Fury for free?

[Constrictor]

Well, I was thinking on some 'marketing' - what I usually do not do that much - and did come to a conclusion / proposal:

Sony (SL) may spent some (viz. 25 to 50) free copies to a number of players in the WOHD community for outstanding achievements to the community. Select those w/ most online time (level 50), most real records, WOHD problem solver awards :hyper , best mode pilot ... whatever.

That may be a little bit to late now as this should have been introduced during E3s Fury announcement I'd like that happen anyway.

Comments like 'Great - why didn't I think of that' to 'what a scrooge/retard' highly appreciated ;)

[jan709]

but what if the "game share function" results in the entire fanbase getting free copies?

[Hemicrania]

I don't want a free copy, I just want it....NOW! ;)

[Handmadelion]

I wish it would be free. But alas, only in my dreams. There's too much content for it to possibly be free. And I'm okay with that.

[Connavar]

Well I don't know ... personally I prefer to BUY the game than getting it for free.
Because I want to support the game! And I'm sure the great contributors you
mentioned will also be very happy to purchase this pack.

[blackwiggle]

BETA TRIAL STATUS for wipeout FURY would suffice.

[Constrictor]

Don't get me wrong - it's not about the/my money. Another 17 EUR for Fury .. Deal! And it's not about free beer, too. It's about long term motivation, community building and business. There was another thread on Sonys (epic?) marketing fail on WOHD. 1 2nd that with all of my heart. This 'free' stuff could help grow business and spread the word with low risk, maybe high impact. Too less players online to keep the franchise going, but I'm gliding away.

And, as I'm so creative now: Hey, an NDA free early access program would be cool, too.

[akirapill]

First post, been following this website since around the time wip3out came out!

I'm a scouser so I'd definaly prefare to pay for it, gotta support Studio Liverpool.

[KIGO1987]

i dont think there will be any free copies of Fury. Bloody Pulse DLC where hell expensive, did you know that the combined price of all the DLC Pulse packs exceeded the price of "Wipeout HD", on the PSN itself. SL and Sony needs to add a price tag on this DLC for HD, they needed to be rewarded for the efforts. And to also stay profitable as well:)

[Darkdrium777]

Online level 50 means absolute nothing, so no to that :lol
If they're willing to do some form of beta test, sign me up and I'll find your bugs :lol (Btw I found other missing respawn zones Paul, but they're not important or as important)

I don't think it will be free.

[blackwiggle]

If you read "somewhere" in the European Wipeout Convention post it was mentioned that price information was given to some.;)

[KIGO1987]

elhabib, (Martin, not Bruno;) most likely would know that information, thats my assumption.

[eLhabib]

Say what?! Nope I don't have any price information! I don't think anybody on here does! (except the SL guys, that is... possibly not even them)

[KIGO1987]

Must be a last minute decision made by SCEE then i guess.

[SaturnReturn]

I'd rather pay for it for reasons mentioned by Connavar and Kigo. But if long term contributors of the WipEout community in general were rewarded in some way then it wouldn't be a bad thing. I don't think that would ever happen on an unofficial forum/site though.

[sh1kamaru-]

Don't like this idea, SL guys don't work for the glory and WOHD is one of the cheapest game though one of the best games of the PS3 (the best for me but that may be arguable). I think they deserve it plus it's not so common that dev are close to its players. Their support has to be rewarded somehow too !

Opening a beta to bugbusters (like Darkrium777 or ProblemSolver) would be nice though, it would help the game to be (almost) bug-free when it's released.

just my 2 cents

[RedScar]

I will pay for fury, pirating/free games are what hurt the industry the most. Just hurry it up, is summer SL and I'm hoping to play it before my vacation ends.

[Connavar]

I agree, a beta program to a select few (Darkdrium777, ProblemSolver, ...)
would be an amazing gift for all the fans ... because what do the fans want?
A product as polished as possible, and using a few experts is certainly the way
to go :)

[lunar]

While I`m not sure why SL would want to give away the game to anyone, I agree with the idea of fans as bug-busters. It seems with all Wipeout games that fans quickly find bugs that are missed in development. It really wouldn`t take long for a few dedicated players to root out the bugs. There also needs to be at least one mad french pilot in the tester team so that he can find new crazy stunts to go faster and then SL can shut it down ;) Joke.... :paperbag

It would all be win for players with a better game, win for SL with the best testers money can buy, and more win because these testers wouldn`t cost anything and would probably still be willing to pay for the final product.

