Disappointed with Paradox for raising the price of everything

[󠀡]

Hi there,
after the release of the Overlord DLC, we had the last sale and after it ended, paradox increased the price of everything around 30%. For the dollar and euro currency the price has not changed, but for other countries currencies it has. I know it's not everyone's or almost anyone's problem, after all, whether you're getting paid in dollars or euros won't make a difference, but increasing the price of the game to other countries by 10% to 30% isn't fair.

DLCs are very expensive, if you have the base game you will become hostage to a game that will have almost no content to enjoy and to have a complete game experience it is necessary to have all the DLCs, in which the user will have to make a high financial investment to obtain them all. I don't think it's fair for companies to sell their "incomplete" games and have to complete them by adding multiple DLCs and you as a player have to keep acquiring. I know the game is always being updated, getting content, bugs being fixed, the game is always alive, but what is the reason to increase the price of the game to other countries?

1. Nobody is buying the game cheaper than you!

There are people who appear with this argument that they are buying the game cheaper than you, not quite like that. Do you live in a country where you pay in dollar or euro, I know that in many countries in Europe this ends up being a problem of having to pay more, since if you are not in the European block you will suffer from expensive game prices. But there are other countries where the economy is not so bad, the currency is more devalued than the dollar but even so there is no reason for foolish discussion.

2. There is no such thing as buying cheaper in another country

As prices rise, this only makes the situation worse. People can cheat by changing their currency to the neighbor's currency (example is people living in Eastern Europe and changing their Euro currency to Rubles) and then buy the cheaper games and DLCs.
But I'm not in Europe, I live in South America, we don't do that, are games expensive? yes, but we bought. Even though we pay less than others, this prevents piracy from circulating in abundance, but we pay for the game based on our economy, so why would Paradox and other devs want to raise the price of their games now? Was it because of the pandemic? Or why aren't they making a profit?

3. I have a McDonalds empire, what to do to expand worldwide?

If you have a business and want to expand to the world, what will you do? take your product to a poor country and charge a fortune? Your profit will be little, or you will not profit. Many years ago Coke-Cola failed to make a profit in India, for example, his product had failed to sell. I don't know if it's because of the expensive price of each bottle or because the Indians ignored the product, I'm not from there, but it turns out that this will happen to most devs here. (don't take this seriously, please)
Why will I buy a game or DLC that has increased by 30% in value? it used to be expensive but affordable, but why should I pay 30% more? Chances are you wouldn't do that either, or rather, you would be quite disappointed.

I know many won't mind this, but can you imagine suddenly looking at a product that has gone up 30% off the most expensive price? I hope the devs know what they're doing, but I can guarantee that people have never paid more for the product. Stellaris is a great game, but it's not worth all that. Everyone expects a 75% sale on DLCs or packs and with the increase in prices this will decrease the speculations and satisfactions of the players. https://steamdb.info/app/281990/ < check here

I know the topic got big, but I really wanted to vent against these developers. We also want to have fun, everyone is against piracy. But not everyone has the money to invest in games that contain absolutely expensive DLCs. Thanks for reading! 🙏

[Lamiosa]

How I wished this debate would have not started with a "How games should be cheaper in countries". Here is my general statement to this again: Computer games are a luxury good, there is no reason why low earning countries are in need to get much lower prices.
You can discuss this over food, apartment costs, even over TV and cars (although some say it is also luxury), but why is it ultimately necessary to have lower prices on computer games? Will someone do suicide if not being able to download a DLC for a game?

[Elitewrecker PT]

Number 2 isn't true. You can't just hop on a VPN, say you're in russia (or Argentina, etc.) to pay half of what you'd pay in dollar or euro. Steam has measures to make sure the person is actually where they say they are when they do those types of store region changing.

Supposedly, the reason for price raises is that currency devaluing makes them less profit than before. Someone in the company concluded that the loss in sales from a price raise should be countered by the increased profit.

There's nothing to be "fair" here. They don't care what you think about them, if the price raise results in better profits (even at the expense of fewer sales), then the raise worked for them. It's up to the people in those countries to show them that the raise wasn't a good idea by actually resulting in less profit.

