In case GPG runs out of money before "finishing" K&C...

[:1]... just release a beta version (or a later "release-preview" version) open to people who pre-order the game on Steam. GPG has a good enough reputation and a large enough fan base to make this work. (Of course, this is only possible if the game is already in a state where playing it is fun.)
Or maybe you even go a step further and entirely do away with the traditional "alpha - beta - release - patch" release cycle and at some point just publish some basic version of the game and then continuously improve the game with regular updates.
Personally, I'd also be open to a subscription model, but I suppose that for anything but MMPORGs most people still prefer paid extensions and DLC. Though, if you make the subscription attractive enough, for example, by providing new maps or units every month, by running online tournaments with professional live-casting, etc., you could make a subscription model work too.
Just my 2c. I'd really love to see GPG go all the way with K&C and self-publish at least the PC version.|||Subscription is a big no-no for me! I buy the game, i own the game(not really, but for arguments sake....)! I should NOT have to pay every month to play it...
The beta for pre-order customers I would support however.....|||Well, you aren't technically paying to play it, you are paying to use their servers in order to play it online. You can still play offline whatever.
I do agree though, I wouldn't want a subscription based service. Would put a lot of people off I think.|||Quiet the cynic are we? How about we all post a donation to them of $200 (convert currency to US) and leave it at that... sure a couple thousand won't do much in our eyes, but it'll get those nuts replaced; it'll finally give Jessica a new hair color (brunette!); and finally get Chris his lunch!
...jus' sayin'.|||In case there's any confusion: my post was meant seriously and certainly shouldn't be understood as a cynic comment on game publishing or anything like that. Game developers need to earn a living too. I've got no problem with that.|||The way I see it, this is a non-issue. I highly doubt that GPG would go this far into the development of a game if they did not already either have a) enough funding or b) some alternate source of funding. GPG employs quite a few people as we've seen on the Vblogs, so I doubt that they'd just put themselves in a situation where they just.... "run out of money".
harrier0|||GPG did run out of money in Demigod. Stardock was only brought in at about the 90% completion mark. So the issue is still there. GPG might plan out the whole development cycle but if anything goes wrong, they can go over budget and over time and run out of money as a result.|||Hmm... well here's to them learning their lesson the first time! |||I seriously doubt that GPG doesn't have their whole budget planned out already.|||death1234|||Subscription model on a RTS is a definite no-go for me.|||This thread is a definite downer. |||Archangel1980|||X-Cubed|||Ryuken|||coveryfire|||coveryfire|||I never buy RTS for the single player. The multiplayer is where the value is. Sure, you get 15 hours of gameplay from the campaign, but so far, ive gotten 150 hours in multiplayer. I played HL2 for 20 hours. I have played TF2 for 600. In summary, multiplayer games are better than singleplayer, no matter how good said singleplayer is.|||An overwhelming part of the players will not even play a single online match. KnC needs a good skirmish AI and a campaign to sell well, a pure multiplayer title is out of the question.|||I don't think the ai will be bad....
But the campaign hs to be good. GPG has to concentrate on it a bit.|||Balance baby, it's all about the balance... I think if they hit it up decently all around they'll do well. Though, easier said than done.|||I often get the feeling that forumers don't appreciate casual gameplay as much an non forumers do. From what I've heard, casual players can often outnumber the online gameplayer 5-1. If they made it a pure multiplayer game, there would be so many people that just would not buy it, including myself, because there would be a lot of people that just don't like playing against people they don't know.
in anycase, Col. Jessep|||thecommanderD|||Col. Jessep|||Many people don't like to play their games live against other people. It's too much stress and it takes the fun out for some people. I've played FA online a few times (26 ranked games and about 4 custom games), and MP really kills the fun of the game. No fun, all stress. It's very stressful playing against someone, especially in a 1v1 situation, and also even harder when there is something on the line, like ratings.