AMD Expands Never Settle Reloaded Program Again: Launches Level Up Bundle
by Ryan Smith on May 15, 2013 12:00 PM EST
Hot on the heels of last month’s expansion of AMD’s Never Settle Reloaded game bundle, which saw Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon added across the board, AMD is back once again with another expansion of their game bundle program.
The latest rendition of AMD’s program will see AMD launching a new, smaller game bundle to run alongside the Never Settle Reloaded bundle. The new bundle is to be called the Level Up bundle, with the complete package being dubbed the Level Up with Never Settle Reloaded bundle. Level Up won’t add any new games to AMD’s bundles – the game industry is between major launch periods anyhow – but instead Level Up will see AMD offering a greater number of their bundle games with most of their video cards.
With the exception of the 7990 at the high-end and 7770 at the low-end, most AMD bundles are composed of a subset of four games: Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite, Blood Dragon, and Tomb Raider. Level Up will see most AMD bundles expanding by one more game, going from 3 to 4 and 2 to 3 respectively, and generally resolving the oddites of some cards including Tomb Raider while other cards include Crysis 3. Specifically the 7900 series and 7870 will become complete sets, with the 7900 series adding Tomb Raider while the 7870 will add Crysis 3. Meanwhile the 7850 remains unchanged, and the 7790 will get a third game with the addition of Tomb Raider.
Notably, unlike past AMD bundle expansions, Level Up doesn’t completely replace Never Settle Reloaded. Instead it is a bundle that is running concurrent to Never Settle Reloaded. Technically Never Settle Reloaded is unchanged, with the additional games coming from the Level Up bundle. The significance of this separation being that these are two bundles with two different vouchers, making it possible to start and end each program separately while cleanly avoiding the issue of changing a bundle in the middle of its run. At the same time AMD is being especially specific this time around that Level Up is a “while supplies last” offer (though this is technically true for NSR too), so all signs are pointing to Level Up being a more temporary offer, at least for now.
Throughout all of this it’s worth pointing out that game bundles are traditionally based around buying large number of copies of a title in advance. So besides the more straightforward benefit of increasing the value of their cards, the separate and temporary nature of Level Up may be AMD using the opportunity to burn off excess Crysis 3 and Tomb Raider keys.
All things considered the expansion of AMD’s game bundle is not unexpected, as AMD’s success with Never Settle programs means that they will continue using game bundles to increase the value of their products and offset at least some of the need for price cuts. But even this was admittedly earlier than we figured any additional expansion would arrive, so this comes as a pleasant surprise. More interesting perhaps, the 7790 which launched only a bit more than a month ago is already down $10 on average and has seen both Blood Dragon and Tomb Raider added to its game bundle, so we’re still seeing some price cuts alongside these larger bundles. Overall with 7790s going for as little as $110 after rebate, and 7870s for as little as $220, game bundles are clearly becoming an increasingly large part of the complete package for AMD video cards, with all of the benefits and drawbacks thereof.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
20 Comments
View All Comments
chrnochime - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
I'd rather they fix their CCC first...Jigar2speed - Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - link
This is getting old, CCC works just fine, try to nit pick on crossfire please.tviceman - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
I think this is admission that AMD won't have any products to counter Nvidia's incoming 700 series lineup... but they may not need to. At the prices they are asking for the current cards, and the bundles they're offering, if Nvidia doesn't come in with better perf/$ then AMD will still have the better deals.mayankleoboy1 - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
Atleast AMD are not rebranding non-OEM cards. And they publily announced all the OEM rebranding too, unlike Nvidia.HisDivineOrder - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - link
nVidia's new series of launches has AMD scared out of their mind. Titan for the mainstream? 680-level gaming with 4GB as the baseline at current 670 pricing? Relatively cheapo 670 SLI potentials at only 660 Ti x 2 pricing? And toss in an actual new game that's not the same old, same old that most now own and have for months...AMD doesn't want to drop prices again, but nVidia's going to force their hand. In the meantime, they're hoping to con a few people into buying in now just ahead of the new launch before they are forced to drop prices.
I imagine the "Limited Time Only" part is because when they drop prices (and they will), they're going to want to end that extra part of the promo really quickly. I'm remembering last year when they struggled to avoid dropping the 7970's pricing against the 680 and then the 670, but after all that lashing in reviews (that they could have easily avoided by pricing their cards appropriately from the start), they wound up dropping prices anyway.
Except all the reviews had been written and the 670/680 came out looking like champs while Radeons had their reputation etched for months after that as the overpriced, underperformer who ran hotter than nVidia's best.
Eventually, they got around that, but it took months upon months and TWO great bundles with TONS of games to make it happen.
AMD needs to drop prices right now, ahead of the launches. They need to get out in front of nVidia, lest they lose in these early reviews and suffer another major setback like last year.
Will Robinson - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
"AMD are scared out of their minds"?The only truly scary thing is you posting that with a straight face.
Both the 7970GHZ and HD7950 are a better buy than either of the two you mentioned.
Please confine your trolling for NVDA to the VC&G forum where we are used to it.
Mr Perfect - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
These bundles are nice, but they're trying to sell an architecture that launched January of '12. Release something new, guys. People will line up to buy it, even without a bunch of Steam codes in the box.michaelquerty - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
I never was able to get Far Cry 3 from my 7970 bundle. I got all the games through STEAM, but FARCRY was through Ubisoft.Digital Demise - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - link
I just bought my XFX 7950 last night (~7:30) do I get Tomb Raider for free too ? Please :)?Creig - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
nVidia? Release a new high performance card at a decent price? You can't possibly be referring to the same nVidia that I'm thinking of. You know, the one that just released a $1,000 single GPU video card? The same nVidia that was forced to drop the price of its GTX280 from $650 to $400 after only one month of sales because AMD released their HD4870 at $300. And then were shamed into offering its early customers a refund on the difference by way of apologizing for picking their pockets? Nvidia may be a lot of things, but altruistic isn't one of them.