Originally posted by Irdis Evalle:

Is this the same team that created a magnificent Planetary Annihilation series of games?

Originally posted by Buntkreuz:

Yeah, sorry for wall of text btw.
It was also an answer for anyone curious about the background, hence the details.

Originally posted by Buntkreuz:

Originally posted by Irdis Evalle:

Thank you!
I dunno why they change the studio name each time they release a new piece of art. But at least they stated clearly that they are the same team on the Kickstarter page

Because, to be frank, the way they lead their studio and their last project was a total PR desaster as they prominently exploited their customers.
Their kickstarter was a success but awful, the game released into early access with a horrible pricing scheme, where you had to pay over 90€ to receive early access, with the price dropping the longer it was developed and finished (so basically 90€ Alpha, 60€ Beta Access, Full Release about 30€).
The End result was that the game was constantly thrown out for like 4€ at bundles and such after release, rendering the entire participation in Early Access nonsensical and basically robbing their community.
Then they abandoned the game entirely, only to release the same game with content additions again under a new name.

I assume that the way they handled that project was hurting their sales figures, so they had to throw out keys for a dime as it wasnt worth anything anymore and then the only way to get more money was to re-release it under a new name as a spinoff (which it wasnt), not even giving that one for free to owners of PA.


Then they did another cashgrab kickstarter, with theoretically a good basic idea (Human Resources, where you collect humans as resources with gigantic robots, to create armies and bases and such or whatever).
But their community didnt support their harmful way of crowdfunding.
After that Uber Entertainment couldnt stand any longer and that was clear to all who had followed their project(s).

Their anti-customer/community/fan behaviour, their exploitative way of selling games and pretty much harming their early supporters was a gigantic controversy at the time, especially since PA was one of the earlier games going early access, when that program was relatively new and not many did know about how it works, but still people kind of knew what they did was insanely problematic and kind of cruel.

So, namechange it is. Same people, same visual style, same concept, same background, hopefully they learned their lesson regarding how you treat people, customers and your community.
Exploitation is fine in a game, but not in real life.
It just hurts your bottom line, as you could see with their last kickstarter failing dramatically and people knowing them are still hesitating because of their bad reputation.
Deserved if you ask me.

I personally like their games and ideas, but the way they act as a studio massively stands in their way.
So instead of this being a no brainer purchase as i love RTS and Factory building, its a "keep on watch list and see how this turns out", because i just dont trust these guys anymore.
If its not as successful as they hoped, it will be abandoned in no time and if its overly successful they might turn this into a money milking machine with microtransactions and skins and all that.
And you can see they are preparing their game for that from the get go.

To me their studio is a so-so thing. On one hand it would be a shame to not have these games.
I consider PA to be a good and fun game and the Planetary Campaign is the most fun mode i could wish for in such an RTS.
On the other hand they deserve to go bankrupt for how they hunt the money.
The way they handled all of the above was what i expect from publishers like Konami or EA.
Im not naive, i know developers do it for the money.
But damn did they go for the full corporate slave exploitation moneymilking scheme if i ever saw one.

Originally posted by Buntkreuz:

Originally posted by Irdis Evalle:

Thank you!
I dunno why they change the studio name each time they release a new piece of art. But at least they stated clearly that they are the same team on the Kickstarter page

Because, to be frank, the way they lead their studio and their last project was a total PR desaster as they prominently exploited their customers.
Their kickstarter was a success but awful, the game released into early access with a horrible pricing scheme, where you had to pay over 90€ to receive early access, with the price dropping the longer it was developed and finished (so basically 90€ Alpha, 60€ Beta Access, Full Release about 30€).
The End result was that the game was constantly thrown out for like 4€ at bundles and such after release, rendering the entire participation in Early Access nonsensical and basically robbing their community.
Then they abandoned the game entirely, only to release the same game with content additions again under a new name.

I assume that the way they handled that project was hurting their sales figures, so they had to throw out keys for a dime as it wasnt worth anything anymore and then the only way to get more money was to re-release it under a new name as a spinoff (which it wasnt), not even giving that one for free to owners of PA.


Then they did another cashgrab kickstarter, with theoretically a good basic idea (Human Resources, where you collect humans as resources with gigantic robots, to create armies and bases and such or whatever).
But their community didnt support their harmful way of crowdfunding.
After that Uber Entertainment couldnt stand any longer and that was clear to all who had followed their project(s).

Their anti-customer/community/fan behaviour, their exploitative way of selling games and pretty much harming their early supporters was a gigantic controversy at the time, especially since PA was one of the earlier games going early access, when that program was relatively new and not many did know about how it works, but still people kind of knew what they did was insanely problematic and kind of cruel.

So, namechange it is. Same people, same visual style, same concept, same background, hopefully they learned their lesson regarding how you treat people, customers and your community.
Exploitation is fine in a game, but not in real life.
It just hurts your bottom line, as you could see with their last kickstarter failing dramatically and people knowing them are still hesitating because of their bad reputation.
Deserved if you ask me.

I personally like their games and ideas, but the way they act as a studio massively stands in their way.
So instead of this being a no brainer purchase as i love RTS and Factory building, its a "keep on watch list and see how this turns out", because i just dont trust these guys anymore.
If its not as successful as they hoped, it will be abandoned in no time and if its overly successful they might turn this into a money milking machine with microtransactions and skins and all that.
And you can see they are preparing their game for that from the get go.

To me their studio is a so-so thing. On one hand it would be a shame to not have these games.
I consider PA to be a good and fun game and the Planetary Campaign is the most fun mode i could wish for in such an RTS.
On the other hand they deserve to go bankrupt for how they hunt the money.
The way they handled all of the above was what i expect from publishers like Konami or EA.
Im not naive, i know developers do it for the money.
But damn did they go for the full corporate slave exploitation moneymilking scheme if i ever saw one.

