Well since most of the gamers here were old when the hills and mountains were young I figured you would know this. At empireearth.com they have said that anyone who preorders the game will be able to download the beta copy is this unprecedented? I'v never heard of anything like it.

I've never heard of anything like this either. Kind of neat, but I wonder how locked in the pre-orders are? What if you don't like the beta?

Yeah, this is a new concept but it will reap some benefits for them. I'd imagine there's a huge comfort level in pre-orders, for shareholders and even developers.

"We've already pre-sold 50,000 copies!"

If this gooses those pre-order numbers that helps justify costs. If the beta generates positive word of mouth (and especially mod communities, etc.,) then this might be a more common trend.

The beta had better be good then, better than most beta code, huh?

-Andrew

"The beta had better be good then, better than most beta code, huh?"

lol, which is to say it can't be much at all like most release candidates.

all kidding aside, I would have a hard time laying down any amount of money for a beta. What if the team goes belly up, project gets cancelled, etc?

Now if it was just making a *promise* to pay for the full version, I'd be happy to "pre-order" and just work out the nasty monetary details later.

I don't know about that, but if you pre-order something with -- say, Amazon.com -- you give them your credit card number and shipping information, and everything like that, but they don't actually charge you until it ships. If it never ships, they never charge you. And at Amazon, it's possible to cancel a pre-order. If they stick with that format, this should be a semi-successful idea.

Let's just hope the beta's good.

Well... it'll be about (download time + 10 seconds) before that beta hits public FTP's then.

Nice try though. How about a DEMO instead and we call it even boys?

That's true, and I had thought about that, but I don't really see any way to prevent that...