Offical word or source on: Packs, sales, discounts, and tournaments?

[rivermonster]

Hi, I'm LOVING the Windows 8 Zen Pinball App. As someone who's purchased all available tables on iOS though, the thought of double dipping is not the most attractive (likely I will though).

What I'm curious about is the potential for table packs, sales, discounts on the tables. At $3 a table double dipping for all of them starts becoming an expensive proposition. You wont' lose me as a customer if there's no plans for this. But it'd make decisions easier.

The most frustrating scenario would be to go re-purchase all the tables individually and then have packs released that would have allowed me to save big.

So really, any sort of insight as to what's in store... er... for the Windows Store would be great. Is there NO CHANCE that there will be discounted tables or packs in the next year? If so--then I know what I gotta do (and please nobody tell my wife what I spent on virtual pinball after I do!)! LOL

Zen, you guys make some of the best tables around, and I love playing them on the 55" tv with an xbox controller via Windows 8. Thank you for all your hard work and I look forward to many more great tables and times!

P.S.: Are there any plans for tournaments on Windows 8? I noticed a tournament button, and if so are they Windows 8 exclusive or will they be cross platform or even partial cross platform?

Thanks and keep up the great work,

rm

[BarbieBobomb]

I'm not sure that Tournaments are a possibility at this point, but if anything changes, I'll let you all know! As for sales, I haven't heard any word on them, but of course, I'd announce those when they happen as well.

[rivermonster]

Thanks for the quick reply. I give up--it's time to double dip. But like many others in the forums, I can't express enough how much portability of DLC is on my priority list. I know it's a pretty hefty hurdle... but at the very least the xbox 360 dlc should go to windows 8 (mind you have I have no xbox 360, all my purchased tables are on iOS... and in a few minutes Windows 8).

Barring that, some way to do a "double dip discount code", for the various stores. Or promo codes, sales, packages, any way to ease the pain.

Regardless, thank you and the work Zen does is so good that it makes almost all other pinball games seem bland. Currently I'm only playing Zen tables and Pinball Arcade, though I"m still rooting for the old Pro Pinball series to get GreenLight'ed on Steam.

Again, thanks for the reply and happy new year.

[MarkItZeroSmoky]

Being someone who owns all the tables on ps3 and android, I hear where your coming from. But keep in mind, these are diff platforms made by diff manufacturers. That'd be like buying a ps3 disc/Xbox disc/pc disc and hoping they'd all work with each other's system. Yeah, its all zen material, but each manufacturer is gonna want their cut. So that's obviously not feasable, lol.

Justify it by saying to yourself, I love zenpin & since the tables are relatively cheap compared to a disc game, then its worth the cost to double dip on tables across multiple platforms/consoles! ( and we'll keep it from your wife, no prob! Lol )

[rivermonster]

Believe me, that *is* how I justify it.

But it's not quite like you say. Yes there are royalty fees to each different platform. But porting a game is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper. Table design, asset creation (textures, models, etc.), marketing material (descriptions, ads, etc.), and on and on is reused. Plus these are all digital distribution platforms, so it's not separate physical media, boxes, shipping (and other logistics).

Yes there is stuff that takes time and money (including pain in the ass submission processes different to each platform, licensing, etc.)--but it's FAR less than a table from scratch. Especially when the port from XBox360 to Windows 8 is close to no effort. Microsoft is working hard towards the future state of there being 0 difference across their platforms. So ultimately Xbox360, Windows 8, Phone, Surface, etc. will all be a single release.

I am with you completely, I've double dipped and will just hide this month's checking account statement from the wife. But we're in a new era of games and digital distribution and the old pricing methods will ultimately start causing products to fail. To be honest they're just not warranted anymore.

Cheers and if you have an XBox360 id (I think that's what my windows 8 copy is using) I'd be happy to add you. Could use some friends on there who appreciate great pinball like the what Zen makes!

- RM