• @Sentinian
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    241 year ago

    For me the major red flag is the price going up for inflation. The game went up in price when it left Early Access already and that was 3 years ago. But now the game is being sold as a full game sure it might get updates but one can expect a finished product to at least stay the same price, not go up.

    As for sales, at least on PC games are pretty much always on sale either through steam directly or from sites like humble or greenmangaming. You can pretty much pickup any not recent game for 20% off at anytime if you search gg.deals or a similar service.

    • @Deestan@beehaw.orgOP
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      1 year ago

      Well, inflation is real. And they are using sales income to fund current development. That’s as fair as it gets.

      Would you be happy if they released it at 60$ and had periodic 60% sales?

      • @Sentinian
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        111 year ago

        Well yes, if you do the math it would be cheaper then the $30 price point it’s been for years. Actually it adds up to the same as a 20% sale of the $30 price.

        I get the point you make. I can accept a game that never goes on sale. The main problem I have is it increasing price after 3 years out of early access.

        • terribleplan
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          141 year ago

          The game has gotten continuous updates increasing the scope, mod-ability, stability (to an absurd degree, even cross play between Switch and PC), target new platforms (it runs on Apple silicon natively now and they did a whole bunch of work to make it work well on steam deck), etc. of the game for those same 3 years. Yes, they did come out of early access, but their approach to the game hasn’t changed significantly and it continued to get better with time.

          They could have called this game done way earlier and released the work they’ve done since as DLC, but they didn’t. Instead they have massively increased the value in the game over nearly 7 years since initial early access release at $20 and have since raised the price a total of 75% to reflect this. They even gave advance notice of the both price increases.

          Wube is still working on the next release of the base game, and are also working on an expansion they say will be as big as the base game. Perhaps your argument against price increases holds sway as the expansion isn’t being added to the base game, instead it will be $30 (or maybe $35 given the base game increase).

          I have played this game far longer than any other, and keep coming back to it when it updates or for new modpacks which completely change the experience. I would gladly pay $35 for what is in the game right now. I can understand if the game isn’t for you or the price increase turns you off, you don’t have buy it. In fact, unless you can afford to not sleep for the next 3 days you shouldn’t, as the factory must grow and you are running low on iron.

          • @Sentinian
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            1 year ago

            I appreciate the response! Actually quantifying the amount of work went into it can help the argument for the price raise.

            The irony is if this whole price increase thing didn’t happen I would’ve ended up buying it. I have tons of hours in Satisfactory and wanted a game similar to it. I guess the whole price increase struck me as a major turn off, as this is a trend that I really don’t want to see other games pick up due to concerns of FOMO.

            To add on my other thought is games are much easier to say would’ve paid full price in hindsight vs before you buy. Same with all the added content, you tend to not notice this as a new buyer but instead as someone who has bought and played for a good while

        • @Deestan@beehaw.orgOP
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          71 year ago

          While we disagree severely, I am grateful to hear the “other side” in a civil discussion. I suspect the no-downvote policy of Beehaw enables this discussion and hope to find more of it.

      • insomniac_lemon
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        1 year ago

        If wages are stagnant like they have been for a while (at least in USA), money has less purchasing power and people have less savings/spending money. So I wouldn’t call that fair, or at least not the in the sense that “we’re just adjusting it”. Raising the price in economic situations like this is squeezing the customers (whether it’s intended or not), and I doubt most prices hikes with successful things are just to keep the lights on.

        • @Sentinian
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          71 year ago

          I think this was my main problem with the reasoning being inflation. Everyone focusing on the value of the game itself. My problem is when someone blames something on inflation I think everything goes up in price except my wages lol.

          • @BuxtonWater@beehaw.org
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            61 year ago

            My problem is when someone blames something on inflation I think everything goes up in price except my wages lol.

            But that’s not the factorio developers problem, that’s your governments problem. So it’s a bit unfair IMO to assign the ‘blame’ to them.

    • @loops@beehaw.org
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      141 year ago

      Afaik it’s not done being developed. Wube is working on another update for it still, while at the same time ironing out remaining bugs. Of course it’s not as fast is it was before 1.0, but they’re still chugging away at it.

    • RandoCalrandian
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      121 year ago

      Your red flag is a green flag for me. It tells me the dev set a realistic and fair price in the first place, and i don’t mind the increase in price specifically because it’s so cheap per gameplay/hour compared to any AAA title.

      If the price was $100 it would still be the best value game i’ve every purchased… and i think i’ve spent at least that much buying copies as gifts

      Not to mention the mods essentially infinitely expand the base game.

      Everything about how the dev has done this has been a green flag in my book, as a consumer.