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Clyde
07-09-03, 16:20
Tooken from neocroncentral.com august 13, 2000

Bruce Crest has made a couple of posts to this Forum Thread about Neocron getting a publisher, I think you'll find this interesting:

Okay, I´give you an insight into our business considerations:
Most publishers we talked to, do not accept the fact that we definitely want to have a FREE downloadable version aswell. They think that this is a massive competition they'd have to go against and which remarkebly would decrease sales of the box version.

So, we could jump on e.g. Acclaim's strong arm and let them do the job, but that'd mean that there was NO free version of the game. And the free version is sthg. we'll definitely stick to.

Another fact is that Reakktor does have the budget to have massive pr campaigns and get the game out via mailorder in all major territories themselves.

Last but not least: Don't you forget that a publisher wants money for his job. They ask for small royalties of the monthly fees and around 70-80% of the box retail income.

With other words: We will not have to sell as many copies WITHOUT an external publisher to have the same income that we'd have WITH a publisher... get it?

...and this:
I guess that when the beta starts, we'll get more offers from publishers who are willing to distribute the box even though there is also a freeware version. Thus far we have sthg. like 5 offers from pubs, who want to have it exclusively WITHOUT the freeware version. ...but I guess the world has to see the level of quality of this product to accept our approach. After all, quality is the key... not the shinyness of the box.

what ever happened to that idea?

enablerbr
07-09-03, 16:30
well i find the comment about loss of profit due to a free download version a laugh. afterall people still need to pay for an online key to play it. also a box version is a very expense cost in terms of packaging.

another thing is not everyone has a fast broadband net access. only those diehard 56kers and the like will download such a huge file size. in which case said players would by the box version.

as for socalled PR. the current CDV IMHO failed to deliver that. so surely that aloan would give KK a get out free clause from the current deal.

msdong
07-09-03, 16:35
well, this is OLD.
we dont have a FREE download. when u read the TOS you pay for the client after a week with no CD.

Heraclitus
07-09-03, 17:17
Originally posted by msdong
well, this is OLD.
we dont have a FREE download. when u read the TOS you pay for the client after a week with no CD.

Yes but not for the actual download. I think the point being made is that one can obtain the game easily from home which, I think Reakktor thinks, will fuel distribution higher than if it were only boxed and somewhat obscure. I agree with this standpoint.

Mighty Max
07-09-03, 19:27
Does that matter if the dl is the (nearly) same prize as when u buy the boxed?

But again:

THIS IS OLD, SO LEAVE IT WHERE IT WAS

Heraclitus
07-09-03, 20:15
Originally posted by Mighty Max
Does that matter if the dl is the (nearly) same prize as when u buy the boxed?


Yes because I don't have to go to the store to buy it. And if a game doesn't have a BIG publisher that store may be quite inconvenient to me, thus I may not buy it. I'm speaking from first-hand experience here, I live in a remote region of the US. The closest software store is one hour away and they DON'T carry Neocron. If Neocron were not available for download I would not be playing and paying right now. The free download has undoubtedly generated a lot more revenue for Reakktor.

VictorKruger
07-09-03, 20:45
Well in Nebraska (look in the middle of the map of the US) there are a couple stores that sell Neocron for $9.99 way under the price that you have to pay for a DL license O_o