Originally posted by SweetGula:

Originally posted by Buntkreuz:

Because, to be frank, the way they lead their studio and their last project was a total PR desaster as they prominently exploited their customers.
Their kickstarter was a success but awful, the game released into early access with a horrible pricing scheme, where you had to pay over 90€ to receive early access, with the price dropping the longer it was developed and finished (so basically 90€ Alpha, 60€ Beta Access, Full Release about 30€).
The End result was that the game was constantly thrown out for like 4€ at bundles and such after release, rendering the entire participation in Early Access nonsensical and basically robbing their community.
Then they abandoned the game entirely, only to release the same game with content additions again under a new name.

I assume that the way they handled that project was hurting their sales figures, so they had to throw out keys for a dime as it wasnt worth anything anymore and then the only way to get more money was to re-release it under a new name as a spinoff (which it wasnt), not even giving that one for free to owners of PA.


Then they did another cashgrab kickstarter, with theoretically a good basic idea (Human Resources, where you collect humans as resources with gigantic robots, to create armies and bases and such or whatever).
But their community didnt support their harmful way of crowdfunding.
After that Uber Entertainment couldnt stand any longer and that was clear to all who had followed their project(s).

Their anti-customer/community/fan behaviour, their exploitative way of selling games and pretty much harming their early supporters was a gigantic controversy at the time, especially since PA was one of the earlier games going early access, when that program was relatively new and not many did know about how it works, but still people kind of knew what they did was insanely problematic and kind of cruel.

So, namechange it is. Same people, same visual style, same concept, same background, hopefully they learned their lesson regarding how you treat people, customers and your community.
Exploitation is fine in a game, but not in real life.
It just hurts your bottom line, as you could see with their last kickstarter failing dramatically and people knowing them are still hesitating because of their bad reputation.
Deserved if you ask me.

I personally like their games and ideas, but the way they act as a studio massively stands in their way.
So instead of this being a no brainer purchase as i love RTS and Factory building, its a "keep on watch list and see how this turns out", because i just dont trust these guys anymore.
If its not as successful as they hoped, it will be abandoned in no time and if its overly successful they might turn this into a money milking machine with microtransactions and skins and all that.
And you can see they are preparing their game for that from the get go.

To me their studio is a so-so thing. On one hand it would be a shame to not have these games.
I consider PA to be a good and fun game and the Planetary Campaign is the most fun mode i could wish for in such an RTS.
On the other hand they deserve to go bankrupt for how they hunt the money.
The way they handled all of the above was what i expect from publishers like Konami or EA.
Im not naive, i know developers do it for the money.
But damn did they go for the full corporate slave exploitation moneymilking scheme if i ever saw one.

damn I almost gonna buy this because its rts and it looks good but now you bring this bad news I am really hesitating to buy it

Originally posted by WALL:

Originally posted by SweetGula:

damn I almost gonna buy this because its rts and it looks good but now you bring this bad news I am really hesitating to buy it

It was a giant non-controversy, it makes total sense why an alpha might cost more than a beta and it followed the kickstarter model, people like the above try to paint it in the same light as kicking a baby. You get access earlier and can provide feedback that potentially influences the direction of the game. If you don't like it don;t buy it until full release, simple.

Originally posted by Buntkreuz:

Originally posted by WALL:

It was a giant non-controversy, it makes total sense why an alpha might cost more than a beta and it followed the kickstarter model, people like the above try to paint it in the same light as kicking a baby. You get access earlier and can provide feedback that potentially influences the direction of the game. If you don't like it don;t buy it until full release, simple.

It was basically just capturing the events, the rest is opinion, but lets be frank: they used Early Access as Kickstarter although it isnt.
And of what you write it shows you dont really know how it went down anyway.
At last it killed their studios reputation, showcasing why the way they used Early Access has no future.

Putting ANY game into early access, no matter its state, for 90€ is just awful in many ways.
Today any game doing it this way would be completely destroyed by reviews.
Mind, back then you had no reviews on Steam.

But it was also mocking the already established standard of developers being grateful for a community that supports them.

Uber was turning it around and put Early Access into a Premium FOMO experience.
Thats so anti-service as it gets and lets be honest, Videogame Kickstarter communities are absolutely horrible because of that.
They are entitled gatekeepers because they want to feel exclusive.
And thats what Uber wanted to feed into, gatekeep by putting the price high, making people feel exclusive and better than others.
This also showed in the forum culture and the early community they built.
Remember, that was at a time when there were people fighting "console wars" about whether the Xbox 360 or the PS3 are the true way to play games.
It was super stupid and as stupid were gaming kickstarters (still are honestly).

A lot of company shills defending everything they did and constantly feeling entitled and more important than others.


It was a controversy, because their actions of how they used kickstarter and Early Access was the essence of everything people hated and still hate about videogame businesses.
Especially selling a content patch for their game under a new subtitle.


Just saying "you dont like to be in early then dont buy" misses the point, im sorry.
The point i made was not WHEN you buy it, what matters here is who the people are you buy it FROM and how they shape their studio culture and idea of how to lead a business in the gaming industry as an indie developer towards their community.

And that idea is hostile towards customers, as it only sees them as money machines that need to be squeezed, not respected.

So stop selling the romantic idea of "you buy early to shape the game".
This barely works anyway, but less with a company that sees its community as something that needs to be exploited, not appreciated.
They want your money, not your analysis or opinion.
At least these past actions were showing that.

My hope is, that they left that behind with their new studio.
Im not sure they did however, as im seeing the same things yet again.