Well, we all survived the first public showing of Catan Online at Gen Con Indy 2004, August 19-22 in Indianapolis. Overall, we had a great show, met a lot of enthusiastic and friendly fans of Catan, and gave away a lot of cool promotional post cards. See our photo gallery for Gen Con images. A few lucky attendees (about 50) that came by the booth during the first few hours of the show also walked away with Catan Online mouse pads. Envy them – or just keep your eyes peeled on the online auction sites…
We also talked to quite a few friendly press folks, including luminaries from such respected sites (in no particular order) as GameSpot, The Wargamer, GameSpy, Games Quarterly Magazine, Gamerdad, Kenzer & Company, ICv2, and USA Networks. Nice to meet all of you!
From the fans of Catan, some of the top questions included:
"When is it available?" or "Is it available now?"
The answer : This winter, hopefully in time for the holiday season.
"How much will it cost?" or "Is it a subscription?"
The answer: There are two products that we are offering: one is a downloadable, standalone single-player version against the computer (no LAN or "hotseat" capability), and the other is our online-only multiplayer subscription version. The prices have not been finalized on either offering, but we will endeavor to make sure that both versions are very reasonably priced. We will make an official announcement on this website once the prices are finalized.
"Will the expansions [Seafarers and Cities & Knights] be available?"
The answer: Not at launch, but MSN Games holds the license for all of the Catan family of products, so we will certainly be evaluating the expansions. We are interested in releasing these, but we have no official announcements to make at this time. We will announce on this website any plans to release the expansion as those plans firm up.
"Will there be a Mac version?"
The answer: There are currently no plans to do a Mac version; however, enough people have expressed interest that we will explore the possibility, though we are not willing to commit to anything at this time.
We hope everyone that stopped by the booth liked what they saw, and that we will see you all again at the next show!