AMD has definitely been winning the "game" of game bundles and bonus content with graphics cards purchases, as is evident from the recent Never Settle Reloaded campaign that includes titles like Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider. I made comments that NVIDIA was falling behind and may even start to look like they have moved away from a focus on PC gamers since they hadn't made any reply over the last year…
After losing a bidding war with AMD over Crysis 3, today NVIDIA is unveiling a bundle campaign that attack at a different angle; rather than including in bundled games NVIDIA is working free-to-play titles. How do you give gamers bonuses by including free to play games? Credits! Cold hard cash!
Starting today if you pick up any GeForce GTX graphics card you'll be eligible to get free in-game credit to use in one of the three free-to-play titles partnering with NVIDIA. A GTX 650 or GTX 650 Ti will net you $25 in each for a total bonus of $75 while buying a GTX 660 or higher, all the way up to the GTX 690 results in $50 per game for a total of $150.
Also, after asking NVIDIA about it, this is a PER CARD bundle so if you get an SLI pair of anything, you'll get double the credit. A pair of GeForce GTX 660s for an SLI rig results in $100 per game, $300 total!
This is a very interesting approach that NVIDIA has decided to take and I am eager to get feedback from our readers on the differences between AMD's and NVIDIA's bundles. I have played quite a bit of Planetside 2 and definitely enjoyed it; it is a graphics showcase as well with huge and expansive levels and hundreds of people per server. World of Tanks and Hawken I am less familiar with but they also are extremely popular.
Leave us your comments below! Do you think NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX gaming bundle for free-to-play game credits can be successful!
If you are looking for a new GeForce GTX card today and this bundle convinced you to buy, feel free to use the links below.
Wish you could get credit in
Wish you could get credit in a single game. Planetside 2 credit doesn’t interest me and Hawken was fun, but got really old. Then again, why can’t they just lower the cost slightly so I can get it cheaper (and as such, sooner!!!).
games in question make their
games in question make their money most likely by micro transactions. So 50$ game credit only cost maybe 5-10$ tops as they expect ppl to spend more then then the 50. Nvidia is not willing to sell costs at cost which is the best i can see AMD cards going for, they could even be losing money on them cause they got console deal to make $ on.
I know mate. Just wish it
I know mate. Just wish it was an actual competent offer. Can’t blame a man for wanting one of those things businesses seem to lack now.
I wonder if they will honor a
I wonder if they will honor a card that I purchased on Thursday of last week that hasn’t even arrived yet. Likely not, but we shall see.
I think I’d prefer getting
I think I’d prefer getting games that I would normally have to pay for to play at all rather than credits to games I could freely play. I mean – if I wanted to try these FTP games there’s nothing stopping me now. If I loved one of them then I’d probably already have the in game credits that I need.
With that said – it’s really just an extra benefit to me. I’ve already decided my next videocard purchase has to be nVidia because of bugs in AMD’s drivers that I can’t seem to get any attention to that cause big problems for my regular usage. (For example if I connect to a computer with an nVidia videocard over Windows RDP it continues working normally, but if I connect to the same computer after swapping the card out with an AMD card upon connecting any 3D applications I have will instantly crash with a D3DERROR_INVALIDCALL. Also, if I start any 3D programs while connected to RDP they’ll instantly crash the moment I close the RDP session when using an AMD videocard. That’s just one bug that drives me nuts, I could sit here and go on and on about AMD bugs that drive me nuts.)
Personally for me the AMD
Personally for me the AMD Never Settle Bundle 2 is a much better deal as I have tried the 3 free to play games above and was not impressed. Bioshock infinite on the otherhand… that’s a game I want to play. Funny because I thought that Bioshock would have been an nVidia game and could have swayed me to the green side.
The AMD Bundle is a better
The AMD Bundle is a better deal IMHO. I would have liked to have got some games with my GTX 680s.
If you don’t mind the odd driver bugs then the Red team is a clear winner. Having said that SLI seems to be scaling nicely on Kepler.
Would rather have Crysis 3
Would rather have Crysis 3
FTP but PTW !!
Personally I
FTP but PTW !!
