KA-CHING! Pre-ordered and looking forward to the beta, glad to see more Sins content coming out!

well even though I am logged in it does not discount. I own all expansions and base game.

Lovely

Because it'll be christmas time for a game that came out four years ago?That they carried Sins in 2008 and Trinity last year (in the winter) doesn't mean they'll carry something this year at christmas time. As I mentioned for a more recent example, distribution for Elemental was really bad outside the US, and somewhat less then perfect there... and that was given a very specific time frame to avoid losing the shelf space.

And that's assuming they make that guesstimated date, which they might not. The other advantage of having no boxes is no fixed date, they can do a "when it's ready" approach. Shelf space around christmas time is highly valuable and you can't simply tell Walmart to leave it empty while you finish the game past the date you gave them. With digital only, they can turnaround a release very quickly once the game is ready.

On top of that, digital copies also generate a lot more revenue for SD/IC then retail copies do. There's no store taking a cut and no manufacturing & shipping costs. Anybody who buys a retail copy who would have bought a digital one if the retail one didn't exist is a revenue boost that can make up for someone else not buying at all.

Digital has passed retail in sales now, and retail is shrinking. At this point for a smaller publisher it seems clear that it's not worth doing anymore.

To get the discount I had to order from the link in the original post.

  https://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/store.aspx

I had to log in at sinsofasolarempire.com

It won't discount if buying using Impulse.

I know that might not be everyones problem but maybe it will help a few.

Preordered! Wheeeeeee!!! >does happy fanboi dance<

Trinity is $40 right now. So new customers are getting Trinity (which is part of Rebellion, it's standalone, right?) plus the new Rebellion features for $40, so the new rebellion features are essentially costing them NOTHING.

Current users have already paid at least $40 for trinity, but likely have paid $40 for the original game, and $10 for each expansion, so $60. Now they get to pay $30 for Rebellion.

$90 spent by existing customers for the same features that new customers get for $40. I think the OP has a valid point. That 25% "discount" does not seem all the great when you really look at the numbers.

It's true, Stardock/Ironclad is a business, they can't just give things away. Maybe this is the only cost model that makes sense for them to make some money, therefore it's the only way for us to get the expansion. But I ain't buyin' that theory yet, and I am a customer free to go buy something else until I am sure I am getting my money's worth.

I've preorderd.  I decided I'll support anything Ironclad does until they let me down.  Their first game was outstanding, they could be the next Bungie/Blizzard

While Rebellion may be using the Diplomacy game engine and reusing/extending the existing assets, I don't think it's fair to say it will just be Trinity plus Rebellion features yet... I'm hoping this game will diverge from the original in strategies and potentially some areas of gameplay.

Here are my reasons why this may warrant the 30 dollar price tag for existing users.

First, I don't think they realized what they had with Entrenchment. It could have easily sold for $20 dollars. The fact that it was a $10 dollar expansion was amazing. Diplomacy on the other hand fit a $10 dollar micro expansion IMO. Even with the combined $20 dollars for the expansions you are only spending $10 more for this expansion which if I'm right will add more content and strategies than the previous two combined.

Here are my reasons why this expansion "will" be worth the cost.

To me this means this is not simply Rebellion built on Trinity. New factions, unique new tech tree, new techs and ships is quite a change from what the original expansions offered.

To me this could have the same impact Entrenchment had. I'm not sure if Titans will be just beefed up capital ships or capital/starbase hybrids (i.e. level up and able to purchase specific upgrades). Either way I'm excited about this change both for the game and modding.

I'm excited to see what this will be.

Might be the answer to LRF in online play. Not sure how this impacts the game yet, but it's the first combat frigate added to the game. (Entrenchment added starbase constructors and anti-module, and Diplomacy added Envoy's).

To me this is cool... It means sub-factions have traits. I asked something similar when the ideas for new expansions thread were going. This is way more than just bringing over the existing Trinity races imo.

New eye candy is good. This will probably be even better for modders.

The current victory coditions are meh. Depending on how they do this it might be possible to create map scenarios that take advantage of the new Victory conditions.

