CoH Declaration of Freedom Sale - and its implications


Aggelakis

 

Posted

This morning City of Heroes went on sale for $1.99 at the NCSoft store. If anyone wants to make an alt with "Premium" status, now looks like a good time.

Here's the press release:

Quote:
With City of Heroes Freedom coming later this year, we’ve got some exciting news from NCsoft and Paragon Studios. Later this week we will be bringing players a very special Declaration of Freedom sale. This limited time offer will bring the base price of City of Heroes to $1.99 on the official NCsoft online store. If the price drop weren’t enough, the purchase will give all active subscribers access to 400 Paragon Points per month, which can be redeemed when City of Heroes Freedom launches.

The Declaration of Freedom Sale officially begins August 17th at 6AM PDT and ends on August 29th at 11:59PM PDT.

Please note, that this deal will only apply if the purchase is used to create a new account.
So, with new Trial program ending August 17th (and the Ski Chalet mysteriously reappearing until, coincidentally, August 28th), the evidence is piling up that the devs are looking for an early-September release for CoH Freedom. What odds do the forums currently give for a launch date?

EDIT: As has also been pointed out below, everything for CoH in the NCSoft store is now listed as "Available only until Aug 29, 2011." That's even more indirect evidence of an early September release.


 

Posted

sounds good. i know they try to make a big announcement such as a release date at a big event, and outside of backpacks, they havent really hinted what they would be on about at pax this weekend, so i was speculating that there might be a release date reveal there . we know most of the stuff in i21, since we are playing it, now so unless they want to start hyping issue 22 already, it would seem to limit the topics for pax, and these events usually are the big impact "put the forumites bananas" reveals, so it could happen. maybe they will reveal soem of the new costumes and perhaps an entirely unexpected and unforseen new powerset


 

Posted

Traditionally whenever an Issue moves to open beta it usually goes live within 3 or 4 weeks. I think the "evidence" of the CoH sale and the Ski Chalet simply adds to that.

It'd be amazing if they could get this launched by August 30th to make it by Labor Day weekend. But more realistically speaking I'd say the 13th or 20th of September is a good bet at this point.


Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀

 

Posted

Quote:
We’re pleased to announce the Declaration of Freedom Sale! New subscribers can pick up City of Heroes for only $1.99 (1,49€, £1.29) at NCsoft’s store from 6am PDT (9am EDT, 2pm BST, 15:00 CEST) on 8/17 to 4:00pm PDT (7:00pm EDT, 12:00am BST, 01:00 CEST), 8/29 (8/30 in Europe)! This sale is for new subscribers only!
This is what popped up on my Facebook feed.

Between the wording here and the wording above, anyone who is thinking of making a second account should double and triple check. It's entirely possible this price will only apply to a new Master account, and not just a new CoH account.


"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemur Lad View Post
Between the wording here and the wording above, anyone who is thinking of making a second account should double and triple check. It's entirely possible this price will only apply to a new Master account, and not just a new CoH account.
Good point. This needs clarification from a red name.


 

Posted

I have to ask, though - why would I get this specific very cheap version of City of Heroes if all I wanted out of it were a Premium account? Isn't all I need to do a single purchase from the store for something simple and cheap? Does this version come with goodies?


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
I have to ask, though - why would I get this specific very cheap version of City of Heroes if all I wanted out of it were a Premium account? Isn't all I need to do a single purchase from the store for something simple and cheap? Does this version come with goodies?
No goodies. But if you make the account prior to I21, you get at minimum 400 Paragon Points for having an active account prior to launch.

This is a good deal for anyone who wants to play Free/Premium on a new account. It's essentially $5 of points for $2.


Global name: @k26dp

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lothic View Post
It'd be amazing if they could get this launched by August 30th to make it by Labor Day weekend. But more realistically speaking I'd say the 13th or 20th of September is a good bet at this point.
If they want to show investors the full impact of F2P, it makes more sense to launch at the beginning of 4th quarter instead of the end of 3rd so October would be better to show a full quarter revenue for Freedom.

Since the sale ends at the end of august, they might want to let the free 30day game time that's included in that purchase to expire before going F2P as well.

Then again, October might be a bit close to SWTOR's "holiday 2011" (nov/dec) launch window that they might want to avoid colliding with and/or NCSoft want to use Freedom to bump up 3Q's numbers that is likely to still still be in decline.

