Alpha 2 Keys

I heard a lot of talk about a2 keys being cheaper than normal.

i personally believe this is a horrible idea. 1 you mess up with people who purchased it before.

just release the a2 packs for sale again, for the people who missed them.
no need to punish the people who bough them early. and no need to cater to people who bought them late.

release them full price. and it's the only way to go.

or you could make them cheaper and make a bunch of A2 buyers very upset. Or you could make them same price but without skins and make new players upset.

but if you release them same price as before same pack....no issues.

thoughts?

personally. if we cater to people that are late now.... we'll expect this in the future as well and maybe even hope to take advantage of it.

what do you guys think?

Find more posts tagged with

Staff

Comments

Noaani

Friss wrote: »

I heard a lot of talk about a2 keys being cheaper than normal.

Where did you hear this?

Faimith

Noaani wrote: »

Friss wrote: »

I heard a lot of talk about a2 keys being cheaper than normal.

Where did you hear this?

From the recent Twitch stream, it was confirmed that there will be new Alpha 2 keys available for purchase before the launch of Alpha 2. The developers discussed the timeline and mentioned that these keys would be sold in limited quantities leading up to the testing phase. Keep an eye on official announcements and the Ashes of Creation website for more details on the sale dates and availability.

Blath

agreed. The whole stopping them, then starting them again before A2 has ever even taken place is just silly. I mean im happy they are coming back, but why all the hoops. They shouldnt have been taken off the market in the first place, now that they are coming back, just sell the same thing as before.

Aszkalon

That sounds like :

Jeah dear Intrepid wants to have MANY Testers of Course : but despite the amazing Number they already reached, they need more for some Reason.

Plus the Existence of People who (lololol?) ask since/AFTER January 17th for an Alpha Two Key, is not going away anytime soon, right ?

So how to get more People Alpha Two Keys who might not have so much Money like the former Buyers or do not "want" to pay as much Money as the People before them ?

Easpeasy. Just make them cheaper. x'D

But the true "Win" for these People - if we want to call it that - is that they get to buy Alpha Two Keys later on in the waiting Time - and did not have to wait for as long as the People who partially already bought them Years before. (^3^)

CROW3

File this under ‘you just can’t make some folks happy.’ I suggest not looking a gift horse in the mouth, as it would be entirely reasonable for A2 keys to be sold at a higher price point given the demand.

Hinotori

Aszkalon wrote: »

That sounds like :

Jeah dear Intrepid wants to have MANY Testers of Course : but despite the amazing Number they already reached, they need more for some Reason.

Plus the Existence of People who (lololol?) ask since/AFTER January 17th for an Alpha Two Key, is not going away anytime soon, right ?

So how to get more People Alpha Two Keys who might not have so much Money like the former Buyers or do not "want" to pay as much Money as the People before them ?

Easpeasy. Just make them cheaper. x'D

But the true "Win" for these People - if we want to call it that - is that they get to buy Alpha Two Keys later on in the waiting Time - and did not have to wait for as long as the People who partially already bought them Years before. (^3^)

The people buying access now are in reality the losers. (Financially)

As there's likely not going to be cosmetics attached to these bundles it'll be an inflated amount for key access only without the game time, cosmetics or embers that came in the past.

And if intrepid are going to be selling beta keys at a later stage separately as well then I can see them having something like a $200 all access bundle alongside stand alone Keys roughly half the cost of the previous packages that gave you much more.

$125 stand alone alpha 2 key
$75 stand alone beta 1 key
$35 stand alone beta 2 key

Liniker

I believe intrepid will honor their previous backers and not release A2 access for anything less than 250$. The majority of people did not buy their packs for cosmetics, gametime or embers, they paid 250$ to get access. Intrepid is not EA, Ubisoft or Blizzard to pretend they don't know this.

Mfcrackers69

Hopefully, it costs the same.. seems the best way not to alienate anyone.. we will see

Texas

As early as the Basic Attack Weapon Update (2022) Steven has said they will periodically sell more keys as needed to meet their testing requirements. This probably isn't the last time to buy one, but you'll be joining late.

Veeshan

Liniker wrote: »

I believe intrepid will honor their previous backers and not release A2 access for anything less than 250$. The majority of people did not buy their packs for cosmetics, gametime or embers, they paid 250$ to get access. Intrepid is not EA, Ubisoft or Blizzard to pretend they don't know this.

The whole thing put them in an awkward spot now tbh.

1 - Sell them for 250 just for the key to honor there previous backers and there be back lash for $250 alpha keys
2 - Sell the key for cheaper but then u screw the people who backed under the assumption it was last chance to buy in, break down the pack via cost the alpha 2 key comes to $20 is what devs value it at which will tick alot of people off if it went for that low after they droped 250-375 :P

I dont think they can sell it for the 250 but they also cant sell it for $20.

Feel they might have to do something like sell it for 75-100 but then also give the people who already back something extra like some extra embers (cash shop currency) or couple extra months of subsciption or somthing.

But yeah will see what they do it definelty gonna cause drama in some way or form i feel

Caww

I smell waffles....

Apok

if they get 6 months into alpha 2 testing and need 2,000 people on to stress test something and there's only like 500 online at peak, what are they supposed to do? at least with the 500$ package they give you a lifetime sub. I say cut the cost in half from whatever the initial A2 access price is if you run into this issue and give the people that paid full price some kind of intensive like a couple cosmetics and a few months free

Otr

Apok wrote: »

give the people that paid full price some kind of intensive like a couple cosmetics and a few months free

a Stufferton?!

