Purchasing TS2009

[Richard_Dodge]

Tony Hilliam, this question has been ask before, but I am asking for specifics.
When will TS2009 be available for purchase in Retail stores in the Phonex AZ.,U.S.A. area. Also will "Retail version" include any patch`s,if required?
Thank you and have a good day.
Richard

 

[Tony_Hilliam]

Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition is the version that is on sale (pre-order) right now. It is currently available from the Auran website only.

You can order with Credit Card or Paypal using the online shop or by credit card or money order using the fax/money order system.

Using the fax order form you can avoid using your credit card over the Internet (even though latest reports suggest it is safer than paying for dinner at a restaurant). With a money order you can mail the order form into us as well.

You can order either a Digital Download version (2.5GB) or DVD verions which comes with a 32 page printed manual highlighting the new features of TS2009. The manual is on the disk for DD people.

We have a new download service which in theory offers practically unlimited bandwidth and we have downloaded the full version in 6 minutes. Even with a slow Australian "broadband" connection it takes around 6 hours.

UK and Europe based orders for a boxed DVD copy will be shipped from the UK in December.

USA and Canada will be shipped from local distributors as well.

Rest of the world will be shipped from Australia.

At this stage, there are no plans for World Builder to be sold from retail stores. Auran gets approximately 25% of the revenue from a retail sale (it varies from 10% to 50%) and so purchasing direct obviously makes a big difference to us.

Apart from a few occasional delays in shipping or lost mail, tens of thousands of Trainz items have been shipped successfully in the past to every corner of the world.

Just out of interest, we have received pre-orders from over 50 different countries including Afghanistan, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago and Latvia.

Tony

 

[johnwhelan]

Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition is the version that is on sale (pre-order) right now. It is currently available from the Auran website only.

At this stage, there are no plans for World Builder to be sold from retail stores. Auran gets approximately 25% of the revenue from a retail sale (it varies from 10% to 50%) and so purchasing direct obviously makes a big difference to us.

Tony

I think direct sale is probably the best way to go today. The product is fairly specialised and you have a fairly good knowledge of who your customers are and their email addresses. Perhaps look at the figures before next Christmas and see if it's worth putting out to retail stores for a wider appeal but direct sales via download from the Internet provided you don't run out of serial numbers gets you a long way on the road to survival. It just needs a bit of talking up in various forums and newsletters etc.

So far it looks like Auran has covered a lot of lost ground fairly quickly.

Cheerio John

 

[Neuraldancer]

I am highly interested in the decision making processes involved here. Are there public figures available about the costs of producing TS2009 and its projected revenue through direct sales? I am have a hard time believing that selling a game like Trainz solely by direct sales will make enough revenue to pay the bills. The overly "shady" manner of advertising like: "more then 50 different countries ... ", which doesn't mean **** when it has been only one copy from each separate country, tries to make the potential customer believe that the sales of TS2009 are already sky-high. If that is true I would really like to know the current number of pre-orders.

 

[Mouse84]

For someone who just registered with the forum, you sure like to run off at the mouth trying to stir the pot. Looks like someone hiding behind a new name, grow up.

 

[Tony_Hilliam]

56 countries to be exact, and yes only 1 from many of those (the ones I mentioned for example). There aren't public figures available, but pre-orders are running right on our target. You're right though, selling online only is not going to be enough to cover the cost of development.

However, World Builder Edition is the first of two 2009 releases. The second product, Engineers Edition, will be released both online and through retail some time in 2009. If sales remain on track we'll make a profit and continue improving the product and releasing new versions each year. If more people bought online, we'd have more revenue to reinvest in the product.

I find it interesting that you think having a direct dialogue with your customers is being shady.

 

[Neuraldancer]

I find it interesting that you think having a direct dialogue with your customers is being shady.

Thank you for confirming my suspicions about this version not being profitable and I hope for your sake that TEE will be because otherwise ... well ... you have been there before. "Shady" about your "dialogue" is presenting meaningless drivel as if it has any importance. It doesn't matter from how many countries you receive orders, what matters is the total numbers.

 

[Richard_Dodge]

Followup TS2009 Purchase

Thank you to all who made comments. Looks like I will be ordering through Auran.

Richard

 

[Tony_Hilliam]

Just out of interest, we have received pre-orders from over 50 different countries including Afghanistan, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago and Latvia.

Whilst I was fascinated to see that we had orders from all corners of the globe, I guess I'll have to keep my interesting statistics to myself in future

Denmark = 32 pre-orders.

Sorry, I couldnt help myself

 

[Neuraldancer]

Whilst I was fascinated to see that we had orders from all corners of the globe, I guess I'll have to keep my interesting statistics to myself in future

Denmark = 32 pre-orders.

Sorry, I couldnt help myself

Wow ... the best come-back ever!