this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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76
Dev Behind Highly Regarded PC Game Explains Why He Raised The Price: "Go Pirate It, I Don't Care" (www.gamespot.com)
submitted 11 months ago by alessandro@lemmy.ca to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

summary:

The article discusses game developer David Szymanski's decision to raise the price of his game "Iron Lung" from $6 to $8. Szymanski explained that he raised the price to make more money and believes the game is worth the higher price due to added value/content. He openly stated that he makes games to earn money and that if people don't think his games are worth the price, they are free to not buy them, wait for a sale, or even pirate them. Szymanski acknowledged that the price increase was a gamble and that the game's sales volume decreased as a result. He expressed hope that the upcoming film associated with the game would help make up for the lower sales. Szymanski also mentioned that he is open to adjusting prices based on feedback for future releases.

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[–] k_rol@lemmy.ca 70 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I rather like what he said. It is completely reasonable in my opinion.

Here is his full response:

"Yes, no f**king shit, I make games for a living," he said. "If I didn't want to earn money from them I wouldn't charge money for them. I like the business model of 'I want money so I make something that I think is worth money, and you pay me that money and you get the thing, and we're all happy' That's it. There's nothing complicated or hidden here."

"If you don't think the things I make are worth the money I charge, that's completely ok," he added. "Don't buy them, or wait for a deep sale, or go the sneaky route and get them for free or whatever, and please tell me that so I can adjust the prices for whatever I release next."

[–] c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

Damn, cut right through the bullshit. I can respect that.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 44 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Not knowing anything about the game, $8 for a PC game is not unreasonable, though raising the price after the fact is a little questionable and it sounds like the dev mispriced his original creation and is trying to correct for that. Though, if he had called it “early-access” and then doubled the price it would just be accepted as normal.

[–] Malix@sopuli.xyz 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It's a horror experience/game, very short at that, like 30 min or so. And afaik literally no replayability.

Imo, 8 $ is abit stretching it, but it's a free market.

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You would spend more on a movie ticket for a matinée showing.

[–] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Those generally have better quality/effort. Most of these cheap horror experience games look absolutely terrible (and wouldve 20 years ago as well) and last an hour at most of you aren’t brain-dead. At least a movie is generally two hours

[–] sxan@midwest.social 2 points 11 months ago

And get 4x as much runtime. But it's not apples to apples; movies aren't interactive, and I've spent way more on games that weren't worth either their price or the time to play them through to the end.

[–] BudgieMania@kbin.social 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I mean, it can be argued that games depreciating their value overtime is not a natural phenomenon set in stone, but rather a way to squeeze more sales out of the product once it stops being the latest, hypest thing, and everyone who really wanted it already has it.

If you accept that, then it is not hard to accept the opposite: a game that starts not being the hypest thing, and thus needs to start at a low price because nobody really wants it; but then becomes the hypest thing due to some unforeseen factor (in this case, getting a movie based on the game), and thus appreciates in value because people now really want it.

From that perspective, I honestly don't see an issue with it, it's just staying consistent with the rules that give us lower priced sales in the first place, this is just the rare situation in which it works the other way around.

[–] Deconceptualist@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago

I'm pretty sure the price of the other From Software games (Dark Souls titles especially) went up after Elden Ring got super popular. And I know my interest in them did as well (I'd only played DS1 prior). Seems like a reasonable market reaction to demand, but damn there went my hopes of getting them cheap for my patience lol

On the opposite end there are games like Terraria which was inexpensive from the start and in bundles and everything but grew to like 10x it's original scope, I think somehow without a major price bump.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 7 points 11 months ago

inflation had doubled the cost of most things. If he priced it originally in early 2022 or earlier this is not even keeping pace.

[–] Madbrad200@sh.itjust.works 25 points 11 months ago

Fair enough. Respect the lack of corporate speak

[–] Voyajer@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I don't see the problem here. If you were planning to buy it at $6 would you give up at $8?

[–] Nepenthe@kbin.social 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Right? At that point, if you're making drama out of it, you're either pirating on misguided principle alone because you're Ayn Rand's petulant zombie, or you didn't have that money to burn anyway. Your account is at zero.

Here I was, thinking it would be some insane hike like a $12 game jumping to $50, for "pirate it, then" to even be a meaningful response. No. It's a $2 increase from...the equivalent price of chicken nuggets.

This was a painfully slow day at the newsroom.

[–] Bizarroland@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

Given the last I don't know 20 years, I truly am happy for slow news days

[–] LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

Whiney bunch of cunts. Imagine bitching about and then writing a fucking article over this waste of Internet space.

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 17 points 11 months ago

David is a very talkative and honest person on his accounts. No wonder he says it straight. Dusk, then Iron Lung did bring him a reputation, he can't be confused for a random greedy dummy, as he does deliver as a dev and I can't remember him causing frustration in his fans.