Prices are insane

[KayAU]

Again, it is factually cheaper (corrected for inflation) than Civ 6 was, at least in dollars and euros.

For reference, Civ 6 at launch cost $78.70 or €76.47 in 2024 money, while Civ 6 Deluxe Edition at launch cost $118.05 or €114.71 in 2024 money.

Sources:

Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value From 1913-2025

Easily calculate how the buying power of the U.S. dollar has changed from 1913 to 2025. Get inflation rates and U.S. inflation news.

www.usinflationcalculator.com

Euro Inflation Calculator: EUR from 1997 to 2025

This inflation calculator uses the official Eurozone consumer price index. An inflation rate of 2.12% per year means €100 in 1997 is worth €179.78 in 2025.

www.in2013dollars.com

As I wrote in an earlier post, the price increase in my currency is 38%, against an inflation of 25%. It's not horrendous, but it is a significant jump. The base game costs more than what I paid for the top pre-order edition for Civ 6.

The worst price jump by far is for the higher editions though. If I were equally enthusiastic this time around, and wanted the top edition, the price increase is 109%. I have spent quite a few posts arguing that the Founders Edition and Digital Deluxe seem roughly comparable content-wise, so I will not repeat that. Essentially the price for the most dedicated fans has doubled. I think it is exploitative.

I think "5 days early access" being listed as a "bonus" underlines just how speculative and greedy 2K are. There is no scarcity here, they are essentially just holding back the game unless you pay them extra. As consumers, we should not be supporting this kind of behaviour. This is just one step removed from charging you to skip the intro animations, and maybe three-four steps from being able to rush production by using gems you buy in the in-game store. There's no value offered here, just an extra charge to skip an artificial wait time.

 

[stealth_nsk]

There's no doubt that Ara is very much the challenger in this space, but in terms of which publisher is doing the most to be consumer friendly, I think Xbox Game Studios is winning it for me. Fairly priced. No scary DRM. And a year of free updates already approved.

Ara base game costs $60, Civ7 base game costs $70. Ara has DLC with some of leaders for $10, Civ7 has DLC pack for $30. It's not that dramatic difference in price (especially since I'm with the people who see ARA as game with significantly lower production cost). What I see is what Civ7 has content plan for half a year after release and presales it, while ARA doesn't.

 

[Riconatic]

As I wrote in an earlier post, the price increase in my currency is 38%, against an inflation of 25%. It's not horrendous, but it is a significant jump. The base game costs more than what I paid for the top pre-order edition for Civ 6.

The worst price jump by far is for the higher editions though. If I were equally enthusiastic this time around, and wanted the top edition, the price increase is 109%. I have spent quite a few posts arguing that the Founders Edition and Digital Deluxe seem roughly comparable content-wise, so I will not repeat that. Essentially the price for the most dedicated fans has doubled. I think it is exploitative.

I think "5 days early access" being listed as a "bonus" underlines just how speculative and greedy 2K are. There is no scarcity here, they are essentially just holding back the game unless you pay them extra. As consumers, we should not be supporting this kind of behaviour. This is just one step removed from charging you to skip the intro animations, and maybe three-four steps from being able to rush production by using gems you buy in the in-game store. There's no value offered here, just an extra charge to skip an artificial wait time.

I believe firaxis and 2k has very little expenses on your currency. If I assume your currency correctly and read statistics correctly AUD was stronger against USD when civ 6 released.

Regional pricing does not always follow currency ration directly, but main higher income countries many times do. I am not surprised that devaluated AUD increases prices for you more than inflation.

Editing: I checked old posts and I assumed currency wrong it seems. Sorry!

If correct currency is NOK all above should stand very much same.

 

[Leyrann]

As I wrote in an earlier post, the price increase in my currency is 38%, against an inflation of 25%. It's not horrendous, but it is a significant jump.

That has nothing to do with an increase in the base price of the game (which, as it is being developed by a US developer and published by a US publisher on a US-based platform, is in US dollars) and everything with something unfair happening somewhere in the currency conversion process.

The game isn't 38% more expensive. Rather, one of these three is true:
-Your currency is worse compared to US dollars (edit - worse than what it was like in 2016). Sucks to be you but it's not like you can expect discounts for this.
-For some reason you had a 20% discount which is now gone. No reason to complain, you're better off than you should've been already.
-You're being shafted with an extra 20% cost for no reason. And if this is the case, complaining is completely fair.

