FREE NS2 On Release

BonzaiBonzai Join Date: 2008-07-17 Member: 64654Members
in Ideas and Suggestions
As a way of marketing the game, would it be a good idea to let the Steam community play NS2 for free on Steam the weekend of launch? Even though NS1 was an incredible game, the community wasn't half the size of something like Counter Strike or TF2, so I'm unsure about the outcome of NS2. If you let players play the game for a weekend, then at least you give them the drug that will make them addicted. Also, since release is on Wednesday, maybe have the free weekend on the following Friday until the end of Sunday? Please state any problems with this idea.
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Comments

  • HeymanHeyman Join Date: 2005-03-29 Member: 46895Members
    It's likely that there will be a free weekend, but I think it would shoot sales in the foot to put it out on release.

    It's better to make sure all the guaranteed sales get out first, then to have a free weekend for people on the fence or who had zero interest in the game.
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  • BonzaiBonzai Join Date: 2008-07-17 Member: 64654Members
    A prime example has sprung up for us to see how the idea of a free weekend would work. Just today, Sanctum had a free trial event and showed up on my Steam list. I didn't even know about the free Sanctum event, but what caught my attention was it showing up on my list. After seeing that item, I immediately went to look for videos of the game. Funny enough, the first video I went to had a perfect top comment that shows the power of free events. Here is the image:

    <img src="http://i50.tinypic.com/ribv6f.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    The image shows the top commenter saying how Steam brought him to watch the video on Sanctum's gameplay. Also, there are 293 upvotes (currently), which would imply that around 293 people also were brought to watch that video from their Steam list. If NS can get a free event going, then there would also be around that many people (if not more) to at least watch videos on the game, great marketing. Since the Exosuit trailer was some serious shiz, I'm sure a lot of people will at least show interest in the game after watching some vids of gameplay/trailers. I'm not sure if UWE already planned this idea, but I hope it catches their eyes as it's a very good plan to get more attention for NS2.
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  • ImbalanxdImbalanxd Join Date: 2011-06-15 Member: 104581Members
    A game released over a year ago?

    Sales are almost always highest immediately after release, and they slowly decrease over time. Having a free weekend event anywhere within a month or two of release would be commercial suicide.
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  • ZeikkoZeikko Join Date: 2007-12-16 Member: 63179Members, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester
    I'm pretty sure most of the paying customers don't get to play the game on the release date or atleast not have a great experience because there aren't enough servers capable of running the game smoothly. Free weekend could be a good idea after some time when server client is available to linux, is optimized and CPUs have progressed to the stage where a normal server CPU can run the game.
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