We have decided to respond to the question of game pricing that has been brought up here a few times. Tomorrow is May the 8th, which happens to be my birthday, and I’ve decided it will be sale day at LGP.
We will be setting the price of everything (except X3 special edition) to £9 for a 24 hour period. This will last from midnight to midnight UK time.
To be honest, this isn’t going to become a regular thing, it may be the only time it will happen, so enjoy it while it lasts!
Does this imply purchases have to be made through LGP only or, say, TuxGames will do, too?
The sale is LGP only, but resellers have access to appropriate sale prices, so you can expect the sale to impact resellers for weeks to come, if they choose to pass on the savings to their customers.
Hi Michael, forgot to wish you a happy birthday!
I think it would be interesting, either as a summary or as a way to quench everyone’s thirst for figures and numbers, to run a comparison table between the normal sale days and the 24 hour sale with low price tags, see how it all panned out for LGP. You said it would not benefit LGP, that we already know for sure, but how about you tell us in a more elaborate post how positively different an experience this turned out to be? I think we’d all like to read your insight on this. :-)
We aren’t going to comment quite just yet about the result, as the day of the sale is really only part of the picture.
We need to look at the sales levels in coming weeks, and take this into account before we decide exactly how we will proceed.
I will say that we had more orders than usual, and the day was more profitable than a usual day, but on the other hand, we need to know how much of it was a one-off and how much of it was sustained buying potential before we can say for sure how lower prices would affect the business.
I kind of feel fucked with, i bought Sacred, Knights and Merchants and both Ankhs just two days ago with tuxgames.com
Guess i chose the worst time ever to buy those games….
Witht he price cuts on Sacred and Knights and Merchants i could have easily payed for both Ankhs as well.
And this is the third time I’m writing this. The first time i pressed submit without entering the code and the second time i hit my 4th mouse button and went back to the previous page…
BTW. does this offer also apply to preorders? Because then i might actually preorder Shadowgrounds.
And maybe also Bandits, but I’ve heard that Bandits is extremely boring, monotone and lacking in diversity.
Yeah sorry about that but thats the bummer with sales sometomes, and cant be avoided. LGP doesnt take preorders though
Seems like the ideal opportunity to get Ballistics.
BTW: How much does shipping to germany cost?
About 5 bucks, the more you order the cheaper it gets.
Hm, great, so i payed the friggin expensive price some days ago when i could have gotten it cheap, just by waiting…
But i wanted to buy that stuff for quite a while and finally managed to get that money aside… well, i kind of feel slapped in the face, hah.
Wow, I think I can’t remember another time in my life at which I made such a bad deal.
Also i discovered that the players playing Sacred Online, when you meet one, which is very rare, you barely meet em, i just met one yet and only because i had my server running in the background and saw when he connected, well, these player are strange, i greeted one and he did not respond, just walked around and then left after like 5 minutes.
I think that he cheated, since he did way too much damage and attacked at a rate which was way higher than normal. So i went to the server menu and disabled cheats for him, then he left.
I really can’t wait till you finally announce that “secret” title you are currently porting, the one that has multiplayer capabilities.
Well, buying the expensive games has one upside i guess, I won’t have to feel bad in case LGP goes bankrupt due to selling their games for 9.99. :P
I could still get crappy games like Mahjong or Candy Cruncher, but i have no real intention to get those.
I actually thought about ordering another copy of X3 just to support the business of LGP, a while back, but since it’s available for 9.99 now, i might actually order one to give it away as a present. The thing is, that i don’t know any linux gamers i could acutally give it to. These maniacs all use Vista, some even use the new Windows 7 Release Candidate.
I think i could actually order Postal 2 to take at least some advantage of this offer.
I already own Postal 2 so I did not order it yet, but having a boxed version would be nice I guess.
Happy Birthday!
Seems odd to be giving us the present when it is your birthday though.
Not that I’m complaining.
Thanks {;-)
I picked the day on the basis that any time I picked would annoy people who ordered the day before, and everyone is way too nice to yell at me on my birthday, right??
