Never Settle bundle updated for R9 Series Cards; Battlefield 4

[blackened23]

What i'm curious about is whether the BF4 bundle cards will have a 30$ price premium as they currently do. I really don't think EA would allow,at this point, for BF4 to price depreciate from game codes this early in their sale cycle - BF3 for the PC sold a metric crap ton of copies (something like 8 million) and game codes depreciating the cost would cut into that fairly drastically.

So, basically, i'm thinking that the BF4 bundle cards will have a 30$ price premium. What do you guys think? I cannot see EA allowing BF4 to be free. They know what happens to these game codes if they are free. AKA rapid price depreciation and nobody will buy off Origin...AMD also has to pay EA for a small amount for these game codes as well, if they haven't already...

 

[smackababy]

What i'm curious about is whether the BF4 bundle cards will have a 30$ price premium as they currently do. I really don't think EA would allow,at this point, for BF4 to price depreciate from game codes this early in their sale cycle - BF3 for the PC sold a metric crap ton of copies (something like 8 million) and game codes depreciating the cost would cut into that fairly drastically.

So, basically, i'm thinking that the BF4 bundle cards will have a 30$ price premium. What do you guys think? I cannot see EA allowing BF4 to be free. They know what happens to these game codes if they are free. AKA rapid price depreciation and nobody will buy off Origin...AMD also has to pay EA for a small amount for these game codes as well, if they haven't already...

Only like 1/4 of those sales were from PC though.

 

[blackened23]

Only like 1/4 of those sales were from PC though.

No, I remember seeing that the PC version specifically sold like 7 million copies, as stated by EA. BF3 digital download was very lucrative on the PC. I can't remember the news source, but I remember it being cited by EA (perhaps a financial quarterly result or something) and it specifically mentioned the DD version of BF3 on PC.

BF3 sold many millions more at retail for the 360 and PS3...

Heck, the *retail boxed* version of BF3 for PC sold nearly 3 million copies. And I remember reading the DD version sold 7 million more on top of that. Or it could have been 7 million total, retail + DD. Again, it was very lucrative and I have doubts that EA would let this happen so early in the cycle for BF4 - but I could be wrong!

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/35315/battlefield-3/

Keep in mind vgchartz does not track DD sales, only physical boxed retail copies..

 

[blastingcap]

What i'm curious about is whether the BF4 bundle cards will have a 30$ price premium as they currently do. I really don't think EA would allow,at this point, for BF4 to price depreciate from game codes this early in their sale cycle - BF3 for the PC sold a metric crap ton of copies (something like 8 million) and game codes depreciating the cost would cut into that fairly drastically.

So, basically, i'm thinking that the BF4 bundle cards will have a 30$ price premium. What do you guys think? I cannot see EA allowing BF4 to be free. They know what happens to these game codes if they are free. AKA rapid price depreciation and nobody will buy off Origin...AMD also has to pay EA for a small amount for these game codes as well, if they haven't already...

Historically many AAA games bundled up with video cards at no price premium, such as Bioshock Inf, Tomb Raider, various Batman games, Borderland games, etc. BF4 is not different. BF4 is not special.

Games are not truly free, but their costs are baked into the card+game bundles sort of like how Amazon does not have truly free shipping but instead bakes the shipping costs into products that have "free" shipping.

Thus I do not expect that BF4 bundles will cost $30 more than non-bundle. I think that $30 premium is just an artifact of the current weirdness where a card launched and then the bundle came out shortly after.

I can also tell you that there is NO WAY that I'm paying ANY premium for the BF4 bundles.

 

[blackened23]

I would argue that BF4 is different. Most video games sell early in their release cycle, ie they sell the majority of copies in the first two months of release. BF3 was different in that it consistently sold well over the course of 2 years, and the DD version of BF3 + BF3 premium sold consistently well over the course of that 2 years. EA made a killing on the DD version of BF3, it sold extraordinarily well. In fact, if you go back and look at EA's quarterly financial results, PC DD sales were always a bright spot with PC DD (helped by BF3) giving EA a ton of profit.

BF4 is not a bioshock, tomb raider, or batman, IMO. Being a multiplayer competetive game, it sells consistently over time whereas single player games do not. So I have my doubts that EA will let it be "free" this early in the cycle, because BF3 digital download for PC was incredibly lucrative for EA. Incredibly, incredibly lucrative.

I could be wrong though. I....don't know. I can't see EA allowing it at this point, but I hope i'm wrong.

 

[ShintaiDK]

PC wise, it seems BF4 is not really selling anymore. Hence the free Games.

Its only a month ago it limited to 8000 cards with a premium on top.

Compared to last year’s Battlefield 3, sales of Battlefield 4 are down 69 percent.

While the new consoles might help on this. One cant help thinking on that it might be hard to keep selling these sequals.

Now I am not a BF3/BF4 player myself. But the answer may lie in what BF4 offers over BF3.

SimCity for example is another EA game that got bundled with APUs, after it flopped sales wise. And the tactic is to use DLCs to get further income.

 

[smithkt]

What i'm curious about is whether the BF4 bundle cards will have a 30$ price premium as they currently do.

