Natural Selection 2 Confirmed for Steam with Pre-Orders Intact

Post by Dan @ 03:12pm 03/03/10 | 22 Comments

As they had been initially taking pre-orders for the game via their own system, it was unclear whether the independent Natural Selection 2 developer Unknown Worlds would be able to extend Steamworks functionality to those early adopters once the game was approved for delivery over Valve's Steam service.

These fears now appear to have been laid to rest with today's announcement that the game will indeed be available for purchase over Steam when it eventually launches and that "pre-orders will transfer properly to Steam".

Pre-ordering now gives immediate access to NS2 mapping tools and artwork as well as early access to the alpha or beta when ready. Unknown Worlds is now testing its proprietary "Spark" engine with a small number of players and will expand that to everyone that has pre-ordered the Special Edition shortly.

Natural Selection 2 can be pre-ordered for at a special price of $19.95/�14.75 (Standard Edition) or for $39.95/�29.56 (Special Edition) at http://www.naturalselection2.com/buy. Over 10,000 players have pre-ordered to date. The tools and SDK are available now at http://www.naturalselection2.com/download.

A new screenshot and trailer of the most recently revealed unit, the Lerk can be found via our Natural Selection 2 game page.

Natural Selection 2 is still aiming for launch before year's end 2010.

natural selection 2 steam

Latest Comments

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konstie
Posted 03:18pm 03/3/10

hmm after AvP i'm reluctant to pre-pay for anything, however it is natural selection so i guess expectations are already pretty high!

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Dan
Posted 03:23pm 03/3/10

Yeah I'm torn of two minds on this one. On one hand, it's better than normal pre-orders in that you know your money is going directly to the guys making the game instead of just lining the coffers of your given retailer.

On the other hand though, game development is a fickle business and a lot of companies in better standing than Unknown Worlds have gone under without public warning - at least if you pre-ordered from a retailer in that case, you'd be able to get your money back.

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deface
Posted 03:38pm 03/3/10

You can pay 25 AUD now or when pre-orders become available on steam you can pay 50... or more.

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ctd
Posted 03:44pm 03/3/10

If it wasn't for the 10,000 pre-orders they would've had to release the game early with unfinished features. I am fairly sure they scrapped the idea for Dynamic Infestation and Heavy Armour and then added them back in when they were pleasantly surprised by the massive number of pre-orders. UWE said a while ago that 95% of the pre-orders were the Special Edition.

The steam issue was pretty much the only thing I was waiting for before pre-ordering. Usually I don't pre-order games (besides maybe Valve games) but considering NS is my all time favourite game with many 100s of hours chalked up since 2003 and it was free I will pre-order and have a bit of faith they don't fail.

Also 20/40 bucks isn't the world. No doubt everyone here has spent at least double that on s*** games.

last edited by ctd at 15:44:43 03/Mar/10

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Dazhel
Posted 03:45pm 03/3/10

Differences between the standard edition and the special edition, heh:

- First access to the alpha, beta, and tools.
- Special all black marine armour for when you play online
- Our eternal gratitude

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konstie
Posted 03:50pm 03/3/10

-Our eternal gratitude

finally a company accepting my money graciously!

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TiT
Posted 03:52pm 03/3/10

im in two minds which one to buy the standard or the special.... i like being special

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Dazhel
Posted 03:59pm 03/3/10

-Our eternal gratitude
finally a company accepting my money graciously!

I think it's funny that if you preorder the standard edition you don't get any gratitude at all, not even some fleeting gratitude!

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Khel
Posted 04:03pm 03/3/10

I dunno, it still just seems kind of wrong to ask people to pay for your game, before you've actually made the game.

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Dazhel
Posted 04:08pm 03/3/10

But it's gonna be awesome Khel, just like AvP!

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TiT
Posted 04:09pm 03/3/10

i pre ordered HON as play often and can see the work going into the beta

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konstie
Posted 04:09pm 03/3/10

i still haven't pre-paid for HoN. That game has been in beta testing for almost a year now! They started asking for cash around June. What the hell is up with that...

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Plastic
Posted 04:18pm 03/3/10

Every other S2 Game has been Free to Play with a "Gold" class for acouple of pointless extras. HoN will be Free to Play when its released with no gameplay advantages for "Gold" accounts.

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TiT
Posted 04:42pm 03/3/10

True but i only paid $20 or $30 for it... i do pay for games if i think they worth it...

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Lawlord
Posted 05:18pm 03/3/10

hon is amazing though. So worth the $30 I paid for it. I've poured like 200+ hours into that s***.

Plus the extended beta is so they can implement all the changes they want. They're almost done. They really give great support and updates unlike blizzard for d2 (GROAN).

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Khel
Posted 05:23pm 03/3/10

What? Blizzard have fantastic support for d2, what are you talking about? They just recently released another patch for it, 10 years after the game came out, how many companies are still supporting and patching and balancing their games 10 years after they were released?

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Plasma
Posted 05:57pm 03/3/10

Looking forward to this one.

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Fuzzy
Posted 08:55pm 03/3/10

I've only played the first one a little bit, been thinking of pre-ordering this for a while, but I'll admit, the long development time put me off.

Is there an actual ETA on at least a beta test?

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StopShootingMe
Posted 09:03pm 03/3/10

Just pre-ordered. Indie developer, and I had a lot of fun with the original, even if this doesn't work out they've earned some dosh from me.

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Blue
Posted 01:11am 04/3/10

The thing I love about Natural Selection 2 is that, like all great games, it started as a mod. Fan created, their decision to write their own engine worries me, it's so easy to get it wrong. Yet building from their first game you know the game play will be solid. They're doing it for the money and I'd hate to see a rushed project.

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skythra
Posted 02:42am 04/3/10

So worth the $30 I paid for it. I've poured like 200+ hours into that s***.

Yeah I feel the same way, where I've already got the money worth before the game has even come out officially, or even before i paid the money for the pre-order.

I actually worry that the full release isn't going to ever come out.. Pretty much its a game that will never be finished. Much like any competitive game, the fun is what you buy, but you stick with the game because they spend so much time rebalancing and reinventing and reworking and introducing new things.

Though your comparison to blizzard games is f*****g stupid.

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Hogfather
Posted 09:23am 04/3/10

Yeh wtf lawlord? Get off the crack pipe dude, Blizzard has absurdly good game support.

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