Nah seriously, it was picked cos it could be any day, so why not!
I’m also getting married tomorrow, so that’s a good day. :)
Although I already ordered my copy of Sacred a couple of days ago…
Congrats! Hope it all goes well!
Hi there,
great news! I considering to take advantage of this special offer. However, the announcement on your webpage (and on happypenguin) seems to be misleading, if you are offer covers all games except X3:Special. The announcement says “9 pounds for every standard edition game”. Does that cover games like “Sacred: Gold Edition” and “Majesty: Gold Edition”?
Best Regards,
Bjoern
Yes it was phrased lile that cos we were trying to just exclude x3 se, I didnt think about sacred and majesty… Oops! They are included, everything except x3 se
The special edition would have been the only thing i still could have used except for a boxed version of Postal 2. :(
And it’s not the birthday yet, you’ll have to wait 2.45h till you can congratulate.
Now do you care to tell me what’s that “secret” port, as kind of a “reparation payment”? :P
Heh, fraid not, that title will be announced later in the year ;-)
Can you at least give an accurate timeframe for that?
I’m checking the LGP site almost every day for any news. :/
Or at least something like “Summer” “Autumn” or “Winter”.
And are there any negotiations yet, concerning X3 Terran Conflict?
And cheers for bringing us X3 Reunion, such a great feeling to play it on Linux.
Only ones missing in my Linux X collection are X Beyond the Frontier, X-Tension and X3 Terran Conflict. :P
And the new game better be a game i like. :P
And is there actually still any work done on Bandits?
The last review for it I read did not really want me make to buy such a title.
I’d love to see Dungeon Siege 1 being ported since it is definately one of the best games ever.
But, haha, the day Microsoft agrees to a Linux port of one of their games, it’s probably also gonna snow in the Sahara.
I’d also appreciate seeing the game “Startopia” being ported. It’s a very diverse “economy simulation” or however you call it. well, it’s all about building a space station for aliens, there is a industrial deck, a pleasure deck and a biosphere where your aliens plant all kinds of different plants according to the environmental parameters you created there. You can also harvest those plants.
It’s one of the few games of that kind that entertained me for ages.
It has great gameplay, great humor and so on.
I really appreciate the quality of LGP ports which is very high compared to old ports like the tribsoft Jagged Alliance 2 port which is bugged to hell or even ports like Ankh or Ankh two which are also extremely bugged.
Except for 1 clipping bug in X3 which has nothing at all to do with porting, i have not encountered a single bug in any of the games ported by you guys.
Haha, that clipping bug was actually pretty fun, i flew my discoverer through some kind of Tube at a station and all of a sudden i was inside the mesh….
The timescale is at least 3 months, hopefuly less than 6, I cannot be more specific than that.
We’ve looked at startopia, nonstarter Im afraid.
Im glad you find our ports high quality tho, we really do try and go the extra mile. Thanks!
For Jagged Alliance I’d highly recommend the Stracciatella port which is at tron.homeunix.org/ja2 (and the old site ja2.dragonriders.de is no longer being updated).
Anyway, just bought four games so a very happy birthday Michael. Feel like I’m celebrating with you. You can leave packing mine until next week! ;-)
Man, I REALLY hope I haven’t forgotten about this by tomorrow… :x
Wheee! There’s nothing quite like spending money when you really shouldn’t be!
Darn game demos just make you want more. Spent twice as much as I planned to. Probably would never have even bothered trying Postal 2 or Cold War were it not for this.
So happy birthday Mr. Simms, and I hope you have many more. Preferably every couple of months or so! ;D
Happy Birthday Michael!
Now I’ll try to figure whether to buy Jets’n'Guns and Postal 2 or not.
Sure, Jets’n'Guns style games were nice in the 80s, but nowadays?
On the other hand it still comes in handy as a little “break filler”, when you don’t have enough time to start a real game.
And well made sidescroll shooters can be pretty challenging.
Are you still messing around with the order system? Because I put 5 items in the basket, then i decided that i did not want to pay that much, i wanted to pay around 50.
