Factorio is... Too cheap?!!!

[UniqueID]

Hi,

So, I'm reading the news and the Friday facts and then suddenly my eyesight stumbles on the following words:

Many people "complain" about the game being too cheap at 10€ (about 13$). Especially taking into account the amount of content and playability (people easily sinking tens of hours) that is present already.

This totally inspired me to write the following topic, and bash you devs a little. No, I'm not trolling, I'm genuinely having fun while typing this.

So, people are complaining... Hmm... Who are those people? Is that the competitors? Because if those are the people from the competitive game studios, then it's understandable. Factorio is a game with an interesting concept and a very, very affordable price (not to mention that I can choose whatever curency is cheaper for me, if I don't use dollars / euro in my homeland, whereas Steam forces me to use only euro). So, I'd rather buy one Factorio than half Prison Architect (even though I was interested in that game as well but its high price repelled me).
If that's the forum members... Are you sure those people were not trolling you? I mean, are you absolutely sure they were not trolling you?
Besides, it's not like the game can cost only $13. It can as well cost $27.5 for people who feel the urge to buy Factorio at a comparable price with Prison Architect, and even $48 for people who feel a $13 tag is too nanoscopic for them.

While nothing is sweeter than money (that Bentley is not going to buy itself, after all), I'd like to share my opinion that the game is really reasonably priced for its functionality and its concept. Smaller price increases the potential for the game to score sales with people that don't have that high of an income, not to mention that Factorio isn't a brain-dead button masher and has a level of difficulty that could repel a good number of players.

Now, to the fun stuff:

So, remember that game you couldn't buy because it was too expensive? And you had to save your allowance for several months?
I guess everyone is familiar with the expression: "This game is too expensive, I'm not buying it!"
So, the devs decided to increase the price because of consistent spam of messages: "This game is so cheap, I'll never buy it!"

So, my imagination went into gear like a single Steam Engine that has to keep a thousand laser turrets powered up and firing, and these comments instantly came to mind. (And they are the main reason for me to sit down and write this topic.)

"I'm never going to buy Factorio before the price jumps to $60!"

"No! Thirteen dollars are too little! Never i'd buy this game for $13! If it was, say a hundred bucks I'd instantly go for it!"

"Factorio is not an unaffordable game. It's actuallly even too affordable. I'd go as far as saying that Factorio is even "overaffordable". It's so overaffordable that I'd never buy it at that low of a price! Either you raise the price or I'll never buy that game! Period!!!"

"Y U No Higher Price?!!"

"Y U Price So Low?!!!"

"Well, I downloaded the game from a torrent tracker because it is too cheap for me. It's worth a lot more than $13. The moment you increase the price, I'll buy a legitimate copy of the game."

"Too good game, too low price. Not buying!"

"Very good graphics, sound, concept. I'd give the game a 10/10 if it wasn't for the low price. Now I'm giving it only a zero!!!"

"Steer clear of the low price!"

"Wait for a price increase!"

[robhol]

I agree that "complaining" about a low price seems like an odd way of putting it. However, another 5€ is still reasonable. Another increase may be reasonable in the future.

Even so, prices shouldn't really be hiked up if it's not necessary. If the devs have bills to pay and need the additional revenue then fine, it can't really be helped. Otherwise, it's probably better to keep it low and get additional sales than to lose a large amount of sales while slightly boosting the revenue from the ones left.

I also will note that the demo, while nice and all, does a poor job of representing the advantages of buying the game - which is the point, after all. I love that it's not aggressive, but a few hints about the MASSIVE amounts of content would probably come in handy.

[ssilk]

Lol. Reminds me to the anti-vegetarion-action: For every cow you don't eat, I must eat three!

[beeurd]

Honestly I was surprised at how cheap it was, not that I'm complaining; as I'm rather broke at the moment I've passed on other games I want like Prison Architect.

[kovarex]

I understand your objections.

But there are other ways to look at it.
When I browse games on steam, I don't usually take games that are very cheap seriously, I prefer to pay 20Euro for great game, than to waste time on bad game for 10Euro, and I believe lot of other people think this way.
I have verified information from different developers, that moving the price higher actually increased the sales significantly, as long as the price is still reasonable.

There are also other reasons for us, we will have to start paying the VAT, and other extra taxes, so the price increase will mostly just cover these extra expenses, not even talking about the cut of steam. We would probably have to keep the price same on steam.

The last argument that Tomas doesn't believe in is, that Factorio is quite specialised game. It serves small audience well. We can't expect to sell hundreds of thousands of copies of game targeted on smart people. If we ever want to get financial independence big enough so we could think about reinvesting and making another game independently we need to think practically.

[BurnHard]

I also think that 20€ would be a VERY reasonable price for the release version then.

[Drury]

I understand your objections.

But there are other ways to look at it.
When I browse games on steam, I don't usually take games that are very cheap seriously, I prefer to pay 20Euro for great game, than to waste time on bad game for 10Euro, and I believe lot of other people think this way.

As for me 5€ is the magical line, 10-15€ is a reasonable price. 20€ is already the bottom border of the luxury tier.

But yes, I'm for 20€ for the finished product. Especially if you get it on Steam where you can do sales so the patient folk doesn't have to pay that much.

Maybe I missed something, but what're your plans for higher tiers? Will they exponentially raise in price as well?

[Darthlawsuit]

$10 is too cheap for everything we have in this game right now. $20 seems perfect for the state it is in. When multiplayer finishes I'd say $30 would be right

[CobraA1]

Buy all of your friends, family, and neighbors the "Mining Drill Operator" tier .

