AMD announces Never Settle Reloaded bundle

[blackened23]

Most resellers will deduct the cost of the bundle if you try to be sneaky. I know newegg has a system in place that has a SKU cost for the bundle which is usually 50-100$, and then a coupon code at checkout that reduces the cost by a similar amount.

If you try to be a scumbag (no, this is not directed at anyone here, just a general statement about people that try this sort of thing ) newegg will deduct the appropriate amount from your refund if you attempt return.

Slickdeals is full of scum that try to do this sort of thing. I personally cannot stand it when someone attempts to be dishonest and games the system....some people just don't have integrity.

 

[Corporate Thug]

This has become as much of a liability as anything for someone looking to purchase a new Videocard.

That is because, let's say you purchase the card, and a month later it dies. You would expect to get a full refund, right? Not if you used any of the bundled games.... your card would then be reduced to maybe $100 in value once they knock off the full retail price for every game that was included.

The reseller will replace the card for the same card if within the first 30 day in the incredibily unlikely scenario that they card fails in 30 days (which personally hasn't happened to me in the 12 years I've been putting together my own systems); the manufacturer will RMA after the first 30 days. 404: Problem not found.

 

[sze5003]

I already have 4 of those games. That's a nice deal too. Will definitely want to check out tombraider. I have that for ps3 and never played it.

 

[blackened23]

I already have 4 of those games. That's a nice deal too. Will definitely want to check out tombraider. I have that for ps3 and never played it.

Erm, is Tomb Raider 2013 released for PS3?

 

[tviceman]

You mean calling the bundle "Never Settle"?

No I mean "The way it's meant to be bundled" and "Verde Troll." Never settle isn't slandering, it's their own little slogan that doesn't play off anyone else's words nor is it a direct slant against another company.

 

[sze5003]

Erm, is Tomb Raider 2013 released for PS3?

The ps3 version is one that came out a year or two ago probably more. It starts off in your mansion burning.

 

[3DVagabond]

They will still repair or replace it for you. I'm not sure why you expect you be able to buy something, and then return only part of it for a full refund.

QFT! Getting a refund is not a legal right.

 

[Silverforce11]

Wonder how AMD is doing this if they want a profit... maybe close relationship with game devs, providing resources inreturn for cheap bundles??

 

[blackened23]

Wonder how AMD is doing this if they want a profit... maybe close relationship with game devs, providing resources inreturn for cheap bundles??

I don't think they're losing anything from it. EA and 2k games both have contracts with AMD for the gaming evolved program, i'd imagine there's a stipulation for game redemption codes in that contract somewhere.

As far as crysis 3 goes, apparently development started when EA still had a contract with nvidia for TWIMTBP - but halfway through the dev cycle, AMD won the contract for EA titles being AMD gaming evolved.

Here's my question. Why did nvidia let all of these contracts (for TWIMTBP) slip? Nvidia had a hard lock on nearly all of these devs a couple of years ago, but then AMD won all of those contracts in 2011/2012. I can't think of any current TWIMTBP developers except for gearbox software and rocksteady.

 

[sontin]

nVidia is not paying companies like AMD. They have a free developer programm and as an exchange they want the advertising right. Nearly every Free-to-Play studio is working with nVidia: Getting free help is a huge advantage for them to lower the cost.

AMD on the other hand is giving money away. That's the reason why EA is now putting their logo before the start screen. EA slipped into the red last Q, so they will taking every money they can get.

 

[Termie]

nVidia is not paying companies like AMD. They have a free developer programm and as an exchange they want the advertising right. Nearly every Free-to-Play studio is working with nVidia: Getting free help is a huge advantage for them to lower the cost.

AMD on the other hand is giving money away. That's the reason why EA is now putting their logo before the start screen. EA slipped into the red last Q, so they will taking every money they can get.

This.

As much as I love these bundles, I have to say that the financial status of AMD and the gaming houses (RIP THQ) has something to do with this. They are all desperate. Back in the day, we all felt very, very lucky to get one AAA game bundled with a card (I got Crysis with my 8800GT and thought it was a serious deal).

While I love getting me some $5 Steam Sale goodness, bundling brand new games for free that would almost certainly sell in the millions at full price seems short-sighted. It's not good for the game publishers, and it can't be good for AMD's long-term bottom line.

 

[blackened23]

nVidia is not paying companies like AMD. They have a free developer programm and as an exchange they want the advertising right. Nearly every Free-to-Play studio is working with nVidia: Getting free help is a huge advantage for them to lower the cost.

AMD on the other hand is giving money away. That's the reason why EA is now putting their logo before the start screen. EA slipped into the red last Q, so they will taking every money they can get.