So i dropped one item. (well, the reason i dropped them in the first place, was that there was quite a high tax applied additionally)
After i had dropped the item i went to checkout again and suddenly all the items were 7 pounds instead of 9. Sure, there were 1.17 tax applied per item so it reached a total of 9 again, but as i went to the checkout before i had dropped the item, it was definately not calculated that way.
Also i did in fact order X3 a second time, you can never have enough of X3. :P
And who knows, maybe the resellers dont take over those prices and i can just sell that copy of X3 or i just keep it somewhere incase something happens to my other X3.
Now i can’t wait for the stuff I ordered but it won’t reach me before next week. :(
Well, then again, happy birthday, Michael.
It might actually raise the sales a bit since even i bought some more stuff although i already had bought games this month.
But i doubt that the sales will go through the roof.
Also saw that announcement of your 24h sale on some other linux site just three minutes ago. So maybe it works, who knows.
And there definately is one good thing to this whole 9 pound deal. Sacred, Ballistics and Knights and Merchants might finally get a decent multiplayer community.
Interesting that that happened, I’ll have one of our guys look at it. I mean, if its the same price anyway, then not a big deal but its a bit weird. Thanks for the report.
I think we’re looking at this more as a publicity/test the low price waters, than to see if we make a huge profit on the day, cos I dont think we will make a huge profit on the day {:-)
I like the idea about the multiplayer - I hope you’re right!
Heh the Jets game is bang up to date in terms of graphics, it blows away 80’s graphics. And the soundtrack, well, the soundtrack is what makes it for me, thats a game where the music is so good, it even beats the graphics, in my opinion
If you would have had an option to pay with something other than a credit card (paypal would be great) I would have bought Sacred and X3 today…
It’s really a pity :(
Happy birthday! :) Many thanks for the games your are porting, and, of course, your outstanding offer.
Happy Birthday and thanks a lot for this present. I was ready to buy sacred from a french reseller, great timing. I’ve completed my order with X² and Cold War, they seem to be great games (just tried the demo). Now waiting for Disciples 2 …
Good choice you made there.
Cold War was good fun for me.
A bit too linear from time to time, but it’s okay overall.
I like the story and the cutscenes.
Happy Birthday!!
Just ordered X3 : Reunion as well as Cold War… thank you!
Will there be an online store in the future? I mean, you buy, then download the content? That would be great! Ecofriendly, and possibly cheaper ;)
Thanks again!
We’re considering this, as per our poll a couple of weeks ago. I make no promises, but, it is quite possible.
Oh no, my visa is not accepted :/
How is it with bank transfer? I can send it with IBAN but it will take a few days, will be sale prices still sales prices when I have created order today?
Yes the order will be confirmed today as long as the payment is made soon it is fine
Great :) I will send it today, it will arrive in ~3 working days..
I would like to send it in EURO because it will be more expensive in GBP, may I? If not, it’s not so big problem but it will costs me less in euro :)
Thanks
Oh, and happy birthday! .-)
As long as the value comes our correct in the end, its fine
how can i do it via iban?
do i have to write my iban into the card nr line und you tell me via mail where to send the money via bank transfer??
ok kayman told me how it works in the irc thanks man.
like i read at my banks website i think it will also be better for me to make the transfer in euro, but i ll ask on monday when i do the transfer.
and also a happy birthday for micheal here, since you are afk in the irc :)
Time to put my money where my mouth is I guess.
By the way, gmail identifies your order confirmation e-mails as spam, and I can see why; a small block of text with no personal details and an obscure link. You could at least start it with the name of the account holder.
Hrm, interesting, I didnt realise. Thanks for that
Thanks a lot. My confirmation email was also in the spam box. Fortunately the LGP site showed the order had been registered on my account, so I didn’t worry, but sending emails with “Your credit card has been accepted” is a sure way to get caught by spam filters. What about “EnL4rge ur game with us” instead ;)
Thanks, I needed a reason to spend money today.
Wow sale day,
great,
i registered an account,
put coldwar, scared gold and gorky17 to the basket,
checkout,
everythink fine and fast until i saw the ‘payment button’
no paypal … i am not allowed to use my dads credit card for shopping in foreign countrys but paypal.
however, happy birthday!
