Pier Solar: Official Thread

[The Coop]

Just expressing my oppinion

I know, and I'm all for it. But you're not the only one who's commented negatively on the topic (though you do seem to be taking this on an almost personal level). He's doing some "scalping" for a video game (and really, not even at that much of a price increase), so morals being brought into the equation seems a bit much. It's not like he's withholding food from starving people.

Now, if he was selling a copy of say... Superman 64 to an unsuspecting little kid, then maybe you could bring morals into it (that'd just be evil ).




Zebbe- I wanted to spice it up a bit. So many others have already raped babies and eaten kittens

synapse- Red Ring of Death. It's an XBox 360 issue that's been going on for years, where your 360 basically dies on you, and it's red ring of light on the front flashes. Example...

[Zebbe]

Dreamcast has a big issue with piracy.

Also, good/bad moral is in the eye of the beholder, to say so.

[synapse]

Red Ring of Death. It's an XBox 360 issue that's been going on for years...

Oh, I know what the red lights are. I just didn't notice Zebbe was talking about them, hehe. THanks

Dreamcast has a big issue with piracy.

But the production would be much cheaper than cartridges. Besides, NGDevTeam are doing a good job with their homebrew DC efforts

[Zebbe]

But the production would be much cheaper than cartridges.

And it's pretty much free for RRoD.

[retrospiel]

I am not sure how expensive it is, but XBLA is not free.

[username]

Besides, NGDevTeam are doing a good job with their homebrew DC efforts

Yeah, and they've had the same issue with resellers artificially inflating the price by buying all the copies and then flipping them elsewhere at ridiculous mark-ups. At least Dreamcast devs are able to drive the prices back down by a) printing more copies, thereby robbing the resellers of a market and b) releasing ISOs online so that potential customers aren't forced into spending stupid amounts of money for games just to find out whether they're actually good or not. Pier Solar/WM do not have such luxuries, for whatever reason.

When PS preorders started I asked Fonzie whether he could offer a rebate so I could sell for WM's official price. Quoting our PMs from 10/2008 (I hope Fonzie don't mind):




Usually you'd get things cheaper than retail price if you order a huge quantity. That way you can sell at retail price and still make a profit or at least pay your ebay bills. With the game sold at production cost you don't have much choice but to sell at a higher price than what WM askes for it. I certainly won't sell at loss. And ebay wants €4,50 for each copy sold, and PayPal another €1,40.

You've failed to consider one key point: You're not a wholesale distributor. You're not a retailer. You're just some dude who flips games on Ebay. WM/Fonzie have absolutely no obligation to offer you wholesale prices on anything, regardless of how many copies you buy. Not only do you not offer a single service to either WM or the customer to justify your excessive mark-ups but you've managed to rob potential customers of the change to purchase the game legitimately since you bought out a substantial number of pre-orders. You can rationalise your actions however you like but it's profiteering, plain and simple.

[Zebbe]

I am not sure how expensive it is, but XBLA is not free.

"Production", or "media", is, because it's DLC, and that's what I meant. The % of cost per "copy" is of course much more expensive, but the market is also much greater so I think it is more worthwhile to port to RRoD than on DC.

[Chilly Willy]

You've failed to consider one key point: You're not a wholesale distributor. You're not a retailer. You're just some dude who flips games on Ebay. WM/Fonzie have absolutely no obligation to offer you wholesale prices on anything, regardless of how many copies you buy. Not only do you not offer a single service to either WM or the customer to justify your excessive mark-ups but you've managed to rob potential customers of the change to purchase the game legitimately since you bought out a substantial number of pre-orders. You can rationalise your actions however you like but it's profiteering, plain and simple.

No it isn't. Y'all quit picking on christ. What is this, a crucification?

Even a plain shopper at the grocery store expects money off when buying multiple items/larger items. It's the way stores entice you into buying more than you need for just one moment.

Finally, WM had no terms at all on buying multiple copies, so he wasn't even MORALLY wrong to buy extra. Buying low and selling high is the fundamental basis of ALL business. He's not charging more than what you'd normally expect for a game like this, so he's not profiteering, either.

I think it's just sour grapes - a few people didn't see the chance to "make a quick buck at others' expense" as THEY would put it, and now are jealous of the opportunity christ made for himself.

Let it go! You're just looking like little kids when you insult christ. It's gone on long enough... just stop.

[synapse]

"Production", or "media", is, because it's DLC, and that's what I meant. The % of cost per "copy" is of course much more expensive, but the market is also much greater so I think it is more worthwhile to port to RRoD than on DC.

Still, you won't be able to sell PS on Xbox Live for much more than $ 5, but most DC fans (all craving for new DC releases), would pay at least the same as for the cartridge release

[goldenband]

I can't speak for the Pier Solar folks, and I know things are a little different when it's a nonprofit venture. But I think many indie retrogame developers would give their little toe to have a guaranteed, committed buyer/reseller for 100 copies of their work, especially when we're talking preorders.

It's win-win in every way: they handle all the pain-in-the-ass stuff like shipping and dealing with 100 different customers, while you only have to ship the 100 copies to a single address. And of course they actually pay, unlike all the people who enthusiastically cheer you on over the Internet, but who suddenly vanish when it's time to pull their wallets out. Their purchase represents a significant infusion of capital at a time when you might be running short and need $$$ to pay factories/pressing plants to make the damn thing.

[Xonticus]

I think it is safe to say that they wanted to make a limited initial run to guarantee that the game gets done at all, and then think about mass producing it and selling it wholesale later on.

[Joe Redifer]

The DC cannot emulate the Genesis sound very well judging by what I've seen in the past. In fact, it's beyond pathetic, it's downright embarrassing. The Dreamcast is not powerful enough for Pier Solar.

[The Coop]

It's that Blast Processing™ . It fucks everything up.

[Flygon]

I wonder if they'd use the CD music if they were to port it to another console, though.

Of course they would.

It's far easier to make a sound driver that plays PCM audio than to make one that emulates the Mega Drive's sound system, for starters.

It makes sense to use the CD music over the Mega Drive's FM music (Assuming the CD audio is actually better, of course). It's only common sense.

You could just store the rest of the FM related audio as PCM samples.

[Joe Redifer]

Except Pier Solar does not use CD audio, even if you have a Sega CD. You have your choice of Genesis audio or Sega CD PCM chip audio (which happens to be stored on the CD).