PSA: 'Free' Crimson Alliance download isn't the full game

by JC Fletcher on Sep 7th 2011 2:00PM

It may be thrilling to see the "full game" of Crimson Alliance available on XBLM for free -- you may think it's a pricing error on Microsoft's part -- but that's just how the game works. It's not actually the full game.

We knew that Crimson Alliance would be available either as an 800 point single-character pack or a 1,200 point download with all three; what we're just now learning on release day is how Microsoft is handling that.

The "full game" is available for free, presumably so everyone online is playing the same base game. But that free download only includes "trial characters," and warns the player upon character creation that "You are creating a Trial Character. Game content will be limited for this character." There are prompts ... everywhere to buy the characters for 800 points each.

This model of giving the game away for free, but severely limiting it, almost makes Crimson Alliance the first freemium game on XBLA, which already offers free trials for all games.

[Thanks to everyone who emailed us about this.]

Tags: certain-affinity, crimson-alliance, free-to-play, freemium, microsoft, psa, xbla, xblm, xbox

Reader Comments (55)

I just don't like this game's price structure to begin with, where a $10 can become a $30 game if you decide you want the other two classes -- and if you get the free version the game bombards you with in-game advertisements to get the full version?

Wow, how dickish.

@Red Runner

Agree. There are lots of "free" games out there that do not bombard you with popups to tell you to upgrade and instead use "soft" promotions like going in the inventory and it shows you that you need to pay to get whatever item. i.e. Battlefield Heroes and Battlefield Play4Free. You don't see popups in the middle of a fight, heck, anywhere at all.

@Red Runner - It's basically a free demo more than a free game. It's no different than other demos that are constantly popping up trying to get you to buy the full game.

@Red Runner

$30? $15 gets you the full game with all classes.

@Alex Oglitchkin How about a demo, and a full game with 1 price? This generation of shenanigans has to be the worst I've ever seen!

@Alex Oglitchkin

They didn't give you the options to make you feel good about trying different characters. They clearly did this to squeeze more money out of the gaming community.

@HaVoK308

Right, but there's the $10 option to get just ONE class. Some people may either want to save some green or may want to use one class.

But if they later decide to try out the wizard or whatever...another $10 down the drain.

And if you decide to get the third class, $10 more. So $30 if you go the "I don't need all classes, but may try the other ones later" route.

And the "free" version sounds like absolute crap.

So you're basically being pressured into plunking down the $15. It's a shady price structure.

@Red Runner So should they have released it just like every other XBLA game, a free demo and the full game for 1200MSP? Because that's kind of what they did. But if you're the type of person who only plays *one* specific character class, you can save $5/400MSP. Otherwise, get the 3-character pack for $15/1200MSP.
You must really hate Pinball FX2 as well.

I wish there was was a 400 point 'upgrade' option so that I could put down an initial $10 for one class and pay the extra 5 bucks later if I wanted to try the other two.

@Red Runner it's a demo moron. Do you download trial games and complain that they encourage you to buy the full retail copy? Get over yourself.

@Red Runner Actually from what I remember hearing - though I could be wrong - the 10 dollar version is upgraded to the full version for an extra 5 bucks so it just ends up being 15 all together if you decide you want the full version. I don't think it ever would be close to 30 bucks. I could be wrong though.

@Alex Oglitchkin

............... that isn't Free ..... its a Demo....

@Integral

Your language really sells you as a classy person. "Moron"? "Get over yourself"?

This game is touting a glorified "demo" as the full game -- false advertising -- and the price structure is stupid. So, please don't resort to childish insults.

@Red Runner

Then don't buy the $10 option, stay on your high horse and buy the $15 one.

Can you get achievements on the free one? I might pay 800 MSP for 1 character because I don't really care about having 3

@byaboy I hope you're not a completionist. In order to get all the achievements you have to use all the character classes.

@Faceless Troll No I don't care about about all of the achievements just a few.

Wow. People are really dumb enough to believe they're getting the game for free? It's kind of like the 'durr I can install it to my hard drive? SWEET IM GO TRADE THESE IN'

Not gonna lie, saw "Free" thought I was getting over on old Microsoft. Silly me.

By "free" they meant "It's a demo".

@CaptainProtonX

With prompts ... EVERYWHERE to buy the characters for 800 points each.

@Ballistic H

Wait demo with prompts ..... that's not a demo, its Shareware.

So......it's just a demo?

Is that pretty much it?

That's not cool at all. If that's how they reward gamers for buying all of the summer arcade games, then don't offer anything other than MS points being added to your account like last year.

If you bought all of the games, you should be getting Crimson Alliance - the real, full game with all characters - for free. That was the impression I was under when they announced it. I wouldn't be getting this "reward" anyways since I didn't buy all the games, but that's definitely a big slice of cow pie.

