Expensive Complaint #502540

[Archer]

Hello all,

First I know there are about a billion other threads but I have a lot to say about some of the reasons that many of you give for why the price is so high.

Bold = correcting this statement.

Firstly I would like to combat the statement that the game is so expensive is because they "developers are European"

The developers are British, so the currency is in Pound Stirling. 21 thousand is what many people earn in the UK for a whole family - which is uncomfortable none the less - but as a student like myself, that is quite a significant amount. This means the developers would have to sell three games per day to make minimum wage and survive comfortably. The developers most likely sell at least 20 copies of the game per day so this leads me to believe that the project is led by greed.

The developers only want 'high quality' beta testers to help improve the game

This is clearly a load of rubbish. Lets use a perfect example; Minecraft. Mojang originally set up by Notch as a one man team for a free project but after so many requested he continued to develop this amazing game, he began to charge. Now minecraft is one of the most played indie games on the planet with over 10 million copies on PC alone! Where am I going with this? The game originally cost during alpha about 10 pounds, yet it has thousands of players every day supporting the development of the game on various websites such as the Minecraft Reddit forums which are often read by the MInecraft devs and MinecraftForums. So basically you are telling me that by charging a lot less, this will acquire more dedicated testers? i rest my case.

The developers only want 'high quality' beta testers to help improve the game View 2

I would also like to continue my argument with that in if you were to go with the original argument of having high quality testers, why the 10% discount? The only reason for this is to increase sales, not to acquire more beta testers. If they hadn't had the sale then I agree their argument might still be valid but not any more.

The fact the game has only 10% discount shows us how stingy the developers are about the price, how greedy.

The only kind of people that this will acquire is not those who want to help the game develop but those who have plenty of cash in their pocket. I would also like to note that the game only has 2 developers and it doesn't seem like they want to bring on more staff any time soon, what does this mean? Sluggish development and of course more cash in it for the developers.

The game is unfinished, it will go down when it's released...

Well I don't think this requires much of an arguement. Basically this is the first game I have known to say they will drop the price on final release. Minecraft increased, KSP is supposed to increase so if this drops, i fail to see a path of how exactly this works out for them. Basically if we follow their line of thought, those who are paying to buy the game during alpha are paying to alpha test a broken game.

They need the money to host servers and the website

bluddy expensive server if you ask me and website too, not only that but the game is now hosted on steam partly so.


By giving money you are helping the game develop

An interesting point that Max Exandre said is that they have 2.5 million dollars in investments, now can someone tell me where this money has been spent and on what? Certainly it seems like the duo have spent more on themselves than on anything else. Ok let's see, the domain likely only costs them a million, oh and the hosting must cost another million, ah I see where it has gone.

Why, are you here? Clearly it seems you have no intention to buy the game and are just here to rant

This is untrue, I really want the game and I am complaining for that exact reason. The game looks great, I won't slag the game because it looks amazing and having tried it at a friends house, i would love to purchase it and support the developers but what I won't allow is for them to make a monkey out of me and tell everyone out there blatant lies of why they charge so much. Basically I don't want to be ripped off by the developers for an over sized Ipad App.


Basically, the game isn't worth the 30 dollars it is now, 20 or even 25 seems 'fair' but not 30.

[TFX | Neo]

I agree completely, the base game should be around £8-10 maximum. That said I do think they would ♥♥♥♥ a lot of people off who have already bought the game if they decided to drop it now. As fun as it looks I'm just gonna avoid it for the time being.

[ZoqFot]

It seems to be a fairly common theme. It's surprising how $15(AUD) can make all the difference to whether an indie alpha like this is worth it. I picked up a few games in alpha or beta at $15 and am loving watching the games develop. But for some reason I just can't bring myself to spend $30 on an indie title that's still in alpha.

[👽🐬 Old Black Nerd🐬👽]

It's a good game. Get over it or don't buy it.

[Archer]

Originally posted by Samoan Thor:

It's a good game. Get over it or don't buy it.

Or complain and hope the devs understand that they are being greedy.

[Max Bacon]

They got 2.5 MILLION in Pre-Orders and in what was the money used?!

