Monday, July 25, 2011

Epic Games: Desperate Wars

Wow, it has been a while since I last wrote a blog entry. Perhaps rehabilitating from my less than 24 hour job at GR is most likely the reason I haven’t been writing much. Now, time to make amends. In this article I’m going to criticize Epic Games about their Gears of War 3 Multi-player beta and their desperate attempt at people buying Gears of War 3.

On April 25th, Epic Games released their Gears 3 Beta for anyone who pre-ordered their game (April 18th for Bulletstorm: Epic Edition owners). Allowing this beta is hopefully giving Epic Games enough time to polish the new abilities and making the weaponry balanced and joyful for gamers. Gaining access to the beta is great and gives you that special feeling knowing you were part of something “revolutionary.” Unfortunately, Epic Games have been promoting their beta too much.

Their promotion to gain “special” access in their beta gained attention when announcing it to be released with Bulletstorm: Epic Edition. The true fans of Gears of War titles (like me) quickly went and pre-ordered Bulletstorm. Epic announced they would “only” give players the special access if they would buy Bulletstorm. Ok Epic, you’re doing what Bungie decided to with Halo: Reach. Announcing people will get the beta, but you have to purchase a game full of crap. I apologize; it wasn’t that bad of a game. It’s a game people would rent before purchasing. So, this doesn’t really convince me. Do people with the access to the beta get anything else special? Yes, they also announced exclusive content that will be carried over to the full game. Sweet! I get to show off my flamed weapons and Thrashball Cole! Suck on that you peasants! And incomes an announcement that soon upset many gamers.

Few months later, Epic announced people who pre-ordered Gears of War 3 will also be able to have special access to the beta. Whoa, wait a second. You mentioned a few months back the “only” way into the beta was to purchase Bulletstorm, the true and only way. How could you do this Epic? You just lied and became such a dishonest pile of ****. All from not getting enough players to access the beta, you go a step further, lie to fans and promote the access to beta with pre-ordering the full game. This is a douche move you’re doing, Epic. From what I’ve been witnessing, you’ve seem desperately to put more sales on this game.

In April, I was watching my favorite programs on TV, when I saw a commercial that made me laugh upsettingly (yes, laughing upsettingly). It was a one of the GameStop commercials that are used to basically to say, “Hey...pre-order *insert product here* and get whatever.” I don’t believe it, how desperate are you, Epic? Do you seriously need to make so many promotions already? Look at all what you did and it’s only for the beta! So, now the question was, “What do people get if they access the beta from pre-ordering Gears of War 3?” They get everything Bulletstorm owners got, except for one lousy flamed Hammerburst since Bulletstorm owners gained one week early access.

So, now we wait until the full game releases. Epic Game, in my opinion, is desperate for this game to sell and is low for being dishonest to its consumers. Believe me; Bulletstorm purchasers received the full definition of the phrase “caveat emptor.” In conclusion, I’m going to mention my three predictions of what Epic is going to do with the release of Gears of War 3.

First, they’re going promote the release like they did with the beta. They will be doing so because of their Limited Edition and Epic Edition product details have yet to be announced. All we know is their cost by looking at websites such as GameStop. Will they promote it like they did with the beta? I wouldn’t believe it to be that desperate. Secondly, they’re going to screw the beta users over. More and likely the “exclusive” content that will carry over to the full game, makes me feel everyone has a chance to earn it. Lastly, Epic is going to be bummed out. Of all their hard work in their marketing strategy, they won’t win GOTY.

No comments: