NVIDIA Announces Free 2 Play Bundle Promotion

[Tha Last Meal]

Following AMD?s Never Settle Reloaded game bundle, NVIDIA has announced their own bundle that uses currency in three popular Free to Play games. AMD went with large blockbuster titles, while NVIDA went with the opposite approach, offering in game currency for the most popular, PC exclusive, F2P titles. All of these games feature NVIDIA exclusive technology including PhysX and 3D Vision.

Free to Play games rely on in game currency/purchases to make their profits versus paying $59.99 up front for their games. This model has proven extremely profitable for many games such as DC Universe and DDO. Sony Online Entertainment adopted this model with one of the most anticipated MMO first person shooter/vehicular combat games in years, Planetside 2. NVIDIA?s bundle works in a pretty simple fashion, the more expensive the card you purchase is, the more in game currency you receive in World of Tanks, Hawken and Planetside 2. All GeForce cards from the GTX 650 up are eligible for this bundle. Some people will look at this and assume NVIDIA has taken the cheap way out this time around on their bundle, but in reality they are offering up to $150 worth of free in game currency. This is roughly equal to 3 blockbuster titles and for people who buy a GTX 650, you will get 75% of your hardware purchase back in game currency. If you are planning a SLI configuration you can obviously double these amounts listed above, as the bundle is as always, per card.

The other silver lining of this game bundle versus bundles of the past is these games will actually run on the hardware you buy. There were many bundles or free games included with the purchase of low to mid-range cards that simply would not run on those cards at an acceptable frame rate. This always puzzled me as to why the manufacturer would include a game they know you can?t run on the hardware it was included with. Now I can tell you without a doubt a GTX 650/650 Ti is going to struggle in PS2 at anything but the lowest settings, but the rest of the games will easily run on that hardware. You can call Planetside 2 the ?blockbuster? title out of the three, although all three games are extremely popular in the PC gaming community. We will have to see if this new F2P gaming currency bundle is as successful as the free to play model has been for game developers.

http://videocardz.com/39500/nvidia-a...ndle-promotion

[kromosto]

good but imo they should have seperated 680 and 690

[tajoh111]

I truly not have heard of any of these games. A pretty weak attempt considering Nvidia is pretty marketing heavy. AMD did a much better job, although I can imagine AMDs move is more of a kamikaze move meant to kill Nvidia sale at the expense of selling a AMD cards at no profit.

[himaro]

I truly not have heard of any of these games. A pretty weak attempt considering Nvidia is pretty marketing heavy. AMD did a much better job, although I can imagine AMDs move is more of a kamikaze move meant to kill Nvidia sale at the expense of selling a AMD cards at no profit.

I can understand not hearing about Hawken (it's epic by the way) as it's been semi under the radar.
but you haven't heard of Planetside 2???? you missed all that hype last year?
and World of Tanks is also Huge right now.
to be honest, i'm stocked by this as i'm going to be buying a PC in a while, it might mean getting the card(s) early but thats no such a loss.

[Tha Last Meal]

I can understand not hearing about Hawken (it's epic by the way) as it's been semi under the radar.
but you haven't heard of Planetside 2???? you missed all that hype last year?
and World of Tanks is also Huge right now.
to be honest, i'm stocked by this as i'm going to be buying a PC in a while, it might mean getting the card(s) early but thats no such a loss.

+1

[Olivon]

Wacky bundle compared to AMD's one. I know nVidia is pushing F2P games but compared to Crysis 3, Bioshosck Infinite and Tomb Raider it sounds ridiculous.

[El Mano]

I like it. Offering PC exclusive games makes much more sense than giving away yet more console-designed games.
Way to go Nvidia!

[nullface]

Hawken is awesome, it has kindof a steap learning curve, but give it a try and don't get discouraged after 30min, you WILL get raped right off the bat.

[Hornet331]

steap learning curve,

No it doesn't, its basically CoD with small robo suits. You can say MW:O has a steep learning curve compared to hawken.

You get raped, because devs turned into a big dodo p2w game, a lot of crap powerups with prolonged timed effects and what not.
Its basically as if you play CoD @ lvl 1 vs someone maxed. But hey spent some cash and you also can be maxed in no time, else be punching bags for the "real" players

Anyways as for the bundle, personally I would rather have same real games like the amd offerings, then cash in "f2p" games...

[yonton228]

I can understand not hearing about Hawken (it's epic by the way) as it's been semi under the radar.
but you haven't heard of Planetside 2???? you missed all that hype last year?
and World of Tanks is also Huge right now.
to be honest, i'm stocked by this as i'm going to be buying a PC in a while, it might mean getting the card(s) early but thats no such a loss.

And getting bigger by the day. Overall a solid game.

[STEvil]

And getting bigger by the day. Overall a solid game.

Too bad its so arcade-like

[kuroikenshi]

I thought Pong was also part of the bundle pack, not any pong..... physx pong.....

[gumballguy]

Screw F2P games, period.

[RaZz!]

Uhm... I'd rather have Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite/Tomb Raider than Funds, Credits or whatever it's called in F2P games...

Imo, that's just a poor effort to promote F2P games so that gamers will spend money on these in the future.

[nullface]

No it doesn't, its basically CoD with small robo suits. You can say MW:O has a steep learning curve compared to hawken.

You get raped, because devs turned into a big dodo p2w game, a lot of crap powerups with prolonged timed effects and what not.
Its basically as if you play CoD @ lvl 1 vs someone maxed. But hey spent some cash and you also can be maxed in no time, else be punching bags for the "real" players

Anyways as for the bundle, personally I would rather have same real games like the amd offerings, then cash in "f2p" games...

Oh here we go again, you obviously dont know what you are talking about and have not given the game a fair chance.

If you play Hawken like you play CoD a mech level 1billion would not help you one bit. I could buy a lvl1 mech and wreak havoc on most servers (trust me, I have tryed plenty of trial mechs).

I'v played approx. 40hrs, and have 3 mehcs, 1x lvl18 and 2x lvl25, and I have not spend any real money on anything.

[Rollo]

Used to love MechWarrior (3?) back in the day. Am not familiar with these games.

[highoctane]

I remember seeing the trailers for Hawken floating around what seems like ages ago, may check it out.

[yonton228]

Too bad its so arcade-like

The balance needed to make the game fun "arcade-like" is needed. It would not be much fun driving a M4 Sherman getting killed in 1 shot by a Tiger or Panther every battle. I have been playing this game for a long time now, its pretty solid.

Screw F2P games, period.

Why? Yes many F2P games become P2W however there are plenty have nice P2SA (pay to speed advance, is that a term?) feature...IE: WOT

Used to love MechWarrior (3?) back in the day. Am not familiar with these games.

Try MWO? I know some that love and hate it....Just another option

[behrouz]

LOL, haha, those ridiculous Games ? man , AMD's bundle is much more attractive than nvidiaa and those amd's bundle costs around 150 to 250$ (?).

[himaro]

Also, Far Cry and Bioshock, while they're games that look very good. have great game play and stories.
they're games you will play through between 2 and 5 times.
i normally play a single player game 2 times and then more if i really like the game a year or so down the line.

games like Planetside, World of Tanks and Hawken are games that you can play more over a period of time.
i will finish a single player game in 2 weeks of casual play generally speaking while i will play a multiplayer based game a lot more.

so value out is more than just the in game credits given i think. because you benefit for a long time afterwards.

I'm not saying the AMD\ATI bundle is bad by any stretch, it's a very good one and saves the most money if you wanted all the games but didn't have them, but a friend of mine bought a card and gave the licences away as he already had the games (with the exception of Bioshock that is) or wasn't interested in the game.


EDIT: the above post, i don't want to hear a bias opinion like that, you have a full AMD rig and an AMD avatar. being critical is one thing, but back up your argument and prove that it's not bias.

[Rollo]

LOL, haha, those ridiculous Games ? man , AMD's bundle is much more attractive than nvidiaa and those amd's bundle costs around 150 to 250$ (?).

I don't play those games either and in general would prefer the AMD bundle as well.

However, I would note:
1. What people like for games is pretty subjective, and those are some well reviewed games. A lot of people like these games.
2. Those games showcase NVIDIA specific technologies, so they're not exactly shocking choices for NVIDIA.
3. NVIDIA doesn't "need" to add a high dollar game bundle. In the face of AMD selling less expensive cards, with VERY competitive performance, and having a superior (IMO) game bundle, NVIDIA is selling two cards for every one AMD sells.
4. If you are a fan of AMD, you should also speak with your wallet. They could use some financial support more than anything these days.

[El Mano]

3. NVIDIA doesn't "need" to add a high dollar game bundle. In the face of AMD selling less expensive cards, with VERY competitive performance, and having a superior (IMO) game bundle, NVIDIA is selling two cards for every one AMD sells.

Hello Rollo,
I'm curious about the numbers. Is there any way I can have a look at those figures? Is there an unbiased site with actual facts?
Thank you.

[zalbard]

Hello Rollo,
I'm curious about the numbers. Is there any way I can have a look at those figures? Is there an unbiased site with actual facts?
Thank you.

Steam HW survey is a good indicator.

[himaro]

I'm having a look now, so far i've only really found a comparison that includes CPU with built in graphics which scews it slightly.
The graph on Techspot shows the following:
Intel : %62
AMD : %22.7
Nvidia: %14.8

As for dedicated cards, i'm still looking

[highoctane]

Hello Rollo,
I'm curious about the numbers. Is there any way I can have a look at those figures? Is there an unbiased site with actual facts?
Thank you.

This is for q3 2012 from jpr research, from the horses mouth so to speak:

http://jonpeddie.com/publications/add-in-board-report