Purchases will be handled strictly within The Pinball Arcade - why?

[Roope]

Steam sales are AWESOME. Certainly for the consumer, anyway I can't imagine Steam sales hurt publishers -- it leads to many more sales than they would have ever got before. I took the plunge with Pinball FX2 in the last Steam sale, which means I am another person with Pinball FX2 on my computer, which means I am another person who may buy more tables in the future.

I also worried that TPA's in-game-only purchases might prevent TPA from taking part in Steam sales. I immediately bought Season One already, but it would be nice if I could get season 2 at Christmas at 50% off.

Steam sales are a huge boost to sales. You can read this article for example.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/174587/

I have personally bought so many games just because they were on sale and "cheap". I have about 15 big budget games and even more indie games just sitting in my Steam library that I have never played even once. Quite a few of my friends have a similar situation, so I can safely say it is quite common.

FS is just crazy if they don't do all they can to get into the normal Steam purchase option and participate to these Steam Sales events.

 

[netizen]

Zen is nothing like TPA table purchases.

This bears repeating.

TPA puts out a table pack each month. That include the regular and the pro version of it. The table pack is a part of the season pack if you pre-bought it, or can be purchased individually.
Zen puts out a group of 3-4 tables every 4-6 months, and that's it. No differences in the DLC offering, no subscription service on their releases.

Then there is the thing that hasn't been mentioned at all yet. Ball skins.
If the IAP were to go to the regular DLC system that "everyone else uses" that would eliminate the custom ball skin packages as well.

So, for all the complaining about the pro packs, think for a bit. Valve probably saw that the fragmentation of IAPs for TPA would be too great if everything were to be offered in an out of app DLC packaging, and that could lead to confusion for the less than astute players.


If having to buy things in app, rather than from a menu detracts from game play then odds are there are much larger questions to be asked.

 

[Roope]

This bears repeating.

TPA puts out a table pack each month. That include the regular and the pro version of it. The table pack is a part of the season pack if you pre-bought it, or can be purchased individually.
Zen puts out a group of 3-4 tables every 4-6 months, and that's it. No differences in the DLC offering, no subscription service on their releases.

Then there is the thing that hasn't been mentioned at all yet. Ball skins.
If the IAP were to go to the regular DLC system that "everyone else uses" that would eliminate the custom ball skin packages as well.

So, for all the complaining about the pro packs, think for a bit. Valve probably saw that the fragmentation of IAPs for TPA would be too great if everything were to be offered in an out of app DLC packaging, and that could lead to confusion for the less than astute players.

If having to buy things in app, rather than from a menu detracts from game play then odds are there are much larger questions to be asked.

I feel that attitude like that is something that will hurt FS really big way.
People should really understand how immensely big effect it has that the DLCs are easy to purchase from the Steam client and that you can gift them and so on. You can not overstate that even if you wanted.

To be fair I don't know what kind of sale figures FS is pulling with their other platforms, but I can say that they should ditch the table packs and such for PC. Make tables individually purchasable and drop the who idea of packs.
Custom balls skinns? Sell them also as individual DLC.
Pro mode? Sell that as a overall "upgrade" that effects for all tables purchased automatically.
Season packs? Sure sounds good, keep those.

This current system is just retarded approach to a brilliant system that has boosted the PC gaming to whole new levels in recent years.

 

[PS Garek]

Whomever's fault it is, it's a big bummer that DLC isn't purchasable in Steam directly. Quantity of DLC isn't a big problem either for other games. I hope that they're able to fix this.

 

[AshleyAshes]

I think the real question is: Why won't Steam charge a credit card or other method of payment directly when doing an in game purchase?

 

[Gozer]

What do you mean?

When I bought the pro season packs Steam gave me the option to add the exact amount of funds I needed to purchase it with. I was able to use my credit card to do so.

 

[AshleyAshes]

What do you mean?

When I bought the pro season packs Steam gave me the option to add the exact amount of funds I needed to purchase it with. I was able to use my credit card to do so.

Oh, well, I totally stand corrected then. Oops.

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

I talked with Steam today. We are setting it up so that the Season and Season Pro packs can be bought through the DLC page on the Steam store (as well as the current method in game). This will allow gifting of Season packs.

