Take-2 is ripping us off

[Siberian HEAT]

It probably won't do any good, but for anyone interested in trying to make Take-2 aware of the price-gouging they are doing with TOAW:ACOW -- you can send an email to them.

retail@take2store.com is the email I found on their store site.

Just ask them to drop the price to something more reasonable (like US20) instead of US40 for a friggin' jewelcase-only version of the game! That is just crazy!

There are a lot of people out there who throw around the idea of grabbing the ACOW disc, but who is going to pay 40 bucks for a jewelcase game? :argh:

[JMS]

I would venture that they are not ripping anyone here off since we all have the game, apparently. But I agree that's too pricey for such an old product. The alternative will be having an illegal copy. Anyway, they are shooting themselves on the foot.

[Siberian HEAT]

Originally posted by JMS
I would venture that they are not ripping anyone here off since we all have the game, apparently. But I agree that's too pricey for such an old product. The alternative will be having an illegal copy. Anyway, they are shooting themselves on the foot.

Well, my headline was mainly to grab attention to this issue :D

The main people getting ripped off are the newcomers to our hobby and those who have older versions but are getting back into it. After hearing us rave (and bash) the TOAW game system, they inevitably come to the conclusion that they must purchase the latest version of this game to be properly in-tune with the community. Since no one on the planet seems to have the game in stock anymore...all roads lead back to Take-2.

They are either gouging us becuase we are a niche market, or they are just so out of tune with pricing because this game is beneath their radar. I am hoping it is the latter.

[Xandamere]

There's a copy of ACOW on Ebay right now (along with a bunch of copies of volume 1), here's the link if anybody is interested:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3619531739&category=182

Perhaps we could try to do some good for the gamer community in general, and as a group warfarehq could try to pick up a few copies off ebay and similar sites, and then resell them to people who need copies at cost plus shipping/paypal fees? I think this would be a very cool thing to do to help out newcomers to the hobby...

[Siberian HEAT]

Originally posted by Xandamere
There's a copy of ACOW on Ebay right now (along with a bunch of copies of volume 1), here's the link if anybody is interested:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3619531739&category=182

Perhaps we could try to do some good for the gamer community in general, and as a group warfarehq could try to pick up a few copies off ebay and similar sites, and then resell them to people who need copies at cost plus shipping/paypal fees? I think this would be a very cool thing to do to help out newcomers to the hobby...

I actually thought of doing that a while ago...the only problem was I couldn't find any copies. Besides the odd copy popping up on Ebay there is no one place to get them cheap. I have even scoured the local shops to no avail. :cry:

[Xandamere]

Yeah, I just spent some time cruising around online and I only found that one for sale on Ebay. Thing is, I don't think we'd need that many to help supply new players, so picking up the occasional copy on Ebay would be really helpful.

[antoni34]

:o Over here in the UK it is now TOTALLY unavailable from my local shop

I bought mine AT LEAST 2 years ago ( and have played it to death):)

[Xandamere]

Well let us U.S. players know if any friends need a copy!

[antoni34]

Thanks for the kind offer Xandermere, but I think there only left the hardcore gamers in the UK !"!!:p

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Thanks for catching that copy on E-Bay Xandamere. I've got a good friend in the ACWGC that I play on a regular basis that is looking for a copy and I sent him the link to that page. Hope he can grab it. I keep looking every other day or so for a copy there.

[Mantis]

You should post his name so there's no bidding war...

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

His E-Bay username is tnbloodnguts.....so if you would all be so kind to just let him have it, but then again I'm sure some of you have freinds who would like it also. :D

[a white rabbit]

..sorry, 40$ for toaw-acow ?..a gift..the game-miles i've had from mine , now preserved in a very safe place as i use the no-cd patch..,

..cummon guys, it's a classic game system, nothing better on the market and no sign of a replacement..,

..and then there's the BioEd..:)

[Mad Max]

Try www.vortigern.com.au . I got a copy there recently. $A55 though.

[a white rabbit]

..not expensive..really, work out the cost per playing hour, you'l be amazed how good the value is..just once thru CSV and you're on a winner..,

[Siberian HEAT]

It is easy for us to look back and justify our purchases of the game...the hours and hours of gameplay have MORE than made up for the price. :thumup:

However, no one is just going to stumble into Take-2 and pay $40 to "try it out". The price needs to drop to reflect the age of the game...and with a more moderate price it will be easier to gain more members to our community. Take-2 is ripping us off by pushing away potential players, friends, and community members. It is one thing that they wanted to just sit on the code and do nothing with the game...but if you are going to do that, at least price it like you don't care.