[ProblemSolver]

For free? Hopefully not!
In the US there is something known as; You get what you pay for. And I
have to say this holds in the EU as well. Meaning, most people would treat
Fury as a second class citizen simply because it would cost almost nothing.
Up to my point of view this is already the case with WipEout HD. Most
people buy WOHD and play it for about a month and move on to the next
more ca$h-valuable game, despite that game might not have the quality
of WOHD but cost more money, at least! xD So all these people won't
likely buy Fury either, because they didn't even got into HD. Even if SCEE
would release Fury for free it would build up nothing.

Quite odd, but in my opinion, to grow the community and to "show" people
the value of the game, WipEout HD as well as WipEout HD Fury needs a
serious price tag! $ 39,99 EUR, at least! Adding DLC every 6 month would
show that the game is alive and healthy.


BETA TRIAL STATUS for wipeout FURY ...
This.


PS: I would be pleased to not read my name in very second post. Thanx
for the compliment guys, but I think that there are a lot of people here that
equally deserve to be mentioned despite they may not necessarily hold a
record or something like that but are very dedicated to the game and may
look at it with different eyes.

[Constrictor]

Err, did I wrote free (beer)? Not! :naughty

It's all about addressing peoples motivation to buy and - more important - to play the game over a longer period.

:frown: Nobody loves my proposal. Done with that ;)

I'm really curious if WOHD did generate any cash at all and what # of copies downloaded.

@ Darkdrium777: In case I misunderstood - sorry, but those level 35+ onliners are keeping the online community up and running. Whatever motivates them I don't know. Fro me it's about improvement. These L50s are IMO of more value to the long term success of the game than some other great achievers.

@ ProblemSolver: ACK on the price. SL/SC please make it a full game, boxed BluRay with an average price PS3 tag. Deal, too, if I get what I pay for.

[LOUDandPROUD]

I like your idea Constrictor. ;) I think it would be pretty neat if SL handed out free copies to a select few over-achievers/contributors. It's not like you proposed that the game be free for everyone, which I wouldn't agree with. If it were only 25-50 free copies, I think the goodwill gained would outweigh the money lost. I say cool idea. :+

[Rapier Racer]

Are you suggesting that price for the original plus downloadable content shipped on Blu Ray with a nice shiny manual? 39.99? Are you insane?

That's just outrageous and even on disk, one lot of content would work out as costing more than the original game.

[ProblemSolver]

@Constrictor: Yeah I was talking a bit more in general. Well, your idea is ...
okey. But wouldn't it be better to integrate those players directly into the
game itself? For example, if you race SL, TT, ... then some billboards /
bends / walls may show the first three of the leaderboard in question, etc..

@Rapier Racer: 39,99 EUR for WipEout HD + WipEout HD Fury whether
online or retail. Ehm ok, germany is a quite expensive, subtract 10 EUR
and we are fine. Did you know that GT5P was priced at 39,99 EUR (german
PSN store) for quite a long time? I like GT5P do death, but WOHD >> GT5P.
And WOHD + Fury >>> GT5P.

[Darkdrium777]

In case I misunderstood - sorry, but those level 35+ onliners are keeping the online community up and running.By stopping to play the game? :lol (A lot of people at level 50 have stopped playing the game...)
Level 50 means nothing and certainly doesn't mean you should get the game for free. It's just another statistic. What keeps the game running are people dedicated to playing it long after it's release, and what have we here? WipeoutZone, a place chock full of these people. People giving feedback on what they like and dislike about the game, bugs and etc. People arranging meetings and tournaments, etc.
Does this mean WipeoutZone should get the game for free? No. Basically nothing you can do while playing the game or about the game means you should get the game for free. The only thing would be a contest, and I hardly see that ever happening for full games, let alone DLC like Fury.
The only possible way to get the game "for free" would be a limited time beta trial, but again this hardly happens for full games, so for DLC the chances are even slimmer. And then you'd have to buy the game anyways once the beta ends.
In the end, nobody will get the game for free, unless the DLC is actually made free which I doubt.