Why is this game so damn expensive? Actual theories here

[CAELISTIX]

I am very confused why EUV is and has been so expensive.

The game is out for a year now and that's usually when we should see meaningful discounts.
On top of it Steam is not very fond about EUV and games that aren't rated "very positive" are not exactly loved by the algorithm.

Despite that the game has not yet hit prices below 45€ which means even with discount you keep paying more than for Crusader Kings 3 on release day which was a far better product. It's still almost as expensive as Victoria 3 on release too.

I don't want to complain I genuinely have theories why they refuse to finally give a -50% discount to make cash quickly.

a) They might actually believe they can turn the reviews of EUV around and if they can pull that off Steam players will accept higher prices eventually

b) They don't want to make their early adopters upset. People who bought this game on day 1 did not receive a perfect product and might feel bad if they see people get a less broken version of the game at a signficicantly cheaper price

c) They are afraid of losing reputation if new Paradox customers go for their newest release which they are not very proud of. That's why they adjust prices to steer the newbies more into a direction of their better polished games like CK3 and HOI4 to build a relationship with them and attract new people into the world of grand strategy games.

What do you believe? Why does PDX not want to make quick cash by just selling EUV as much as possible and then milk them for DLC money? They obviously don't want many people to buy EUV right now because we all know that if you want to make people addicted you give them their first dose for free and then increase the price when they are already hooked.

[tonypa]

I am not sure if 15-20% lower price would attract much more players. The biggest fans already own the game and the rest will not go for 45 EUR game unless it has stellar reviews.

If they decide to sell it for 50% lower price then the game needs to sell twice as many copies compared to full price. I do not believe there will be significant price reduction until all 3 pre-release DLCs are out (Q1 or Q2 of 2027).

Remember, EU5 sold piles and piles before release, more than any other PDX title, this is the money they already earned. They do not need to sell it again.

[mikemonger]

"Despite that the game has not yet hit prices below 45€ which means even with discount you keep paying more than for Crusader Kings 3 on release day which was a far better product."

You obviously didn't play CK3 on release day, or for several months after release day.

Because while everyone complains about the AI in EU5, at least it has one. On release CK3 didn't. Outside of marriages the AI did NOTHING.

[CAELISTIX]

Originally posted by tonypa:

The biggest fans already own the game [...]

If they decide to sell it for 50% lower price then the game needs to sell twice as many copies compared to full price.

Exactly. The pond of people willing and able to buy at full price is already empty. Now everything they can do is either improve quality or reduce price to lure in the more price-sensitive customers.

Originally posted by mikemonger:

You obviously didn't play CK3 on release day, or for several months after release day.

I absolutely bought CK3 in the first week and had a blast. I have to admit it was my first PDX game back then. Coming from playing some indie strategy games, Total War and Civ my expectations were extremely low to even begin with so I did not care much for AI and was just happy the game was easy enough so I could understand it.

[mikemonger]

Originally posted by CAELISTIX:

Originally posted by tonypa:

The biggest fans already own the game [...]

If they decide to sell it for 50% lower price then the game needs to sell twice as many copies compared to full price.

Exactly. The pond of people willing and able to buy at full price is already empty. Now everything they can do is either improve quality or reduce price to lure in the more price-sensitive customers.

Originally posted by mikemonger:

You obviously didn't play CK3 on release day, or for several months after release day.

I absolutely bought CK3 in the first week and had a blast. I have to admit it was my first PDX game back then. Coming from playing some indie strategy games, Total War and Civ my expectations were extremely low to even begin with so I did not care much for AI and was just happy the game was easy enough so I could understand it.

Then you bought a different version at release than I and most people on the forums did. Because in the version we played, the same 3 kingdoms would form and dissolve on a loop as marriage, death, and inheritance happened. The AI never launched a war or did anything other than marry. Any map changes other than those based on inheritance were done strictly by the player.

Which...yeah. Did indeed make the game extremely easy. And empty. And boring.

It's much better now though.

[kairat.ru]

1

[xcairnsx5]

Welcome to modern gaming. Prices are only going to get worse and the funny thing is most games are still in beta when you get them LMAO

[KroganCharr]

I don't know why you would expect 50% off for a game 1 year after release. That's not a baseline expectation you can have. A lot of factors go into pricing and discount strategy. I'm not a pro in this by any means, but I can see that giving major discounts on EU5 might not be worthwhile at this stage. The reviews are mixed, the forum overall skews negative, those are factors that suggest you might not generate that much interest with a sale. At the same time, there is no DLC to speak of for EU5 yet, so bringing in people with a lower entry cost in the hope of making money back with DLC later also doesn't make sense at this stage. Again, I'm no pro on this, but I can see reasons why they wouldn't want to be aggressive with sales yet.

[Nats]

You can get it for £36 on Loaded. Still too expensive mind as it is rubbish at the moment.

[TheDongsmasher]

More expensive = more good. Psychology. They hire people who write papers on things like "audience retention and acquisition" and "content creation"(lmao). That's what you normally get when something is run by a bunch of overachievers in marketing and it works every time - people don't realize they're being manipulated, "a diamond in the rough, will be a good game in 6-10 years " they say.

[AesopTock]

I have an additional theory. Starting to believe that the removal of the Ironman-Achievement lock was done because of how many bugs the game has. They knew that trying to fix and maintain that particular gameplay style with the existing bugs would make them more beholden to fixing the game to appease the hardcore ironman players, instead being able to keep the dlc pipeline going without stop. I was one of them Ironman weirdo's, but I digress. It's easier for them to move forward this way. When it doesn't work the non-ironman fans can just claim "mods will fix it". Those of us who genuinely enjoyed the challenge that ironman could present are now just left with nothing. I've spent the last 2 weeks detoxing myself from Paradox games, and genuinely thinking about just hiding their titles in my library and moving on with my life. Good job Paradox, hope you got your desired result. Fix CS:2, Vic3 and quit catering to people who want to go backwards with this title. Until then, guess I'm good. Best of luck to all of you.

[tonypa]

Ironman option is still in the game.

[KroganCharr]

I don't get what precisely the complaint with Ironman is. You can still play Ironman as you always could, and you can still disable achievements when not playing Ironman as it used to do. It's just no longer enforced.

[ABoxFullOfKittens]

I just can't understand why anyone on the planet cares about achievements, at all. Iron man is basically just a difficulty bump so you can't save scum through the game. I guess I could see that being vexing if you ran into a game breaking bug.. but I can't recall tripping across even a single one in many many hours of playing. Maybe minor bugs, but nothing game breaking.