The worst price jump by far is for the higher editions though. If I were equally enthusiastic this time around, and wanted the top edition, the price increase is 109%. I have spent quite a few posts arguing that the Founders Edition and Digital Deluxe seem roughly comparable content-wise, so I will not repeat that. Essentially the price for the most dedicated fans has doubled. I think it is exploitative.

I'm not sure if you're now comparing Civ 7 base to Civ 7 Founders, or Civ 6 Deluxe to Civ 7 Founders.

If it's the former, then I just say - buy the base game.
If it's the latter, then I say - that's not a fair comparison. You should be comparing Civ 6 Deluxe to Civ 7 Deluxe. Founders contains twice the bonus content that Deluxe does.

I think "5 days early access" being listed as a "bonus" underlines just how speculative and greedy 2K are.

I'm not disagreeing with that. But the game's price isn't "insane", as this thread claims. Only 2K's business practices are.

As consumers, we should not be supporting this kind of behaviour.

When I made my decision on what to purchase, I put zero value on the early access and still decided on the Founder's Edition. Is that "supporting this behavior" or not? Can 2K see the difference? Should I not buy something because one of it's benefits is 'bad behavior', even though the other benefits by themselves justify the price for me?

 

[Fummy]

"Our prices art insane"

 

[KayAU]

Ara base game costs $60, Civ7 base game costs $70. Ara has DLC with some of leaders for $10, Civ7 has DLC pack for $30. It's not that dramatic difference in price (especially since I'm with the people who see ARA as game with significantly lower production cost). What I see is what Civ7 has content plan for half a year after release and presales it, while ARA doesn't.

Yes, I have recently been informed Ara is comparable to a 1-man early access clicker game, and therefore overpriced. I don't want to go into detail on Ara's production here as the moderators don't want it, other than to say that I see it quite differently. I think it is comparable to Civ 7. But comparing the pricing I think is on-topic. You are ignoring both the pre-order discount, and that the top edition just contains the soundtrack and artbook. To get all the in-game content, you pay $3 extra. That's $63 total for all the content on launch. They are not selling partially specified future content yet.

On the other hand, to get all the in-game content for Civ7 at launch, you have to get the Founders Edition, which adds $60 to the base game price, for a grand total of $130. I disagree that this is not a dramatic difference. It is even more dramatic in my own currency. Note that I am not arguing that $63 edition for Ara is directly comparable to Founders Edition of Civ 7. FE contains more, including future DLC. But I have been arguing that FE is not that far from comparable to Civ 6's DD pre-order, and the price increase is very high.

With regards to having a content plan for half a year after release, I don't know how impressive this is. Obviously they will be supporting the game for a long time. Ara, as a newcomer, has been pre-budgeted by Xbox to work on free updates and fixes for the game for a full year after release. I am sure they also have a content plan for DLC. The Civilization series is already an established, extremely successful series. Of course they will be releasing DLC for it. The fact that they have announced the first pieces of DLC is kind of necessary when they are already selling it.

 

[chaosprophet]

As I wrote in an earlier post, the price increase in my currency is 38%, against an inflation of 25%. It's not horrendous, but it is a significant jump. The base game costs more than what I paid for the top pre-order edition for Civ 6.

Your problem is probably similar to my country, Brazil, without regional pricing. The games base price in the original currency already increase because of inflation, but without regional pricing you have to add to that the difference in the currency exchange if your currency value lowered compared to the dollar since then, which probably happened with lots of countries with the pandemic and all. For example, when Civ 6 came out, Oct 2016, $1 was about R$3.3. Currently $1 is about R$5.5. So without regional pricing, even if the game was the same price as back then, it would be quite more expensive here.

-Your currency is worse compared to US dollars. Sucks to be you but it's not like you can expect discounts for this.

Actually, the regional pricing is a "discount" people generally can expect for that. And it isn't a charity, but instead a business decision: they get less for each copy, but end up selling considerable more copies by having a price more akin to the reality of the country, where the more copies sold means they may get a bigger profit overall, while also having a bigger player base to buy their dlcs and future games.

