I really wish more indies could take on the no-sales policy. It'd give me tons more peace of mind to buy a game when I actually want to play it, rather than always waiting and doing weird backlog hoarding when Valve decide it's wallet-opening-time.
But as the video shows, the policy was a risk for Wube even back in the day -- it's an even bigger risk now that everyone and their dog expects to wait for the sale, and especially if you happen to have a game that's not quite as incredibly popular as Factorio.
Factorio is in the minority IMO. My experience has been that indie games will often, say that they probablely wont do sales as a way to engourage purchases during beta and then a bit after release when there are potential financial benefits on the line they do sales anyway. I am totally not speaking from first hand experience /s.
Unless they've got an instant breakaway hit (which not even Factorio was), they'll see a ho-hum launch week in terms of purchases and an almost complete flat-line beyond that. Consumers are trained to wait for the sale. And so if they want to eat and have a roof over their head, there's only one option left. It's a vicious cycle, and very few are in a position to try to break it.
They should do an April fools’ sale where they reduce the price by 1 cent
It's not exactly the same thing, but itch.io allow developers to have a "reverse sale", where the price goes up for a given period. It was mostly a joke feature, perhaps intended to provoke a little thought about sales culture.
I bought it right before the price increase so I told myself it was like getting it on sale
How is this an unlisted video with some 250 views that seems like a high quality production on a channel with 1.2 million subscribers?
Maybe a leaked YouTube link from their Patreon?
I did not think that through.
Oh well, exclusive Lemmy access promo I guess. I'll throw the Escapist an extra $10 on their next donation-enabled stream as an apology.
Not necessarily. Its also possible to view unlisted videos using a frontend like piped AFAIK
Ah that makes sense!
This game gets universal praise and I'd love to play it but as a PC gamer I refuse to as I wouldn't want to support a dev who not only never does sales but raises the price because of "inflation"
Me, I wish more games respected my time like that, instead of costing 40$ and going on 20% sale every few weeks, leaving me to hunt bargain bins to be able to get it at its "efficient" price.
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.
I dunno, I don't really see it as "respecting my time." Historically, games like this have been hit or miss for me, so I never wanted to blow over $20 on it, and I certainly don't feel like $35. I would much rather just play something else I already own or can get for cheaper until I can buy the game on a whim instead of having to commit and play "check every nook and cranny for deal-breakers during the refund window."
I would also far prefer something like what BattleBit Remastered is doing. Game came out for $15, it's one of the best shooters I've played in years, so I bought the $20 supporter pack for some in-game cosmetics. Low entry price and rewards for further support. I fundamentally disagree with raising prices on existing products and hate this idea of price FOMO that has extended past early access.
I don’t really understand your take. They sold the game cheap after 7 years of development and it’s still a really good value after the increases in price. I couldn’t praise the developers and how they run this game / business enough.
Factorio returns an ever increasing value for the money due to the continuous effort the developers have put in especially on modding, and on the ever expanding quality and amount of mods that gives you a whole new game many times over.
I cannot think of a game that has better value for money than Factorio.
The only downside is that you will spend an indeterminate amount of time playing the game and when you think your finally done, there is another game changing mod that will give you another full and even longer gameplay, for free.
There’sa free demo you can download to try it out and see if it’s something you’d value.
My take is less about the game itself, and the idea of games increasing its price at all. I've tried the demo and its a game right up my alley plus I enjoy games like it such as satisfactory. It just doesn't stomach well to me of a digital game going up in price.
I have seen multiple people mention mods at this point and I don't really count modding as part of the value of a game since modders aren't getting paid when I buy the game. Plus really any game can be infinite if you enjoy it enough and mods exist for it.
Why did you put inflation in quotes like it isn't real?
https://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/usa-inflation-rate/
At $35 right now the game is reasonably priced for the amount of value you will get out of it. I believe there is an expansion on the way as well...
$35 being reasonable is an understatement. Most people take 50h to get through their first "full playthrough" and the replayability is limitless. Then there's free workshop content that'll take abase game and add another 200h onto it (Space Exploration, Krastorio, Sea Block, Bob's, Angels, etc)
Plus: They still have a free demo with no time limit too. You get exposed to the core loop within five minutes of playing and you'll know if it clicks or not for you before you even have to buy.
I bought the game at $25 but I'd buy it again at $35 and not regret anything...
They probably used quotes because it's only one part of the equation. 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.
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. Which is the big issue now with rising inflation and record profits.
Did... you watch the video?
Ok, I've watched the video. I will admit I had not known about the g2a thing. While I get the sale thing a little more. I still don't see the inflation point. I get it's to continue development and such but it's only affecting new users and in a way making it harder to buy the game at the best time. Imagine if I hadn't heard of this game until it went up to 35 bucks. Sure they say the best time is now, but now this fomo is also into play as a result of the price increases this game will possibly get.
Not yet, I was just commenting based off the title since it has just been posted.
Edit: seen the video, see my other comment here.
Does the value you get of the game change depending on which time of the year you buy it?
Actually, the only change is up, as the game was improving and expanding pretty much constantly from the first early release to version 1.1. And it value is going up, when you buy in early access you're only getting the current (unfinished but playable) state and a "promise" that it will get better in the future. When you buy the finished product you're already certainly getting that better state, so it makes sense that it's more expensive.
A game going up in price is fair from early access to release. This is a typical concept and an expected one for the reason you stated, the company makes a promise that it will be fully released.
To me the issue is the inflation price increase that most recently happened. Typically when a digital good releases in a finished state, it tends to stay at a max price. 30 USD is what Factorio decided on. Then it's up to 35. Sure its had updates since the full release but why should I have to pay more then the full release price because I waited?
Typically sales are the reward for those who wait. Factorio seems to be the opposite, those who wait pay more. Inflation is real I understand, but this is also a digital good that has infinite supply. I as a consumer want to buy a game, and I can't tell what the content changed from this 1.0 to the 1.1 since I haven't played it. It probably is justifiable for the 5 bucks increase, but the consumer doesn't know that. I just know this game I want, was 30 bucks and now it's 35 and still hasn't been on sale.
The reward for getting a full release game before a sale is to play it early. You aren't losing the value of your purchase because I got it for 30% off. You got to play it early, and I waited for a price that I felt willing to pay. (The you is referring to people in general, not you specifically)