[󠀡]

Originally posted by Lamiosa:

How I wished this debate would have not started with a "How games should be cheaper in countries". Here is my general statement to this again: Computer games are a luxury good, there is no reason why low earning countries are in need to get much lower prices.
You can discuss this over food, apartment costs, even over TV and cars (although some say it is also luxury), but why is it ultimately necessary to have lower prices on computer games? Will someone do suicide if not being able to download a DLC for a game?

If you don't care, ignore it. I'm not here saying that the games should be cheaper than others, but it turns out that depending on the economy of a country if we are going to do the dollar conversion then the person will not be able to buy the game. If you believe that gaming is a luxury, it's better not to argue then.

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Number 2 isn't true. You can't just hop on a VPN, say you're in russia (or Argentina, etc.) to pay half of what you'd pay in dollar or euro. Steam has measures to make sure the person is actually where they say they are when they do those types of store region changing.

Supposedly, the reason for price raises is that currency devaluing makes them less profit than before. Someone in the company concluded that the loss in sales from a price raise should be countered by the increased profit.

There's nothing to be "fair" here. They don't care what you think about them, if the price raise results in better profits (even at the expense of fewer sales), then the raise worked for them. It's up to the people in those countries to show them that the raise wasn't a good idea by actually resulting in less profit.

Let's say the game raises the price by 30%. From $39.99 to $51.98. DLC $19.99 to $25.58
I doubt many wouldn't be complaining about it. But of course, it wasn't my country that raised the price of the game, why should I care?

I just talked about the VPN, but I didn't use the word. There are people who try to defraud using VPN and changing your currency to another, these measures can lead to the user being banned from the account, there are people who take this risk, but I do not doubt that they abuse it so much.

Raising the game's price won't make more people attracted to it, I don't know what reason you saw it, but that's stupid to think. Of course these devs will keep that price for years, of course this can generate a profit for them, but when a product goes up in price, you try to avoid buying it, of course that example of a game compared to other things like food and etc doesn't make much sense, but as I said before, if they raised the price in dollar or euro, would they be making more profit?

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by 󠀡:

DLCs are very expensive, if you have the base game you will become hostage to a game that will have almost no content to enjoy and to have a complete game experience it is necessary to have all the DLCs, in which the user will have to make a high financial investment to obtain them all.

Most people started with just the base game, especially back then when the game literally didn't have any DLCs at all, yet many people still kept playing the game and having fun with it instead of thinking about waiting like 20 more Add Ons to be added before actually starting to enjoy it. So i wouldn't really call it "incomplete" by any means.

And i'm quite poor for a european myself, who isn't able to buy all DLCs at once as well. But guess, what i've did instead of just demanding everything to get cheaper? I just didn't bought like 300 € worth of DLCs on day one, but rather spaced it out over a few years and waiting for sales to complete it over time.

[Lamiosa]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Originally posted by 󠀡:

DLCs are very expensive, if you have the base game you will become hostage to a game that will have almost no content to enjoy and to have a complete game experience it is necessary to have all the DLCs, in which the user will have to make a high financial investment to obtain them all.

Most people started with just the base game, especially back then when the game literally didn't have any DLCs at all, yet many people still kept playing the game and having fun with it instead of thinking about waiting like 20 more Add Ons to be added before actually starting to enjoy it. So i wouldn't really call it "incomplete" by any means.

And i'm quite poor for a european myself, who isn't able to buy all DLCs at once as well. But guess, what i've did instead of just demanding everything to get cheaper? I just didn't bought like 300 € worth of DLCs on day one, but rather spaced it out over a few years and waiting for sales to complete it over time.

You got the point! Paradox is not saying "if you do not buy the DLC, we shut down the service and you cannot play anymore", it is absolutly optional.

[Elitewrecker PT]

It won't make people happy of course. But they don't care if people are unhappy, they care if people buy the stuff.
EA has been voted the most hated publisher for years, they still make a lot of money, people still buy the games, so what do they "really" care...

If raising the prices in US and EU resulted in substantially higher profits then I wouldn't be surprised if they did it. But US and EU is a stable market for them, they haven't been losing money compared to years ago because of a devalued euro or dollar so there isn't as much of a reason to do so.

