Factorio Forums

This is very expensive for a game. It’s worth pointing out for my country, we’re used to getting shafted when it comes to game prices.

That aside I know posting this is probably going to get a lot of “worth it to me” and “I have 1 gorillion hours” etc. That’s fine, I enjoyed the base game and am sure to most it’s worth that much. Then however, I very enthusiastically get told it’ll also never go on sale either. I go read the post and was framed as being unfair to other players who paid full price? What? I’ve never once cared how much someone else payed for a game (nor even heard of it???). [Edit: not to mention the “testers” who got it for free ]. Hell a game I bought full priced when I was younger? Buy the GOTY edition for $5 idgaf.

I know given the referenced blog post and other replies I’ve seen to similar complaints it’ll be met with “too bad too sad” but still wanted to post my -1. I’ll still likely end up paying for it at some point but it is what it is.

It annoyed me at start, but this is quite honest and good policy.
I actually bought the game quicker due to it. Once I found info "no sale, ever", I've just bought the game, no waiting. I would say, Wube should decrease the price, once they stop actively improving the game, but for now it makes sense.

Junorus wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2024 1:41 am

It annoyed me at start, but this is quite honest and good policy.
I would say, Wube should decrease the price, once they stop actively improving the game, but for now it makes sense.

Thank you, you’re the first person I’ve spoken to (and seen) to actually acknowledge and be empathetic about it. It’s hard for me to bitch about because frankly I don’t think it’s that much overpriced and it’s largely due to local pricing.

I think that’s largely going to happen with me because the alternative is vote with my wallet and not buy SA. Which I kinda don’t want to do at this stage given the base game. Anyway cheers for the tone of your response. Hope you’re enjoying SA!

Sorry, but people complaining about the price, and using the cost to justify it, but not actually stating the cost in a meaningful way has become a pet peeve of mine...

"$" has no inherent meaning since lots of counties use dollars. Often "$" can be assumed to mean USD, but that's obviously not what you mean here because it doesn't cost $50USD. Since we don't know which currency you are talking about, talking about the price in that an unnamed currency is completely pointless. It might be costing you 10USD, it might be costing you 100USD - we have know way of knowing. (Not to mention that 35USD has different value too, depending on where you live, and that place's cost of living).

Xorimuth wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2024 2:05 am

Sorry, but people complaining about the price, and using the cost to justify it, but not actually stating the cost in a meaningful way has become a pet peeve of mine...

Understandable and I’m quite aware. I didn’t mention it was $AU because I’ve already complained elsewhere and didn’t want it to be linked to the forum post.

This is literally the best $35 I ever spent (after the initial $30 to buy Factorio). I have no idea where the initial poster thinks he/she can get more entertainment for less money, but I'd love to know his/her suggestions.

Out of AUD, EUR, GBP, USD, the aussies get it the cheapest, so you may want to reevaluate the image you have of game prices in Australia. This is one of the reasons I ended up buying the game in AUD from steam instead of the GBP price GOG and Wube were offering (my steam account is still set to Australia from when I lived there). But the way you have framed this topic tells me you don't appreciate the arbitrariness of currency units (did you know it costs 450000 in Vietnam?).

Also collapsing it to "a game" tells me you are only focusing on the "what you pay" side of the equation and not the "what you get" side. You are free to buy $5 (that's very cheap for a game) shovelware, and get 10 games for the price of Factorio.

This "DLC" is closer to the old school expansions in terms of what it delivers. I suggest to you that the average publisher would have split this into 4 DLCs, charged less for each one individually sure, but probably the same or more in total, and left the game in a worse state (due to having to cater to all the different combinations of DLC ownership).

I'll second the other posters when I challenge you to find another game for this price with this level of content, QoL polish, general lack of bugs, and mod support. For me "Old World" from Mohawk is the only one springing to mind that comes close, and by pure coincidence the bundle of that game plus all DLC comes to 99.86 AUD on steam right now, the same as Factorio + SA.

