[GS] Gathering a financial storm?

[Aristos]

$40 for more cool broken stuff, I could not find the right voting button.

Apologies, Excellency, but I had to disregard that button I had in mind for opinions like yours to avoid the risk of being banned/infracted...

 

[Aristos]

40$ is a bit much, but yea... I'd pay 60$ if only the game had an acceptable AI. I'm not asking for skynet, just something better than the current AI. The game is simply too monotonous with this AI. So, for me personally, it has very little to do with the amount on money. I already paid ~118$, so another 40$ isn't the problem - the problem is just the basic game (AI etc.). Some of the agendas are actively making the AI worse too...

Exactly.

 

[The googles do nothing]

I don't buy and play many games so the price does make me sacrifice something else i would spend my disposable income on. I'm guessing this will be the end of DLC's as the long hype cycle of an expansions gets much more attention and immediate sales.

 

[Mavfin]

So was BNW (if not more loaded and game-changing), and it sold for much less at launch...

In the end, it's your money to spend, or not to spend. Same for the rest of us. We all have opinions, and neither you nor anyone else is going to get to be 'right' in this thread.

Some will buy it, some won't, for a variety of reasons.

 

[Mavfin]

As others have pointed out this is one of the few AAA franchises today where you still buy once and are done. No continuous cost but also no continuous new content (the notable exception being DLC pre-R&F but even those register like mini-boxes to me, they're not cosmetic and new civs are the biggest attraction to me in any new content).

Actually, to me, an expansion is actually more possible bases for people to mod the game to what I really want. The possibilities are interesting.

 

[Larsenex]

I dislike discussions like this. It relegates a developers labor to what you deem is worthy.

Go back 20 years or 30 years. 50 dollars was a normal price for a game or expansion.

We are are going to get at least a dozen hours of play time out of this expansion if not 100s or for me 1000's of hours.

If all you get is just 2 hour of enjoyment, then you got more than your 'money's worth', since for entertainment you can blow 50 for a dinner or 25 for a two hour movie.

Again I hate this type of topic where we argue on what a game or its expansions are 'worth'.

If I had my way I'd make the base game 60 dollars and all DLC 10 dollars and all expansions 50. The game is more than worth the asking price.

oh and Green Man can sell it to you for 31.99. I just got it last night...cha-ching....

 

[Disgustipated]

I believe Civ2 expansions were $20 at the time. But shortly thereafter expansions at $30 were the norm for a AAA title at least. Firaxis may be the first? perhaps to raise the norm to $40.

I wouldn't say 2 hours enjoyment is enough. You really can't compare them to other forms of entertainment. Your examples are generally social in nature and have social benefit. Where you do not have that with a single player game (though some of you play multiplayer I acknowledge). It's better to compare it to other games, and even other games in the genre.

I've only been disappointed by a couple of Firaxis expansions. Play the World and Test of Time. For the most part, they have always delivered enough value for the money.

 

[Aristos]

In the end, it's your money to spend, or not to spend. Same for the rest of us. We all have opinions, and neither you nor anyone else is going to get to be 'right' in this thread.

Some will buy it, some won't, for a variety of reasons.

Well, thank you for stating the obvious. The thread is not meant to define who is "right", hence the poll. I just wanted us to share some opinions. It will be interesting to see, at the end, what the results are.

I dislike discussions like this. It relegates a developers labor to what you deem is worthy.

If I had my way I'd make the base game 60 dollars and all DLC 10 dollars and all expansions 50. The game is more than worth the asking price.

.....
.....

oh and Green Man can sell it to you for 31.99. I just got it last night...cha-ching....

 

[Smity2k1]

Seems reasonable. It has been long discussed that AAA titles should be more than $60 these days. Much like the cost of a movie ticket or CD/album increasing over time, video games should as well.

Obviously there is a secondary concern over companies gouging customers with P2W, lootboxes, and egregious DLC, but IMO Firaxis does not fall into this category. Their games feel complete at launch (albeit not bug free nor perfectly balanced) and while they don't necessarily "add content" with free patches, they do typically patch fairly regularly (this last cycle excepted - give us a damn patch already).

Also, look at how short of a time it takes for their games to go on sale. $40 too much? Wait a year.

