Posted February 15, 2017
Quote from Stardock newsletter email:
" Merging the Singularity
Early last year, Stardock released its much anticipated next-generation real-time-strategy game, Ashes of the Singularity®. The sales were much stronger than anticipated and a lot of users requested features that would greatly increase the depth of the game. Since we didn't want the base game to become too complex, we decided to create a separate program: Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation.
Historically, creating multiple SCUs for different user bases has worked very well for us. Keep the standard version true to its original vision and price it for the masses and create a "Pro" version for those who want the more sophisticated one and price it higher.
However, this metaphor has not worked very well on the games side for a variety of reasons, the biggest being the nature of how PC games are distributed (either via Steam or GOG) where each SCU has its own page and forum and different SCUs can't play with each other.
For last few months, I've been surveying the user base on what they think we should do and the overwhelming consensus is that we should merge the games back into a single game. The question is: Which game?
Weighing in development time, opportunity costs and customer goodwill we decided the best path was the one that would make the most customers happy: Merge them into Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation and give everyone who bought the base game a free copy of Escalation and then give those users who have already paid to upgrade to Escalation a season pass to all the Escalation DLC.
This merging should occur soon (or may even happen by the time you read this).
While some may question the idea of giving away what amounts to millions of dollars worth of free licenses, my view comes from owning a software company for over twenty years: Happy customers equals future sales. Long-term customer loyalty trumps short-term profits. "
____________________________________
So there is finally some good news. End of the crappy expandalone policy.
" Merging the Singularity
Early last year, Stardock released its much anticipated next-generation real-time-strategy game, Ashes of the Singularity®. The sales were much stronger than anticipated and a lot of users requested features that would greatly increase the depth of the game. Since we didn't want the base game to become too complex, we decided to create a separate program: Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation.
Historically, creating multiple SCUs for different user bases has worked very well for us. Keep the standard version true to its original vision and price it for the masses and create a "Pro" version for those who want the more sophisticated one and price it higher.
However, this metaphor has not worked very well on the games side for a variety of reasons, the biggest being the nature of how PC games are distributed (either via Steam or GOG) where each SCU has its own page and forum and different SCUs can't play with each other.
For last few months, I've been surveying the user base on what they think we should do and the overwhelming consensus is that we should merge the games back into a single game. The question is: Which game?
Weighing in development time, opportunity costs and customer goodwill we decided the best path was the one that would make the most customers happy: Merge them into Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation and give everyone who bought the base game a free copy of Escalation and then give those users who have already paid to upgrade to Escalation a season pass to all the Escalation DLC.
This merging should occur soon (or may even happen by the time you read this).
While some may question the idea of giving away what amounts to millions of dollars worth of free licenses, my view comes from owning a software company for over twenty years: Happy customers equals future sales. Long-term customer loyalty trumps short-term profits. "
____________________________________
So there is finally some good news. End of the crappy expandalone policy.