I am all for paying top dollar for a good game, but my perception is that Take-2 has just overlooked ACOW and has forgotten to drop the price for the past several years. If they actively supported the game, yes it would be worth 40. Since they don't even know it exists...they shouldn't ask that kind of money.

[Xandamere]

Just to present the counterargument to this (from their point of view, I don't really agree with this), but I'm sure what Take 2 is thinking is that since sales of ACOW are so low, but in order to sell it they have to have a web page up for it and still print copies of it, etc...I guess they just don't feel like it's worth it to them to go through the bother of making more ACOW copies if they're only going to sell for $20. They probably feel like if they're going to go through the hassle of continuing to produce a game that doesn't sell very many copies per year, they'll only do it if they can make a good profit off of it. That being said, I still think we could try to convince them to lower the price since they haven't supported or released any updates for TOAW in so long, it's not like pressing a few CD's and putting them in jewel cases really costs them that much.

[Xandamere]

I received this response to an email I sent to Take 2:

Mr. McComb

Thank you for your email. Century Of Warfare remains one of our top seller's, believe it or not. We cannot keep this game in stock at times due to the demand for it at any price. World At War is another of our older games that remains a top seller.

I have passed on your suggestion to the VP and would like to thank you again for your input.

[Xandamere]

And another response:

It really is a top seller, take it from the woman who manages the
inventory and watch's it fly from the shelves, so to speak ;)

It is amazing how well this game sells, and outsells even the most recent hot new releases. We deeply appreciate all that your group and other's like you have done for this game.

I know that you have maybe thought that since this game has been out for quite some time that we as a company overlook it, but that is so not the case. We get 100's of emails when it sells out asking when we will be getting it back in and emails from people who are willing to pay anything for any type of copy we have, they love it that much!

Again, I am sorry you thought we were trying to gauge you and your fellow wargamer's, please let them know that was not our intention, we really do care about our customer's.

Currently we are working on trying to bring the Battle Ground
Collection back to life as well, because those to have an enormous fan base of people who would love to see them again.

Have a wonderful day!

[JMS]

(Scratching his head with a puzzled expression)

So it sells like hotcakes, but they cannot devote anyone to wrap the patches?????

:hmmm:

[MikeJ]

Hundreds of e-mails whenever it goes out of stock?!

So, as JMS pointed out - where in the hell are the patches :(

[Wolf]

So, it's selling hundreds of copies (and making them a lot of cash) so why the hell will they not support it any more - getting Norm to advance the game etc! As for re issueing the Battleground games, I can just see it
*Boardroom meeting at Take Two*
#Overpaid Executive 1# "I think I know how we can improve our profits"
#Overpaid Executive 2# "How"
#OP1# "Lets just burn a few more copies of this, we don't need to improve it, the fools will buy it anyway.
#OP2# "Good idea, I don't know why we bother to spend all this money on programmers anyway"

Cynical Moi? :cool:

[Wolfe Tone]

Well I paid $60 ( incl. postage) for my copy in 2001 direct from them. My contact there was Melissa who was very helpful. I think it was more than worth the price.
Just a word of warning though about how the community approaches this. At the end of the day Take Two hold the cards here so pissing them off does not get us any further down the road re seeing patches, better pricing, better distribution etc.
The way forward is to use every commercial argument to make our case, like 'money talks'. If they are really getting hundreds of e-mails on this we have to convince them they could be instead getting/selling thousands of copies if they apply themselves a bit more this goldmine they are sitting on.
I think that is the way to go.

[MikeJ]

Well, if Take-2 put out an expansion pack where they let Norm go nuts for a few months and give us things like editable weapons database, combat calculation fixes, more events for the scenarios and all the things we're all hoping for, I'd pay 29.99 US for it.

But I don't know if Take-2 would ever support that kind of idea. As well as TOAW may be selling right now, an expansion pack or something similar to have to sell quite well to become profitable. Maybe 10,000+ copies as a slightly educated but mostly wild guess. I have my doubts that TOAW has enough active players.

[laszlo.nemedi]

Originally posted by MikeJ
Well, if Take-2 put out an expansion pack where they let Norm go nuts for a few months and give us things like editable weapons database, combat calculation fixes, more events for the scenarios and all the things we're all hoping for, I'd pay 29.99 US for it.

