Matrix Games Announces the 2008 Holiday Sale!

[SeanD]

The spirits of wargaming past, present and future are coming to your door with lots of great deals!

With a bundle of discounts on strategy games, Matrix Games is spreading holiday joy by announcing their 2008 Holiday Sale Event! This is set to be the largest Holiday sale Matrix Games has ever had, with more games on sale than ever and the largest discounts to date! Starting on the morning of November 26th through midnight on January 7th, gamers around the globe will be able to purchase almost every title in the Matrix Games catalog at up to 30% off! Only games released in the past six months or those already priced at $19.99 and below are excluded. Every other game is part of the 2008 Holiday Sale!



David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “This is about as close as I can get to coming to your house in a Santa Claus suit! We’ve never had a Holiday Sale cover this many titles and at this great a discount before - there’s never been a better opportunity to stock up on our games. Don’t snooze through it and miss these great savings! Our Game on Demand boxed copy is a perfect present for your favorite wargamer – it comes shrink wrapped and our Standard editions include a printed manual… it’s also quite easy to gift wrap!”

Looking for an extra few stocking stuffers for the extended family? Strategy gamers will love you for getting them titles like Gary Grigsby’s War Between the States, Panzer Command: Kharkov or Advanced Tactics: World War II. Sports fans would be delighted to find PureSim Baseball or Maximum Football v2 wrapped and ready to play under their Christmas tree. Why not stay in touch with gamer friends and family through play by email gaming (PBEM)? Matrix Games offers a wide selection of titles that support PBEM as well as TCP/IP play which give players a convenient and easy way to connect through gaming with distant family and old friends. Try some of our newest releases like Close Combat: Wacht am Rhein, Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets, Commander: Napoleon at War or classics like The Operational Art of War III to catch up with that uncle or buddy who lives halfway across the country while pummeling him with your Panzers at the same time! It’s the best of both worlds, not to mention bragging rights for next year…

Click here for a full list of the games on sale this year, with discounts listed based on the digital download price.

And remember, if you’re a last minute shopper, there’s nothing more convenient than our digital downloads, which allow you to immediately receive your purchase (if you’re giving a download as a gift, you can either burn the downloaded file to a CD along with the serial number or just give the order receipt as a gift certificate and the recipient can download the game themselves by using our store download service at www.findmyorder.com).

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

[MikeBrough]

Guys, you've done it again - same as last year. Looks like you've rolled the sale and the exchange rate changes together. So UK prices are pretty much unchanged. Grrrr.

TOAW is £1 cheaper than yesterday, Across the Dnepr is £2 more. Don't think I'll bother.

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: MikeBrough

Guys, you've done it again - same as last year. Looks like you've rolled the sale and the exchange rate changes together. So UK prices are pretty much unchanged. Grrrr.

I was just thinking that. Ho, ho, ho... it's off to amazon.co.uk I go...

You are going to have to reconsider the exchange rate shadowing policy IMHO. If I bought a box copy of, say, Kharkov DotD I'd get no change from fifty quid. That would get me two full price releases from any UK online retailer (P&P included); people here just aren't going to pay that.

[mllange]

Grrr... no War Between the States in the sale - the only Matrix game I was waiting to purchase that I don't already own. Guess I'll wait until next year.

[SuluSea]

Great news!!!! Thanks Matrix! [:)] [:)] [:)]

[Gem35]

Wow, very nice prices. Thank you Matrix Games.[:)]

[Erik Rutins]

Guys, 30% is our deepest holiday sale discount ever. Those grumbling about exchange rates, you should probably thank us instead that we kept the old rates as long as we did. You can't really expect us to not update our currency exchange rates periodically.

UK prices for example are already affordable compared to many retail PC games, the sale prices keep things quite a bargain for you through January 7th.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: nim8or Grrr... no War Between the States in the sale - the only Matrix game I was waiting to purchase that I don't already own. Guess I'll wait until next year.

I hear you, that one just missed the cut as it was released in June. However, it's well worth the full price if you can't wait.

[MikeBrough]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins UK prices for example are already affordable compared to many retail PC games, the sale prices keep things quite a bargain for you through January 7th.

Regards,

- Erik

Sorry, Erik, I have to disagree. You most recent releases are much more expensive than most retail PC games, appearing to average out between £33.99 (CC:WaR) and £39.99 (CNAW). Adding VAT pushes those prices over the £40 mark.

The vast majority of off-the-shelf game in the UK's chainstores cost around £30 (inc VAT) and you can usually beat the shelf prices by shopping around. Buying from Amazon knocks at least 20% off those prices.

So, as Hertson says, I can buy 2 or more triple-A titles for the cost of one of your newer releases.

I understand that it's a niche market but, at these prices, it's going to stay that way in the UK. And the irony of claiming that you're holding a sale when the prices are actually going up...