As for the fairness argument, I've rarely heard that one. This is purely a pricing strategy by Wube, which they are well within their rights to do. Publishers don't do discounts/sales out of the goodness of their hearts, it's price discrimination to extract as much as they can from each individual buyer, which can partially backfire for them when patient gamers "wait for the sale". Personally I'm not a fan of the inflated release price and periodic sale strategy, there's pressure to wait for a sale, and also pressure to buy the game when it's on sale before the price goes back, even when you aren't ready to play right now. However game publishers are still within their rights to pick that strategy, despite my dislike. Wube is choosing not to play that game, the price is the price, buy it or not, but there's no reason to wait for a sale or rush to buy before the price lurches back up. (yes Wube did raise the price, that pretty much just matched inflation)

Finally, 50 AUD is barely more than 2 hours at Australian minimum wage. Round up to 3 hours to allow for income tax.

I don't think it's too high and yes I don't own the DLC money is a bit tight for me. But I think the price is still fine. I think people don't understand the base game is super cheap and as much as it's called a DLC it's really an expansion of the game. It contains a lot of content and I think it's fair. As I see it how much have I paid for the last 10 years of updates? Nothing... I think the price is fair for what I assume will be more years (I doubt 10), but I'm sure a couple at least years of more updates.

Crookedvulture wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2024 1:56 am

[...]
and it’s largely due to local pricing.
[...]

But it clearly isn't, since the expansion costs as much as the base game regardless of local pricing.

And to be sure what the expansion is worth, you have to try a game with the expansion to completion first.

You can also rely on reviews, but don't be surprised when your complaints about the price aren't taken seriously when you haven't even played it yourself...

BlueTemplar wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 23, 2024 3:30 pm

Crookedvulture wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2024 1:56 am

[...]
and it’s largely due to local pricing.
[...]

But it clearly isn't, since the expansion costs as much as the base game regardless of local pricing.

Well plenty of people complain about base game pricing too.

Sorry Crookedvulture, but I'll just leave this here... (so that people get ALL the context)

The Story of Factorio, the Game that Only Increases in Price | The Stuff of Legends — The Escapist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP5-pfBmZss

I had to look in my email history... I originally bought factorio for 12 eurobucks. Something like $16 American. That was ten years ago, nearly exactly.

Back in those days, the game was still pretty rough. There wasn't multiplayer. Trains barely worked. The car was the best you had to kill bugs as there want a tank yet. Etc. Hell there wasn't a lot of stuff we enjoy and take for granted today, like awesome mod support.

I'm not trying to flex here though. The point is that they have added a *lot* of stuff to the game for free. And by free I mean they didn't release a "tank DLC" or "multiplayer DLC". Name me another game that has gone ten years with free updates without releasing paid DLC. Terraria is the only one I can think of, and they're barely patching the game these days; the game is "finished" according to the devs. There are probably others but the point is it's very rare. Devs need to eat, how Factorio did it was increase the base game price as the features increased. Seems fair enough to me or at least no less fair than other methods of extracting money from your users.

Everything is subjective. I, personally, don't feel like Space Age is some cash grab so it's hard for me to complain. In the days of horse armor and FIFA DLC whales, this is a proper expansion like the days of yore and I'm thankful to be able to afford it and pay the devs' hard work. Also I feel when and if to have a sale on the product you make is a business decision that they are free to make. Those GOTY editions are the publishers squeezing every last cent out of a finished game, and I buy them too but you should understand that the people who made the game get nothing from that $5 you spend on it; it goes straight to the publisher. It basically cost them nothing to make that edition. Again, note the difference between a finished game and one continuously being updated like Factorio. Maybe they'll eventually discount the game once it's finished in order to get the last few cents from it, but I expect that to be a long time from now.

I know none of this really helps your situation though. If the game costs an exorbitant amount in your country, what you should really be trying to fix is that, and I think that's fair.

Name me another game that has gone ten years with free updates without releasing paid DLC.

I think Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft are somewhat similar in this ?
(OtOH, Minecraft was sold to Microsoft, and they basically turned it into a franchise, so maybe not...)

in the days of horse armor and FIFA DLC whales

That's setting a very low bar though, why even bother comparing them ?