Would love to buy but.....

[sapper_astro]

...Not for $94.87 Aussie dollars......It amazes me that Panther games, as an Australian company, cannot have a local storage depot of at least say 20 copies of games on hand (They seem to ALL come from the US).

I have wanted SSG games as well....same dilemma.

With a family, mortgage and other payments (not least the Petrol prices here in Oz) I simply cannot afford to pay such exhorbitant prices, likewise, I cannot afford broadband internet for downloads. I thought that by selling in this way companies actually saved money by dodging the middle man....yet I know for a fact that brand new games in retail computer game shops are 89, 79 dollars. Where is the saving for the consumer? And such a large price also does not contain a printed manual!?!

Im not begrudging you a profit, but its insane for me to pay more than it would cost in the shop to buy a game. Its also not exactly smart business on the part of you blokes. After all, im sure that a sale in a retail PC game store wouldn't net you a quarter of that money back in profits.

Sorry fellas, best of luck with your venture, but i will have to buy mine on ebay later on.

[Heliotic]

Um...

Digital Download PC Download (A$66.99)

If you throw in the cost of burning it to a CD, that's almost 71 dollars.

[Tomus]

He can't DL that is his dilemma.

[sapper_astro]

Heliotic: Im sure Sydney has a wonderful plethora of fast, low priced connections.....In the town im in that isn't an option. Broadband is a tad faster than dialup and a LOT more expensive out here.

Tomus: Spot on. I give you the cookie for reading my entire post.[;)]

[Heliotic]

ORIGINAL: Tomus

He can't DL that is his dilemma.

Damn, I knew I forgot something. You'll have to throw in another dollar for the time at a net cafe too then. Sorry, it's late here. [>:]

PS: Even on dial up, you'd have the game in less than 24 hours. I'm not sure if you pay an hourly rate, but even then it would probably still end up being cheaper.

[sapper_astro]

An internet cafe? Do you think that every little burg has an internet cafe? Bloody city boy[;)]

As for under 24 hours, the dial up connections in the city are a tad better than they are here. 2.34kb is a good speed here. Honestly, its not worth the money I would pay by a large margin.

However, you are missing my main point. Why on earth does it cost so much after all the middlemen are bypassed? I can order a Paradox game from bloody Sweden that costs less for both game and shipping, and their taxes are higher than both Australian and US taxes. Even Battlefront games are quite a bit cheaper.

But to each their own. The game will still be the same game later when i get it off ebay or a shop sale, the only diff is that the profits won't go to Panther/SSG/Insert Matrix dev....that doesn't exactly make me happy but theres nothing else i can do.

Im certain there are plenty of people like myself that have come on here all excited only to skulk away shocked at the price tag on getting a game. I have bought a couple of them from game shops but I would much rather buy them direct so that my money goes to the blokes who did the work.

[Arjuna]

sapper_astro,
 
I hear you and I too have to pay exhorbitant petrol prices. Fortunately or unfortunately I don't have a mortgage but that's because I lost my house years ago publishing a game. Life can be tough at times.
 
We got out of retail because we and our publisher are too small to have any influence over the retail chains and got screwed waiting nine months for our money last time we did it. The sad fact is that ours is a niche market and mainstream retail is not interested in the low volumes. So our only recourse is online sales.
 
SSG are in the same boat. We use the same publisher. But so are all the other wargame developers. And if you think we make enough money from wargaming to live on, then think again. It's a mug's game.
 
I would like to help you out but I don't even have any copies here I could sell you.
 
Why don't you ask a mate with a broadband connection to download it for you and remember that you are going to get hundreds of hours of entertainment out of COTA and while you are playing think of all that petrol you will have saved by staying home. In fact the game will cost you less than a tank of petrol and less than five or six tickets to the pictures. So it's all relative.

[sapper_astro]

Fair enough Arjuna, I know its a niche market but it might be a little more nichey, so to speak, if potential customers baulk when first spotting that price. However, I will keep my eye on the reviews as they come out. I would much rather have the money going into the company coffers than middlemen....

But im not the only one in charge of the old debit card see?[;)]

Eyes are peeled.

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: sapper_astro
Why on earth does it cost so much after all the middlemen are bypassed?

If you use digital download the middle man is bypassed.

If you order the hard copy there is a middle man

[Arjuna]

Actually there are middle men no matter what. But hey we need them. We certainly don't have the time to take order, process credit card payments and ship product, nor to market our product. In a previous incarnation ( back in the 80s ) I tried to do everything and ended up being consumed by the marketing and sales at the expense of development. After a while two things happened. First it was taking us way too long to finish a product and ended up spending all my time on marketing and sales not on development( which I prefer ). So you have to specialise and rely on others to do those other tasks. But they need to be paid for their services - after all you wouldn't work for nothing, would you?
 
