Paradox Interactive Enormous Unprecedented Price Hikes

[Derangel]

12 minutes ago, mark_cameron said:

WHAT?

 

Sorry. Thats rubbish.

Depending on the country and inflation rates it can be true. I remember some SNES games costing $50-$60 USD in the mid 90s. That's equivalent to $80-100 USD now. Even the average $40 game back then is equivalent to almost $67 today.

[Sakkura]

13 minutes ago, mark_cameron said:

WHAT?

 

Sorry. Thats rubbish.

Here's a catalog from 1997. As you can see, full-priced games were either $50, $55, or even $60.

 

That corresponds to $76, $84, or $91 today.

 

Today, full-priced PC games are $60. So obviously prices are lower now.

[Sakkura]

1 hour ago, nawaf said:

It is correct in Saudi's case. The 55k GDP is grossly over exaggerated Its almost half of that for a BC graduate in the job market. The average for someone with a B degree is 22k(If lucky enough to find a job). 16k for high school graduates. The wages have been the same as before the oil price crash and boom. To add most households have one person working. 60$ for a game is still really high for people here. So they resort to piracy. Also to make it clear. The Saudi government controls the Saudi riyal exchange rate. The carruncy price hasn't changed for a long time now.

Their games aren't $60 in Saudi Arabia though.

 

The colonel edition of Hearts of Iron IV is 187.49 Riyal (SAR) after the price hike. That's 49.99 USD, and that's for a more expensive edition of the game.

 

Europa Universalis IV is 149.99 SAR now. That's 39.99 USD. And the extreme edition is only a little more - 168.99 SAR ~ 45.06 USD.

 

The hero (=standard) edition of Pillars of Eternity is the same 168.99 SAR ~45.06 USD.

 

These are not super-pricey games. But if they're too expensive for you, they go on sale often enough. And then you're really getting a lot of hours of gaming for your money (you can play a Paradox game for 200 hours and feel like you've only scratched the surface).

[mark_cameron]

22 minutes ago, Derangel said:

Depending on the country and inflation rates it can be true. I remember some SNES games costing $50-$60 USD in the mid 90s. That's equivalent to $80-100 USD now. Even the average $40 game back then is equivalent to almost $67 today.

A bang average game HOI is £34.99 that requires another series of DLC (still unfinished according to Steam Reviews) that takes it up to £71.99.

 

Its ridiculous.

 

You're trying to say people must pay US$100 a game now. No one will pay that for a game.

 

Even more, no one will pay that for mediocre Paradox crap.

 

[mark_cameron]

13 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Their games aren't $60 in Saudi Arabia though.

 

The colonel edition of Hearts of Iron IV is 187.49 Riyal (SAR) after the price hike. That's 49.99 USD, and that's for a more expensive edition of the game.

 

Europa Universalis IV is 149.99 SAR now. That's 39.99 USD. And the extreme edition is only a little more - 168.99 SAR ~ 45.06 USD.

 

The hero (=standard) edition of Pillars of Eternity is the same 168.99 SAR ~45.06 USD.

 

These are not super-pricey games. But if they're too expensive for you, they go on sale often enough. And then you're really getting a lot of hours of gaming for your money (you can play a Paradox game for 200 hours and feel like you've only scratched the surface).

If you read the Steam reviews people wouldn't agree.

 

 

[Derangel]

46 minutes ago, mark_cameron said:

A bang average game HOI is £34.99 that requires another series of DLC (still unfinished according to Steam Reviews) that takes it up to £71.99.

 

Its ridiculous.

 

You're trying to say people must pay US$100 a game now. No one will pay that for a game.

 

Even more, no one will pay that for mediocre Paradox crap.

 

Why do you keep bringing up Steam reviews? 99.99% of people on Steam wouldn't know how to properly critique something if their lives depended on it. PDX's grand strategy titles are very niche games with specific audiences. They're not perfect, they have issues, but they are also some of the most complex and advanced strategy games you will ever play. I can load up EU4 or HOI4 and next thing I know 5 or 6 hours have gone missing while I was playing. HOI4 still has time to go before it gets to where PDX's other games are, but we're talking about a game that is only a handful of months old vs a game that has had active development and updates for half of a fucking decade. Still, even without DLC HOI4 is already a drastically different game now than it was at launch. You don't HAVE to buy the DLC for any Paradox title, you still get a ton of updates and new features without them. If you're playing online or are doing more than just playing casually you'll probably want them, but you don't need them. I can turn off all the EU4 DLC I've bought and still have one of the best, most engaging, strategy games I've ever played.

