Thanks for the link, I don't usually do KS (did D:OS thankfully), so I don't pay much attention to it, so thanks for the heads up :)

It will probably do much better than S3 has... considering how much they screwed up.

No doubt they will receive some unintended marketing due to how Sacred 3 turned out but unfortunately it seems many people pre-ordered that game, hopefully most of them will refund and spend it on Unbended kickstarter or whatever other funding method they will use.

I wonder if most in the UK can get a refund due to false advertising of it being a Sacred game (since it clearly isn't). At the very least people who get burned will definitely consider steam twice, and consider deep silver or the game dev's twice.

TB and RTU have been saying for a while not ever to pre-order, and i think pretty soon that's going to kick in more with this being one of the second biggest games to fail so utterly (Aliens: Colonial Marines being a previous one to refer to)

Nah, doesn't qualify for a refund. Technically it's a Sacred game because the owner of the franchise declared it to be one. That many features of the previous Sacred games are missing, is not relevant with regard to "false advertising" unless the publisher explicitly claimed them to be present, which they didn't. Also, the game is arguably more similar to Sacred 1 and 2 than Sacred Citadel was, which is also part of the franchise.

That said, I think it's pretty clear that the publisher's strategy was to sell this game on the back of the reputation of the previous Sacred games, and they probably knew that fans of the series would be disappointed, hence the game was launched wit minimal advertising and a review embargo that actually lasted 5 days beyond the game's release date. It's a shabby business practice because it plays on expectations that many customers will automatically have, but since those expectations form only in the customers' heads and aren't explicitly stated anywhere, no court would even consider a "false advertising" claim.

I really wouldn't recommend pre-ordering any game that a) has minimal information available, b) has a review embargo, c) uses a popular name, and d) is released by a company that has no relation to the people who built that reputation with the previous products (except that they acquired the franchise).

That's a crappy reasoning to it; But none of this matters or affects me...

I loved the look of the video trailer for the game, i didn't consider cross-referencing the companies involved vs the ones that made the first two; I'm sure most of them didn't notice that either. It isn't until i saw some previews that it's obvious the game isn't what we hoped for. ); so sad... I wanted a good Sacred game...

I have absolutely no idea why people pre-order, especially digi downloads, it's not like they will run out of codes or something.

Saddest thing is people that bought the game are praising it, now, I know that people have different tastes, but praising this game is furthering the con, I guess they probably have buyers remorse and are trying to justify the purchase to themselves, but it really annoys me.

The game itself is not bad, but it is neither a Sacred game or even in the slightest way worth €50

Me neither especially in the current state the market is where prices fall quickly, it's easy to acquire a backlog so you don't have to be "bored" by waiting for the next big game but I suppose hype will always have its appeal.

Pre-order + buyer's remorse delusion is how the market operates now.

They suckered some with including the Day 1 DLC and OST+Artbook as a pre-order bonus in this case, and probably would technically be a good deal if it turned out to be a decent game. You can riff on them for doing that, but a lot of the industry does that sort of practice, and CDPR does a lot of pre-order bonuses as well...

EDIT: It's back in the Steam top 10 again too.... sigh. *throws hands up in air*
Then again it has been Steam's main featured item in the U.S. for days... and some say Steam's selected front page stuff doesn't effect sales much.. PFFF

The marketing strategy (hum) was indeed an indication of something unpleasant brewing....

As for the customer learning process, let's hope that they actually learn something and will keep learning. For instance when some of those "early access" / "aplha releases" end up remaining forever unfinished games.

It's indeed striking to read more remorse messages ( I shouldn't have bought that ) rather than anger (Crooks ! they shouldn't have been allowed to sell that ! )

Every time I load the steam store, its on the front page lol!

Dunno which is more disconcerting, seeing S3 in the top ten or seeing DAYZ over D:OS :)