I just want to say ‘Thanks!’ to all of you who have said happy birthday today. After having a lie-in, and a chocolate breakfast, it was really nice to see so many messages. I really appreciate it! Thanks!
It would be a waste not to buy anything today \o/
And happy birthday :)
Happy Birthday and many many thanks for the great offer.
I decided to make my collection of LGP games complete. 10 were left. I really hope that my girlfriend won’t notice that hihi.
Greetings
Thomas
Hi Michael and happy birthday !
Pretty much like everyone else I couldn’t resist the temptation of purchasing a couple of games using my own credit card. But now I’m kind of worried about a little something. Some guy over at Phoronix says there are some serious unresolved security issues about LGP. Is it true? I hope it isn’t!
Whoever it was, I have no idea what he was on about, can you elaborate further?
Apparently, this security issue has been brought up several times in the past by Phoronix members. It concerns XSS exploits, such as this one:
//www.linuxgamepublishing.com/newcustomeraccount.php?error=%3Cimg%20src%3d%22http%3a%2f%2fcoloss.us.to%2fballmer.jpg%22%3E
If there were indeed security issues, at least one of them guys should have let you know sooner instead of just saying there is a snag. Anyway, I’m the one that let you know, and I hope you’ll take this into account. All further details are to be found here : http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16876&page=3
I dont know if this is the issue grammata is talking about, but it felt a little awkward for me to login to my account via plain http, even when the credit card stuff was on https.
Have Fun,
Bjoern
Fair comment, thats fixable
I believe he’s refering to http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16876&page=3 especially post #25 ( http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=73500&postcount=25 )
I’m no expert, but I’m sure if you ask in this thread (or PM the author of the post) there’ll be people that can explain it.
Im aware of that, but Im not convinced that anyone can do anything useful with it. I mean, oh no, something on screen that you can see in the URL. The database is clean
Actually I think I can see some things that could be done. Its UNLIKELY but, vaguely minorly possible. I’ll make sure thats sorted by the end of the day
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=46801&postcount=6
Not massively serious IMO (though still not fixed), but the small issues can often combine with other small issues to make big honkin’ issues.
They’re right though, the LGP website needs a massive overhaul/rewrite. As it stands, it has inconsistent navigation (items come and go from the menu depending on which page you’re viewing), and it often looks like ass.
The menu changes when you are logged in or not for extra functionality, beyond that it cant change as it all comes from the same template, navigation is consistent.
As for the looks, personally, I disagree, unless people want it full of flash and sound and other stuff. We are looking at a few changes soon, but, Im not planning on a big set of changes. Someone will always not like it, it will be too cluttered/too bare too slow loading/not enough content… You can never win, so we stick with what we know {:-)
I noticed specifically that the “LGP Blog” entry disappears when you move off the main website domain (to demos. or opensource.). It smacks of a hacked-together overall solution (though, to me, using PHP at all smacks of a hacked-together solution ;)
IMO the graphical design itself on most pages looks basic, unprofessional, and is clearly showing its age (is it still the same code as when the site was launched in ‘01?). Not to mention the inconsistencies (eg. some tables/listings are just plain, some bordered, some alternate blue/white backgrounds).
And I reject your straw man argument about “flash and sound”. There’s a large amount of ground between 100% flash and what you have; little more than black text on a white background. To frame it as a binary choice between the status quo and horrendous flash is very…. George W Bush. :P
You should indeed stick to what you know. But from the evidence so far I would suggest that what you know doesn’t really encompass web design. :P
And I think that the LGP logo is also rather bland and unimaginative.
This is definitely a great day for Linuxgamers.
Happy birthday & thanks!
