The13thRonin, first Arms Dealer will be $15 but will be on sale during launch week for $13.37(as suggested by a forum member) and will often be on sale after the first month. It is my intention to have a LOT of copies sold starting 60 days after launch. I will be discounting the game until I find the price point that people not interested in the game buy it. Since the game isn't early release, I expect anyone interested to buy the game in the first 30 days. What I won't do is put the game in a bundle for at least a year. I find it highly insulting when developers dump games in bundles a couple weeks after charging people full price. I have been burned a few times that way. Despite having strong feelings against it, I may have to open pre-orders in order to leverage my relationship with Steam. I won't do so unless I can offer a demo or a beta for people to try the game first. It's bad enough to take money for something that people can't own immediately, I won't take further advantage by asking you to do so blindly. I am also looking into a money back guarantee outside of Steam. It's hard to do so without opening up to abuse though.
As for working on Weapon Factory Tycoon(working title), yes, pre-production continues and I have EVERY intention of devoting a good sized team after Arms Dealer launches. I will keep an artist and a programmer on Arms Dealer for a few months to be sure that bugs are squashed and free content is added. If the game has a large following then I will devote more assets.
Kaje, Yes, we are still on track to try out an Alpha build around mid week. It's probably closer to a beta build but we are turning off a lot features to keep it simple and much artwork is not in the game yet. This first public testing build will focus on buying, selling, transport and warehouse functions. The next one will introduce the competing Arms Dealers and relationships with them. Focus on the ability to interfere with foreign relations(war/peace) and bribing nations to hide you from authorities. The last test build will introduce the RPG system(passive and active abilities), achievements and the collection system. That should bring us to the last week in August and the release of a limited Demo(i hope).
It's likely that we will soft launch on Desura and GoG, Itchi0, etc and then a Steam Launch on the second week of September. All previous purchases will get Steam keys.
EDIT: 3man75, yes there are 10 other arms dealers to compete with as well as 4 law enforcement agencies, each specializing in a different aspect of operations(anti-terror, restricted items, preventing sabotage and instigation of conflict, and finally an agency that focuses on the top 5 Arms Dealers with a lot of resources and aggression).