groze: But I still say that, despite the "dishonesty" of not being able to tell us *why* the price increase and the reason behind it (which makes it look even more like some corporate agreement bullshit, in line with my guess that they're being picked up by a major publisher -- in which case they should tone done passing this as "good news", in my opinion), they're at least being honest by telling us this will happen and how much the game will sell for, instead of just dropping it on the customers come next August 16th. Sure, we could argue this is but a marketing technique in order to get some much needed cash flow by appealing to people who want the game but won't buy it for $50; this is a legitimate thought, but ultimately falls in line with the delusion of persecution I mentioned earlier, which makes us think of all studios as "EVIL" and greedy and out to get us, innocent and gullible paying customers. Plus, Manywhelps already made it clear this isn't about cash flow, and I have no reason not to trust them, if I'm not being paranoid about how all devs are so disrespectful and dishonest.
All in all, I think we *should* let them know we're buying or not buying their game. They seem to take criticism to heart, unlike other studios, and I'm pretty sure the folks at Compulsion Games are at least considering the weight and proportions of this decision because of all the people who now won't even buy their game (like you and me), and that's something, at least.
[EDIT] By "considering the weight and proportions of this decision" I don't mean to suggest I think Compulsion will pull a 180º and back down from this move; the price hike *is* going to happen, that's not debatable at this point; all I mean is that I'm sure at least some folks at Compulsion are thinking about this move and how right or wrong it was. But, continuing to be a smart-ass about it, like I've been doing since yesterday, it's likely that Microsoft won't let them sell the game for less than the 50 buckazoids. :P
Just want to reiterate, this is
not about cashflow. This is about advising players that the price is going up with enough time that they can make a call whether they want to buy or not. Players would complain much, much more if we just raised the price unannounced, and we agree with that because it wouldn't be fair.
Agreed that you should let us know! I am reading everything here and answering everything I can (and I really appreciate everyone's patience about speaking more next week). Nothing that's been said here has made me feel like we're making an anti-consumer call though, for what it's worth. We can debate that more fully next week, and maybe I'll change my position on that, but so far I don't think we're doing the wrong thing.
But there are also some plainly unreasonable opinions:
- price rises in all cases are bad
- Early Access is cancer always
- devs and publishers always try to fuck consumers
I feel like there needs to be a lot of discussion around these points, because they're not black and white. The industry has done a piss poor job of explaining
why we make the decisions we make, but in most cases there are good reasons. In some cases, there are bad reasons (eg I think manipulating gambling impulses is a very grey area, and there can be some very "anti-consumer" practices). Hopefully we'll answer some of those questions next week.
But, in the meantime I can answer the Early Access question now, if you have specific questions about why we went into Early Access, and why it's both a good/bad thing for developers.
Manywhelps: If you have more specific feedback I'm really happy to hear it and answer it, but if you just don't like price increases... can't do much about that.
Starkrun: Games content and price fit togther well as it stands... but it sounds like some great stuff is coming that warrants an increase... that said I'm super excited and can't wait to see whats next for
We Happy Few... As dev's you guys have always been upfront and honest and never pulled a punch. Thank you for that, and please don't let the forum goers get to you, they are a small subset of your fans and toughs that will purchase the game.
Again thank you for being so transparent and giving us all a heads up!
Thanks, we really do our best on the transparency. Hopefully you will agree with us next week.