@Uncle Jesse You do get the full game w/ all 3 characters for buying all the SoA titles. You get 2 codes: one for the game client/hub/trial and another for the 3 character pack.

@eugaet

I think I'm getting a little mixed up about this. Thanks for clearing it up. I thought when they mentioned the free game that they were referring to it being offered free from the summer of arcade deal, not just on the marketplace. In that case, I don't really have any issues with this. Carry on. My bad.

@Uncle Jesse

You got it dude!

This is the first freemium title on XBLA? It's the same deployment model as Pinball FX2.

@eugaet
TELL HIM WHAT HE'S WON CINDY...

@eugaet
I was thinking the exact same thing.

Hi guys,

A few points of clarification:
1) IF you bought all the SOA games, then your reward email will have 2 codes. The first is to download the FULL GAME, the second is for ALL CHARACTER PACKS. So you definitely DO get the full unlocked game as your reward.

2) The FULL GAME download is required regardless of what you want to play: the demo, just one character, or all characters. This allows users who decide to upgrade to do so without having to download a fat new package. (The character packs & all character pack is tiny.)

3) If you want to play the game and are not part of the SOA promotion, you can download the GAME for Free, but it is a limited trial edition. Then you can download a single character pack for 800, or ALL CHARACTERS for 1200.

Hope this clears up any confusion, and I look forward to seeing you all online!

-2b

@TexasMouse

You should have written this article instead. Sorry, JC!

Stay classy microsoft.

@eNriqeu

Keep trollin' eNriqeu

@eNriqeu

You must be mixed up like I was, because MS isn't doing anything wrong here at all.

That being said, we're all aware of your love for Sony and hatred for MS, so I think it's more likely that you were just looking for something negative to say and thought this would be a good place for it, without even trying to understand what the article was actually about. If you did, you would realize that your comment looks pretty stupid here.

@Uncle Jesse

Riiiiiiiight, and everyone kows here that microsoft never does anything wrong for you.

Here's hoping this paves way for the new MNC being brought to Xbox. I don't know why everyone is so mad, I'd rather have this than a 10-minute trial.

@KGameLover1 Oh, nothing I hate more than timed trials. This is definitely better.

@KGameLover1

Everyone is mad because there hasn't been anything to complain about in a full 3 hours (since the Monster Hunter 3DS thing.) That is like 6 months in Internet time!

@baby sea tuna

If EVERY OTHER POST on this blog wasn't about how the corporations are once again screwing the consumer over, there'd be less complaining.

@Red Runner

Oh no, a company is out to make money. Everyone boycot that company now because they're not being nice to consumers and giving away their stuff for free. You realize what a moron you sound like, right?

@Alex Oglitchkin

What real gamer isn't going to buy all three? Especially as you can play local co-op.

Still waiting for my code, Microsoft.

the game is not freemium. it is just a trial/demo. It limits you to 15 minutes and it stops you pretty much after the first level

As soon as I saw that the full game was free I realized that there were gonna be some people confused about this. I don't blame them for trying something different, but there needs to be a better way of approaching it.

@Lerkero

Not really. No one's paying for anything so it's not like people who download it then find out that it's just the usual trial are losing out on anything.

This seems interesting, it's currently in my download queue and I'll try it ASAP. I guess if I like it enough, I might buy it or wait for a sale (still hoping for a sale on From Dust & Toy Soldiers CW soon)

@InfernoShade

Um, a real gamer who doesn't have anyone to play local co-op width? Not everyone has room mates/friends/family that play games.

Then why don't they just call it a demo?

test it if you like it just get all three for 1200 otherwise you pay extra a great Microsoft scheme how like them to pull shit like this, pretty good game though. The model is actually pretty clever in a way because if you play as the wizard and think its shit then just get the character you like and never play as him

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Crimson Alliance

PSA: 'Free' Crimson Alliance download isn't the full game

Reader Comments (55)

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:03PM Red Runner said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:30PM Ballistic H said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:35PM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:38PM HaVoK308 said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:52PM drunkingamebar said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:14PM InfernoShade said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:30PM Red Runner said

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Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:12PM byaboy said

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Posted: Sep 7th 2011 5:02PM byaboy said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:22PM Cleric said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:26PM Bubbameister33 said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:27PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:32PM Ballistic H said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 5:00PM Scuffles said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:32PM Leethal Arrow said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:34PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:36PM eugaet said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:02PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:32PM Bubbameister33 said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:35PM eugaet said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 2:49PM mcnichoj said

Posted: Sep 8th 2011 7:01AM DarkNightRJ said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:00PM TexasMouse said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:05PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:03PM eNriqeu said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:53PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 4:30PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 8:48PM eNriqeu said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:08PM KGameLover1 said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:49PM eugaet said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 3:56PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Sep 7th 2011 4:16PM Red Runner said

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