But I don't know if Take-2 would ever support that kind of idea. As well as TOAW may be selling right now, an expansion pack or something similar to have to sell quite well to become profitable. Maybe 10,000+ copies as a slightly educated but mostly wild guess. I have my doubts that TOAW has enough active players.

Let's see the financial potential:

I would pay 30$ for a big new patch (or even more).
Come on, let's show how much they would get...

[JMS]

Arguably, that is a whole new game. Without a perception of the coding requirements it is difficult to put a price into it. However, IMO it couldn't be that difficult since BioEd was put together by an individual, but the main problem is going to be compatibility between players, as playing with the weapon database is going to mean wildly different standards. Better have an updated database.
I'll put up those 30 $

[Fallschirmjager]

Im their latest victim


I finally broke down and bought the damn thing for 39.99 :mad:



I feel especially cheated since I dont even care for any of the scenarios prior to 1950

[06 Maestro]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by a white rabbit
[B]..sorry, 40$ for toaw-acow ?..a gift..the game-miles i've had from mine , now preserved in a very safe place as i use the no-cd patch..,
--------------------
I'm using my cd to it's death. I was not aware that there is a "no cd patch". Where could I get such a wonderful thing?

[a white rabbit]

..http://www.geocities.com/iamjamiam/unwrapped.zip ..right click on the link, "save target as", follow the instructions in the readme txt, put toaw cd in a bank vault..,

[a white rabbit]

Originally posted by Fallschirmjager
Im their latest victim


I finally broke down and bought the damn thing for 39.99 :mad:



I feel especially cheated since I dont even care for any of the scenarios prior to 1950

..it's not what's on the cd that counts, it's the designer scens available that makes toaw-acow the greatest wargame system on the market..which coincidentally is why i think the price from Take2 is fair..,

..then there's the BioEd..,

[Wolf]

White Rabbit, by your argument, take two woul get $10 per game and the other $30 would be shared out among the many unpaid designers out there - now that would be fair :D

[jaja94mustang]

Now I am the latest victim of Take 2. I got my game last Wednesday. Ill give them credit though. They shipped it out very quickly. I ordered it online at 3:00 pm eastern time on Tuesday and recieved it on Wednesday. $56.00 for it coming next day air from UPS. I feel that the price was a bit high but Ive already played the game forprobably over 20 hours in the 1st week. I LOVE this game. I had the TOAW 2 for several years and got interested in it again during Iraqi Freedom. I found this website and couldn't believe that this game had such a following. I drooled over all of the scenarios. But they were all for COW. SO i shelled out the cash and dont regret it one bit.

[tigersqn]

Originally posted by jaja94mustang
Now I am the latest victim of Take 2. I got my game last Wednesday. Ill give them credit though. They shipped it out very quickly. I ordered it online at 3:00 pm eastern time on Tuesday and recieved it on Wednesday. $56.00 for it coming next day air from UPS. I feel that the price was a bit high but Ive already played the game forprobably over 20 hours in the 1st week. I LOVE this game. I had the TOAW 2 for several years and got interested in it again during Iraqi Freedom. I found this website and couldn't believe that this game had such a following. I drooled over all of the scenarios. But they were all for COW. SO i shelled out the cash and dont regret it one bit.

Yep. We've all been bitten.

[LanceRunolfsson]

My first copy of TOAW ran me $1,200 because it was the first thing I ever saw that convinced I had a use for a computer beyond E-mail and a fancy Typewriter which a weak 2nd hand 386 did just fine. I bought TOAW Elite I and II the first day I had a comp that would run it which was the day after I played a hot seat with a pal at his place. Then I bought COW a few months later when it came out didn't begrudge it one bit. I wouldn't mind shelling out another $60.00 If they came out with something that was a marginal improvement even though I piss and moan about all the stuff that is done just plain wrong and poorly with the current edition. Now I don't really know for sure but I am guessing that developing something like COW or The CS series (World at War) costs a fraction of developing the average FPS or RTS because of art work alone. Who knows if these games are good sellers they may just wise up and realize that though wargames are a niche market they are a steady niche. I have spent hundres if not thousands over the years on board games that never got played. $60.00 don't sound like a bad deal at all.

[a white rabbit]

Originally posted by LanceRunolfsson
My first copy of TOAW ran me $1,200 because it was the first thing I ever saw that convinced I had a use for a computer beyond E-mail and a fancy Typewriter which a weak 2nd hand 386 did just fine. .

..more or less ditto..,