Beamdog version is 75% off!!

CoryNewb

Trent Oster announced a "if you can't beat em, join em" sale on twitter this afternoon. Don't buy or recommend the steam sale, buy directly from beamdog/overhaul this weekend. I have recommended the sale for half a dozen people already. Get the word out to your friends, especially with the new improved multiplayer on the horizon.

Cheers!

elminster

I bought it on Steam today purely because I plan on writing up an NPC guide on there (and because I spend time on the forums on Steam and its a pain not to be able to easily jump to its forums). Also I own the Mac versions of BGEE and BG2EE on Beamdog already (so its at least a PC version).

But anyone who doesn't own it should definitely buy it from Beamdog (during this sale and when it isn't on). Support the developers

CoryNewb

I was considering buying a steam copy so my normal PC beamdog copy doesn't get lonely. Maybe I'll buy a copy on my wife's iPad this weekend too. Can never get enough baldurs gate IMO.

sarevok57

my brother bought it on steam today for 75% off as well, and we played multiplayer for the first time, talk about no reload games, cant just mindlessly pick pocket and reload over and over because it is annoying as hell, ah good times

Eudaemonium

Well played, Beamdog, well played.

BelgarathMTH

Is this a good sign or a bad sign for Beamdog's financial health? I worry about their being able to make payroll and keep their doors open as a company.

ChinookUT

I'd say neither. Seems to me they're merely matching Atari's price via Steam and there's nothing more to read into it.

elminster

ChinookUT said:

I'd say neither. Seems to me they're merely matching Atari's price via Steam and there's nothing more to look into it.

Exactly. What kind of sales could they expect during this sale if they were charging 4x the price of steam?

BelgarathMTH

That still leaves it looking to me like a forced clearance sale. Which is a bad thing for a business.

moody_mage

Do gifts have to be sent on purchase or can you buy a few and allocate them out as gifts at a later date?

TrentOster

We get a much better royalty for purchases made through Beamdog so I'd rather a sale here than on Steam if possible. My other hope with the sale is to attract new users who might also be interested in another game which launches soon ;-)

-Trent

Razor

Is it me or Beamdog game selection is reduced to overhaul games right now?

Avenger_teambg

belgarathmth said:

That still leaves it looking to me like a forced clearance sale. Which is a bad thing for a business.

I guess you can always find some problem with the price. If it is too high, that's the problem.
If it is too low, that's another problem.

TJ_Hooker

belgarathmth said:

That still leaves it looking to me like a forced clearance sale. Which is a bad thing for a business.

A clearance sale is where you're trying to get rid of your inventory. So I don't think the term really applies to a digital product.

CutlassJack

belgarathmth said:

That still leaves it looking to me like a forced clearance sale. Which is a bad thing for a business.

Not really. Its a pretty standard practice to put a game on heavy sale right when you're trying to get more sales for the next game.

For example, Steam has BGEE is on sale for 75% off exactly when they put BG2EE up for preorder. You'll notice Steam also has exactly the same 75% off for XCOM:EU, which has its expansion coming out on exactly the same day as BG2EE.

Cerevant

decado said:

Do gifts have to be sent on purchase or can you buy a few and allocate them out as gifts at a later date?

@Dee can you answer that?

Xanar

I'd also be interested in a few more copies (just gifted 2) if they could be sent as gifts later since I don't have email addresses at the moment. @Dee. Thanks! Looks like they remain in the available for gifting until they are claimed. Genius idea! Now I'll go grab more.

Dee

@decado
If you already own the game, any additional copies will be available for gifting. If you need help making that happen, shoot me an email through support (support@beamdog.com) and I'll be happy to help.

CoryNewb

Dee said:

@decado
If you already own the game, any additional copies will be available for gifting. If you need help making that happen, shoot me an email through support (support@beamdog.com) and I'll be happy to help.

Well now there is an idea. I think I might just buy a copy or two and gift them right now

Edit: Aaaaand bought one already and my friend will get his email shortly....this could get addicting...

Edit 2: Bought another copy for another friend. Now...do I buy it on my wife's ipad....

Cerevant

CoryNewb said:

Edit 2: Bought another copy for another friend. Now...do I buy it on my wife's ipad....

