Slitherine

Hi, I loved Panzer General back in the day. I played the Panzer Corps demo and enjoyed it, but have not purchased the game yet, for a few reasons:

1) I prefer downloading games from Steam rather than publishers, because I like how Steam works, trust that Steam will be around for a long time, and am reassured that the Steam forums offer good, current support. (And no, I'm not interested in a physical copy). I see that Panzer Corps has been green-lighted on Steam, but I don't know if/when it will become available.

2) Panzer Corps has so much DLC that I'd rather wait for a bundle of all the DLC. Steam does this all the time with their "franchise packs", and "developer packs". It would be awesome to see either a Panzer Corps franchise pack or a Slitherine developer pack on Steam. Couple those with a nice discount/sale and I'm sure tons of us fence-sitters would leap at it.

3) I can't decide between Afrika Korps and the core game, mostly because I'm not sure how much overlap there is between them and the campaign DLC and/or the Panzer General campaign. I'm more interested in the European theatre, but I feel like there would be more new content in North Africa. I suppose I will eventually get both. Too bad there isn't a bundle for both.

So here are much questions:

1) What is the general feeling on if/when Panzer Corps will be available on Steam?

2) Will AK and the DLC become available on Steam at the same time as the core game?

3) Will the DLC bundle be available on Steam?

4) Will Steam be able to bundle the core game and AK?

5) Will Steam be able to bundle the core game, AK, and all the DLC content in one tidy package?

6) Will Steam be able to offer significant discounts like they do for their seasonal sales and daily sales? (Can you imagine getting the entire set of Panzer Corps content for 75% off?)


I love bargains, so to me Steam is a godsend. I'd love to see Panzer Corps get the Steam treatment. If the entire series were offered on Steam for a big discount, I (and many others) would buy it in a heartbeat!

I'll try to answer these as best I can, but others may have more exact information for you.

#1.
Hard to say, last I was aware, Panzer Corps was caught in the Steam Greenlight process.
viewtopic.php?f=121&t=41255

#2-6
All of these questions are really dependent on #1, but it's pretty logical to assume the answer to all of them is 'yes', assuming #1 is ever satisfied of course.

Okay, thanks.

If Steam doesn't happen in the near future (say, a month or two), I'll just have to hope there's a nice non-Steam bundle.

Questions:

7) Will Slitherine's shop always have the best prices for Panzer Corps, AK, and the DLC? Or could other sites have their own bundles which [temporarily perhaps] beat Slitherine's prices?

Is Slitherine likely to offer a bundle of both the campaign DLC and the core game and/or AK? Or is the current plan to have the DLC bundle always be separate of the core game and AK?

9) How often do the Panzer Corps core, AK, and DLC go on sale?


(As you can tell from my questions, I'm trying to figure out the least expensive way to get all the Panzer Corps content at once, now that the DLC campaign set is complete.)

tripecac wrote:7) Will Slitherine's shop always have the best prices for Panzer Corps, AK, and the DLC? Or could other sites have their own bundles which [temporarily perhaps] beat Slitherine's prices?

To my knowledge no.

tripecac wrote: Is Slitherine likely to offer a bundle of both the campaign DLC and the core game and/or AK? Or is the current plan to have the DLC bundle always be separate of the core game and AK?

There's no current plan for having a bundle with DLC and the core game.

tripecac wrote:9) How often do the Panzer Corps core, AK, and DLC go on sale?

AK and DLC were never on sale. Probably the next sale will be during the traditional Christmas season. I don't know if the DLC megapack will be on sale on Christmas.

Our site will always be the cheapest place to buy the game. We don't allow anyone to sell our games at lower prices and we rarely drop the prices. We make premium quality games at a premium price.

The plan for the foreseeable future is to have
* Base Game
* Afrika Corps
* DLC bundle
* DLC's available individually

We have no plans to bundle everything together as we are still producing content and so the bundle goes out of date too quickly to make much sense.

VPaulus and Iain, thanks for the info.

Right now the cost of getting everything (Base Game, AK, DLC) is a bit daunting, especially for someone who's only played the demo (and I'm in New Zealand, so prices are higher, both for downloads and shipping). I realize that we don't *have* to get everything, that we can just start with the Base Game and gradually expand, spreading the costs out...

