After less than positive reaction from potential early access customers (which included myself), Neowiz posted up an open letter as well as followed up with more details regarding the contents of the Founders packs and premium subscription service.
In addition, they removed the premium customer service from the collectors edition (which would’ve given extraordinary service to these folks; ridiculous they even thought this was a good idea to give preferential support when the entire game is being released as buy 2 pay) while reducing the price point from $199.99 to $149.99.
While this reduction is better than nothing, this new price point merely places it at the “normal” overpriced range that other publishers use; I know that since I purchased an Obsidian Founders Pack for (the now sunset) Devilian (Trion Worlds) which was priced at $149 and I also knew that their top end packs for ArcheAge were (and still are) also at that price point. The high end Founders Pack for En Masse Entertainments Closers was also $149 (I received the Ace Closer’s bundle for being one of the top 3 fundraisers for EME’s 2017 Extra Life event; I would’ve never purchased that myself).
They also addressed a rumor (made by one of their Emissaries) regarding a PVP cloak for Emissaries that ended up creating even more drama on the days following their press event. I didn’t bring it up since there was no way to confirm/deny its existence and as it turns out, it was just a troll attempt made by the perpetrator.
Does Neowiz deserve kudos points for listening to these concerns and addressing them? Sure. But this isn’t anything new. Trion Worlds did this with Devilian through closed beta (specifically with the alpha version) when it came to changing game systems. The assigned team at the time seemed genuine (even though Victorial “Firecait” Voss was the executive producer who originally “mis”handled ArcheAge) and well, my interest in Devilian made me try to give Trion the benefit of the doubt (which in the end, the detractors proved they were right).
The fact that it took a less than positive reaction to get Neowiz to make this open letter, provide details (which should have been given during that press event), and to step back on the collector edition pricing, tells me they overestimated. The folks (primarily non-development personnel) employed by Neowiz to handle the NA/EU publishing aren’t unfamiliar with the pitfalls being gamers themselves. They should’ve therefore known exactly how much BS players communities have experienced with other titles to NOT make the same mistakes.
So while this followup by Neowiz comes across as a great PR move, it doesn’t change anything for me in terms of feeling this desire to give this company any money from the start. Their handling of things pre-launch means they will make similar mistakes once it is live (amateur leveling handling of business operations which includes a poorly run official Discord staffed by unprofessional moderators is no way to inspire confidence with this buy 2 play title). I use Revelation Online as an example; once my.com telegraphed their cash grabbing tendencies with Revelation Online, I said no and have never played that game since it launched. As expected, the game flopped fairly quickly.
I will let Neowiz’ Korean development team and their western publishing counterparts post-launch actions/handling dictate whether or not I eventually end up deciding to spend any money to play this. I’ll be very surprised if this thing launches without major issues (and if there are, how all facets of their business operations handles them).
