So... Do The pervious express members still get pro

magic101hi

so we paid 99$ way back when but now that subscription doesnt matter anymare aparently i am a poor freshman in highschool and dont have any money so i have used about half of my account sub buy now i basicly just wasted $50 and have become broke in the process it there anyway current express members could be bumped up tp pro until the sub expies



-Josh

Hunnenkoenig

I wanted to ask exactly this.

What about us now?

We all have the free version now, even if we paid 99 dollars.
How will this be compensated?

WhyAreYouHere

for 99 bucks you can get pro

magic101hi

ya to bad i used all my money on a macbook because i thought the upgrade was free that is what i thought!

WhyAreYouHere

your membership works like it did before tell it expires. you have no worries

magic101hi

ya but no links or iads or support for game crashes

WhyAreYouHere

they never said you would get all that for a free upgrade.

Hunnenkoenig

Ok wait.

Pro for the "first year"

Does that mean, if I pay the 99 bucks now, I have one year pro for 99 counted from today, or is it 99 for the rest of my actual express subscription?

My subscription runs out in january. Maybe I can wait until then and get a full year pro for 99?

WhyAreYouHere

yes pro 1 year from today for 99 bucks

Hunnenkoenig

Forwarding doesn!t work.

I click payment, then I get a login window again. I click paypal, but it doesn't forward me.

My paypal login is something else, than my gamesalad login...does this login needed for gamesalad or paypal?

Questions over questions...

JCFord

My Express membership runs out on 28th January - How longis this Legacy Upgrade to Pro for $99 on offer for?

juzcook

I've just emailed about this, because I think it's a bit unfair to have recently already paid for a subscription that is now free to everyone, then be told I have to pay another $99 to get the features I used to have. As long as this option is available until my current subscription ends, and can give me another year then I'll be kept happy.

dmilinovichiii

magic101hi said:
so we paid 99$ way back when but now that subscription doesnt matter anymare aparently i am a poor freshman in highschool and dont have any money so i have used about half of my account sub buy now i basicly just wasted $50 and have become broke in the process it there anyway current express members could be bumped up tp pro until the sub expies



-Josh

I'm in the exact same boat as you. I'm kinda pissed off also. I really wanted those iAds.

jonmulcahy

i don't know why so many people are having trouble with this. your old subscription is still valid until the last day it expires. you also have an exclusive $99 price to upgrade to pro. so you didn't lose $99, you're saving $300 off the price of pro, which i know everyone wants.

dazzleme

To answer the question regarding how long the legacy upgrade offer is valid for, the answer can be read on the blog <http://gamesalad.com/blog/>. Pasted below for convenience.

"Current Express and Pro users have the option of upgrading to the new Professional membership for only $99 for the first year. This “Legacy User Upgrade Offer” expires Dec 31, 2010."

Photics

It does seem that Express users that were not interested in upgrading to Pro... or the original Pro subscribers who enjoyed custom splash-screens ...have reason to gripe.

I don't fall into either of those categories, but that's why I suggested the three-tier system... so that existing subscribers wouldn't get ripped off.

Did I write "three-tier" again?! Hi jonmulcahy :-)

dazzleme said:
To answer the question regarding how long the legacy upgrade offer is valid for, the answer can be read on the blog <http://gamesalad.com/blog/>. Pasted below for convenience.

For even more convenience, I added a hyperlink...
http://gamesalad.com/blog/

tenrdrmer

I agree its crap that they have made the service express users paid $99 for, free. I do think they should look at offering a pro-rated refund to current express users if they wish. However look at it this way. because you paid $99 a while back you now get to upgrade for $99 instead of $499.

In My opinion that is very generous of them to offer. However I really think it should go both ways for those who do not want Pro. the should at the very least be reimbursed at a pro rated rate. This Should definitely be a One or the other thing. not get a refund and then upgrade for $99 and I would have never expected a free Upgrade. Anyone who did is not think very rationally.

tenrdrmer

On the splash screen thing It seems that the terms of service should allow the current Pro to keep their custom splash screen through their subscription as long as they do not use the $99 extension. I have a feeling getting as many people off the old system as possible is why they are offering that extension.

jweaver911

jonmulcahy said: you're saving $300 off the price of pro, which i know everyone wants.