[Sakkura]

49 minutes ago, mark_cameron said:

If you read the Steam reviews people wouldn't agree.

 

 

You're obviously the one who hasn't read them. The only really major recurring criticism is about the amount of DLC they make. And if we look at just the feed for EU4 reviews, the hours played are pretty telling - 353, 9, 366, 614, 85, 513, 43, 432, 400, 547.

[mark_cameron]

1 hour ago, Derangel said:

Why do you keep bringing up Steam reviews? 99.99% of people on Steam wouldn't know how to properly critique something if their lives depended on it. PDX's grand strategy titles are very niche games with specific audiences. They're not perfect, they have issues, but they are also some of the most complex and advanced strategy games you will ever play. I can load up EU4 or HOI4 and next thing I know 5 or 6 hours have gone missing while I was playing. HOI4 still has time to go before it gets to where PDX's other games are, but we're talking about a game that is only a handful of months old vs a game that has had active development and updates for half of a fucking decade. Still, even without DLC HOI4 is already a drastically different game now than it was at launch. You don't HAVE to buy the DLC for any Paradox title, you still get a ton of updates and new features without them. If you're playing online or are doing more than just playing casually you'll probably want them, but you don't need them. I can turn off all the EU4 DLC I've bought and still have one of the best, most engaging, strategy games I've ever played.

 

Why are you dismissing Steam reviews?

[Derangel]

17 minutes ago, mark_cameron said:

 

Why are you dismissing Steam reviews?

I think I explained why pretty simply. 99.99% of them know fuck all about accurately critiquing something. There is no logic behind scores given, the words written, or anything. Several "reviewers" can barely string five words together into a readable form. User reviews are just as worthless as professional reviews. At most, they provide a single data point to look at when gathering a full picture of a game. The aggregate review impression is more useful on Steam and even that is only a tiny piece of the puzzle.

[Blake]

On 5/21/2017 at 6:01 AM, mark_cameron said:

They're one of the worst for DLC releases that offer nothing.

 

I've actively avoided them since most of the time their games aren't really that good any way.

Nah the DLC is actually worth it, they add new mechanics all the time. Also if you play with your mates, just one person needs the DLC and you can all play it. every second update also just adds new features.

[VanayadGaming]

11 hours ago, mark_cameron said:

If you read the Steam reviews people wouldn't agree.

 

 

haha. dude. wtf. Lots of people enjoy the games - a majority.

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

[Zorbeltuss]

For all the latest installments excluding Victoria II of their relevant games you don't need the dlc as long as the host of a multiplayer session has the dlc and except for Victoria 2 they are pretty much multiplayer focused. Sure might still cost a bit for the dlc, but gifting your designated host is the way to play paradox games and has been for a long time now.

[Qub3d]

On 5/20/2017 at 5:31 PM, Benasurus said:

This is disappointing if anything the prices should increase with age. Paradox has a portfolio high-quality games and increasing the price prevents people from enjoying them or pushes them to piracy. Hopefully, they will realise their mistake but this decision was likely made by people who only care about profit margins and not the companies reputation and long-term prospects.

I remember when Paradox was hailed as the underdog champion when they completely BTFO'd EA with Cities:Skylines. Although I think they were just a publisher for colossal order in that case...

[imreloadin]

On 05/21/2017 at 2:07 PM, mark_cameron said:

If you read the Steam reviews people wouldn't agree.

 

 

I guess I'm confused here so maybe you can enlighten me. If don't consider the game to be good why are you complaining about it increasing in price? If you don't like it then don't buy it, I thought it was a simple concept? I wouldn't pay for a game, let alone pirate it, if I didn't like it. All I'm seeing in this thread is people trying to rationalize pirating by saying things like "well this is what will happen if they increase their prices".

 

If a candy bar I liked went up in price to what I would consider a bit too steep I just wouldn't buy it anymore. If enough people don't buy it then they'll eventually decrease the price if they want to sell anymore. I've never understood how people make the logical leap from a company charging more for a product equalling it being ok to steal it from them because of the price increase.

[Andreas Lilja]

http://www.pcgamer.com/paradox-interactive-rolls-back-its-price-increases-will-give-refunds-to-purchasers/

 

They're also offering refunds for anyone affected.

[JupiteL]

This is really sad because I've been looking out for Pillars of Eternity since early year. Even after discount the price is still the same.

[PocketNerd]

If you guys think Paradox price gauging is bad, you should look into how they treat their developers.