Personally I think Free to play mechanic with in game cash shop is EXTREMLY hard to find a balance between convenience and unfair advantage.
If you find yourself needing to pay for a certain edge just to be an average dude in a zone, then the game-play becomes pay to stay alive. I already play lots of these type of games and some are worst than others, but now generally I stay away from them.
AMD Bundle is a better deal. Nice fulfilling single player campaign, and a fair multiplayer if anyone do chooses.
Judging from the comments
Judging from the comments thus far I must be in the minority but I think this is a much better deal than a handful of primarily single player games that you’ll be lucky to get over thirty hours of gameplay out of each, not to mention the minor fact that almost everything AMD is offering in their bundles requies Origin or Uplay.
I’ve either played or play all of the games in the Nvidia F2P bundle, and the only one I don’t really like is Hawken.
Hawken is basically Counter-Strike with a mech skin, not an actual proper mech game, if you want that, look to another Free to Play game, Mechwarrior Online.
World of Tanks is solid, I’ve spent around $30 on it over the past two years, which is a damn good price for the amount of gameplay and enjoyment I’ve gotten out of it, if I do say so myself. 12,000 gold ($50) would basically mean I’d never have to invest another cent into the game ever again.
I haven’t spent a cent on Planetside 2 but have nearly ninety hours logged already. 5000 station cash ($50) would go a really long ways towards a game I wasn’t considering putting any money into the first place.
Nvidia has got themselves a really great deal here, and as per usual hindsight is 20/20, insert “should have waited to buy x” here. I don’t get all the free to play hate in here so far. Not like I don’t have pay games, I have over 400 games on my Steam account at this point.
I hope Path of Exile is added to this bundle when that is released officially (in open beta now!)
If AMD really wanted to impress me, they could start by bundling real PC games like Civilization V with all the DLC, Gods and Kings included. Or get Planetary Annihilation in there with an exclusive AMD themed commander. Or something graphically impressive like Witcher 2. Newer is not always better, this goes doubly true for console ports like a majority of AMD’s current bundle offerings. Future releases I’d like to see bundled would be; Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Light and Sniper Ghost Warrior 2.
Is anyone really going to play Crysis 3 multiplayer? I’ve seen quite a few videos of aimbot hackers already plaguing the multiplayer “beta” which brought back horrific flashbacks of the hackfest that was the Crysis 2 multiplayer.
Oh I forgot to mention
Oh I forgot to mention Airmech, another great free to play game that I adore.
Also, if you were to ebay these F2P currency codes off, which is what I normally do with these bundle games anyways, you could more than likely get close to the actual cost as opposed to trying to sell Uplay or Origin codes that hardly anyone ever seems to want. $70 GTX 660, anyone?
Nvidia Game credit < AMD Game
Nvidia Game credit < AMD Game bundle. Simple as that. And they should have gave credit for Ghost Recon Online - that is the only good free to play game!
Bah, Planetside 2 is the only
Bah, Planetside 2 is the only one applicable to me, of which it is only minorly attractive. Mechwarrior Online or League of Legends would have piqued my interest though. Seems like the standard problem though, you have to offer games that interest the customer to be a valuable bundle. Although it may be more valueable to the players already interested or involved with those games, I think F2P games that are not of interest to the purchaser are less valuable than standalone games, both because of the type of commitment necessary to fully enjoy them.
Cheap and nasty bundle.
If
Cheap and nasty bundle.
If you see what AMD are offering it looks even nastier.
It’s all about which games
It’s all about which games you prefer and I like the AMD bundles WAY more than Nvidia’s FTP games. The AMD bundles are also worth more too.
AMD FTW!!!
Is there a way to trade this
Is there a way to trade this stuff? I really don’t want all of this money. Can I like exchange it through steam? Maybe with tf2outpost? Or do I have to use paypal or something?
Can you sell them on ebay?
ofcourse u can sell it… if
ofcourse u can sell it… if anyone have that EU version of code for Planetside2 i will buy it 😉
I’m pretty happy with my
I’m pretty happy with my gtx580 atm but if the bundles look anything like this when the next generation of cards come I’ll probably join the red team. Nvidia = fail bundle.