Sadly, some big publishers like 2K have been giving up on regional pricing, possibly because of worry of people using other countries to buy it cheaper or just are okay with most people from those countries buying it much later when there is a decent discount.

 

[KayAU]

I believe firaxis and 2k has very little expenses on your currency. If I assume your currency correctly and read statistics correctly AUD was stronger against USD when civ 6 released.

Regional pricing does not always follow currency ration directly, but main higher income countries many times do. I am not surprised that devaluated AUD increases prices for you more than inflation.

Editing: I checked old posts and I assumed currency wrong it seems. Sorry!

If correct currency is NOK all above should stand very much same.

Yes, this is a fair point the NOK has been weak for a while. So that probably accounts for the increase of the base game price. My opinion on the other editions still stand though.

 

[KayAU]

Your problem is probably similar to my country, Brazil, without regional pricing. The games base price in the original currency already increase because of inflation, but without regional pricing you have to add to that the difference in the currency exchange if your currency value lowered compared to the dollar since then, which probably happened with lots of countries with the pandemic and all. For example, when Civ 6 came out, Oct 2016, $1 was about R$3.3. Currently $1 is about R$5.5. So without regional pricing, even if the game was the same price as back then, it would be quite more expensive here.

Actually, the regional pricing is a "discount" people generally can expect for that. And it isn't a charity, but instead a business decision: they get less for each copy, but end up selling considerable more copies by having a price more akin to the reality of the country, where the more copies sold means they may get a bigger profit overall, while also having a bigger player base to buy their dlcs and future games.

Sadly, some big publishers like 2K have been giving up on regional pricing, possibly because of worry of people using other countries to buy it cheaper or just are okay with most people from those countries who really wanting buying it much later when there is a decent discount.

Yeah, regional pricing makes sense to me, although being in a high cost, high income country, I'm not sure how much it would benefit me personally. It's not like there's a production cost per unit for digital products, so in principle, you could price it however is appropriate for the market you are selling in. I don't know if there are some issues related to regional pricing though, like gray-market keys and the like. I vaguely recall that being talked about years ago, perhaps someone else has a better sense of it.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Yes, I have recently been informed Ara is comparable to a 1-man early access clicker game, and therefore overpriced. I don't want to go into detail on Ara's production here as the moderators don't want it, other than to say that I see it quite differently. I think it is comparable to Civ 7. But comparing the pricing I think is on-topic. You are ignoring both the pre-order discount, and that the top edition just contains the soundtrack and artbook. To get all the in-game content, you pay $3 extra. That's $63 total for all the content on launch. They are not selling partially specified future content yet.

That's a discount, though. Normal price is +$10

On the other hand, to get all the in-game content for Civ7 at launch, you have to get the Founders Edition, which adds $60 to the base game price, for a grand total of $130. I disagree that this is not a dramatic difference. It is even more dramatic in my own currency. Note that I am not arguing that $63 edition for Ara is directly comparable to Founders Edition of Civ 7. FE contains more, including future DLC. But I have been arguing that FE is not that far from comparable to Civ 6's DD pre-order, and the price increase is very high.

So, the mistake is to do a lot of presales? Because Founders Edition is a base game +2 large DLC packs, each costing $30. If you break it down that way, the prices don't look unreasonable for AAA game.

With regards to having a content plan for half a year after release, I don't know how impressive this is. Obviously they will be supporting the game for a long time. Ara, as a newcomer, has been pre-budgeted by Xbox to work on free updates and fixes for the game for a full year after release. I am sure they also have a content plan for DLC. The Civilization series is already an established, extremely successful series. Of course they will be releasing DLC for it. The fact that they have announced the first pieces of DLC is kind of necessary when they are already selling it.

There will be free fixes on Civ7 as well. That's not something impressive. Also note, Xbox sells this game through game pass, that's why it focuses on free support (also it's one of the indications what ARA has significantly lower production cost - you don't see AAA games in game pass from day one).

Your problem is probably similar to my country, Brazil, without regional pricing. The games base price in the original currency already increase because of inflation, but without regional pricing you have to add to that the difference in the currency exchange if your currency value lowered compared to the dollar since then, which probably happened with lots of countries with the pandemic and all. For example, when Civ 6 came out, Oct 2016, $1 was about R$3.3. Currently $1 is about R$5.5. So without regional pricing, even if the game was the same price as back then, it would be quite more expensive here.

