Prices are insane

Not too surprising base game went up $10 (for us U.S. guys that is). I remember the bump from 50 to 60, we didn't like it, but we knew it was coming. I feel like Blizzard was one of the first to do that with either Diablo 2 or 3. Now we are going up to 70. As I said, we knew it was coming. My main concern is they still seem to be on the DLC bandwagon. I want a proper expansion like Gathering Storm, not piddly dlc with sparse features that aren't really tested. I miss it when it was just the game, and 1 or 2 expansion packs.

As for the special editions, I'm undecided on those. I can afford them, but I'm not convinced I'll enjoy this game as much as Civ 6. But I admit it is tempting to play the game 5 days early. Especially with a release on Tuesday which is actually my Monday so I have to work all week. I can maybe get Tuesday and Wednesday off, but I'd rather just play it on my weekend.
 
60 and 90 for Civ 6 regular and deluxe respectively.

We've easily had 15% inflation since 2016. Probably more.

Add 15% and you get 69 and 103.5.

Prices seem quite reasonable to me.
For real. $69.99 has been industry standard for the last year and some. And “Deluxe” AAA games have been around $99. Industry standard was $60 for like 20 years. It’s more surprising to me that it’s ONLY gone up that much. I see people freaking out about the price of this specific game a lot and I’m confused why. Maybe im jumping the gun but as a civ freak going to be getting WELL over 70 hours of entertainment on this one game.
 
Hmm, after seeing more about it after reading comments here, Ara HU is winning me over. Seems like it'll fall somewhere between Firaxis and Paradox. While I prefer the standardized tiles of a Firaxis game, this does seem like more of a satisfying gameplay for me compared to what I've seen of Civ VII.

That said, I have a 3 month old baby, so I'm not likely to play much soon. Should I pre-order to encourage the studio, or wait for a sale when I have more time to play...
 
Hmm, after seeing more about it after reading comments here, Ara HU is winning me over. Seems like it'll fall somewhere between Firaxis and Paradox. While I prefer the standardized tiles of a Firaxis game, this does seem like more of a satisfying gameplay for me compared to what I've seen of Civ VII.

That said, I have a 3 month old baby, so I'm not likely to play much soon. Should I pre-order to encourage the studio, or wait for a sale when I have more time to play...

I may just pre-order as I like the vibe of this game. I'll wait for a few more gameplay videos to pull the trigger. I do think they seem to be the worthiest competitor for Civ yet and a rising Tide raises all ships. 😀

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As for 7, I'll wait for more gameplay videos and hopefully news about modding. If the news on modding is very positive then I will pre-order that, as well.

Anyway, someone remarked that they thought that we were in a second golden age for 4X games with the first being in the 1990s. I would agree with that. 👍

Oh and congrats on the birth of your child. There will be some sleepless nights but it will all be worth it. 😀
 
While I prefer the standardized tiles of a Firaxis game, this does seem like more of a satisfying gameplay for me compared to what I've seen of Civ VII.

Tangent time. :) I find the absence of tiles to be one of the most interesting aspects of Ara. I have not been a fan of regions as they have appeared in Humankind and Endless Legend, but in Ara, they work very differently both in terms of gameplay and visuals. The map is generated procedurally, and divided into regions which are irregularly shaped, often following natural boundaries like rivers. Just look at the long, narrow region "southwest" of the river in the screenshot below (I don't know if it's actually southwest, as I don't know the map orientation).

Spoiler :
4356291-arahistoryuntold_starting_village_7.jpg


Each region is then subdivided into a variable number of zones, which act as your "tiles" for the purpose of placing buildings and improvements. There is some strategy here, because regions with more zones can fit more buildings, but zones differ in yields and resources. Triumphs (Wonders) take up an entire region, so those two-zone regions are natural candidates for placing those. I also find it interesting how Ara handles regions and zones visually when placing buildings. Zones are larger than traditional tiles. Buildings take up different amounts of space, and the space that is left over is then filled in with things like trees, roads, and residential houses. For farms, most of the extra space will be occupied by fields. Look at the older screenshot below, and notice how the farms are filled out with fields, and how that building by the city walls is surrounded by trees.