But eh, either way, it's live when it's live i guess heh.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemur Lad View Post
It's entirely possible this price will only apply to a new Master account, and not just a new CoH account.
That's the way I read it, but what's to stop anyone from making a new master account?


 

Posted

I too suspect an early/mid September release. Sounds like the potential hold ups would be:

1. New account server hardware needs to be installed and tested.
2. Mac users not being able to access the market.


Global name: @k26dp

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by RosaQuartz View Post
2. Mac users not being able to access the market.
This is fixed after working with Transgaming, and they are testing it now (internally).


Paragon Wiki: http://www.paragonwiki.com
City Info Terminal: http://cit.cohtitan.com
Mids Hero Designer: http://www.cohplanner.com
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dispari View Post
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Supernumiphone View Post
That's the way I read it, but what's to stop anyone from making a new master account?
Nothing except a matter of convenience I suppose. But it depends on how diligent they decide to be. They could consider it a form of fraud, but thats probably worst case.


"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultimate Wrath View Post
More potential evidence for early Sept. release-

Look at https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/St...ory&category=2

Specifically the boosters, and how they all say "available until August 29th".
That's a pretty big indicator. Why would they discontinue the sales of their Booster Packs unless they expected the Paragon Market to be up and running by then?


Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
I have to ask, though - why would I get this specific very cheap version of City of Heroes if all I wanted out of it were a Premium account? Isn't all I need to do a single purchase from the store for something simple and cheap? Does this version come with goodies?
Well I'm not sure about the advantage of this title, but for me, when there was a 9.99 sale of GR on Steam last month, I used it to upgrade an old trial. More money, but with the free month it was essentially more than free, especially considering 1 month of PPoints.


"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultimate Wrath View Post
More potential evidence for early Sept. release-

Look at https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/St...ory&category=2

Specifically the boosters, and how they all say "available until August 29th".
looking at that again, everything on the page says its only avail till aug 29th including GR, coh, and cov


 

Posted

At work and blocked from store sites. Does this include Going Rogue or just the very, very, very basic game? And can I buy it as a gift for someone else or only for myself?


Final Straw, DM/Regen Scrapper
Solari, Fire/Fire Blaster
Real Americana, MA/SR Scrapper
Task Force Timmy, Grav/Rad Controller
Astral Paragon, Spines/Regen Scrapper
Mr Drama King, Katana/Regen Scrapper
Psi-Stunner, Psi/Mental Blaster

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Niklarus View Post
At work and blocked from store sites. Does this include Going Rogue or just the very, very, very basic game? And can I buy it as a gift for someone else or only for myself?
Only the base CoH is $1.99, sorry to say.

As for gifting, I personally don't know how that is handled in the NCSoft store.


 

Posted

Apparently having one or more "box codes" grants one extra reward token.


Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net

Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master View Post
looking at that again, everything on the page says its only avail till aug 29th including GR, coh, and cov
True! Freedom is definitely coming around then if they're discontinuing sales of EVERYTHING.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultimate Wrath View Post
Only the base CoH is $1.99, sorry to say.

As for gifting, I personally don't know how that is handled in the NCSoft store.
It isn't. You'd either have to a) create a new master account, and buy it via that, then send them the info, or b) in some way send them the 2 bucks.


Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net

Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.

 

Posted

I'd be surprised if Freedom launched the week before a 3-day holiday weekend, but I wouldn't necessarily be disappointed (unless it was really buggy at launch). I think a more realistic release date would be September 6.

As for the sale applying only to Master Accounts, I'm not so sure. I used the "Refer a Friend" program to create a second account under my Master Account and I still received the benefits from that. Unless they have changed some coding internally, I would think the the system will recognize any new account, whether its a Master account or not, as a "new subscriber."


(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rajani Isa View Post
It isn't. You'd either have to a) create a new master account, and buy it via that, then send them the info, or b) in some way send them the 2 bucks.
Oh wow. No gift feature... my mind.. it hurts..


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by mousedroid View Post
I'd be surprised if Freedom launched the week before a 3-day holiday weekend, but I wouldn't necessarily be disappointed (unless it was really buggy at launch). I think a more realistic release date would be September 6.
Then again if they tried for an August 30th launch they'd have around 3.5 days to decide whether it was epically buggy enough for a rollback or not before the weekend. That seems like enough time to me.


Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultimate Wrath View Post
Oh wow. No gift feature... my mind.. it hurts..
It's one of the way they deal with fraud and hacking.

The only other way I know of is via Steam... you can gift there, but they only have GR and for full price.


Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net

Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.