[Adam Parker]

Yes, doing e-business with the US right now is very bad. It's definitely going to impact the US balance of trade and hit a lot of businesses small and large, wishing to sell to overseas customers very hard.   As for the sale, thanks for the gesture but a lot of those games are still very bugged or either very old now. I was actually hoping for CC Wacht Am Rhine - a very risky purchase at full price right now given major hardware issues and bugs - but it isn't there. Yes, I would have bought it if so. At $61 AUD? Forget it! [X(][&:]   I would have also bought the JT Campaign Series just to have it in an all in one package but then I read about the still bugged Dynamic Campaigns and of motor cycles towing 88's [8|][:D] Ah well, a PC game-free Christmas shopping season. Who'da thunk it?

[Marc von Martial]

I just think we should stop doing sale specials and adjusting currency conversion at all (like many many other publishers) then people actually have a reason to bitch.

[Adam Parker]

Deleted by me.

[Erik Rutins]

What I find remarkable is that the currency conversion rates aren't even back to what they were for most of Matrix's history yet. The recent very favorable rates were also very unusual historically, basically a "blip" of sorts. Did you guys have major problems with our pricing before the dollar dropped drastically? It seems to me that some stabilization had to be expected.

I just don't understand the reason to complain, vis a vis historical wargame pricing. We were going to have to update the currency conversion eventually. We took longer than we should have to do that, frankly, so you were getting quite a deal there for a while. Then we updated them at the same time as we announced our biggest sale ever, so in effect you're still getting quite a deal, yet the complaint is that we didn't give you 30% off on top of currency conversion rates that have been out of date for months?

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins yet the complaint is that we didn't give you 30% off on top of currency conversion rates that have been out of date for months?

Who said complaints had to be rational to start with ? [:D]

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Adam Parker]

Just a general reply re e-business Erik but yes the low US dollar definitely generated more business form me to the US than now. I'd buy 5 books a month from Amazon, now nil.   As for Matrix, your games are so risky lately that the low dollar let me cut that danger sharply. What I bought, I did so on a whim - GG's War Between the States. What I didn't like I wrote off... Combat Commander Napoleon. Same for Stardock's Political Machine - crap but cheap crap. I wouldn't buy GG's WBtS now.   $61 AUD for your CC Wacht Am Rhine digital download is going to buy me a nice GMT board game and a Lock n' Load Expansion this weekend. Sorry. Too much risk and not enough value.   Your SSG prices have always made them too risky for me. $53 AUD for the now old and defunct Battlefront digital download?[X(] You gotta be kidding! It's $60 in my local store right now with a manual - and it hasn't sold for months.   Guys it's called Elasticity of Demand - you set your prices where you want, raise them how you want. At some point demand will stall. It's not bitching Marc. It's shopping thanks very much. Man, your comment makes me fume.

[Erik Rutins]

Adam,

Look at it from a different point of view. Our prices for some customers, as a result of the currency conversion and sale happening at the same time (they had to, as we were updating prices store-wide for the sale), either went down slightly or stayed the same. In no case did prices go up, yet we have complaints. The complaints center around the currency conversion, which is something that in a perfect world would be updated every day. The net result however is that at least until January 7th, we did not make our games any more expensive for you. I fail therefore to see how it could possibly have changed your purchase decisions.

Regards,

- Erik

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker $61 AUD for your CC Wacht Am Rhine digital download is going to buy me a nice GMT board game and a Lock n' Load Expansion this weekend.

Got to ask. Since Lock 'n Load expansion are somewhere around $30 and GMT games around $50-$60, no S&H included - I wonder where I can get a dual package like that send to my home for $61AUD or $40.

TIA

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker $61 AUD for your CC Wacht Am Rhine digital download is going to buy me a nice GMT board game and a Lock n' Load Expansion this weekend. Sorry. Too much risk and not enough value.

How much is a GMT board game down there? Over here it's about the same price or higher than one of our PC wargames. CC WAR is not part of the holiday sale as a new release, nor should its price have changed substantially, given that it was released recently and priced at the conversion rates at release (as all new releases are). So again I'm not sure how this changed your purchasing decision?

[thegreatwent]

Thanks Matrix I now have some new items on my wish list[:)]. In terms of the cranks, don't let it get to you Grognards are "grumblers" by nature.

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker Guys it's called Elasticity of Demand - you set your prices where you want, raise them how you want. At some point demand will stall. It's not bitching Marc. It's shopping thanks very much. Man, your comment makes me fume.

If you think our games are too expensive for you in general then that is fair enough and fine. It is your decission as a customer were you put your money. If you think you get more value of a GMT game then out of CCWAR, fine and fair also, everybody has his preferences. I have to value my shopping too

My comments was completely aimed at the comments about the currency conversion and the holiday sale. Nothing more. I wonder how you made the connection to our general pricing when I clearly mentioned currency conversion and special sales?

Also GMT Boardgame + LNL module is pretty broad statement. Totally depends what you buy over there. So what do you get at GMT and LNLP for the $61 AUD?