 

[Giskler]

I would prefer the base cost of games to go up and microtransactions to die a swift and bloody death, but the sad reality is that people don't balk as much at the MTX as they do the base cost. Something that is truly mindboggling. Civilization is game series that gives me thousands of hours of enjoyment. The cost per hour is minimal compared to something like paying 15 dollars for a 1,5-2 hour movie on bluray, but I think people aren't able to see past the base cost of something and think of the cost/time ratio instead.

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

Everything is worth what it's purchaser will pay for it. Video games are one of the few places I haven't seen prices inflate very much in my lifetime...I was scrimping my pennies away as a kid to pay $50 for games on the N64 and I'm still paying $50 today, occasionally $60.

And as others have mentioned, the time and joy reaped from a game like Civ makes the cost well worth it.

 

[Larsenex]

I would prefer the base cost of games to go up and microtransactions to die a swift and bloody death, but the sad reality is that people don't balk as much at the MTX as they do the base cost. Something that is truly mindboggling. Civilization is game series that gives me thousands of hours of enjoyment. The cost per hour is minimal compared to something like paying 15 dollars for a 1,5-2 hour movie on bluray, but I think people aren't able to see past the base cost of something and think of the cost/time ratio instead.

On this I really agree. Micro needs to go.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I like Firaxis' business model of giving us pretty complete games followed by some patches and then followed by 2 beefy expansion packs. To me, that is a more honest business model than what some companies do where they nickel and dime their fans with P2W, lootboxes and DLCs. I mean, who would prefer it if Firaxis sold a "World Congress" DLC for $10, a "natural disasters & Climate Change" DLC for $10, a "2 new civs" DLC for $10, an "alt leaders" DLC, etc? I wouldn't! Heck, you would probably end up paying more than $40 for the same content.

 

[CivLuvah]

I like Firaxis' business model of giving us pretty complete games followed by some patches and then followed by 2 beefy expansion packs. To me, that is a more honest business model than what some companies do where they nickel and dime their fans with P2W, lootboxes and DLCs. I mean, who would prefer it if Firaxis sold a "World Congress" DLC for $10, a "natural disasters & Climate Change" DLC for $10, a "2 new civs" DLC for $10, an "alt leaders" DLC, etc? I wouldn't! Heck, you would probably end up paying more than $40 for the same content.

On a learning curve standpoint it's much simpler too

 

[GoatsHeadSoup]

I'm surprised nobody is mentioning the real reason Firaxis has raised the price. The real reason is that they released a similarly priced DLC for XCOM 2 not long ago and it sold well and had good reviews. This is definitely a high-risk high-reward strategy. If they release Gathering Storm in a buggy and unbalanced state I could see it getting a mostly negative review score on steam and a massive backlash that wouldn't have happened if it had a lower price.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I'm surprised nobody is mentioning the real reason Firaxis has raised the price. The real reason is that they released a similarly priced DLC for XCOM 2 not long ago and it sold well and had good reviews. This is definitely a high-risk high-reward strategy. If they release Gathering Storm in a buggy and unbalanced state I could see it getting a mostly negative review score on steam and a massive backlash that wouldn't have happened if it had a lower price.

I doubt the reviews will be impacted too much by the price point. "Too much for a buggy game" will be the verdict whether the price is US$20 or US$60.

EDIT: if the expansion is buggy. I doubt it will be.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I'm surprised nobody is mentioning the real reason Firaxis has raised the price. The real reason is that they released a similarly priced DLC for XCOM 2 not long ago and it sold well and had good reviews. This is definitely a high-risk high-reward strategy. If they release Gathering Storm in a buggy and unbalanced state I could see it getting a mostly negative review score on steam and a massive backlash that wouldn't have happened if it had a lower price.

Firaxis knows that the expansion is a big one and so they are betting that the quantity of content in the expansion will justify the price. Plus, they know that civ6 has a devoted and loyal fanbase that will probably be more willing to pay a bit more for an expansion that delivers a lot of content. It's about economics.

 

[Siddorm]

I think there is plenty of extra content to justify the price tag for those that like the game. For me, the poor AI makes the game worthless, so the extra content is also worthless to me.