Which is why I only have CMBN and Black Sea. If they were cheaper, I'd have them all, even though I'd have spent a lot more. Consumers are smart, except when they're really dumb. Battlefront's reasons are the same as Esim's...small market that they've basically cornered (for WW2 anyways). I'd also say the track modelling on the vehicles seems better in CM, but maybe that's a product of the terrain that will change?
And it's funny you mention infantry as I was just yesterday running over my moron russian troops in Steel Fury (STA) that wouldn't get out of the way

You're probably right, and it's not that I can't afford it, but I (like many) am a careful consumer, and have been spoiled by Steam sales where I end up buying 3 or 4 $5 games I'll never play every sale...it's an addiction more than anything I realize I just called myself a careful consumer that's addicted to sales! I've been watching SABOW for 2 years now, waiting for the best discount! I know that pricing changes aren't going to result in a flood of new customers, I just think it would maybe get the fence-sitters like myself, but I have no idea how many that may be, and you've certainly already changed your pricing to accommodate to an extent.

US consumers are also getting this for quite a bit less than the rest of us. At $125 CDN, it would obviously be easier to swallow. Even better at $99.99 (even at $US...marketing 101). Save your fingers Ssnake, I know you have reasons for the $125 My $1 is still worth the same purchasing power to me...it's only when it crosses borders that I get shafted. I've had this discussion with my bro-in-law in Seattle several times when we are deciding who should come to who's house for Christmas! Depends on the dollar for me...he always gets a discount that is even greater as many things are also a lot cheaper here.

I also have a much smaller buying pool for used dongles (only 36M people in the 2nd largest country in the world, and half of that is in Ontario & Quebec). Maybe that will make it easier though, who knows. This sale was restricted to continental US (as I'm sure most are)...couldn't even buy it if I wanted to.

The new terrain has me sold already. My favourite game of all time may be M1TP2, and this really looks to be the (only) spiritual successor. Going back and playing it now, it was seriously ahead of it's time...still have my CD and mint-condition spiral-bound manual! Just curious Ssnake, what would your split be for sales in each country? Top 3?

A few other questions, I see a lot of user-made battles on Steelbeasts.com (back to 2008), but do they need to be updated to 4.0 in order to be playable? I suppose that depends on the changes? If I decide not to upgrade to 5.0 whenever that is, does it make the older 4.0 battles unplayable for me if they're all upgraded from 4 to 5? How much effort is it to make your own?

There's a difference between not buying a game because you're not sure if it's something you want to play vs. not buying a game just because you don't want to get it at that price.

I am sure I'll play the new Shadow of Mordor game but I'm not paying current-day prices for it. I have a lot of backlog so I'm happy to wait for a 50% off sale or something in a year or two. It seems to me that you do want this game.... you're just not willing to pay the asking price.

I totally understand that Steam sales make it harder to justify higher prices for run of the mill games, and if you're primarily after entertainment, there are good games out there that are also cheap. They can be cheap because they were designed for a mass audience, therefore sales figures are much higher and the entire mass production logic applies. So by all means, indulge!

We at eSim Games have zero inclination to jump into a price competition with Steam sales, however.
If you're waiting for that, don't hold your breath.


Steel Beasts Pro PE is offered for the price that covers its marginal costs of creation and production. Even then our customers reap the benefit of heavily subsidized development. Armies pay for that, so we can sell the Personal Edition for the marginal production costs rather than trying to recoup the total development costs. Also, armies largely subsidize the actual content. Otherwise you'd never get to see the interior of most of our AFVs and how their fire control system worked - save for volunteering as a soldier (and even then you'd get to learn only one, maybe up to three of these but certainly not more.


In short, we offer something unique. EIther it is "unique enough" for you (our offer stands).
Or if you aren't that much interested in the specifics of Steel Beasts, Steam sales offer the grand opportunity to reduce the price per hour of entertainment from a few dozen cents with Steel Beasts, to a few percent of a cent. I have never debated the customer's final say in purchasing decisions. All I'm asking you is to fairly judge our offer and then to make your informed decision. Depending on the individual perspective, for some we offer a great deal, for others not so much. Both are entirely valid points of view.

No.
We understand that for our army customers the real investment isn't our license price or the development costs (even if they can be substantial). The investment that really matters is training content (=scenario files, maps), so one of our top five development tenets is to ensure backwards compatibility


A primitive scenario can be hacked together in a few minutes.
A somewhat more complex yet still simple scenario might cost you half an hour or so, not counting test runs.
A highly complex scenario will cost a lot more effort, of course.

Sorry, why are we talking about Steam?? I don't think Steel Beasts is available via Steam....

At the end of the day, any computer game for the PC these days game competes with Steam as the dominant distribution platform, and the expectations that it creates among the game consumers.

Was there any plans to bring Steel Beasts onto Steam?

No.

I didn't think so So why were we talking about Steam? I don't think your Steel Beasts customer (one who actually BUYS SB) would have the same expectation with SB as they do with Steam... or do they?

I answered that already, in post #4395320.

Like I said, I don't think your Steel Beasts customer (one who actually BUYS SB) would have the same expectation with SB as they do with Steam

I don't believe anyone said that. I think the point's been made.

Said what?

Nobody said that the average SB customer has the same sales expectation as Steam. That wasn't the point. You can't have a conversation about PC games (esp pricing) these days without comparing to Steam. Other than this game and Battlefront games, I'm not aware of any company NOT on steam. This creates consumer expectations about pricing. I gladly paid $60 for M1TP2 back in the day and never thought twice as every other game out there was also $60. Not the case these days. No, there are no modern tank sims like this on Steam. There are however several quality, high fidelity sims on Steam (Graviteam, DCS, IL2 games, etc) that could easily substitute for this game. I like a good chopper sim just as much as a tank sim...

I think you started us on this path when you mentioned being spoiled by Steam So Ssnake went out and explained that line of thinking as far as eSim is concerned.


Agreed, but you don't only look at game prices, but game content as well. For things that break the mold such as simulations, game content often justifies the price. Or tries to. I'm looking at you, TS20XX!


Combat mission stuff... P3D... Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2....


Bottom line, I think the idea is that SB is not something you buy without fully knowing what you're getting into.... but even if you do find that it's not a good fit, you can always sell the dongle to others and "lose" $40 or try the heck out of the game via a time-based license and "lose" $24.50.... that's about £18 which is a movie, some popcorn, and a drink.