From Ryan's news blurb:

"This is the same bundle that was previously being offered at a price premium on some 290X launch SKUs, so those premium 290X SKUs will be going way in favor of $549 BF4 bundles for everyone."

If he is right, then at least for the 290X there will be no premium for BF4.

 

[blackened23]

I see. Thanks. Welp, going to see tons of price depreciated BF4 game codes in classifieds elsewhere! Can't wait.

 

[blastingcap]

Borderlands and other multiplayer games have been bundled very early in the sales cycle as well.

BF3 got good reviews. BF4's reviews are worse.

Also, EA makes money on DLC and premium packages. They can afford to sell the base game for less if it would attract people who would not otherwise play the game (such as me).

Lastly, free is not free. AMD paid EA off, either in-kind (e.g., free engineering support, etc.) or in $, or both, probably both. As I understand it AMD basically gets a block of codes which they can then bundle with cards to try to buoy demand and selling prices.

If AMD wants to unbundle, that is fine, e.g., $30 off card's launch price if you want the bare game, else pay launch price for card + game. In fact I would like that. But I would not like it the other way around where retailers are scalping bundles by selling them ABOVE launch prices. That's just uncool.

Edit: Looks like in the time it took me to get around to finishing my post and posting it, we learned that prices will not be going up despite BF4 being bundled. Haha. I say good. It brings back some balance to the NV vs AMD holiday game bundles.

I would argue that BF4 is different. Most video games sell early in their release cycle, ie they sell the majority of copies in the first two months of release. BF3 was different in that it consistently sold well over the course of 2 years, and the DD version of BF3 + BF3 premium sold consistently well over the course of that 2 years. EA made a killing on the DD version of BF3, it sold extraordinarily well. In fact, if you go back and look at EA's quarterly financial results, PC DD sales were always a bright spot with PC DD (helped by BF3) giving EA a ton of profit.

BF4 is not a bioshock, tomb raider, or batman, IMO. Being a multiplayer competetive game, it sells consistently over time whereas single player games do not. So I have my doubts that EA will let it be "free" this early in the cycle, because BF3 digital download for PC was incredibly lucrative for EA. Incredibly, incredibly lucrative.

I could be wrong though. I....don't know. I can't see EA allowing it at this point, but I hope i'm wrong.

 

[Mastercommander]

bahahaha

Have two bundles saved up

 

[Phynaz]

http://techreport.com/news/25660/amd-only-some-r9-cards-will-be-bundled-with-bf4

An email sent by an AMD PR representative to press last Friday that provided details on AMD's Battlefield 4 promotion was not clear and has led to come confusion in the marketplace. It suggested that all customers who purchased an AMD Radeon R9 series graphics card on or after November 13, 2013 would receive a complimentary copy of Battlefield 4. While all AMD Radeon R9 series cards are theoretically eligible for the promotion (which is administered by AMD's channel partners), retailers and add-in-board partners ultimately decide which select AMD Radeon R9 SKUs will include a copy of BF4.

/Facepalm

Time to fire the rest of their marketing staff.

 

[Skurge]

http://techreport.com/news/25660/amd-only-some-r9-cards-will-be-bundled-with-bf4



/Facepalm

Time to fire the rest of their marketing staff.

Sounds like AMD didn't have much choice really. It seems to have been a contractual agreement with EA.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7511/amd-announces-new-game-bundles-for-radeon-r7-260x-above

 

[blackened23]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news...field-4-promotion-doesnt-apply-to-most-cards/

Looks like BF4 wont' be free afterall and will not be offered on most R9 SKUs. Only "BF4" edition cards will have it - At this point, only 3 SKUs offer the BF4 bundle even though it officially started 3 days ago. Any cards carrying free BF4 will have a "BF4 edition" addendum.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7511/amd-announces-new-game-bundles-for-radeon-r7-260x-above

The long and short story is that this bundle is not going to be distributed like previous bundles. The Never Settle bundles were structured such that retailers were provided with vouchers and threw them in with all qualifying products. However with the Battlefield 4 bundle inclusion will not be universal; it will be up to the retailers and board partners to decide which cards to include the bundle with. Which as of right now is only a couple of XFX cards over at Newegg.
On that note, while AMD is telling us that these bundles should not affect card prices, because these bundles are up to the retails there’s no real way they can entice or force retailers to hold prices. To use Newegg as an example, the only 290 card with BF4 is an XFX card that carries a $20 premium. It’s not clear whether this is Newegg’s doing or XFX’s doing, but it looks like we’re going to see some launch-like pricing shenanigans given the fact that the retailers and partners are holding more power than usual here.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Xfx cards available at the egg have bf4 with no price premium.

 

[blackened23]

Xfx cards available at the egg have bf4 with no price premium.

Yep, looks like you're correct actually - the 280x, 290 and 290X from XFX have BF4 codes included.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

The grammar police are giving away a copy of BF4 to all customers who have recently purchased a video card and have posted in this thread, given that they follow all grammatical laws and provisions set forth by the grammar police.


Thread crapping will not be tolerated. Please refrain from doing so next time.