Actually you're wrong. Since I won't be renewing my membership at the end of my sub... I would much rather have a PRORATED REFUND now knowing that what I PAID FOR is now free.... STUPID MOVE assuming that we would all just pony up more money and call it a perk. Thanks for making me feel like I waste my money GS...

tenrdrmer

jweaver911 said:
Actually you're wrong. Since I won't be renewing my membership at the end of my sub... I would much rather have a PRORATED REFUND now knowing that what I PAID FOR is now free.... STUPID MOVE assuming that we would all just pony up more money and call it a perk. Thanks for making me feel like I waste my money GS...

I do agree that you should be offered a prorated refund. But in all honesty I'm not sure it's fair to say you wasted your money. Looks like you have built a couple games and had your subscription over 6 months. Cant exactly call it a waste.
Early Adopters will always and forever pay more. Look at xbox360, PS3, or even the Iphone. Those who got it first paid a lot more than todays price.

jonmulcahy

jweaver911 said:
Actually you're wrong. Since I won't be renewing my membership at the end of my sub... I would much rather have a PRORATED REFUND now knowing that what I PAID FOR is now free.... STUPID MOVE assuming that we would all just pony up more money and call it a perk. Thanks for making me feel like I waste my money GS...

I paid $500 for GS express a year ago, and 5 weeks later they dropped it to $99. They bumped me to pro, but honestly, I would have rathered a refund.

In this day in age, if you buy something and it drops in price 6 mths later, you can't expect a refund. within 30 days, go and complain, 6 mths, it's the price of living in this world. how many times have you purcahsed a piece of hardware only to have it go on sale a few mths later?

MagoNicolas

Yes, You Payed for a Product… and now is free… you have NOTHING to do now…
You can buy the new iPAd and in some month will come one MUCH more better for the same price or lower… And nothing to do. is the same.

jweaver911

I'm not saying I expect them to do that... I'm just saying its pretty much a slap in the face to say "Hey you know what we're gonna do FOR YOU?! You can pay us 99 bucks more to actually make your investments seem worthwhile!"

And yeah, I have launched two games. I've paid for GS several times over, but that's not the point.

To be fair, they should have bumped anyone who paid who is still in their membership to whatever paid sub they are currently offering. That's the only way to compensate for doing away with a price like that. Let's be honest, without the custom splash screen, who cares about iADs and links enough to go from paying NOTHING to 500 a year. Seriously. I've already bought into corona, so the cost of the investment isn't what bothers me. It's the VALUE that got jerked around.

By the way... Joining at 8.5 can hardly be called an early adopter.

And what's the iPad have to do with this?

MagoNicolas

iPad was an example, but now im sure you undestarnd my point.
I Know how you feel, I see the opportunity to get a VERY cheap Pro membership.
But yes… is not to much, just iAds and Links, but they worth 99 USD for a year! You Can make Links to your other games, and if nothing new come to Pro version in one year, you cancel your membership and continue doing it Free!

And… If we have some luck, they will add GameCenter and more Behaiviours to pro.

MagoNicolas

tshirtbooth said:
remember that gamecenter will be here soon and will most likely be pro only

Im Sure it would be only pro… (My speculation) But im sure, lol.
Is the best for GS from a strategy point of view. (Maybe be not if they want to bring thousands of free clients and maybe sell the company)

MagoNicolas

Hope they have Gamecenter soon! People Is REALLY asking for it for my games!

