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Neverwinter: Beta Weekends and Founders' Packs Detailed
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
As Neverwinter gears up for launch, the teams at Cryptic and Perfect World announced today three beta weekend events, plus a slew of founders' packs that come with a host of extra incentives on top of beta access for each weekend, and early access to the upcoming Open Beta.
Info courtesy of Kotaku:
Scheduled for February 8-10, March 8-10, and March 22-24, the beta weekends will let thousands of players get a taste of the game before its Open Beta launch later this year. The team also announced its plans for the game's Founders program, with three distinct levels of buy-in:
Neverwinter Starter Kit:
The Neverwinter Starter Kit costs $19.99 USD (valued at $49.00) and supplies adventurers with virtual consumable goods to aid them in their quest for glory:
‘Adventurer’s Helper Pack’ containing six different types of in-game items
‘Small Bag of Holding’ for twelve extra inventory slots
‘Amulet of Protection’ itemGuardian of Neverwinter Pack:
The Guardian of Neverwinter Pack costs $59.99 USD (valued at $149.00). In addition to guaranteed entry to all three Beta Weekends, the pack also includes VIP beta perks, and a variety of in-game items exclusive to ounder’s Pack purchasers, including:
Three-day head start access to Neverwinter Open Beta
Unique ‘Gold Moonstone Mask Regalia’ head piece
Unique ‘Armored Horse’ mount
Unique ‘Direwolf Companion’
In-game and forum ‘Founder’ titleHero of the North Founder’s Pack:
For the ultimate Neverwinter experience, the Hero of the North Founder’s Pack costs $199.99 USD (valued at $549.00). It guarantees entry to all three Beta Weekends, includes VIP access to Moonstone Mask Tavern, early access to The Foundry (Neverwinter’s user-generated content creation tool), fifteen additional in-game items, plus features the following exclusive items that are only available through the Founders’ Pack program:
Five-day head start access to Neverwinter Open Beta
Beta Weekend Friend Invite code
Exclusive access to ‘Menzoberranzan Renegade’, a drow playable race like the legendary ranger Drizzt Do’Urden, complete with unique racial abilities and tattoo
Unique ‘Armored Spider’ mount
Unique ‘Panther Companion’
In-game and forum ‘Founder’ title
VIP Game Access to skip-the-line and get priority log-in access
Read about Neverwinter at Neverwinter's Official Site.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
Not gonna lie... tempted to shell $200 for the Drizzt-alike. :P
Edit: At least in this case, you're not paying a "Life Sub", just for a lot of perks. The above tongue-emote implies sarcasm by the way.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
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So we give you $200, basicly a year or more worth of sub fees to many other tested games and if the game sucks then.....
Not a chance in hell, let me test it first and for an extended amount of time, if it is a game I know i will love and play for years then sure, maybe.
How many other games have promised the world only to disapoint, I bought Guild Wars 2 Collectors Edition - Regret, Age of Conan Collectors Edition - Regret, Diablo 3 Collectors Edition - MASSIVE REGRET.
You want way more than any of them charged for a game I have only seen video clips of ?
No thanx
Way to expensive for founders packs... what is this new BS where companies make us pay to supposedly beta test?
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Rideable Armoured Spiders.
For when Rideable Normal Spiders just won't do.
Great... just what fantasy gaming needed more... Drizzt. The worst, possibly most cliche and most overused character ever created. Also for a F2P game, they sure value themselves. Sorry. Not gonna bother.
Whats with the 200$ lately anyway? Seems like the go to number for "VIP packs" in F2P world lately. It's about 140$ more than I'm willing to pay for any game, let alone one that's supposedly free to play.
You're really just paying for early access, guaranteed beta time, and a few perks. If you can wait, might as well! It'll be F2P after all.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
NWN has a special place in my heart. However, I would never pay $200 upfront, not for this game. The shoes they have to fill are just too large, the chance this game will be horrible is too large. $60 almost seems like too much to pay for what will be f2p.
This whole tiered setup just seems grimy and exploitative.
Dont do it fellas.
I was skeptical about Neverwinter when it was first announced and lately I was becoming more interested in the game and I was turning from pure skepticism to pessimistic optimism, but after hearing this my enthusiasm dropped a good deal.
Play as Drizzt for $200? Pathetic. The fact that they would encourage people to copycat Drizzt and make this a feature of the most expensive pre purchase option is total asshat. I hope this is PWE's influence because if this is the mindset that Cryptic is applying to the game then what little optimism I dredged up is rapidly dwindling.
I think it sounds really reasonable! I mean doesn't Cryptic have a great track record of launching games in great shape?
Oh...right.
No chance in hell I would pay $200 for freaking beta access, and a stupid Drow race. Are you kidding me? Remember when a Beta used to be about getting good testers to make a game better at launch?
First marvel heroes then this? This one doesn't even come with currency to use in the RM shop. Holy crap.
I can understand a 60$ founder pack. It's kind of like buying a ps3 game or buying the client if you will but 200$ is just retarded
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
The $200 pack is obviously not meant for everyone, which is why there are three tiers to the program. I'm not sure why people react this way every time a new game announces a pack like this. Think back to any MMO you've ever played, didn't you know that 'one guy' who always played? Even when you took a break for six months and came back? He'd still be there happily playing like it was the first month of launch.
That's the player who will be interested in the top-tier pack. It's not like PWE (or any other game offering this sort of thing) is only offering a single high priced tier. No one's forcing you to buy the thing. The fact of the matter is that game development costs real money and being able to guarantee some sort of upfront revenue is pretty attractive, especially when you're giving away the game for free. I think offering excited and dedicated fans some additional value in exchange for an upfront cost can be a real win-win for both parties involved when done well.
Have at it if you want to criticize the actual content:value ratio of this particular pack (or any other), but I think the kneejerk scoffing at the price of these high-tier packs and $150 Collector Editions is honestly a bit silly.
What about the $199.99 pack, they say it has value at $549.00
I'm happy some rich people will buy these packs, so we get free to play games, but I don't think many people will buy these
I remember when this game was going to be single player, they decided to convert it to an mmo and now they want $200!? ... yea, I dont think so.
Ok. I am calling bullshit on the Hero of the North pack. I want to see the actual accounting sheets with the amounts tabulated under GAAP to make my own determinations here. I know business accounting, I also know sales and gaming. I realyl don't see how anything in that pack is valued at over half a grand.
Show me the accounting numbers so I can see the money!!!
Could you please point to when this was a single-player game? Let me call it right now, you can't.
$200 is way too much for what is being offered. If this was a sub based game and that investment covered the sub, or got you a monthly stipend for the life of your account then it would make sense. Everything in the $200 pack will be available within the first year in the store anyways.
Wow, F2P games are getting pricey these days.
I'm hyped for this game and would gladly support it with 60€ as B2P model, but these packs are pretty confusing. So what exactly here is worth 60$ or 200$? Extra companion, a mount and another race? Seriously?
I always love the "valued at" parts of these marketing lines. How's a pack of noob items, some inventory space and an amulet worth more than most single-player games or GW2? Will inventory bags cost 20$ in the cash shop?
The Foundry sounds good, but I find every other aspect of this game unappealing, including this offer.
Pay $200.
2Win.