As Neverwinter gears up for launch, the teams at Cryptic and Perfect World announced today three beta weekend events, plus a slew of founders' packs that come with a host of extra incentives on top of beta access for each weekend, and early access to the upcoming Open Beta.

Info courtesy of Kotaku:

Scheduled for February 8-10, March 8-10, and March 22-24, the beta weekends will let thousands of players get a taste of the game before its Open Beta launch later this year.  The team also announced its plans for the game's Founders program, with three distinct levels of buy-in:

Neverwinter Starter Kit:

The Neverwinter Starter Kit  costs $19.99 USD (valued at $49.00) and supplies adventurers with  virtual consumable goods to aid them in their quest for glory:

• ‘Adventurer’s Helper Pack’ containing six different types of in-game items
• ‘Small Bag of Holding’ for twelve extra inventory slots
• ‘Amulet of Protection’ item

Guardian of Neverwinter Pack:

The Guardian of  Neverwinter Pack  costs $59.99 USD (valued at $149.00). In addition to guaranteed entry to all three Beta Weekends, the pack also includes VIP beta perks, and a variety of in-game items exclusive to  ounder’s Pack purchasers, including: 

• Three-day head start access to Neverwinter Open Beta
• Unique ‘Gold Moonstone Mask Regalia’ head piece
• Unique ‘Armored Horse’ mount
• Unique ‘Direwolf Companion’
• In-game and forum ‘Founder’ title

Hero of the North Founder’s Pack:

For the ultimate Neverwinter experience, the Hero of the North Founder’s Pack costs $199.99 USD (valued at $549.00). It guarantees entry to all three Beta Weekends,  includes VIP access to Moonstone Mask Tavern, early access  to The Foundry (Neverwinter’s user-generated content creation tool), fifteen additional in-game items, plus features the following  exclusive items that are only available through the Founders’ Pack program:

• Five-day head start access to Neverwinter Open Beta
• Beta Weekend Friend Invite code
• Exclusive access to ‘Menzoberranzan Renegade’, a drow playable race like the legendary ranger Drizzt Do’Urden, complete with unique racial abilities and tattoo
• Unique ‘Armored Spider’ mount 
• Unique ‘Panther Companion’
• In-game and forum ‘Founder’ title
• VIP Game Access to skip-the-line and get priority log-in access

Read about Neverwinter at Neverwinter's Official Site.

Not gonna lie... tempted to shell $200 for the Drizzt-alike. :P 

Edit: At least in this case, you're not paying a "Life Sub", just for a lot of perks. The above tongue-emote implies sarcasm by the way. 

So we give you $200, basicly a year or more worth of sub fees to many other tested games and if the game sucks then.....

Not a chance in hell, let me test it first and for an extended amount of time, if it is a game I know i will love and play for years then sure, maybe.

How many other games have promised the world only to disapoint, I bought Guild Wars 2 Collectors Edition - Regret, Age of Conan Collectors Edition - Regret, Diablo 3 Collectors Edition - MASSIVE REGRET. 

You want way more than any of them charged for a game I have only seen video clips of ?

No thanx :)

Way to expensive for founders packs... what is this new BS where companies make us pay to supposedly beta test?

Rideable Armoured Spiders.

For when Rideable Normal Spiders just won't do.

Great... just what fantasy gaming needed more... Drizzt. The worst, possibly most cliche and most overused character ever created. Also for a F2P game, they sure value themselves. Sorry. Not gonna bother. 

Whats with the 200$ lately anyway? Seems like the go to number for "VIP packs" in F2P world lately. It's about 140$ more than I'm willing to pay for any game, let alone one that's supposedly free to play. 

Originally posted by Asm0deus

Way to expensive for founders packs... what is this new BS where companies make us pay to supposedly beta test?

You're really just paying for early access, guaranteed beta time, and a few perks.  If you can wait, might as well!  It'll be F2P after all.

NWN has a special place in my heart.  However, I would never pay $200 upfront, not for this game.  The shoes they have to fill are just too large, the chance this game will be horrible is too large.  $60 almost seems like too much to pay for what will be f2p.

This whole tiered setup just seems grimy and exploitative.

Dont do it fellas.

I was skeptical about Neverwinter when it was first announced and lately I was becoming more interested in the game and I was turning from pure skepticism to pessimistic optimism, but after hearing this my enthusiasm dropped a good deal.

Play as Drizzt for $200? Pathetic. The fact that they would encourage people to copycat Drizzt and make this a feature of the most expensive pre purchase option is total asshat. I hope this is PWE's influence because if this is the mindset that Cryptic is applying to the game then what little optimism I dredged up is rapidly dwindling.

• ‘Adventurer’s Helper Pack’ containing six different types of in-game items
• ‘Small Bag of Holding’ for twelve extra inventory slots
• ‘Amulet of Protection’ item

I think it sounds really reasonable!  I mean doesn't Cryptic have a great track record of launching games in great shape?

Oh...right.

No chance in hell I would pay $200 for freaking beta access, and a stupid Drow race.  Are you kidding me?  Remember when a Beta used to be about getting good testers to make a game better at launch?

First marvel heroes then this?  This one doesn't even come with currency to use in the RM shop.  Holy crap.

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by Asm0deus

Way to expensive for founders packs... what is this new BS where companies make us pay to supposedly beta test?

You're really just paying for early access, guaranteed beta time, and a few perks.  If you can wait, might as well!  It'll be F2P after all.

I can understand a 60$ founder pack. It's kind of like buying a ps3 game or buying the client if you will but 200$ is just retarded

Originally posted by Asm0deus

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by Asm0deus

Way to expensive for founders packs... what is this new BS where companies make us pay to supposedly beta test?

You're really just paying for early access, guaranteed beta time, and a few perks.  If you can wait, might as well!  It'll be F2P after all.

I can understand a 60$ founder pack. It's kind of like buying a ps3 game or buying the client if you will but 200$ is just retarded

The $200 pack is obviously not meant for everyone, which is why there are three tiers to the program. I'm not sure why people react this way every time a new game announces a pack like this. Think back to any MMO you've ever played, didn't you know that 'one guy' who always played? Even when you took a break for six months and came back? He'd still be there happily playing like it was the first month of launch.

That's the player who will be interested in the top-tier pack. It's not like PWE (or any other game offering this sort of thing) is only offering a single high priced tier.  No one's forcing you to buy the thing. The fact of the matter is that game development costs real money and being able to guarantee some sort of upfront revenue is pretty attractive, especially when you're giving away the game for free. I think offering excited and dedicated fans some additional value in exchange for an upfront cost can be a real win-win for both parties involved when done well.

Have at it if you want to criticize the actual content:value ratio of this particular pack (or any other), but I think the kneejerk scoffing at the price of these high-tier packs and $150 Collector Editions is honestly a bit silly.

Originally posted by causs
So basically they say these 3 points are 'worth' $50 when the game starts?

• ‘Adventurer’s Helper Pack’ containing six different types of in-game items
• ‘Small Bag of Holding’ for twelve extra inventory slots
• ‘Amulet of Protection’ item

Well, talk about a rip-off. Of course, you don't have to buy it...

What about the $199.99 pack, they say it has value at $549.00 :D

I'm happy some rich people will buy these packs, so we get free to play games, but I don't think many people will buy these :)

I remember when this game was going to be single player, they decided to convert it to an mmo and now they want $200!? ... yea, I dont think so.