dotsonj23

Game center is a funny thing. Go look at the studies/stats on it. So far no one can show that it actually increases sales at all. Also, it has been shown that the vast majority of IPAD/IPHONE users do not use it and are not interested in it. The stats make sense because most users of the IPHONE/IPAD are not gamers but rather casual game users. Casual game users could care less about Game Center. Believe me, I am a casual game user and I think it is stupid from a user perspective. Because you have to sell apps for so little (as compared) to say a PC Game of a console game, the only way to really make money is to make lots of sales to the casual gamers, or iAds, or in-app purchases. Selling to gamers just won't cut it cause there aint enough of them even at $3 an app. That is why you will consistently see simple addicting games as the best sellers (i.e, cut the rope, angry birds, etc...). They are casual user types of games. Game Center may get you a few extra sales but its not going to be the boon everyone hopes for. I am guessing maybe 1-2 extra sales a week.

tenrdrmer

dotsonj23 said:
Game center is a funny thing. Go look at the studies/stats on it. So far no one can show that it actually increases sales at all. Also, it has been shown that the vast majority of IPAD/IPHONE users do not use it and are not interested in it. The stats make sense because most users of the IPHONE/IPAD are not gamers but rather casual game users. Casual game users could care less about Game Center. Believe me, I am a casual game user and I think it is stupid from a user perspective. Because you have to sell apps for so little (as compared) to say a PC Game of a console game, the only way to really make money is to make lots of sales to the casual gamers, or iAds, or in-app purchases. Selling to gamers just won't cut it cause there aint enough of them even at $3 an app. That is why you will consistently see simple addicting games as the best sellers (i.e, cut the rope, angry birds, etc...). They are casual user types of games. Game Center may get you a few extra sales but its not going to be the boon everyone hopes for. I am guessing maybe 1-2 extra sales a week.

I agree I personally don't use any over the other game center type stuff if it is available in a game i'm playing. I don't see how iAds will get you sales as people want ad free if they pay. I do think that iAds would be nice for a free game like doodle destroy. it had over 800,000 downloads. regardless I plan to upgrade to pro for $99 as soon as figure out my current problem cause it really why not. It wont get any cheaper to try out those options to see if they make you money. It would be nice to have the custom splash. Even if there was some sort of template you had to use that still put the powered by Game Salad on your slash. It would still look way more professional.

dotsonj23

Don't get me wrong, I upgraded to pro. But it was for the iAds for Lite games and links to full versions. If they want to offer Gamecenter I don't have a problem with it. I just would not pay extra for a feature that really will do me not much good. I also think everyone would be better of if they spent their time on pause, global save, in-game web surfing (kinda like the new GS), in-app purchases, video, to name a few b/f doing the Gamecenter thing.

tenrdrmer

I like the in-game web surfing or at least a way to pull something like an RSS feed. But that would be more for informational type apps. That way you would not have to submit an update just to get some new news added.

Also the in-app-purchasing

Tshirt I have no idea what arrays are but i'm pretty new to developing.

alcamie

tshirtbooth said:
id rather arrays more then anything

Yeh me to. Arrays please.

And to the others.. I would normally have been pissed off too (I paid $99 for the express 1 month b4 this) but under the circumstances. Being able to now have iAds and the "pro" version for what is now for me $198 instead of what was then $2000, I am happy with the outcome. Just like the TshirtBooths of this world could be pissed that they had to pay $2000 for their Pro version and now still to "crossgrade" have to pay $99.

I have voice rather strongly in the past my discontent with the way that GS seemed to handle things, but in this matter of the legacy upgrades etc I fully support what they are doing.

So. Have them publish for you if you can't afford the $499 for pro (only if you want the pro features etc) and only pay when you need to publish or go back to the old days and set up your apple account "iOS" $99 and your apple account "Mac OS" $99 and then your old expressGS account $99 or old PRO versionGS $2000.

I am wingeing no more about this as I think they have now done the right thing.

Oh and about the Powered By gamesalad splash screen? Who really cares.. I know that pretty much every client that I deal with will go with what I advise them. That's why they hire me. So if you think you'll have a problem selling that then go and learn objectiveC, even corona. They are both really good.
But if my client wants or needs something that can be turned around in the timeframe that can be offered by using GS then they usually accept reality.

Cheers

Chris