. I guess they could give them something else new, but it would still be a bait and switch.

[captainkrunch]

By all that is holy CA comes out with good news and it seems some of you are truly trying to find any way possible to make it negative. They have already said reviewers will not only get the game early but be able to release reviews before the game comes out.

[Frost, colonel]

By all that is holy CA comes out with good news and it seems some of you are truly trying to find any way possible to make it negative. They have already said reviewers will not only get the game early but be able to release reviews before the game comes out.

But one has to indeed consider that they have said so much in the past that turned out to nought but pork pies(lies). Do you believe everything they say?
Anyway does it really matter? I mean it's out soon and for better or worse most of us are gonna have a copy on launch day, regardless of whether we regard it as the most savy thing we have ever done. Or even if we believe CA & Co have many scruples!

[Imperator Artorius]

I wonder what has changed for CA to feel that they can afford to give this away for free during the first week...

[Frost, colonel]

I wonder what has changed for CA to feel that they can afford to give this away for free during the first week...

Or even how long a go they decided to do so. Launch day sales, I mean things are stepping up now, we get a video from CA daily recently.

[badbomb]

I believe that's not the case. If I'm not mistaken the DLC unlocks new units even for the AI (in the gameplay videos they said that "everything you saw in the video" would be available to play against even if you did not get the dlc, but not all Chaos units were in that video).




What's then in your opinion their motivation to give it for free the first week? I imagine that if the game is so good it sells itself, they would have no reason to give away stuff when they could be getting profit from it instead. It could just be a completely unrelated attempt to improve their public image, but I imagine there is some other underlying reason to do this.

1 looked up the units that only come with DLC, oh wow i thought it was much less than that i admit that i was wrong its more like a half pack without the dlc.

2 I meant that before this video the only way to get the chaos dlc for free was to preorder, effectively making you buy a game you don't know if it will be good. Now you can buy it and get it after the first week meaning if you want you can return your preorder and get your money back and wait to see if its like Rome 2, which seems to be everyones fear, cause the titles are normally reviewed fast (there was even videos prior to attilas release if im not mistaken) you have plenty of time to decide to get/reorder the game and still recieve the DLC for free, which in their own words is a DLC to begin with because SEGA made them have dlc before they gave them more money for the title. Sure it can be public image and all that but i don't see how this helps them sell more copies, like i said if anything alot of preorders are gonna be cancelled/returned on steam to wait to see if the games not a glitchy mess/bad on release so i feel its more that they are confident they can afford that drop because people will get it back after release.

[Imperator Artorius]

So I guess my two take aways from this are:

1)There is literally no reason to pre-order unless you simply must play the game the second it becomes available

2)Something changed that made CA think they could afford to give this DLC away for free for a week, money of course being CA's justification for Chaos being unlocked as a pre-order bonus and not playable for everyone on release. Now maybe this is a case of Sega saying "You know what guys, we'll give you some more money" and CA being the nice guys that they are, have at least given some concessions in the face of the (justified) disgruntlement they have recieved since the Chaos DLC announcement. On the other hand, the cynic in me is starting to think that the Chaos pre-order really was a shady cut-content kind of deal.

I mean "Sorry guys, we only had a budget for 4 playable races and we had to sell Chaos Warriors as DLC to get the money for it" to "Hang on, actually we're gonna give Chaos Warriors away for free for a week." Not to mention that the 4 playable races has became 4.5 what with Bretonnia being available to everyone in custom battles and multiplayer, presumably to be finished and released to everyone in a free update, so the "4 playable races budget" is looking a tad sketchy. Unless of course Sega has genuinely expanded their budget since then and CA being the pinnacle of openness that they are forgot to mention it. Or CA made enough money from pre-orders already to justify giving away Chaos for free temporarily, in which case the pre-orderers have potentially taken 2 shots for the team.

[hep]

I think this is fantastic news for the consumer, a week after release should be long enough for all of the reviewers to be able to review the game.
Which means that CA wont be able to select certain positive reviewers that would give them a good/sponsored review regardless of the quality of the game.

Regardless of what CA want, the consumer does not have to choose between getting the best deal and making an informed choice, this is no longer the pressure selling that it was before.

It does suggest CA are confident in their game (and therefore think that the game will review well and can sell based on its own merits) which is good, but I hope this means the end of pre-order DLC from all CA titles from now on. This is a precedent.

Personally I think that CA are worried about a lower than normal number of pre-orders, I wouldn't be surprised if CA have a "day 1 purchase" target to meet from sega and this is part of a drive to meet that target.

The game was just on a 25% sale on green man gaming and they reduced the price on steam from £50 to £40, which suggests that they really want pre-orders and that they attempted price reductions first before conceding on the chaos DLC to unlock the preorders of some of those that were holding back.

Either way, thank you to all who kept up the pressure about the pre-order DLC and well done for withholding your orders.

[Markas]

Well that's more like it, the Chaos DLC business was one of the biggest factors in me not pre-ordering and this will go some way to mollifying that. I still don't think there's any reason not to hold off until third-party reviews if you have doubts, though.

[Roboute Guilliman]

Just pre order and be done with it. Everybody on these forums is getting the game at some point. Lets not fool ourselves.

[Markas]

Just pre order and be done with it. Everybody on these forums is getting the game at some point. Lets not fool ourselves.

[tuli]

What's the point of preordering if you don't even get anything for it? You're just giving them a 0 ROI loan. Weird.

I mean, if they have a good reason, I wish they would out and say it. I know what you guys are going to say it's going to be 'money money money' which is absolutely true. But if they explained what is going on, like 'Well, we need to raise x amount of cash the first quarter the game is out or we look bad to the overlords, so we are trying to provide a strong incentive for people to buy early' I feel like people would be more sympathetic.

Yeah, CA is going to outline their business dealings to a bunch of vapid, unwashed nerds.