US Players Purchase Info

[Sir Turylon]

yes webmaster, i realize that. It is still a sad thing that they think Americans will not want this game. Like I said in a different post.. gaming community has been growing dumber and dumber, and now companies are beginning to see that gorgeous graphics outsell content... wait.. no they don't. Sad that EA, the company of the Sims, would forget that their number one seller is 2D and not 3D.

[syrous_pl]

I'm addicted to this game, although I can only play the demo. I hope it will be available in Canada soon, but $65 USD is about $100 CAD... That's pricey.

[Sam2]

I'm addicted to this game, although I can only play the demo. I hope it will be available in Canada soon, but $65 USD is about $100 CAD... That's pricey.
Another person waiting for USA distribution at reasonable/typical prices. Hasn't anybody got an email address at Electronic Arts USA that we can inquire/nag to about this?

[Alex Poff]

go to www.game.net in the UK. With shipping and conversion charges it cost me about 72 bucks Canadian, delivered to my door!

[Sir Scrapton]

Another person waiting for USA distribution at reasonable/typical prices. Hasn't anybody got an email address at Electronic Arts USA that we can inquire/nag to about this?

I tried a few weeks ago to find a way to contact EA off of their US website and it was a dadgum joke. Absolutely NO way I could find to contact them. If you get an email addy let me know. :rolleyes:

[Lighthope]

My copy from Special Reserve finally arrived. Took a week and a half to get from the UK to SW Washington state.

Lighthope

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[Largefry07]

I ordered the game at game.net Sunday night and it put me back $59 but I hope it is worth it and besides its only money :cheers: :silly:

[Cro_Knight]

go to this site http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy...ns.html?page=53 it has way more icon features then the demo can anyone answer why they are holding bak in the demo and is this in a different language or w/e plz answer im kinda confused private msg me or post it here

[FourPak]

Gameplay.com will ship to US addresses. URL: http://shop.gameplay.co.uk/webstore/productpage.asp?productcode=RM01474
yep Gameplay.com is very reliable, i've ordered from them several times.
I just finished the KoH demo and placed my order.

Too bad global product distribution is still stuck in the 1950's. There's no reason anymore that same-language international releases can't be done simultaneously everywhere in the world. Oh well, if US distributors/retailers are too stupid to take my money i'll gladly pay some UK vendor.

edit: someone asked - How come KoH gets published by EA in the UK but it doesn't get published in US. Because it's not a first person shooter :p meaning, strategy games like this or Silent Storm Sentinels for example sell far fewer copies compared to mass market stuff like Doom3 or Sims 2, so v-e-r-y little effort is made and very little $$$ is spent to make it available to a US mass market.

[Sir Turylon]

go to this site http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy...ns.html?page=53 it has way more icon features then the demo can anyone answer why they are holding bak in the demo and is this in a different language or w/e plz answer im kinda confused private msg me or post it here

your link is invalid. please repost the correct url. :go:

if... this is the picture (http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2003/screen0/917995_20031118_screen003.jpg)
this is an old version of the game. many many many months old..

[Lucifer66]

It seems that either my US dollars are no good when I want to buy a new game,
or they just want more of them.

I still don't understand why video game makers seem so reluctant to make versions
for all countries built into the game. Gamers in the US are allways the last to be able to purchase a game, and yet we are the biggest market. Go figure.

Sunflowers, just like Japan, seems to have some anamosity towards us Americans as I can never get them to answer a simple question about a release date for a new game.

When will developers stop playing politics and start making money instead of giving me the feeling that my bussiness is not welcome? Hey man...just cuz I happen to be in the same country as George Bush doesn't mean I'm related or something...lol

[despot666]

It seems that either my US dollars are no good when I want to buy a new game,
or they just want more of them.

I still don't understand why video game makers seem so reluctant to make versions
for all countries built into the game. Gamers in the US are allways the last to be able to purchase a game, and yet we are the biggest market. Go figure.

Sunflowers, just like Japan, seems to have some anamosity towards us Americans as I can never get them to answer a simple question about a release date for a new game.

When will developers stop playing politics and start making money instead of giving me the feeling that my bussiness is not welcome? Hey man...just cuz I happen to be in the same country as George Bush doesn't mean I'm related or something...lol

Exactly... And this goes for music too... 90% of the stuff I listen to comes from Scandinavia and I have to wait for ages to be able to buy it here. Not to mention being able to see a concert. By the time bands from Europe start playing in the US they are completely comercialized (e.g. Dimmu Borgir, Nightwish, Marduk, Mayham, etc....) Mayham's newest is pretty sweet though, so I could forgive them for Grand Declaration of War :p

[mati2]

So my american friend. Your not alone in compalins. In Poland game is published 28 November. i remind that Poland is ACROSS german border.

Point 2 is i contact with Ea about that they told me that they dont know (???) why it is so.

Point 3 i dont really know how KoH will become a popular game if i didn';t see any comercials at all. In coputer news papers, Tv anywhere nothing.

Point 3 Sunflowers where are you selling yopur game??? Not in eastern europe, not in usa( that's a biggest game market in the world)??? I dont know about rest of the world but i see its only germany, GB even in hungary there are problems.( if i'm wrong correct me please).

