$50 DLC and no sale is disappointing

[Crookedvulture]

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.

[Junorus]

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.

[Crookedvulture]

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!

[Xorimuth]

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).

[Crookedvulture]

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.

[NineNine]

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.

[shopt]

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.

[StoneLegion]

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.

[BlueTemplar]

[...]
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...

[Xorimuth]

[...]
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.

[BlueTemplar]

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

[TheCraiggers]

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.

[BlueTemplar]

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 ?

[TheCraiggers]

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 ?

DF is an interesting case because it's technically free. I'm thankful that they found a business model that works for them.

I brought up horse armor and such because like it or not that's basically the standard these days except for the rare cases mentioned above, and to my point, Factorio. Many games, and every AAA big release is like this, has paid DLC announced before the game is even finished. Personally, I far prefer this approach. Obviously, that's just, like, my opinion, man.

[BlueTemplar]

You must be playing very different games than I do. Yeah, sure, some high budget titles are like this. (Better to just ignore them.)

But not all high budget titles, for instance Baldur's Gate 3 instead was released in a very buggy and incomplete state (in Early Access, so no surprises there), but then the resulting funding allowed the devs to work on it for 4 years, during which it improved immensely (no planned expansion packs).

[Kingdud]

"No Sale, Ever" is actually a sale all on its own. Inflation is a thing, so ever year the game gets cheaper. US sets a 2% inflation target, and so it gets a 2% price drop every year. Well, assuming you get a 2% raise, and the CPI (the real one, not that fake crap they published after the 80s) only went up 2% and....oh you get the idea. It does suck, especially when your country gets shafted by the US's monetary policy and you end up with 15% inflation instead of 2%, but, well, blame your leaders for that one. Mostly, blame the US a little. At least until BRICS is big enough to compete.

[nzer]

"No Sale, Ever" is actually a sale all on its own. Inflation is a thing, so ever year the game gets cheaper.

It is not. All games are affected by inflation, including the ones that actually do sales. And even if that wasn't the case, Factorio's price has already increased at least once specifically to counteract inflation.

[Crookedvulture]

Thanks to a majority of these replies. I’ve decided to wait for SA to go on sale and if it doesn’t I just won’t buy it. From the reviews I’ve seen a fair few of the mechanics I won’t like (or it won’t be worth it to me). I was also between jobs when this was posted. Frankly, a lot of the replies have put me off the game and the community temporarily. I’ll probably post a long reply to shopt but I will say how few hours needed at minimum wage to earn the amount this game cost is a pointless metric without knowing expenses. Especially when half the planet is going through a rental price crisis. Even when I was earning minimum wage; when you work dreary jobs or shift work; you do count those hours. With a library of some ~280 games, even the cheaper ones add up, and this is not cheap. Frankly felt just like an attempt at “ya broke” in so many words, which I was but it doesn’t make it any less pointless to remark about.

As others pointed out I felt confident making this post due to game like Dwarf Fortress, a game I willingly bought multiple steam copies for despite it being free due to the sheer amount of work that went it to it and the product quality. Also someone took issue with me calling it “dlc” it’s literally called that in the store, I mean seriously.

Shopt also asserted I somehow was incapable of conceiving of what I was getting in return for the price. This game is more expensive than baldurs gate and Stalker 2. Not only then he goes on to mischaracterise my “fairness” remark which was based on the devs reasoning for not doing discounts “unfair to people who bought in early/alpha” which is incompatible (imo) with giving away copies. Though my understanding is this is only one element to their pricing strategy, which as an aside I totally respect and understand this approach to pricing.

I mentioned in a Factorio group I’m in, my surprise at the price when it was first announced. Only for one of them to gleefully and emphatically announce “and it never goes on sale too”. That and so many of the reviews being sure to point how much value you and get and how fair the price is. Very unpleasant and fanboy like vibe. Fortunately both here and in said group these people are the minority and plenty of you have been amicable and I appreciate you hearing out my bitch session. Anyway, I dare say I’ll see some of you in the future if I change my mind but until then the zone beckons.

[MisterDoctor]

I'm not in a good place right now to determine whether it is or isn't "worth it".

I almost like their philosophy about it if I have it right, which IIRC from FFFs is something like that if the game is not worth the price, they want to force themselves to MAKE it worth the price, rather than accept that the quality is lower than they want it to be and to reduce the price to match instead. And ok that sort of sounds good.

But a problem with that is that price/cost is not the same for everyone. Price/cost are to some degree subjective. So... there IS no ultimate/objective "now it's worth it" point. The game will remain "not worth it" for many people.

Basically, by never reducing price, you are removing some potential buyers from the buyer pool. Wube will never have their money, and they will never have Wube's game. It's lose/lose. So... it seems wrong to me in that sense.

(Additionally, it doesn't sound like they are using their philosophy of "we must make it worth the price" with SA. They are going to work on it a bit more and then drop it, from the last FFF. Not iterate on it for a long time like they did with the base game.)

[NineNine]

I mentioned in a Factorio group I’m in, my surprise at the price when it was first announced. Only for one of them to gleefully and emphatically announce “and it never goes on sale too”. That and so many of the reviews being sure to point how much value you and get and how fair the price is. Very unpleasant and fanboy like vibe.

I own a few physical stores. If somebody walked through one of my stores and kept telling our staff that things cost too much, we would ask them to please leave and not return.