I follow the Private Alpha of Starbound, another Indie, did Pre-Orders now with 1.3 Million...
They now got 10 people Full-TIME working in the game, hired more artists and are hugely speeding up the game.

This DEVs, got the money, nothing happened... Really 2.5 MILLION are not enough for make like the missing Art for the Staff Door or LockOpen Door Icons (Fixed in Alpha9)?

Just... lol.

[SpArKs]

Im not buying it for the same reason as zoqfot. Its just a little steep compared to other games. Im certainly not poor its just my vote is with my wallet no matter how insignificant.

[orca_sweets]

Don't buy it, you win.

[LTChance]

It's called supply and demand. If they are getting the sales they need at 30 bucks (for an unfinished product no less), then they can sell it for 30 bucks. They are under no moral mandate to provide you with a source of entertainment at a price you can afford or consider fair value. You do not need this game to survive. If they can't make their sales target at 30 bucks, they will lower the price. This will happen eventually as it does for all games and then you can purchase it at a price that you believe is reasonable. While your ranting is probably meant to make you feel better, it is likely only making you feel more powerless and frustrated. I recommend you go outside and do something fun for free. It will probably make you happier.

[[UBER] TheLordOfEvil]

Originally posted by TaintedArcher:

Originally posted by Samoan Thor:

It's a good game. Get over it or don't buy it.

Or complain and hope the devs understand that they are being greedy.

They don't seem greedy at all to me. I've already sunk over 40 hours (20ish on Steam so far) and only spent $30. That's less than $1 per hour and that is only going to keep decreasing. You are saying less than $1 per hour is them being greedy? What about movies where you spend $15 and get a 2 hour film. Are all the movies now incredibly greedy?

[Refried Turtle]

Originally posted by UBER TheLordOfEvil:

Originally posted by TaintedArcher:

Or complain and hope the devs understand that they are being greedy.

They don't seem greedy at all to me. I've already sunk over 40 hours (20ish on Steam so far) and only spent $30. That's less than $1 per hour and that is only going to keep decreasing. You are saying less than $1 per hour is them being greedy? What about movies where you spend $15 and get a 2 hour film. Are all the movies now incredibly greedy?

good point. People don't understand how much content is in this game. They look at the graphics and cry "Too Expensive!" I'm a frugal person and I usually wait until steam sales but this game is worth the price. Also to the dude ♥♥♥♥♥ing about the bugs, they fixed most in alpha 10.

[INFYN]

Answer: Don't buy the game.

Cute rant, though. Almost informative.

[Vyper]

I have to agree with alot of the comments here, but I do intent to purchase the game just not at this price, 10 - 12$ ish I would grab it today, other than that I will wait. If it never comes down to that price, then oh well more money in my pocket.

[Solidus]

Well i completely agree.
When I first saw it on Steam i was like wow i really really want it but the price just turned me off, especially because it's a alpha (broken,unfinished) game. Even if the game was finished the price would be to high too.
Many indie developers made great games and asked much less.
If you look at my Steam profile, you will see how many games i have bought so far, and I can officially say, there aren't much people that have that amount of games on their profiles.
In other words, I buy (At least I did before) bought every game that I wanted.
This is the first game on Steam that is expensive and is in a alpha, and even if it was finished, I wouldn't buy it.
If they would cut the price in a half, they would receive more money and even more people who find bugs and error, so they could fix it. If they want Serious players then they are being stupid with putting the price high. Non-Serious players would play like a half hour and never install the game again.(but at least like every game, the devs received some money). But those who really like it would put a effort to report bugs BUT they will have a bigger list to fix and learn.
Their reason of putting the price high, is the most stupid thing i ever heard.

[desuTHICC]

Originally posted by LTChance:

It's called supply and demand. If they are getting the sales they need at 30 bucks (for an unfinished product no less), then they can sell it for 30 bucks. They are under no moral mandate to provide you with a source of entertainment at a price you can afford or consider fair value. You do not need this game to survive. If they can't make their sales target at 30 bucks, they will lower the price. This will happen eventually as it does for all games and then you can purchase it at a price that you believe is reasonable. While your ranting is probably meant to make you feel better, it is likely only making you feel more powerless and frustrated. I recommend you go outside and do something fun for free. It will probably make you happier.

This