Hint: Correct answer is "Yes"

AendaeronBluescale

The best part of this sale is: It's only $5 to take part in the Beta Phase 4 (Multiplayer Stress test) and get future patches earlier Get it while you can!

Xanar

Adding an option to buy multiple copies at the same time would be nice.

moody_mage

@Dee - thanks. It appears to have worked perfectly.

To those who are interested, you don't need to click the 'make this a gift' option. Just buy as normal and if you already own it then the extra copy will be sitting in your 'giftable games' section in your account.

smeagolheart

bg2 ee 75% off?

elminster

smeagolheart said:

bg2 ee 75% off?

No just BGEE.

tarasis

Torn between the Mac or the iPad version. Can't really justify both versions unless there is iCloud / Dropbox save syncing. Is there?

scriver

@belgarathmth -

belgarathmth said:

Is this a good sign or a bad sign for Beamdog's financial health? I worry about their being able to make payroll and keep their doors open as a company.

Sales doesn't mean less money (it has already been pointed out that comparing a clearance sale to the selling of immaterial goods is faulty), it means more money. To begin with, as @elminster said, nobody's going to buy the game from Beamdog while it's 75% off on Steam, but not only that - sales attracts customers who wouldn't buy the game at full price. That means purchases that never would have happened otherwise, which means money that Beamdog never would have made if it wasn't through a reduced price. I'd add to that that since it's a digital product there is not additional production cost for each item sold the way there is for physical goods, but I realise this is a limping point as Beamdog/Overhaul has to pay for the continual "maintenance" (patches and so on) of their product in a way other businesses don't have to.

Here is a nice illustration of the effect sales can have in pure income terms:

From this article, second page:

"The Steam Launch was huge. We launched at 33 percent off the final price of $14.99 for the first week, and later participated in the Autumn sale, but the best was yet to come. When Defender's Quest was selected for the Steam Daily Deal, we made nearly half of the game's entire pre-Steam revenue in a single day.

The daily deal spike is actually slightly under-represented, because the 24-hour sales period was spread out over two data points -- the total take being nearly $34,800."

Such is the power of a single sale. Now, that was a Steam sale, of course, so Beamdog cannot be expected to achieve the same kind of numbers. But it makes it perfectly clear just how many additional people are willing to buy a game during a sale and, even at a reduced price, how quickly those numbers adds up.

CoryNewb

The extra exposure of being on the sale page will get a lot of sales that weren't going to happen at normal price. Beamdog will see a nice bump 5 weeks before the release of their next game.

BelgarathMTH

Well, if selling the product at 75 percent off means more cash flow for Beamdog, then I'm all for it. I just wish that they had complete control of their own product and how to sell it.

It must be *so* frustrating to have a separate, independent, and possibly hostile corporate entity dictating your business decisions. Especially when that "superior" corporate entity holds all rights to your product.

And, for gods' sake, people, *please* don't give money to anybody but Beamdog for this product.

Klonoa

I'm pretty sure that a while back they said they had already passed the sales targets they were hoping to make. I bought the game full price for my brother for his bday, it was a nice irony given that he was the one who introduced me to it and hounded me for months before I finally gave in.

We have two computers in this house and they're both sucky with integrated graphics, I had pretty much given hope on playing the game myself until we get a new computer and I know that won't be for at least another 12 months if not more. Between the patches and the game being on sale for $5, I just bought it and hoped for the best, since it wasn't exactly a huge loss. I just got it to work like 30 mins ago and am extremely happy

CoryNewb

Klonoa said:

I'm pretty sure that a while back they said they had already passed the sales targets they were hoping to make. I bought the game full price for my brother for his bday, it was a nice irony given that he was the one who introduced me to it and hounded me for months before I finally gave in.

We have two computers in this house and they're both sucky with integrated graphics, I had pretty much given hope on playing the game myself until we get a new computer and I know that won't be for at least another 12 months if not more. Between the patches and the game being on sale for $5, I just bought it and hoped for the best, since it wasn't exactly a huge loss. I just got it to work like 30 mins ago and am extremely happy

Glad you enjoy it! You have 5 weeks until bg2Ee, so get through bg1 and get ready for one of the greatest RPG experiences known to man!