Spoiler :
ara3.jpg


I think it is fascinating, and no doubt a technical and artistic accomplishment to make it look natural. I remember when Civ 5 moved the series from square to hexagonal tiles, and how I felt the map looked much more organic. No more right-angled rivers and coastlines. I wonder if other games will later adopt Ara's approach.


Second tangent time. :) This makes me think about how there seems to be trends in 4X games, and how several recent games have adopted similar mechanics. Civ, Humankind, Millennia and Ara all have a concept of "eras" now. Civ 7 and Ara are both also subdivided into three major "acts", although what happens at the transitions is very different. In Ara, the least successful nations will be "lost to history", and culled (by default, it can be turned off). Civ 7 on the other hand, lets you "evolve" into a different civ, similarly to what Humankind introduced. Will more games adopt this after Civ 7? Most recent games also have some kind of "army" system to combine different units. Well, Civ 7 sort of has it, as you need to "unpack" the units before tactical combat. It's a pretty novel approach, and I'm curious to see how well it works.

Sorry for rambling, but it's interesting to see how the genre seems to be evolving. Different games are doing their own take on similar concepts. It will be interesting to see which of these trends catch on.

Also, congratulations on the birth of your child. :) It requires a lot of you, but for me, nothing has been more rewarding and meaningful.
 
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Tangent time. :) I find the absence of tiles to be one of the most interesting aspects of Ara. I have not been a fan of regions as they have appeared in Humankind and Endless Legend, but in Ara, they work very differently both in terms of gameplay and visuals. The map is generated procedurally, and divided into regions which are irregularly shaped, often following natural boundaries like rivers. Just look at the long, narrow region "southwest" of the river in the screenshot below (I don't know if it's actually southwest, as I don't know the map orientation).

...

Such tiles seems nice, but will become a nightmare later... Good luck estimating distances without actually trying to move units, for example... Also, no way to know how many "sub-tiles" there is by looking at the big region...
 
Such tiles seems nice, but will become a nightmare later... Good luck estimating distances without actually trying to move units, for example... Also, no way to know how many "sub-tiles" there is by looking at the big region...
Movement is per region, and you can see the amount of zones quite easily when you need to (which is for settling and city expansion purposes). :-)
 
@Vincent_lacruz
The regions/zones thing was explained quite nicely in a recent video from the Ara developers. :)

The more I think about it, the more promising I think the concept of irregular tiles/regions is, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more Civ-likes moving in this direction.
 
I thought this was necroed because something happened related to prices.
No, sorry. I just saw the video, recalled I had tried to explain the concept of regions/zones to someone, and searched for it.

It is off-topic for this thread, my apologies. Perhaps I should create a separate thread about tile shape.

I wish something would have happened with regards to prices though. I went back and checked, and the Civilization 7 base game costs notably *more* than the "Digital Deluxe" pre-order pack I bought for Civ, which included several future DLCs. I think the closest equivalent would be the Founder's Edition, which is more than twice as expensive. Yes, there has been inflation since 2016. But it's not over 100% inflation.
 
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region pricing seems different this time. For me it is an increase from 60Euro to 70 Euro, or 16% which is far less than inflation.
 
I am not 100% sure about the base game price in Norway for Civ 6, but I would guess it was about 600 NOK. If so, the price increase to 829 NOK this time represents a 38% increase, well over the 25% inflation here.

The most noteworthy price hike is in the top editions though. Civ 7 Founder's is 109% more expensive than Civ 6 Digital Deluxe.
 
that's just a trend in the industry. People buy these super expensive editions so companies sell them. civ6 deluxe only had a small bonus included compared to civ7 edition.
 
that's just a trend in the industry. People buy these super expensive editions so companies sell them. civ6 deluxe only had a small bonus included compared to civ7 edition.
Did it though? I don't recall what the Civ 6 Digital Deluxe Edition included, but I believe it included the soundtrack, some launch DLC, and at least 2, maybe 4 future DLC releases. I also recall it being expanded to include more DLC people after there was backlash for it not giving enough value for money due to specific DLC pricing.