[RMJ]

The idea of selling a game like this cheap, is that there is no PR budget i assume.

I remember when there was like than 10.000 players playing minecraft.

Its about getting the game out there to enough people. where it kinda becomes like a snowball, that just keep growing and growing on its own.

But you get a lot of gameplay. played so many hours now. Its a great game. Cant wait for more music, i love the music in this game, its very VERY good, love the ambient music.

[Jobeo]

From the main page::

Factorio is currently in late alpha. We have gone far since our Indiegogo campaign in February 2013. So far 23549 people have bought the game. On 1st of June 2014 the price will go up from 10€ to 15€ (about 20$).

[Pseudochu]

I'm sure someone will find the crafted comment examples funny. On a more serious note though, my personal guess is that the "complaints" were people saying that $13 is too little for the fun Factorio provides, the quality of it (debatable as it is still in alpha) and the work put in by the developers.
I don't agree nor disagree, I think the price point of anything from $15 to $25-ish represents the worth of the game well. Of course if the developers and community feel like a lot of effort has been put in to the game, they'll tip the scale towards higher prices.

[jcdietz03]

There needs to be an additional 10 harder campaign missions.
But as is I feel it was worth my $13.

[Garwan50]

I partly agree with you, because if some guys thinks that the game is too cheap, they can buy special pack and benefit from special bonuses

[muzzy]

Absolutely go for the higher price.

And regarding taxes and stuff, figure out tax deduction stuff and see what kind of investments you can make cheaply when you get a huge surge of money from your Steam launch. It might be a good time to buy new hardware and high quality furniture if you can make them count as business expenses and thus tax deductible, etc.

I mean, there's this another Indie game I've been following and they said they paid 50% taxes on their income, and that's after 30% steam cut and other expenses... surely there must be ways to do some tax planning to avoid that kind of ridiculous waste of money. If you end up paying hundreds of thousands in taxes, it's going to be cheaper to pay a good lawyer to help you out a little.

At least plan your launch time so that it aligns favorably on the tax year, giving you time to figure out what to do with the money if you end up earning more than you expected to.

[Bobdafilter]

Absolutely go for the higher price.

And regarding taxes and stuff, figure out tax deduction stuff and see what kind of investments you can make cheaply when you get a huge surge of money from your Steam launch. It might be a good time to buy new hardware and high quality furniture if you can make them count as business expenses and thus tax deductible, etc.

I mean, there's this another Indie game I've been following and they said they paid 50% taxes on their income, and that's after 30% steam cut and other expenses... surely there must be ways to do some tax planning to avoid that kind of ridiculous waste of money. If you end up paying hundreds of thousands in taxes, it's going to be cheaper to pay a good lawyer to help you out a little.

At least plan your launch time so that it aligns favorably on the tax year, giving you time to figure out what to do with the money if you end up earning more than you expected to.

From what i learned in that article, as long as the developers don't release it on greenlight, not have a relative have fatal condition, don't be stressed out by over pressure, don't read the forums and get pissed on by people who think they're game isn't what they thought it was and blame the developers, don't fuck up on anything, and maybe Factorio won't die hated and alone like Towns.

So in the end it doesn't really how much money we give developers but , I guess future purchasers can take a price hike, I already bought my copy.

[slpwnd]

Absolutely go for the higher price.

And regarding taxes and stuff, figure out tax deduction stuff and see what kind of investments you can make cheaply when you get a huge surge of money from your Steam launch. It might be a good time to buy new hardware and high quality furniture if you can make them count as business expenses and thus tax deductible, etc.

I mean, there's this another Indie game I've been following and they said they paid 50% taxes on their income, and that's after 30% steam cut and other expenses... surely there must be ways to do some tax planning to avoid that kind of ridiculous waste of money. If you end up paying hundreds of thousands in taxes, it's going to be cheaper to pay a good lawyer to help you out a little.

At least plan your launch time so that it aligns favorably on the tax year, giving you time to figure out what to do with the money if you end up earning more than you expected to.

That is what we plan to do. Research a bit, see what the options are, get ready (first game wise and then legally) and then go to steam.

[slpwnd]

and maybe Factorio won't die hated and alone like Towns.

It won't! We are all really dedicated to make this happen. There are always ups and downs, but overall we are moving forward.

[DexterNemrod]

I understand your objections.

But there are other ways to look at it.
When I browse games on steam, I don't usually take games that are very cheap seriously, I prefer to pay 20Euro for great game, than to waste time on bad game for 10Euro, and I believe lot of other people think this way.
I have verified information from different developers, that moving the price higher actually increased the sales significantly, as long as the price is still reasonable.

...

Steam actually seems to be an interesting platform for pricing strategies ...
you could set the price a little bit higher than you would want it to sell for
and then regularly take part in Steam sales (where it is lowered to prices that more fit the prices that you want to have)

This way it more often appears in the "Specials" tab of the Steam client which, I guess,
is the place where people first look for new games to buy

[Bobdafilter]

Steam actually seems to be an interesting platform for pricing strategies ...
you could set the price a little bit higher than you would want it to sell for
and then regularly take part in Steam sales (where it is lowered to prices that more fit the prices that you want to have)

This way it more often appears in the "Specials" tab of the Steam client which, I guess,
is the place where people first look for new games to buy

You do realize that that Steam takes 30% of all copies a game sells on steam right? So their going to have to raise the price again from $20 to $25, and i seriously doubt most people would spend an additional 3-5 from your sales strategy when it's NOT on sale