Actually, the regional pricing is a "discount" people generally can expect for that. And it isn't a charity, but instead a business decision: they get less for each copy, but end up selling considerable more copies by having a price more akin to the reality of the country, where the more copies sold means they may get a bigger profit overall, while also having a bigger player base to buy their dlcs and future games.

Sadly, some big publishers like 2K have been giving up on regional pricing, possibly because of worry of people using other countries to buy it cheaper or just are okay with most people from those countries buying it much later when there is a decent discount.

Actually that's my problem as well, I already wrote about it. For some reasons (the main of those is 2K not bothering) Serbia has EU prices, while having significantly lower average income.

 

[KayAU]

@Leyrann
Fair points on currency with regards to the base game.

I was mostly comparing Civ 6 DD to Civ 7 Founders, but it's a dramatic increase either way. I am not convinced that the difference in content is that big, as I have argued in earlier posts.

I am not criticising your choice to pre-order Founders, that's entirely up to you to evaluate if you believe it will be worth it for you. I also bought unspecified future content for Civ 6, when I was convinced that I would be getting all of it on release anyway. I also don't think you are necessarily supporting the practice of holding the game hostage for base game buyers. As you point out, the Founders Edition is a package deal, there isn't really a way to differentiate what people are buying it for.

I am a bit surprised by how little backlash they have gotten for it though, and think some of you seem a bit overzealous in defending Firaxis/2K. I mean, one guy here compared Civ competitor Ara to a 1-person, early access, clicker game. It wasn't you, but I'm still kind of upset about it.

 

[Shirotora Kenshin]

some of you seem a bit overzealous in defending Firaxis/2K.

Thanks, cause this is exactly my impression, good to see i‘m not alone.

 

[Leyrann]

Actually, the regional pricing is a "discount" people generally can expect for that. And it isn't a charity, but instead a business decision: they get less for each copy, but end up selling considerable more copies by having a price more akin to the reality of the country, where the more copies sold means they may get a bigger profit overall, while also having a bigger player base to buy their dlcs and future games.

Sorry, I meant that the currency does worse in comparison to how it was doing in 2016. I'll edit that in.

However, the point still kind of holds in general. Not fully, because it's in everyone's interest (except the customer) to stop this from happening, but not following currency conversions for different currencies can provide a way for people to buy the game for a lower price by buying it in a different currency, which does cost money. For example, if you've got a hypothetical currency from a country with a quarter the base income that the US has, and you even just price it to be half as expensive in that currency, someone from the US could use a VPN to appear as from that country, convert some of their money into that currency, and then buy the game for effectively only 35 dollars (assuming base game only).

I am not convinced that the difference in content is that big, as I have argued in earlier posts.

I'm not convinced that the Civ VII Deluxe Edition has as much content as the Civ VI Deluxe Edition, but I'd say the Founders Edition definitely has more than the Civ VI Deluxe Edition.

That said, my decision was based mostly on the rationale that buying the Founders Edition is almost certainly cheaper than separately buying all DLCs that contain leaders or civs that are included in it, and I'll want any DLC that has leaders or civs. So I figured I might as well buy the bundle.

I am a bit surprised by how little backlash they have gotten for it though, and think some of you seem a bit overzealous in defending Firaxis/2K.

I'll defend Firaxis, but not 2K. Honestly, I hope they separate at some point. Firaxis deserves better.

 

[KayAU]

That's a discount, though. Normal price is +$10

Yes, but they are offerering that discount, so that is what you will pay when you pre-order. It used to be quite common to offer discounts as a reward for putting down money up front.

So, the mistake is to do a lot of presales? Because Founders Edition is a base game +2 large DLC packs, each costing $30. If you break it down that way, the prices don't look unreasonable for AAA game.

They did this to some degree for Civ 6 as well, and I paid for it, as it was not that expensive, and I felt like I was bound to get all the content on release anyway. I don't think it is a great practice to sell things before you have made them, and before customers fully know what they are getting. But yeah, I did buy the DD pre-order edition for Civ 6 myself, so I can't be too preachy about it.

Has the price for the DLC been announced? I can't see it on the Steam page.

There will be free fixes on Civ7 as well. That's not something impressive. Also note, Xbox sells this game through game pass, that's why it focuses on free support (also it's one of the indications what ARA has significantly lower production cost - you don't see AAA games in game pass from day one).