Looking at the Founder's Edition, it seems pretty comparable, or is there something I'm missing?
 
Did it though? I don't recall what the Civ 6 Digital Deluxe Edition included, but I believe it included the soundtrack, some launch DLC, and at least 2, maybe 4 future DLC releases. I also recall it being expanded to include more DLC people after there was backlash for it not giving enough value for money due to specific DLC pricing.

Looking at the Founder's Edition, it seems pretty comparable, or is there something I'm missing?
5 days early access :lol:. I am not a fan of these "fear of missing out" business models, but the industry seems to love that at the moment. What is the value of being able to to play civ7 5 days earlier? I don't know, for me personally it is zero and I always buy just the basic editions. But if someone plans to play 1000 hours in civ7 I can understand if they want all the bells and whistles from the get go.
 
Did it though? I don't recall what the Civ 6 Digital Deluxe Edition included, but I believe it included the soundtrack, some launch DLC, and at least 2, maybe 4 future DLC releases. I also recall it being expanded to include more DLC people after there was backlash for it not giving enough value for money due to specific DLC pricing.

Looking at the Founder's Edition, it seems pretty comparable, or is there something I'm missing?
Civ VI had 4 DLC with the Deluxe Edition. The founders edition for civ VII has 25. Not that all of these would be relevant or worth being packaged as single DLCs (some are just cosmetics). The Nintendo store lists them all separately.
 
@Sephi
I was intentionally not mentioning the 5 days early access, as well my recommenendation for where they can shove it, out of politeness. :p For me, this is indistinguishable from "we'll hold the game hostage for 5 days unless you pay us extra". I consider it to have not zero, but negative value. It is the real world equivalent to an in-game diplomatic insult.

As I recall it, the Digital Deluxe pre order ended up being a pretty good deal for people like me who knew they would probably going to get all the content on release anyway. I put my faith in them and put down the money early, and in return, I got all the real content at a modest discount, along with a couple of bells and whistles.
 
Well considering this thread was brought back gotta add my two cents on regarding the prices.

While I was expecting it as that has been how 2K have been doing when it comes to steam for a while, iirc even as far back as civ 6 release, it is disappointing for them to not use regional prices (or not when it makes the price lower when converted in dollars, but generally still keep the regional prices that makes the game more expensive...). It was the only reason that kept me from pre-ordering right away, as the price, especially currently that the dolar x real is so high, makes the price not fit at all with the reality of the customers base in Brazil. While I can afford it (and did preorder it a few days ago as new info on the game just make me more and more excited about it), still was a hard decision and many here wouldn't be able to afford even if they wanted it.

To give and idea how high the price is currently based on the reality of Brazil: Here the base version is R$ 349.90. That is about 25% of the monthly minimun wage (R$ 1412.00) for a 40 hours a week job, where that minimun wage is rarely even enough for a person to sustain just themselves. While it is harder to compare as USA minimun wage is hourly rather than monthly, if we take the $7.25 an hour to a similar job which goes about 176 hours a month, would result in a $1276 dolar a month. So the current price for a brasilian would be similar to a $319 dolar to an american (25% of the minimun monthly wage there).
 
Civ VI had 4 DLC with the Deluxe Edition. The founders edition for civ VII has 25. Not that all of these would be relevant or worth being packaged as single DLCs (some are just cosmetics). The Nintendo store lists them all separately.
Yeah, I don't know enough about the game to fully evaluate these items, but a lot of them seem to be what I would consider to be zero or very close to zero value. Like the 8 customization thingies for my player profile, is that 8 out of the 25 listed? There are several other things which seem very superficial. In terms of substantial content, I am not convinced that the Founder's Edition is much better than the Digital Deluxe for Civ 6. Certainly nowhere enough to justify the more than 2X price increase.

Also, didn't pre-ordering generally use to get you a small discount? I know Ara does it, but I seem to recall it was common. Has that changed?
 
$99 for the deluxe edition? $129 for the founders edition?

That's a hard, HARD pass. I'll wait a few years. It's not like I don't have lots of games to play.
Maybe I'm late but... you're complaining about deluxe prices.

Are we all on the same page regarding the meaning of deluxe?
 
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