Ok, this is really significant. Currently all level 10 capital ships of the same type look exactly the same. I like choices and just like starbases the choice has a signficant opportunity cost associated with it. Say for the Kol, if I want to build a cap killer maybe I give up on some of the anti-strikecraft abilities. This one is gold for modders too.

ICO needs retired. Nothing personal here, but Sins needs a better online mechanism including stat tracking, etc.

By all means don't buy if your not comfortable. I got in on the Elemental pre-order and wish I had waited. Now that said, I'm still looking forward to E:FE to see if that ship corrects itself. However, in this case we are working from a proven product to a new full expansion where they aren't restricted to the original game which is why we never saw significant changes to the races, research, ships etc with the previous micro-expansions.

People who bought Trinity have also been playing for a year. People (like me) who bought Sins + Entrenchment + Diplomacy have been playing since 2008.

It's a fact of life that games get cheaper and new things get added. They want it to be approachable for new people. Strictly speaking a lot of companies wouldn't do a discount for existing users either. Hell, I can buy a copy of Dragon Age 1 right now that comes with the expansion and all DLC for *LESS* then I paid back at release for a version with no expansion or DLC. They don't even give me a discount on those things to catch up, the best way to get them is to go rebuy the game itself.

This is a much better way of doing things.

It feels a bit premature to pre-order without screenshots. Just saying!

And I'm dissapointed to hear Rebellion won't be multithreaded. It's been what, 3 years since the first Sins came out and Ironclad is still using the same excuses? I find this absoutely absurd considering Sins is a cpu intensive game. Someone back me up on this!!

EVERYONE wants multithreading... 64 bit... and EVERYONE knows its NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

get used to it.

Hmm I am not sure how to feel about the pricing for this stand alone expansion, as a beta adopter of original game and all the DLC to date, even the discounted $29.95 seems high for the content so far mentioned. 

The fact we have 1 screenshot so far , doesn't exactly make it super enticing atm...

I actually have faith in the ironclad team. I was a bit disappointed before with the micro expansions just because they added so little.  I lapped them all up wanting more. I think its great we are now getting a fully fledged expansion.

As soon as this $30 business is sorted out with my account I will pre-order.

I agree. The price is higher than expected.

Easy solution: come back later this year when beta's out and people are trying it, and check how the additions are working out. There's no need to order today if you're not convinced.

I pre-ordered just like everyone else here, but....

Kinda makes you wonder.... We get a sudden announcement of an expansion. Then, within the week pre-orders get going? We havent even really seen anything... If Ironclad was a stock market company, we'd have just blown our money on a scam.

Is preordering cheaper than purchasing upon release?

no

That's why I can't bring myself to pre-order it before there's even a Beta, at least not without a limited-time substantial discount.  A lot can happen between now and then.  I'm sure Ironclad and Stardock will deliver, but I'd still feel funny about it.

I haven't decided if I will pre-order yet either. I may as a means to support IC but I'd like to see a little bit more.

Agreed with Zombie.... also Im trying to save for my wedding

But Id love to see more if possible... 

If there is no monetarial advantage to preordering, I will certainly not. As much as I like to support the makers of products I have liked in the past, the only person I will pre-order from now is my tailor -- got burnt way too badly by Elemental: WoM, and that after investing a lot of my time and energy for them in months of Beta. I'll wait for a product (and possibly a few patches if necessary) or some form of substantial rebate.

This new stand alone expansion just sounds like an rip-off from Command and Conquer Zero Hours. I hope that Ironclad isn't planning on presenting the same.
Diplomacy was a disappointment, no multi threading is disappointing, still bugs that needs to be fixed in Entrenchment and Diplomacy!

I will be voting with my wallet. And my wallet says no.
It might say yes if they do not copycat C&C Zero Hours and/or get support for multi cores or open up so that we can mod our own AI.

I will wait too, as they left us alone with the last patch and the heavy overpowered Vasaricarrier. all of my friends stoped playing sins because of this carrier. I mean i play vasari, but it was just boring to play over and over again against the same strat.  I expected a small bugfixpatch for that. Now, as the want to make money again, they come out with a patch.

I think they lost the love for this game at these dark days....

For the success of sins i realy hope they arent to late now.