I'm pretty certain nvidia paid for the right to have TWIMTBP exclusive titles with various publishers. Outside of that specific program - obviously nvidia is willing to help developers that seek it out, as is AMD as far as i'm aware.

I just thought it to be odd that nvidia wouldn't seek out EA for nvidia-centric titles....they (nvidia) did use TWIMTBP in every previous crysis title.

 

[MrK6]

This.

As much as I love these bundles, I have to say that the financial status of AMD and the gaming houses (RIP THQ) has something to do with this. They are all desperate. Back in the day, we all felt very, very lucky to get one AAA game bundled with a card (I got Crysis with my 8800GT and thought it was a serious deal).

While I love getting me some $5 Steam Sale goodness, bundling brand new games for free that would almost certainly sell in the millions at full price seems short-sighted. It's not good for the game publishers, and it can't be good for AMD's long-term bottom line.

They probably have ran the numbers and know they have to make this move. Honestly, they wouldn't scrape the bottom of the barrel unless they had to. No one is buying new hardware because game development is being kept back by consoles. These companies are going to bleed until the new consoles drop.

 

[3DVagabond]

So, you guys have access to the particulars of the deals AMD and nVidia strike for these bundles? Must have been in amongst those stolen documents.

 

[tviceman]

I'm pretty certain nvidia paid for the right to have TWIMTBP exclusive titles with various publishers. Outside of that specific program - obviously nvidia is willing to help developers that seek it out, as is AMD as far as i'm aware.

I just thought it to be odd that nvidia wouldn't seek out EA for nvidia-centric titles....they (nvidia) did use TWIMTBP in every previous crysis title.

Valve and Nvidia team up to bring huge improvements to Linux game performance. Nvidia is bringing out Shield, hammering that it can stream big-picture steam mode to TV's. Valve's eventual steam PC is highly, highly speculated to have nvidia hardware due to the Linux collaboration and Gabe's comments specifically about "post-Kepler" GPU's having virtualization capabilities (not unlike what GK110 has). Why am I saying all of this? EA has stopped distributing it's titles (new games) on Steam since early 2012. Nvidia may be switching it's focus to concentrate to free to play games AND games that will be on Valve's upcoming hardware.

Of course, Nvidia won't nab all games and AMD has definitely, without a doubt, been making a huge effort to drive Gaming Evolved, but this is just another theory that no one has presented yet.

I really don't know what to believe in regards to the big shift. All I know right now is that AMD is currently getting more games under it's GE banner than Nvidia is gathering under it's TWIMTBP and AMD is coming out with larger / more frequent game bundles than Nvidia.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Valve and Nvidia team up to bring huge improvements to Linux game performance. Nvidia is bringing out Shield, hammering that it can stream big-picture steam mode to TV's. Valve's eventual steam PC is highly, highly speculated to have nvidia hardware due to the Linux collaboration and Gabe's comments specifically about "post-Kepler" GPU's having virtualization capabilities (not unlike what GK110 has). Why am I saying all of this? EA has stopped distributing it's titles (new games) on Steam since early 2012. Nvidia may be switching it's focus to concentrate to free to play games AND games that will be on Valve's upcoming hardware.

Of course, Nvidia won't nab all games and AMD has definitely, without a doubt, been making a huge effort to drive Gaming Evolved, but this is just another theory that no one has presented yet.

I really don't know what to believe in regards to the big shift. All I know right now is that AMD is currently getting more games under it's GE banner than Nvidia is gathering under it's TWIMTBP and AMD is coming out with larger / more frequent game bundles than Nvidia.

AMD's graphics sales continue to slide terribly and Nvidia's keep increasing year over year -- AMD is very desperate to hang on to/take back market share.

 

[blackened23]

AMD's graphics sales continue to slide terribly and Nvidia's keep increasing year over year -- AMD is very desperate to hang on to/take back market share.

I'm not sure; Skymtl - the owner of hardwarecanucks mentioned that for a couple of months in 2012 the 7000 parts were outselling nvidia parts during their previous games promotion. He has contacts within the industry that have pretty reliable sales figures.

As far as sales and market share....who cares really? I don't see any particular reason to flame/talk smack about AMD over this - It's a pretty good bundle IMO.

Perhaps we'll see nvidia respond in kind - they still have TWIMTBP with gearbox, capcom and (maybe) ubisoft. And hawken looks pretty nice although I know nothing at all about that game.

 

[3DVagabond]

Forever we had people complaining that AMD needed to work closer with and have better relations with game devs. Now they are doing that and the reaction is they are spending too much money.