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by 󠀡:

If you don't care, ignore it. I'm not here saying that the games should be cheaper than others, but it turns out that depending on the economy of a country if we are going to do the dollar conversion then the person will not be able to buy the game. If you believe that gaming is a luxury, it's better not to argue then.

If we convert the prizes, then we've € as the third most expensive country for stellaris right now, while south america tend to be way cheaper in the direct comparison with argentina as the cheapest country for now.

Overall you should rather look at the income of people, not the conversion rate.

[Lamiosa]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Originally posted by 󠀡:

If you don't care, ignore it. I'm not here saying that the games should be cheaper than others, but it turns out that depending on the economy of a country if we are going to do the dollar conversion then the person will not be able to buy the game. If you believe that gaming is a luxury, it's better not to argue then.

If we convert the prizes, then we've € as the third most expensive country for stellaris right now, while south america tend to be way cheaper in the direct comparison with argentina as the cheapest country for now.

Overall you should rather look at the income of people, not the conversion rate.

This and Steam tends to put the same number for $ to € for many games, even when € is way higher. I would not say that europeans are richer than USA.

[󠀡]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Originally posted by 󠀡:

If you don't care, ignore it. I'm not here saying that the games should be cheaper than others, but it turns out that depending on the economy of a country if we are going to do the dollar conversion then the person will not be able to buy the game. If you believe that gaming is a luxury, it's better not to argue then.

If we convert the prizes, then we've € as the third most expensive country for stellaris right now, while south america tend to be way cheaper in the direct comparison with argentina as the cheapest country for now.

Overall you should rather look at the income of people, not the conversion rate.

You answered yourself. If a country's income is high, there are no problems, but if the income is low and game is expensive, there are problems. In Europe the minimum wage is not high, some countries pay more and others pay less. I've seen a lot of complaints from Europeans saying that the games are expensive and I agree with that. In the United States, it is much easier to buy a game than a European or a South American or any other Asian country. It all depends on the economy and currency appreciation. If for some who believe that the price increase in all countries (except USA and UE) will be profitable, I don't know what this person's problem is, I always see many saying that expansions are expensive and raising the price makes the person even more reluctant to buy.

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Originally posted by 󠀡:

DLCs are very expensive, if you have the base game you will become hostage to a game that will have almost no content to enjoy and to have a complete game experience it is necessary to have all the DLCs, in which the user will have to make a high financial investment to obtain them all.

Most people started with just the base game, especially back then when the game literally didn't have any DLCs at all, yet many people still kept playing the game and having fun with it instead of thinking about waiting like 20 more Add Ons to be added before actually starting to enjoy it. So i wouldn't really call it "incomplete" by any means.

And i'm quite poor for a european myself, who isn't able to buy all DLCs at once as well. But guess, what i've did instead of just demanding everything to get cheaper? I just didn't bought like 300 € worth of DLCs on day one, but rather spaced it out over a few years and waiting for sales to complete it over time.

Yes, 2016. The game was different, but over time mechanics have changed and today playing it as a base game won't be such a fun experience. To be honest, the base game is pretty boring, so it's not worth buying this if it's not "complete".

[Elitewrecker PT]

Originally posted by 󠀡:

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

If we convert the prizes, then we've € as the third most expensive country for stellaris right now, while south america tend to be way cheaper in the direct comparison with argentina as the cheapest country for now.

Overall you should rather look at the income of people, not the conversion rate.

You answered yourself. If a country's income is high, there are no problems, but if the income is low and game is expensive, there are problems. In Europe the minimum wage is not high, some countries pay more and others pay less. I've seen a lot of complaints from Europeans saying that the games are expensive and I agree with that. In the United States, it is much easier to buy a game than a European or a South American or any other Asian country. It all depends on the economy and currency appreciation. If for some who believe that the price increase in all countries (except USA and UE) will be profitable, I don't know what this person's problem is, I always see many saying that expansions are expensive and raising the price makes the person even more reluctant to buy.

You didn't see complaints from European saying that the games are expensive. You saw complaints from Europeans in less wealthy European countries, because that's the problem with the European store region - we all have the same base price, but the salary in Germany isn't the same as the salary in Spain.
Of course you see people saying X is expensive, people who think it's cheap just buy it, they don't come complain that X is too cheap for them.

