First of All, What is Planetary Annihilation?
Well, for those of you who are fans of the RTS genre, you may know about the game Planetary Annihilation which is loosely based on Total Annihilation (as well as the Supreme Commander series). Sadly, these games are often overlooked by gamers, because of RTS giants Starcraft (which is a real shame). Although Starcraft is an incredible feat in the genre, games like Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander also took unique, and arguably larger, steps in creating massive RTS mechanics. For anyone who is familiar with the original titles, or a new comer to the RTS field, it is certainly worth your time to pay attention to Planetary Annihilation, created by Uber Entertainment.
So I Can Get it Already?
Well, yes and no. The game was funded through Kickstarter on September 14, 2012 and depending on what amount you chose to support the game, you could get access to the alpha testing phase. However, once the Kickstarter was closed, a lot of people still wanted to have early access for a fee. This prompted the team at Uber to work with Steam in order to offer the early version of the game for the similar price paid by the backers via Kickstarter.
This price currently on Steam is $89.99 which, to many people, seems steep. However, Uber announced that the goal with this pricing was to stay fair to all of the backers who paid the price in order to have the early access. Additionally, by having this high price point it is very easy for Uber to filter out the early adopters from new players interested in the game. As some are aware, alpha builds of games are generally VERY lacking, and filled with bugs which can be off-putting for the general populace. However, for the early adopter audience, this opportunity through Steam, to play the game early and actually have influence on the game as it develops is invaluable.
So Am I (Post_Mortem) Getting It?
Although I am very excited for this game to come out, I can’t say I am one of the early adopters to pay the $90 price tag; however, I am looking forward to the beta phase where the buy-in (which has not been confirmed) should be substantially less. If you want to mark your calendars, Planetary Annihilation will hold its alpha phase from June 7th through the end of August. Then it will move into its beta phase from September through all of November, with an unconfirmed launch in December of this year. Now this launch is a soft date, so it may change based on the alpha and beta feedback. I am extremely excited to boot up Planetary Annihilation with a cup of hot chocolate while the snow outside pours down.