In the end it's all part of the marketing budget. None of us know how big that budget is and exactly how it's distributed. We also don't know the ratio of lost sales per game keys given with a new graphics card. It's likely a relatively small percentage when you consider how many would never have bought the game at retail anyway. It's similar to pirating where many of those who pirate games and software wouldn't have bought the game anyway. So, it's far from a 1 to 1 ratio.

The idea behind free product instead of reducing the price is you can offer the buyer better value because the product costs you far less than the advertised retail value.

 

[RussianSensation]

While I love getting me some $5 Steam Sale goodness, bundling brand new games for free that would almost certainly sell in the millions at full price seems short-sighted. It's not good for the game publishers, and it can't be good for AMD's long-term bottom line.

Wait until next generation consoles arrive. I am willing to wager that games will be split into even more pieces. You might get a 5-6 hours SP campaign but be prepared to pay $30-50 for DLC/Season Passes. I expect this sort of thing to pick up next gen since it's been so successful on PS360 consoles. Even episode-based gaming model like the Walking Dead could become a lot more popular. The actual model for selling games might change. Giving away games as part of the GPU bundle will get gamers to try 1/3rd or 1/2 of the game and then hook you on the $30-50 of additional DLC content ala Borderlands 2, Call of Duty games, etc. I am pretty sure the days of $60 games are numbered. The developers will get some money from NV/AMD but through DLC/Season Passes, then'll end up earning more than $60 in aggregate.

 

[3lackDeath]

Nice, another reason to consider going crossfire

 

[Arachnotronic]

I'm not sure; Skymtl - the owner of hardwarecanucks mentioned that for a couple of months in 2012 the 7000 parts were outselling nvidia parts during their previous games promotion. He has contacts within the industry that have pretty reliable sales figures.

As far as sales and market share....who cares really? I don't see any particular reason to flame/talk smack about AMD over this - It's a pretty good bundle IMO.

Perhaps we'll see nvidia respond in kind - they still have TWIMTBP with gearbox, capcom and (maybe) ubisoft. And hawken looks pretty nice although I know nothing at all about that game.

A quick look at AMD's most recent quarterly report would disagree with the assessment that the AMD cards are outselling their Nvidia counterparts. AMD is in deep financial trouble, and its graphics division is barely profitable.

While gamers cheer that AMD is handing out free money, they don't realize that the "great value" AMD offers them isn't because AMD is some benevolent entity that really loves selling cheap gear to gamers, it's because AMD can barely sell any product. Without the funds to invest back into the business, you will see Nvidia's products pull substantially ahead of AMD's, very much in the same way that Intel's products pull ahead of AMD.

It is time to worry about AMD's very survival if they've resorted to shipping bundles of money with each of their large-die cards. I know I am.

 

[3DVagabond]

It is time to worry about AMD's very survival if they've resorted to shipping bundles of money with each of their large-die cards. I know I am.

AMD is shipping game codes, not bundles of cash. You, nor I, have any idea what the real cash cost is to AMD. For all we know they could be free for support given during development. They most certainly aren't paying retail for them, though.

 

[Keysplayr]

You see these ridiculous "business moves" because they do not have any other options. They have no new technology to overtake anything out there now, and to even move one of their products off the shelves, will give away money to make it happen.
Ughh... I feel bad for them, but this is getting quite tiresome. I think they should be forced at this point to sell off their IP before it becomes utterly worthless instead of letting them hemmorage whatever it is they have left. I can't actually believe the stockholders are happy with this.
Time to scavenge what is left and sell it. If nobody is buying, then close the doors.

"AMD is shipping game codes, not bundles of cash. You, nor I, have any idea what the real cash cost is to AMD. For all we know they could be free for support given during development. They most certainly aren't paying retail for them, though. "

Yeah, and for all we know, it could be the exact opposite of what you're saying and costing AMD full price. You don't know either.
What it LOOKS like is it's costing AMD money. That is A LOT of games to give away freely.

 

[Ibra]

AMD is shipping game codes, not bundles of cash. You, nor I, have any idea what the real cash cost is to AMD. For all we know they could be free for support given during development. They most certainly aren't paying retail for them, though.

Same story with Half-Life 2. But AMD payed money to Valve. And now, booom, AMD getting games for free?

 

[3DVagabond]

Same story with Half-Life 2. But AMD payed money to Valve. And now, booom, AMD getting games for free?

Try a little reading comprehension.

Try and follow.

1, We have no idea whether it's the same story or not as Half-Life 2.
2, I never said AMD was getting games for free.
3, What I said was we don't know what the deal is.

Now, if you have some facts and figures to add to your dramatic statements, please feel free to enlighten us.