Sengarden

This entire argument and the frustrations which led to it are pretty half baked. I know people already brought this up and some others are trying to debate the validity of the point, but if you paid $250 for A2+ access, you didn't just buy A2+ access. You bought the Voyager pre-order pack.

What comes in the Voyager Pre-Order Pack?

Six months of game time ($90 value)
$100, just straight up $100, in cosmetic shop currency
A cosmetic mount skin
A cosmetic pet skin
A cosmetic accessory skin
Access to A2 and subsequent testing phases

Regardless of the arbitrary value of the cosmetics that come in the Voyager pack, you inarguably paid $100 for cosmetic shop currency and $90 for in-game play time. You can't argue that. Those are things you knowingly spent your money on that had real, tangible price tags listed right next to them.

So, even if you considered the cosmetics to be of no real value, you really only paid $60 for A2+ access.

Now, you could make the argument that in Intrepid's mind, they were selling you the game time and the cash shop currency at a discount as a favor for pre-ordering, and that their intended value of A2+ access was much higher, but they never stated that - you just assumed it on your own. So no, they aren't bound to negotiate prices on all future pre-release purchases based on your assumptions about their monetization strategy.

If you didn't want to pre-order game time or cosmetic shop currency, then you shouldn't have bought it. Steven literally told people nearly every month not to buy the pre-order packs unless they had money to burn and wanted to support development. There's no debate whatsoever that if every Voyager Pack purchaser who didn't want to pay for all that extra stuff just decided not to buy the packs, then Intrepid would've eventually released A2 access solo-packs for like $75 or something, because they need testers. The free market could've brought down the price for access a lot sooner if it really wanted to. But y'all bought it anyway.

In all honesty, it doesn't matter how expensive anyone wants it to be - this needs to be a market-based decision for Intrepid, taking into consideration how many more testers they want in the game, and how much lower than the Voyager Pre-Order pack price they need to go until they get about that many people to buy it and simultaneously not despise them for giving people who bought the Voyager Pack less than a year ago over $190 in free additional value.

As someone who wanted to get into A2 to help test and give feedback, but despises the cosmetic-shop monetization strategy and would never support it by giving Intrepid $100 in exchange for cash shop tokens, I decided to wait, knowing that eventually, there would be some altered A2+ access pack released that would cost much less and come without all the extra frills. Don't punish other people who know how to spend and withhold their money wisely for your regrettable purchasing decisions.

Nuub

I'm feeling a little salty. The experience will be less exclusive than I thought it would be. But wait there's more! It's going to be cheaper too! awe shucks.

The only availability of A2 was in the 250$ pack. being locked behind a package deal created the feeling of exclusivity derived from the expense, it was a lot cheaper if all you wanted was beta 1 or 2 access.

If A2 access is cheaper than 250$, then everyone who already purchased a key should have the opportunity to refund the difference if they're only interested in the A2 access.

I personally am happy with my purchase, but a couple of the guys in my group don't give a shit about cosmetics and wouldn't ever have bought them given the choice.

If A2 access is still 250$...It wont be as exclusive no, but I won't feel like I paid 250 for something now available for just 60(or whatever price).

Torstein

The way I see it is the ones that bought packs did so not only the get cosmetics and keys, but to support Steven and Intrepid's vision and goals. The pricing was set during the kickstarter (before the massive hype), and all later packs has been priced accordingly to not "upset" previous backers.

Since Intrepid now has removed the supporter packs, and are going to sell pure keys to the testing stage, I think the price should reflect that change aswell. Remember, Steven has said that Ashes of Creation is funded all the way to release and beyond.

If anyone is going to turn around and feel let down by alpha 2 keys being sold cheaper, I question their reason to buy the supporter packs to begin with tbh.

patrick68794

I'm fine with standalone alpha 2 keys being cheaper than $250. But if they offer all, or even most, of the same perks of the Voyager pack for less that's going to piss off a lot of people

Aszkalon

Interesting.

I haven't thought about the Possibility of the Price getting higher than before. Maybe i am just naive once again. But to be sure i would recommend making the Alpha Two Keys in the Future same the Price as the Ones from before January 17th.

Srixun

Didnt they also say it would just be an access key? so no perks, no nothing just A2 access?

Sengarden

patrick68794 wrote: »

I'm fine with standalone alpha 2 keys being cheaper than $250. But if they offer all, or even most, of the same perks of the Voyager pack for less that's going to piss off a lot of people

They said on stream that it will only be the key, hence why people are talking about the price reflecting the lack of $100 in cosmetic shop currency and $90 of game time compared to the Voyager Pack.

Aszkalon wrote: »

Interesting.

I haven't thought about the Possibility of the Price getting higher than before. Maybe i am just naive once again. But to be sure i would recommend making the Alpha Two Keys in the Future same the Price as the Ones from before January 17th.

There’s absolutely no way charging more actually makes sense. People who already bought the Voyager Pack got plenty more than just A2 access for their money. Charging people MORE than they paid for something over $200 less in value is absolutely ridiculous. No one in their right mind would buy that, and the reason Intrepid are opening it up again is because they need people to buy it, because they need more testers. The price needs to make buying the keys attractive enough to net them the increase in testers they’re after, and I’ll bet you they want a lot, what with the tech they were overviewing this week.

Srixun wrote: »

Didnt they also say it would just be an access key? so no perks, no nothing just A2 access?

Just A2, and probably subsequent beta access.

Child Item