[mati2]

Sorry for english i'm tired, just came back from school after 11 Hours.

[Webmaster]

i can aussure you it has nothing to do with the US politics.
it is an issue of contracts and dealing with EA.

selling a game worldwide is high logistic task and cost a lot of money. also you have different rights and laws to obey. it is a risk to start worldwide before checking the first markets at the own doorstep.

i am sorry that i cannot provide any better information ;(

[Sir Turylon]

uh, Mr Websmaster, that makes sense but for one point.... Electronic Arts is a US company (emphasis added)

But... so it would make more sense if you said...

"We here at Sunflowers did not want to try to sell KoH worldwide, especially places where EA and other publishers have told us nobody buys 3D games, until we fogure out how much money we can make off of the smaller markert of Europe."

Ironically, this would go against general good business practices of researching the markets of the world, where you will find that the 2D games are being played longer and have larger fan bases than all 3D games except Half Life and... Everquest.

As my Plolish comrade has pointed out.. KoH has received 0% press coverage over here. 0%. If you took a poll of gamers and what games are coming out... 1% would know that KoH was even being developed. Now... of course you are not going to make any money off of the largest market for computer and console gaming if you never even announce to the market that your game is even being made.

Likewise, when the game does receive some sort of press, you then state.. "oh we're not releasing it in your country...and we cannot even say if we have plans TO do so. But, you can always import it for twice the cost it would cost you if you bought it from a local store."

above incident is going to turn off a LOT of potential gamers. I have one example, and I hope you can understand it. Valve has for 4 years been promising Half Life 2. They have gone through 3-4 different engines... have changed the game time and time again. The fan base for Half Life was huge, now it is dwindling down to a handful of people. Counter Strike, #1 online game via people playing, is not included. Many advid gamers were looking forward to HL2 but were consistently annoyed by Valve who kept catering to the CS crowd so they could push more products and make more money without working on HL2. HL had a total of 2 expansion packs. The first one, Opposing Force, was decent. The second one, Blue Shift, was nothing but a gimmick to try to keep the HL/TFC players appeased until the release of HL2... It didn't work. TFC community has gone down the tubes while the Counter Strike community is sticking around since the source code was released... It is interesting to note that Counter Strike was a 3rd party mod, which valve bought because it was so popular... aka, they saw an opportunity to make money (something they did by releaseing CS as a retail version...) Sunflowers isn't making any fans by saying... We didn't want to take a risk by releasing an untested game on the world's largest gaming market... You guys are issolating yourselves from a possible fanbase due to the scare tactic of "it's not 3D, it won't sell... so test it out in Europe first... Sine European gamers think just like American gamers."

I say these things not because I am a hostile American gamer who is being disenfranchised from a game which I've been waiting for some company to make for over 7 years. Nothing to do with that... It concerns me that you are listening to Electronic Arts rather than listening to the gamers... Go look up the top selling games in the states. Sims, 2D, #1 seller. Age of Empires, 2D, so successful that people prefer AoK over Empire Earth series. Command and Conqeur, once they went 3D, the fans began to leave. Diablo 2 series, 2D, a great big success. need I go on?


Cordially,
Disenfranchised American gamer whose been waiting for a KoH type game for 7+ years.

[caribou]

I Have to agree with my fellow american neighbor. I have foud out about KoH when i was browsing over happypuppy.com for new game who comes out in the out over the next few month. I saw a few screenshot, and been hooked on the spot. Since Age of Empire went out about 8 years to 10 years ago, i been waiting a game like that. There nothing annoucing a game like that. It like Sunflower didnt realise that their game could be a good hit. We know that where i live. We launch a few game without expecting too much, and become a great hit. But, since it seem that KoH have a good potential in North America, why not giving a try and storm the market.

[Webmaster]

we are aware of this that much i can say!

[Sir Turylon]

we are aware of this that much i can say!

thank you for the acknowledgement of the situational problem that surrounds KoH and the release. I must warn you though. It might be too little, too late. I'd like a response from Sunflowers about why they chose to focus only on the small Euro market for initial distribution. And yes, I have heard the whole speil about how they did not want to take a risk... I think that arguement is rendered moot by one game... Half Life. It received less press time than KoH and has gone on to be the second biggest FPS (first person shooter) in PC history. (Jedi Knight II is #1, Unreal series is #3) Liekwise, KoH could very well go on to be the biggest RTS based on period of 1000 to 1400 AD since AoE2 came on the scene... (not like LoTR 3 gave any competition :rofl: )

So Sunflowers... why did you listen to Electronic Arts? (or were you forced to...) Need not reply in here.. PM me if you wish to keep the response from becoming public.

I honestly think that the only solution to the international problems would be to sell it directly to individuals... Electronic Arts could even set that up... One thing that is most troubling is the reliance on importing it for 2x to 3x the retail price to countries outside of the Euro market. (This is the 21st century after-all)

[Cro_Knight]

if... this is the picture
this is an old version of the game. many many many months old..
yea thats it so it kind of looks alot better then this newer version atleast icons do