[Lamiosa]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Originally posted by 󠀡:

You answered yourself. If a country's income is high, there are no problems, but if the income is low and game is expensive, there are problems. In Europe the minimum wage is not high, some countries pay more and others pay less. I've seen a lot of complaints from Europeans saying that the games are expensive and I agree with that. In the United States, it is much easier to buy a game than a European or a South American or any other Asian country. It all depends on the economy and currency appreciation. If for some who believe that the price increase in all countries (except USA and UE) will be profitable, I don't know what this person's problem is, I always see many saying that expansions are expensive and raising the price makes the person even more reluctant to buy.

You didn't see complaints from European saying that the games are expensive. You saw complaints from Europeans in less wealthy European countries, because that's the problem with the European store region - we all have the same base price, but the salary in Germany isn't the same as the salary in Spain.
Of course you see people saying X is expensive, people who think it's cheap just buy it, they don't come complain that X is too cheap for them.

Germany is a story on it's own. Germany is rich, germans are not. If you earn good and the state takes away everything, it is not in your own pocket in the end ;)

[󠀡]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Originally posted by 󠀡:

You answered yourself. If a country's income is high, there are no problems, but if the income is low and game is expensive, there are problems. In Europe the minimum wage is not high, some countries pay more and others pay less. I've seen a lot of complaints from Europeans saying that the games are expensive and I agree with that. In the United States, it is much easier to buy a game than a European or a South American or any other Asian country. It all depends on the economy and currency appreciation. If for some who believe that the price increase in all countries (except USA and UE) will be profitable, I don't know what this person's problem is, I always see many saying that expansions are expensive and raising the price makes the person even more reluctant to buy.

You didn't see complaints from European saying that the games are expensive. You saw complaints from Europeans in less wealthy European countries, because that's the problem with the European store region - we all have the same base price, but the salary in Germany isn't the same as the salary in Spain.
Of course you see people saying X is expensive, people who think it's cheap just buy it, they don't come complain that X is too cheap for them.

Yes, exactly what I meant. Not all countries have the same base salary.

[SaD-82]

Originally posted by 󠀡:

To be honest, the base game is pretty boring, so it's not worth buying this if it's not "complete".

That's no objective fact but just subjective opinion.
It's playable, it works, changes in features are in the game because they came with free updates. If you like a game or not doesn't make it objectively good or bad.
That being said:
You're stating that those DLC went 30% more expensive. That's a huge incline, not gonna lie.
The more important question, though: How would it translate into € or $? How cheap or expensive were those DLC in comparison to € or $ before the change? Were they the same cost, roughly estimated? Was the cost higher/lower than for other countries?

Don't get me wrong: Increasing the price by 30% is something you will/can feel, but - somehow - no one is complaining when he is paying way less than others. So...how do the costs compare to other nations, now?
(And that's an important question as pdx wants to earn money. Because it's a company. There is no wellfare reason to have costs at a very low level when they actually can be somewhat similar to other nations, measuring the income or gdp of those nations in which you want to raise said costs.)

[󠀡]

It's not unreasonable to change price as the value of currency changes. What Paradox charged in your country in 2016 could be worth half as much to them today when converted to USD or Euros. In that case, only increasing the price by 30% would be a charity. Not saying it doesn't suck, but I think it may be going a bit far to expect a business in Sweden to compensate for your governnment's inability to deal with inflation.

Someone posted this and removed it. But I'll answer, it's not just Paradox that is raising its price, the Dead by Daylight developer, Behaviour, also did the same a few months ago. I don't know what charity this is.

[Arrngrim]

Didn't really read through most of this, but this seemed like a good thread to throw my 2 pennies in on the Stellaris cost thing. Sure, costs increasing, I get it too, no worries. But the DLC is barely worth it, easily half of the DLC sits at a Mixed rating and I don't touch Mixed rating items. *shrugs* So yeah, it's cool and all that the dev's keep trying to pump out DLC for the game because we're now in a world where it's a pay to play instead of BUYing a game. But yeah, no. I'll play most of the base game and just enjoy that, thanks!