Never bought a game from you before but I saw the promotion on Phoronix and bought 4 games :) I’ve been wanting to give a couple of games (especially Jets N Guns) a look ever since I found the music on the Machinae Supremacy (Awesome band) website :)
I picked up Prey off tuxgames too. I would have pre-ordered Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy if there was an option :P - It looks like it could be a laugh :D
In a way i’m glad this promotion is a one off - I’d be tempted to get the X2 / X3 titles too >_> - I’m meant to be saving >_<
On an unrelated note….Have you had any contact with the guys at Linux Format? or any of the various linux podcasts? Reading some(read: all) of the comments above it sounds like getting that kind of publicity might help sales. Linux format have pretty decent circulation as far as any magazines go afaik. They often do interviews with various projects….would be cool to see a LGP interview - just a thought.
Peace.
You we have some stuff in the next couple of issues of Linux Format, assuming their schedule keeps {:-)
Great news!
I finally got X3, even though I still don’t know when I’ll have the time to play it ;)
I wanted to get Ballistic and Jets’n Guns, but the first demo didn’t want to output more sound than some environmental sound (no music, and the engines sounds were really low even thought I cranked it max), and only digital input worked on the Dual Shock 3. Jets’n Guns demo had a garbled screen after a fews seconds of play (most often it started on the selection screen). Oh, and only the digital pad and the shoulder buttons worked on the DS3 (no face buttons recognised).
As you said, the music in Jets’n Guns would be enough to buy the game, but I’d have been too upset with a shooter I couldn’t play (I love schmups)…
Teach me not to try the demos earlier and file bug reports… Well, if I eventually have to replace my 7900GS by an ATI card, I’ll try the demo again and see if it works.
I hope you had a nice birthday, and I ordered Sacred: gold and x3: reunion :)
You asked what the security vulnerabilities where. The second post by “Deanjo” on this forum page gives three links to demonstrate them: http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16876&page=3
I have to admit, I don’t know how serious these threats are on a payment page, as I am not a web developer ;)
Happy birthday and Thanks for this great day - I feel lucky ;)
I hope this day proves that LGP game prices needs to be lowered.
I bought 3 games this day (I would have bought Jet-n-Gunz but I completed the order and forgot about it) , I wouldn’t have bought those games at their “original” prices which are way way way too high specially for their age.
I really hope that you made a heck more profit then you usually make in a “good regular day” and that you learned from it.
I am not saying “sale your games for 9 Euro from now on” , but $25 is reasonable for a download version (if and when you offer this option).
Best Wishes
Maxim.
Hey Michael, browsing the Internet, I just came up with a game that you guys could port.
Neverwinter Nights 2.
Neverwinter Nights has quite a large Linux community due to the official port of NWN1.
Obsidian also ported it to MacOS already, but they won’t do a Linux port.
You could at least try to contact them and see if there is any chance of this happening.
Due to the MacOS port that was already done by them, it might not be tooo much work to port it to GNU/Linux, since MacOS uses similar libraries.
The only problem I can see here, is that even the Linux gamers might have bought it already in anticipation of a binary release as it has been done for NWN1.
So it’s hard to tell, how many potential customers might be out there.
I have to say that the other problem is that NWN2 sucked. NWN1 was a great game, 2 really did lose its way, and I think an awful lot of people agree with that. We wouldnt do NWN2 if it was offered on a plate, some of the games we do are old, but ALL of the games we do are good {:-)
Well, it has potential for sure, especially because of the toolset and the whole PW possibilities, NWN never really was about the game itself, but about the online perspective.
I kind of enjoyed the humor and the choices in NWN 2.
I really liked Kelgar.
The choice of clothing and equipment were rather poor for a modern day rpg though.
The story was kind of strange and got stranger the longer you played. :P
And what’s your definition of good, when you think that NingPo MahJong is good? :P
All the other stuff you did is good in my oppinion.
We’ll see how Bandits is gonna be when you finished porting it, judging from what I’ve read about it, it’s not exactly what i’d call good.
I never played NWN2 because it doesn’t have a Linux client, but from what I hear the expansion packs that followed NWN2 where actually very good.
We REALLY miss GOOD RPG games for Linux and I eagerly wait for a good one to be ported (already ordered Sacred Gold).
What about Fallout3 ;) (never played it but Fallout2 was one of the best games ever) ? any other RPG game in your mind ?
