I wish you all, as often, a nice Wednesday afternoon or whenever you happen to drop by this column. You know, I have always been someone who had a lot of fun in beta tests. It was a nice privilege to be able to test future game content beforehand. Unfortunately, that has changed massively in recent years – because what could be closer than selling a free-to-play game for three times the price of an ordinary game?
150 bucks – basically free
Yeah, I know. Nobody is forced to buy so-called founder packages. Still, I find the prices they charge for it an outrageous sham in today’s times. By giving a game, like Devilian, a vote of confidence and paying for it even though the game will ultimately be F2P, you’re of course playing into the hands of the publishers. I find a founder package particularly disturbing in cases where the game is actually already launched – as in the case of Blade&Soul. The game has been running in Korea for years, so there can hardly be talk of a “founder package” for “players of the first hour” – unless, of course, one wants to squeeze a little more money out of the players. Long live capitalism!
Beta access – a privilege for fat wallets?
To quote Jochen Malmsheimer: Nothing was better in the past. It was just a lot earlier. Still, I think it’s a shame for the gaming industry when beta versions are sold as if they were a premium game in a gold version with 30 expansions and collector’s value that is also limited to 10 copies, all signed by the developers and hand-burned. But no, basically you get access to an unfinished game for exorbitant sums, serve as a tester (who is paid to be a tester – do you notice that?) and can then look forward to two titles and a pink sword in the live version, when you presumably no longer feel like the game. Yeha, if that wasn’t well-invested 150€, then I don’t know what is!
Sure, not all founder packages are bad or pure rip-offs, but I can’t think of a single example from the last few months where I thought “That sounds like a really fair offer”. What do you think? Have you jumped at founder packages in the last few months? If so, why? If not – same question!
