I just posted a thread in the official forums about this topic. A fairly large amount (about 50 or so) of my online acquaintances are all in favor of the idea, but what do you think?
Could you see yourself buying beta access if Blizzard was offering to sell it? I would, because these contests are rather annoying to have to deal with, IMO.
Lets face it, it could be your next big revenue stream. I am all for this because I, as I'm sure many others are, am getting extremely sick of these fan-site beta key contests that seem to only reward people who are just one time visitors and have no care for the fan-site community.
IRC, Diablofans, D3DB, DBSanc, all of them have no consideration for those who actually put time and effort into building their beloved community, and rather give away keys in a manner that is clearly only in place to generate ad-revenue.
So, why not you Blizzard? Why not offer us a chance at beta for say, $20-30 dollars? Hell, I'd probably pay $50 or more just to get access so I can start testing and contributing to the development of this game.
Yes, thats right. I'm willing to pay YOU, my hard earned money just to help you with the development of YOUR product. I know, how friggen ridiculous does that sound? But its the truth and a sad reality of what your beta fan-site giveaways has made me and many others feel.
Depends on the price to be honest I won't pay 30$ for closed beta access (unless it's alpha or F&F) ,but I would pay yes and your post is 100% correct it will help the development and actually might increase the rate of the completion of the game.
I wouldnt pay money for a beta, now if theres an opt system like what blizzard did , with getting d3 free, if you subscribe for a year. Im more on board with that.
Since beta testing, in general your there to play the game, while submitting bug reports, I dont see many paying for this feature.
No lol, it´s only beta and honestly I don´t see any reason why sold those keys....
Right, we understand that this is just a beta, but there are a large amount of players who are willing to take the time to properly test the game throughly who haven't had a chance to play the game. With the added advantage of an addition revenue stream to cover development costs, why not sell access? It could only be beneficial to the company and it's bottom-line. After-all, that is what they are after in the end isn't? A better bottom-line?
Reason: The Beta is only, according to Bashiok, "40 minutes of content". This is a game meant to be played in full.
If you were given the in-house beta to test, that is a different story. But cmon why would you spend money to play something that is being given away for free (to those lucky enough).
That is disposable income I just don't have, my friend.
Since it would go to a good cause I would be willing to pay for the beta key.
I don't want to ruin your hopes, but it will never happen. It's not in the "Blizzard spirit" to make money that way. It would seem very desperate of them to do such a thing, since none of the other games require a fee to enter their beta, this would be an unprecedented event that Blizzard wouldn't want to have a part of.
I would pay up to $20 for the beta thats how much I would like to play and how little i value $20. I would love to test the game and give my constructive feedback and I would be more patient in awaiting the release of the game (about 2 weeks tops but still). If they did this i would hope they would credit people who buy the beta in someway toward them buyying the game or give them some battlenet cash they cannot cash out.
Since it would go to a good cause I would be willing to pay for the beta key.
I don't want to ruin your hopes, but it will never happen. It's not in the "Blizzard spirit" to make money that way. It would seem very desperate of them to do such a thing, since none of the other games require a fee to enter their beta, this would be an unprecedented event that Blizzard wouldn't want to have a part of.
I agree they wont do it. But i think you are giving the "Blizzard Spirit" waaay too much credit if you think they wouldn't find creative ways for them to make money. It isn't beyond them RMAH (making you play normal before hardcore which doesn't have a RMAH is why i believe they wont let you go straight hardcore), this WoW 1year subscription package, and more ways to nickel and dime the customer in the future im sure. Thank god they are not charging us a monthly subcription, surprising since their most popular game ever has relied on this as its main form of income.