Fallout 3 was brillant.
It offered way more playtime than any other RPG i played in the past 5 years.
You do a whole questline and think now the game should almost be finished and then you still find 10 other questlines which are even bigger.
I can’t really see LGP working together with those big studios yet ,though.
I also would not be too keen on a Fallout 3 port, I’d rather like to see some multiplayer titles.
you played gothic 1 or 2? (leave out 3 ^^)
i love those!!
i cant think of any game i played more often through the whole story, thangothic 2 and addon. 26 times. (i started before every latin test to have a reason not to learn xD and ofcourse inbetwen ^^)
i think the gothic 1 license might be quite cheap. the producer is piranha bytes and the publisher was shoe box. at least on my boxed version. unsure wether jowood bought gothic 1 too.
We did try for Gothic *, they didnt work out,
Just a quick question…
I was looking at Shadowgrounds Survivor and noticed “Release Date expected to be 30 March 2009″. Is there any revised information on when we might expect the release?
Oh….I was also wondering if you’ve considered doing a “bounty” system. For example…..you have a couple of games you intend to port and the one with the most pre-orders gets priority. And maybe a poll system to gauge the interest on potential ports also.
I think it’d be a cool way to see how much interest there is in a game / how many people would pre-order before committing.
On the whole Pre-order side if you got a £5-10(depending on the price of the game) discount for pre-ordering I would likely do that quite often.
I’m sure you’ve probably thought of them before anyway, just thought i’d throw some ideas out incase you’re interested :D
Peace
One of the staff here has the job of upodating this information, and I see they need a kick {:-) The release date is still a bit nebulous, I’d expect ’soon’.
As for the systems for interest, that wouldnt work. We don’t just base our priorities on what people want. We have to take into account business needs, staff availability and skillset, lots of factors. As for interest in potential ports, no, because people will just go ‘yay yay huge game that is so expensive to license it would put us out of business’. Kindof self defeating {:-).
LGP doesnt even have a system for preordering, but some of our resellers do offer preorder discounts, we leave that to them. We have to be careful on our sales direct to the public, as we do not want to compete to the point our resellers cannot, as destroying the reseller chain would be a huge mistake.
Hello Again !
Now that you have counted all the sales from May the 8th sales day I want to ask you a few questions (and please also answer my last question in this topic) :
1. Does 9 Euro is a “loss sale” for you , I mean do you actually profit ANY money from selling the games at this price ?
2. IF answer 1 is “YES” then how did the sales went ? better then a “regular day” ? I mean not in terms of “copies sold” (because that’s an obvious “yes”) but in terms of “money gained” ?
3. IF answer 1 is “yes” and answer to is “we made a bigger profit this day then any other regular day” then what do you think about lowering the prices (not to 9 Euro, but something in between) OR making sales days for specific games (like in Tuxgames you can order Prey at as lower as $15 which I did) ?
Thank you for your upcoming answers
Maxim.
9GBP is borderline. We made a profit but it wasnt a huge one. As a note, as a lot of our expenses are percentage based, don’t assume that everything over 9GBP is all profit, it isnt.
The thing is, as I said yesterday, there is more to it than sales on the day. What we had a lot of is sales of older items that people were just catching up on, and impulse sales that people would have made in the weeks to come, because that day was cheaper. Sales in the following days have already shown a dip below usual, even with the advertising we got from the sale. It isnt a decision we can make overnight, or even over weeks, it will take longer to see the trends and to analyse it.
When you select to place the order by bank transfer it tells you the bank details to send to. We cant just pull money out of your account you have to go to your bank and instruct them to send it.
This has now been resolved. You can still make silly messages appear, but big whoop there, good luck anyone trying to make anything more than that happen {:-)
Ahh I see yes, that we can fix too.
As for the logo, well, that I reject entirely. Look around at every major company you can think of, their logos are ALL simple. For every one that is complex youy can find a hundred simple ones. I’m sticking with the idea that theyve spent millions on market research to find this out, and Im riding the coattails of that research {:-)
I like your logo. :)
I especially like seeing it on my boxes.