By Andrew Dodson on August 18, 2015 at 9:30pm
In a rather surprising reveal today, studio Uber Entertainment has released a huge (literally) expansion to their Kickstarted game "Planetary Annihilation." The game, which originally focused on smaller robots doing battle on highly-destructible worlds, has introduced "TITANS," an update which adds...well, titans.
From the Steam page:
TITANS is the huge stand-alone expansion to the already massive-scale RTS Planetary Annihilation, which includes the base game and adds tons of new features:
Devastate your enemies with 5 massive Titan-class super units like the like the earth-shaking Atlas bot and lightning-wielding Zeus airship!
Expand your strategic arsenal with 16 new units such as versatile Hover Tanks, indomitable Orbital Battleships, and voracious Nanobot Swarms!
Elevate your game with new planets that feature multi-level terrain available in both single and multiplayer. Get up to speed faster with a new, streamlined tutorial experience, then take your game to the next level with the new Bounty Mode option for AI skirmish and multiplayer.
Despite the epic-ness of this surprise expansion, UBER is facing a backlash from some of it's customers who are upset that "TITANS," while advertised as a stand-alone expansion, is actually bundled into it's own game on Steam, forcing consumers to make a new purchase. Apparently expecting this reaction, Uber has put "TITANS" on sale at 66% off until October, giving people that own the original game a chance to upgrade. Anyone that originally backed the game on Kickstarter received a copy of "Planetary Annihilation: TITANS" at no cost.
Another thing that is frustrating people that purchased the game post-Kickstarter is this line in the "TITANS" FAQ:
WILL WORK CONTINUE ON PLANETARY ANNIHILATION NOW THAT TITANS IS OUT?
Yes. TITANS and Planetary Annihilation make use of the same engine, so any improvements we make there will go into both games, but any new content that might show up in updates will be focused on TITANS. So performance and stability will continue to improve on Planetary Annihilation, but if you want all the shiny new stuff you'll want to pick up TITANS.
So, a lot of people that purchased the game after it was released are now feeling tricked because a game they were expecting to grow with updates has been pushed aside and replaced by an "expansion" that they are forced to purchase if play with the latest and greatest units. While, with the temporary discount, "TITANS" is only $13.60 - which is comparable to a larger DLCs/expansions for other games - people feel like this should have been added as a direct expansion to the original game and it feels a bit pricey for a game that is just barely out of Early Access.
However you feel on the issue, if you backed "Planetary Annihilation" on Kickstarter, it is already in your Steam library and ready to install. Anyone that purchased the game after the campaign, can check out "TITANS" on it's Steam page - just remember that you only have until October 18th to purchase it at the discounted price.