Single Table Packs, Pro Packs, Pro Upgrades, and Custom Balls will still be bought only in game.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I talked with Steam today. We are setting it up so that the Season and Season Pro packs can be bought through the DLC page on the Steam store (as well as the current method in game). This will allow gifting of Season packs.

Single Table Packs, Pro Packs, Pro Upgrades, and Custom Balls will still be bought only in game.

That's great news!

 

[atlantis1982]

I talked with Steam today. We are setting it up so that the Season and Season Pro packs can be bought through the DLC page on the Steam store (as well as the current method in game). This will allow gifting of Season packs.

Single Table Packs, Pro Packs, Pro Upgrades, and Custom Balls will still be bought only in game.

Good to hear about this, but I am curious how this will effect those that already bought season packs. Will those that bought them early will have these flagged as purchased (as in seeing these in our game's dlc list in the library section)?

http://i.imgur.com/WhLxs.png Reference

 

[Adam]

That's good news...quite frankly I'm really only interested in getting the Season packs as it is. I'm hoping the Season purchases we make now are flagged, though.

 

[Gozer]

Good to hear about this, but I am curious how this will effect those that already bought season packs. Will those that bought them early will have these flagged as purchased (as in seeing these in our game's dlc list in the library section)?

http://i.imgur.com/WhLxs.png Reference

I'm wondering about this as well.

 

[jkonami]

I talked with Steam today. We are setting it up so that the Season and Season Pro packs can be bought through the DLC page on the Steam store (as well as the current method in game). This will allow gifting of Season packs.

Single Table Packs, Pro Packs, Pro Upgrades, and Custom Balls will still be bought only in game.

Mike, I'm not sure if you have any control over this, but can you look into making it so that the Season Packs are addable to the Steam Wishlist? So often I can't add a DLC or GOTY Edition from other games to my Steam wishlist, which can be frustrating. An example is Pac-Man CE DX+ - I can add the base pack, but not the "All You Can Eat" Edition. I left it off my wishlist because if someone buys me the base game, buying all the DLC later myself would be more expensive rather than simply buying the All You Can Eat Edition in the first place. Not that the situation will be similar with TPA, but it would be great if you can add either Season Pack or Pro Season Pack to your wishlist. It might be impossible, and that's ok of course, I just wanted to politely request some investigation as it happens to help our less knowledgeable counterparts (Grammah, et al) to know we wanted the pro pack of season 2 rather than just the regular season 2.

Thank you!

 

[LMA]

I bought Season 1 and 2 but I can't add any money to Steam wallet today for custom balls. It keeps saying error on the steam ad funds page . Looks like I will have to send money to Paypal and buy Steam wallet with that but it says it could take up to 7 days DOH!

 

[LMA]

My credit card got blocked by Steam after using it a few times with steam wallet. Waiting for Steam support ticket :/

 

[Phaze]

Good to hear about this, but I am curious how this will effect those that already bought season packs. Will those that bought them early will have these flagged as purchased (as in seeing these in our game's dlc list in the library section)?

http://i.imgur.com/WhLxs.png Reference

I would also like to know.

 

[Roope]

I talked with Steam today. We are setting it up so that the Season and Season Pro packs can be bought through the DLC page on the Steam store (as well as the current method in game). This will allow gifting of Season packs.

Single Table Packs, Pro Packs, Pro Upgrades, and Custom Balls will still be bought only in game.

This is better than nothing. Although I still think you should also try to get the single tables as Steam DLC any way possible.

I will hold off of buying the season packs until they appear as DLC, so hope it is soon.

 

[Flotilla]

I talked with Steam today. We are setting it up so that the Season and Season Pro packs can be bought through the DLC page on the Steam store (as well as the current method in game). This will allow gifting of Season packs.

Single Table Packs, Pro Packs, Pro Upgrades, and Custom Balls will still be bought only in game.

I signed up just to say that I love this. I'll be gifting a season or two to my friends later on for sure.

 

[rob3d]

Mike is there any specific reason that steam is forcing you guys to be listed as "free to play"? Pinball FX is not in that category and has the same "Free Core Game" "Table DLC" structure as TPA. They are able to sell individual tables as well as table packs without issue. That "free to play" listing seems to be more trouble than its worth.

 

[LMA]

Steam is letting me use my credit card again they never replied to my ticket but it seems to of fixed itself.
it's annoying that TPA has been kicked off the charts because of popular DLC buys from other games. Great game TPA though never had so much fun.