FYI when you order our game from Matrix, Digital River, who process the sale, take their cut. Then Matrix, who handle the marketing, forum support, assist with artwork and beta testers etc, take their cut. Only then do we get ours. The only difference between digital download and a mailed CD is that Matrix have to pay for the packaging, CD and mailing, hence the  extra charges for that service.
 
 

[simovitch]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

after all you wouldn't work for nothing, would you?

uhhh... huh?[:D]

[Heliotic]

ORIGINAL: sapper_astro
An internet cafe? Do you think that every little burg has an internet cafe? Bloody city boy[;)]

That's pretty harsh. [8D] I grew up in rural queensland, with cows and things to boot. [&:]

If you like, you can buy the game via DD, and I'll mail you a copy of the install media on CD. That's my best and final offer. [:D]

PS: I do sympathise, non-metro services in this country are pretty horrific to say the least.

[sapper_astro]

My brother in Sydney is going to order it by mail. He has more money than he can poke a stick at.....

I had a whinge about it on the phone with him (avid wargamer that i am) and he just said "Why didn't you just ask me? Thats your birthday present covered". He has little to no interest in games, but couldn't be arsed downloading it.

Thanks for the offer Heliotic, I really appreciate it, but I wouldn't want to put you to any trouble. Sorry about the city boy reference mate.[:D]

Just out of interest, what games have you been involved in Arjuna? I may have a few of them floating about here.

Edit: Question; My brother says that all up its 104 dollars. The price itself doesn't seem to faze him, but he says there is a 10 dollar VAT?!? Sorry if I appear uneducated, but since buying items from both the US and EU before I have never copped a VAT before. Anyone shed any light?

Edit2: Hang on, is this order coming from Europe? Why would an order, made to an American company, with an Aussie developer, be coming from Europe? The world has finally gone mad....please tell me im wrong here, thats further away than the US, no bloody wonder the price is hiking in the postage department.

[iaidoka2]

The game will cost $79.99 plus whatever the postage is - it is the postage to Oz that really makes a big difference. Cheaper to get it by download if you can. The only thing you get in a physical package is the box and a fancy CD.

[sapper_astro]

Think I have found a way for download, we shall see.

[Arjuna]

There would only be VAT if he has ordered through the European portal. There is a special one just for Australia. See here:
 
http://www.matrixgames.com/games/store.asp?gid=313
 
Re what games have I been involved in. Well I started off with three boardgames back in the mid 1980s - Trial of Strength ( War on the Eastern Front ), Warlords ( Diplomacy game set in China ) and Shanghai Trader ( wheeling and dealing game set in Shanghai before WW2 ). Our first computer wargame was Fire-Brigade in 1988/89 ( Battle for Kiev 43 ) followed by a second edition of Fire-Brigade in 1990. A disastorous foray into adventure games in 1991 called Alien Drug Lords saw an unscrupulous reporter holding our game up on prime time TV saying "this game is going to currupt the youth of Australia". I lost my house on that one. In 1996 we started full time development of our current Airborne Assault game engine, the first title being Red Devils over Arnhem released in 2001. This was followed by Highway to the Reich in 2003 and now Conquest of the Aegean in 2006. HTTR is still available from Matrix and of coure COTA is on sale too. But the rest are out of production.

[MarkShot]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna
A disastorous foray into adventure games in 1991 called Alien Drug Lords saw an unscrupulous reporter holding our game up on prime time TV saying "this game is going to currupt the youth of Australia".

Wow! I never quite pictured you as an evil scientist who would destroy the very fabric of society. Mad scientist who would revolutionize wargaming ... well, yes.

[goodwoodrw]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

A disastorous foray into adventure games in 1991 called Alien Drug Lords saw an unscrupulous reporter holding our game up on prime time TV saying "this game is going to currupt the youth of Australia". I lost my house on that one.

Bloody Sixty Minutes and Richard Carleton [:D]

[Arjuna]

No it wasn't Sixty minutes and it's not nice to speak ill of the dead. <G> poor old Richard's grave would still be warm too. [;)]
&nbsp;
No it was the Investigators and the reporter was the then Sydney Morning Herald's computer editor, who was forced to flee Australia after being caught out plagerising the work of others. Now there's karma for you.[:)]

[sapper_astro]

Ok, Ordered it for download on my computer. Now, what info do I need to give my brother so that he can download it from his PC? User name i presume, and order number?


Arjuna: I have the original Fire brigade here somewhere, you were against some hefty competition back then thats for sure. SSG and the SSI horde. But Alien Druglords?[:D] What was the premise of the game? Plot? Do tell.