Maybe not, but for a brand new property, it is quite reassuring. As for the production cost, as I said, I won't go into it, this isn't a thread about Ara. But I will judge the game based on what I see, and having already played it in alpha.

 

[Siddorm]

I don't mind a high price as long as the pricing and product info is not misleading, so that I can make a buying decision fairly.
(I am making a general comment, not specifically about Civ VII).

 

[chaosprophet]

Sorry, I meant that the currency does worse in comparison to how it was doing in 2016. I'll edit that in.

However, the point still kind of holds in general. Not fully, because it's in everyone's interest (except the customer) to stop this from happening, but not following currency conversions for different currencies can provide a way for people to buy the game for a lower price by buying it in a different currency, which does cost money. For example, if you've got a hypothetical currency from a country with a quarter the base income that the US has, and you even just price it to be half as expensive in that currency, someone from the US could use a VPN to appear as from that country, convert some of their money into that currency, and then buy the game for effectively only 35 dollars (assuming base game only).

I don't think it is that easy to buy a game on steam on another region, as your account is tied to a region and you can only change once every 3 months, plus probably some other measures steam has to give the producers many games that does some level of regional pricing some way to feel safe about it. Heck, civ 6 is more expensive than the simple conversion of dollars in a few currencies like on euro or pounds, because they think those countries are used to those prices and many would buy them by that price, which would be completely pointless if they though people could very easily just go change their region to usa and buy it cheaper there.

Still, it is all about what the publisher thinks would get them more money on the long run, the risk of some people buying for less versus doing a price that would greatly decrease a region audience. The less profit per game sold but creating a bigger fanbase on the country earlier versus less copies sold earlier with higher profit hoping a good amount of those that would have bought it earlier would buy on a big sale later.

I'll defend Firaxis, but not 2K. Honestly, I hope they separate at some point. Firaxis deserves better.

Agreed. But then chances are being part of 2K also, at least currently where they games are well received, benefits Firaxis a lot by having more money invested in their projects than with a smaller one, and don't seems like they have a negative effect on Firaxis creative wise. Hopefully they may be able to change to another that is willing to invest well on them but with are for more customer friendly practices, but that may be a pipe dream.

 

[Siptah]

I am a bit surprised by how little backlash they have gotten for it though, and think some of you seem a bit I mean, one guy here compared Civ competitor Ara to a 1-person, early access, clicker game. It wasn't you, but I'm still kind of upset about it.

No need to be upset, you understood the opposite of what I wrote. Just read it again. If we *don‘t* factor in differences in production value, games like civ or ara would be hilariously overpriced compared to Milennia, Old World, MicroCiv or Ozymandias. But we *should* factor it in. That was my whole point.

 

[Kwami]

I don't think it contradicts anything to say "inflation has caused consumers to effectively absorb the impact of any pay rises they might have received for the past four and a half years". In fact, it helps illustrate the point.

But this is a bit off-topic

How is it off topic in a thread about prices and whether the new game costs more than the old game after considering inflation?

In any case, I responded to the claim that wages have not kept up with inflation. Last I checked, 0.3% is a positive number. You might wish that it was higher, but regardless, it's a positive number. Therefore, wages have kept up with inflation in the US and in fact have been very slightly better than that.

 

[Kwami]

Agreed. But then chances are being part of 2K also, at least currently where they games are well received, benefits Firaxis a lot by having more money invested in their projects than with a smaller one, and don't seems like they have a negative effect on Firaxis creative wise. Hopefully they may be able to change to another that is willing to invest well on them but with are for more customer friendly practices, but that may be a pipe dream.

A pipe dream indeed. This isn't some kind of developer/publisher partnership with a contract that might expire someday. Firaxis is a subsidiary of 2K. They are 2K. They aren't switching publishers.

 

[KayAU]

No need to be upset, you understood the opposite of what I wrote. Just read it again. If we *don‘t* factor in differences in production value, games like civ or ara would be hilariously overpriced compared to Milennia, Old World, MicroCiv or Ozymandias. But we *should* factor it in. That was my whole point.

Okay, I checked, and you're right, I misread it. Sorry.

I do agree with your point in general, just not with your assessment of Ara's production value compared to Civ 7.