But some of us Steam users tend to be completionist collectors, and instinctive bargain hunters. Steam users are accustomed to buying complete series at heavy discounts, and the more patient of us wait until games go on sale for 75% off or more before buying. It means staying a few months/years behind everyone else, but we get to save a heck of a lot of money, and by the time we play games they are thoroughly patched, reviewed, and documented.

Perhaps Steam users are spoiled? Not quite living in the real world?

Well, if Panzer Corps makes it to Steam, there will be a lot of other people like me waiting for the big Panzer Corps Franchise Pack with a huge discount. If something like that doesn't arrive, Steam users might get frustrated. Or they might just wait. And wait. And wait.

If the game does go to Steam I can assure you it wont be at 75% off. We'll never sign up to that level of discounting It's completely contrary to our business model and we value our early adopters and don't penalize them with heavy price cuts after release.

Very few games on Steam seem to avoid the periodic 50%/75% sales. Big games, small games, they all seem to "succumb" to the temptation eventually.

And it makes sense... If a 75% sale results in 10 or 20 times as many sales (mostly from people who would not normally buy the game), and all downloads are from Steam's servers, then what's the cost to the company? There doesn't seem to be much of an opportunity cost (since the 75% sales attract compulsive, "marginally interested" bargain hunters rather than the dedicated niche audience), it expands the fan base into a wider demographic, and it results in a short-term cash boost.

I have bought many, many games on Steam that I would never buy normally, all thanks to those big discounts. Steam is very effective at pitching bargains. It rewards patient consumers, and it seems to reward the game companies as well. Otherwise, why would so many big and small developers and publishers put their games on Steam? And why would they allow Steam to offer those periodic big bargains? Do you think the other game companies have the wrong business model?

Keep in mind that Steam's 75%-off sales are periodic. Maybe 2 to 4 times a year, lasting a couple days each time. So 95% of the time the games are offered at full price or at a smaller discount (say 10% off). It's not like Steam is a permanent bargain bin. Valve wants to make money, too!

If you are worried about irritating the early adopters, you could give them a survey. You could ask them if their DLC-purchasing behavior would change if the game were offered at periodic discounts on Steam. My guess (and it's just a guess) is that most would say "no". Paying $5 every month or so for a constant stream of DLC content is already a great price. It's only for late adopters that the DLC pricing feel prohibitive.

Early adopters who have been buying the DLC all along probably want one thing above all else: that the franchise continue, with no compromise in quality.

For that to happen, the company needs to make money. Whether that money comes from early full-cost purchases or late 75%-off purchases probably does not matter to the early adopters. They understand sales. They are happy to pay full cost to play the DLC as soon as it comes out, because for them, time is more important than money. And some of those late-adopters will acquire the same mindset. But you won't have many late adopters "joining the club" when the cost of entry seems so prohibitive!

While that model may work for the mass market it doesn't work in our niche. The number of people that would be interested at any price is limited so we're very careful with sales.

too darn right ian !! .. i usually buy a new panzercorps add on when it's released and look forward to supporting a company that brings out excellent games that are of a quality that just isn't available in the mass market .. i would be gutted to know that if in a year or two's time i could buy the entire lot at a 75% reduction as a bundle! keep making the great quality games you do , and people who are genuine fans of the game will keep buying! .. still would be nice to see a user material/scenario/multiplayer maps download box on the start up menu,.. to reward those who have exhausted all normal DLC !!

Well, as a series progresses, the cost of entry (for customers who want the full experience) becomes greater and greater.

I guess each company needs to decide whether they are more likely to get money from their current customer base (by releasing periodic DLC) or from new customers (by lowering the cost of everything that has been developed so far).

Right now I feel like an "outsider looking in", wanting to join the club, but daunted by the fee.

Over time there will be more and more people like me. The early adopters are happy to pay their $5 every month or two to stay caught up, but the rest of us stare at the price of "full membership" and shake our heads. Some of us will take the plunge, some will head to the torrent sites, and some will simply wait. And as more DLC comes out, the price goes up, so we become less and less likely to join the club. And if we're not part of the club, we can't join the list of people paying the $5 for each new DLC pack as soon as it's released.

I hope the company finds a way to make newcomers feel welcome. Specifically, completionist newcomers. Who like bargains. I cannot possibly be the only one! Just ask all the folks trying to get Panzer Corps on Steam.