-Rvenger

 

[OCGuy]

OP or mod might want to update the thread. it is not the case and could mislead somebody. AMD released a statement saying AIBs have the option to include the game.

 

[Childs]

It might be EA who allowed non-290X BF4 bundling at this early stage, pretty sure it will help their sales numbers:

"The sales declines posted by Assassin’s Creed IV and Battlefield 4 was severe. Sales of Creed are down 60 per cent year-on-year, while Battlefield 4’s sales are down 69 per cent compared with 2011’s Battlefield 3. Week one sales of FIFA?14 were also down 24 per cent."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/rough-waters-the-next-generation-transition/0123896

I think this has more to do with people waiting for PS4 and XB1. I know people who played a lot of BF on console and they were waiting for the PS4. I dont think the PC numbers are low, although with all the problems the launch had it maybe effected sales.

And if I bought a 290 last week and they just announced the bundle, I would probably return it and buy it again, depending on the return policy.

 

[Subyman]

What a mess. First, core R9 290 buyers feel shafted and now the promotion is inconsistent with possibly a price premium. So weird.

 

[Plimogz]

Perhaps AMD initially thought that releasing card offering performance equal or sometimes superior to competition price $100+ higher would be enough to move the volume they wanted.

And maybe all the backlash over the fansink performance & the card thermals/acoustics convinced them to add yet another reason to buy red this time around.

One way to see it is: If you were thinking about buying BF4 and looking to get a powerful new card to go with it, well, for the roughly the same amount as a 290+BF4 would have set you back, you can get both of those plus a shiny Arctic Extreme to negate pretty much anything bad you'd previously heard about the 290.

 

[Unoid]

I hope bf4 codes are distributed like candy. I'll only buy this game at <$30

15$ dlc's for all the 5-6 bf3 expansions was a money grab in my opinion.

 

[Warsam71]

(Note, this post has been approved by the Moderators)

Hello everyone,
I hope you’ll find this official Q & A and the various links helpful:

Q: I’ve heard that the AMD Radeon™ Battlefield 4™ promotion was applicable to all AMD Radeon™ R9 Series GPUs. But now I’m hearing that it’s only on select R9 Series GPUs. Which is true?
A: AMD’s board partners, including Sapphire, MSI, Asus, HIS, Gigabyte and others, will be identifying select AMD Radeon™ R9 290X, R9 290, R9 280X, R9 270X and R9 270 SKUs for the Battlefield 4™ promotion. Please visit www.amd.com/battlefield4 for a regularly-updated list of specific models that include Battlefield 4™ with the purchase of an AMD Radeon™ R9 Series GPU.

Q: Why doesn’t AMD and their partners include games with all product SKUs like some of your competitors?
A: AMD believes in offering its board partners the ability to differentiate offerings as much as possible, to maximize choice in the marketplace for customers.

Q: Why weren’t all the AMD Radeon R9 Battlefield 4 promotion SKUs available in e-tail and retail on November 13th?
A: AMD believes in offering its board partners the ability to differentiate offerings as much as possible, and in doing so provides them with game codes which they can use for promotions in accordance with their product schedule. As a result, not all board partners release bundled SKUs on the same day.

Q: I bought an AMD Radeon™ R9 Series GPU prior to the introduction of the Battlefield 4™ promotion on November 13, 2013. Shouldn’t early adopters get codes?
A: AMD was unable to deliver this promotion prior to November 13th due to contractual obligations between EA/DICE and AMD. Due to the terms and conditions of this promotion, customers who have purchased an AMD Radeon™ R9 Series Graphics card prior to November 13 are not eligible to receive Battlefield 4 game codes. But as a gesture of goodwill to our most loyal fans, we’ll be giving away 1000 Battlefield 4 game codes in the coming weeks. Follow www.facebook.com/amdgaming or www.twitter.com/amdradeon for more information on this upcoming promotion.

Q: I bought an AMD Radeon™ R9 Series GPU on November 13 (or later) because of this Battlefield 4™ promotion, but I didn’t receive a key. Shouldn’t I be eligible?
A: To maximize consumer choice in the marketplace, AMD gives its board partners the ability to decide which specific models come bundled with a copy of Battlefield 4™ as well as which resellers will carry those models with the bundle. We understand that this distinction was not made clear upon program introduction, and AMD moved quickly to clarify the promotion conditions. As a gesture of goodwill to our most loyal fans, we’ll be giving away 1000 Battlefield 4 game codes in the coming weeks. Follow www.facebook.com/amdgaming or www.twitter.com/amdradeon for more information on this upcoming promotion.

 

[Subyman]

That's a very lame QA. Pretty much: Sorry, hope you don't feel bad! Nothing we can do! Contracts and stuff, check out these terms and conditions, our hands are tied. Yadda yadda.

Again, what a mess. "Allow our partners and board manufacturers to create market confusion."

 

[AnandThenMan]

That's a very lame QA.

Looks very reasonable to me. Did you miss out on a BF4 code?

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Originally, wasn't it only for pre-ordered BF4 combos? (Just asking, this is not a rhetorical question.)