If its a resonable price then sure, I'd buy it. Blizzard will find one way or another to take out money xD. Hell, I'd probably be the first to buy it lol.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Most People Are Completely Ignorant To The Microscopic World Around Them -Me
I don't think any company would do this actually. When you purchase something, there's the whole "terms of use" and whatnot. A beta is something way too dynamic for that. They would be selling a very untrustworthy product. You wouldn't jsut be buying a chance to play the game, you'd also buy loads of server downtimes, character whipes, unstability issues, bugs. Maybe it won't even work on your computer, and because it's a beta, they'd have no obligation to provide a fix. It's just not the kind of product any self respecting company would want to sell.
most people unlucky enough to get in would probably invest some money to get their hands-on the DIII previeww and getting the feeling of the game . I know I would .
another model is the same blizz used in the annual pass contract : commit - and get the beta . I would gladly commit to buy the game for a beta key and so those many other I know. every time I see a post on the forums of a beta-player saying he won't buy the game because of it I'm thinking...: what a waste of a beta-key.."
bottom line: it's a product . available to some for free while other are willing to pay for it so why not ?
Paying for beta? Good question, myself depends on the game. D3 yes, at this point I would certainly. Realistically the only plausible way for business would be to give beta access to people who say pre-order via the blizzard store, or specific retailers. Thats just my 2 cents though.
There is a simple reason they can't do it, you can't sell something that isn't ready/ partly broken. That wouldn't be good advertisement.
Let's say i pay $100 for a beta key (lucky i have one already) and i don't like it after 2 hours played or saying that there is not enough info in the beta. Then i'll go screaming @Blizzard and whine @Forums. Then other people will see this > a.k.a. bad advertisement.
I don't think they would charge you nearly double the price of the full game for 1/3 (Act 1) of 1/4 (Normal 4 Acts) of 1/4 (4 difficulties) of the game.
I would pay $15 for beta as it is right now, and $30 if they expanded it and added multiplayer. I think that's fair because from what I've seen from other games that I beta-tested multi-player allows for high replayability and draws more people to the game as a whole. in addition, blizzard can make lots of money from charging people for beta access, and then asking for full price when the game is released. i'd totaly do that if i was blizzard ceo
I would buy the beta if it was like 10-15 dollars. No more than that, there is no point to pay 120 dollars which is the price some people are paying with a guy in some other forum. I think it isnt worth it, and i am not rich to throw 120 dollars on a beta. The full game will probably be 59,99 dollars, why would i pay double to have a 40 minute worth of content beta?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Could you see yourself buying beta access if Blizzard was offering to sell it? I would, because these contests are rather annoying to have to deal with, IMO.
Heres a copy and paste + url of my posting.
Since beta testing, in general your there to play the game, while submitting bug reports, I dont see many paying for this feature.
Right, we understand that this is just a beta, but there are a large amount of players who are willing to take the time to properly test the game throughly who haven't had a chance to play the game. With the added advantage of an addition revenue stream to cover development costs, why not sell access? It could only be beneficial to the company and it's bottom-line. After-all, that is what they are after in the end isn't? A better bottom-line?
Reason: The Beta is only, according to Bashiok, "40 minutes of content". This is a game meant to be played in full.
If you were given the in-house beta to test, that is a different story. But cmon why would you spend money to play something that is being given away for free (to those lucky enough).
That is disposable income I just don't have, my friend.
I don't want to ruin your hopes, but it will never happen. It's not in the "Blizzard spirit" to make money that way. It would seem very desperate of them to do such a thing, since none of the other games require a fee to enter their beta, this would be an unprecedented event that Blizzard wouldn't want to have a part of.
-Me
long answer: Yeeeesssss.
most people unlucky enough to get in would probably invest some money to get their hands-on the DIII previeww and getting the feeling of the game . I know I would .
another model is the same blizz used in the annual pass contract : commit - and get the beta . I would gladly commit to buy the game for a beta key and so those many other I know. every time I see a post on the forums of a beta-player saying he won't buy the game because of it I'm thinking...: what a waste of a beta-key.."
bottom line: it's a product . available to some for free while other are willing to pay for it so why not ?