Factorio Is Getting A $5 Price Increase "To Account For Inflation"

Seems in bad taste to raise a games price several years after it's launch. Imagine if Minecraft accounted for inflation since it's initial release?

...They don't believe in sales, but INCREASING their prices...I was thinking of getting this game but these people are just....wtf?

I don't like it. But I'm curious how many extra sales this will equate to as people hear this news and rush to buy it before the price hike. Could actually be a great business move.

The only time I was okay with a decision like this was when Shovel Knight went up in price, but that was because it was including multiple full games as free DLC, so it made sense in that case.

to me, it's one method to increase sales of the game one last time before it falls off a cliff.

I have had this in my wish list since it was released - I was waiting for a sale before biting. Looks like I would have been waiting a long time!

@patbacknitro18 it took me much longer to realize your sarcasm than it should’ve.

Suddenly, Nintendo’s 33% off sales don’t seem too bad…

On the one hand, good on them for valuing their work and taking steps to ensure they aren't destined for a life as known peddlars of bargain bin fodder. On the other hand LOL CAPITALISM.

@mattesdude I get that a lot lol. You hear so many bad takes online it's hard to tell what's sarcasm

Give me a physical release and I'll give Wube Software my $40.

Remember when public transit companies would increase their fares to compensate for revenue lost to cars but then they end up losing even more riders because of the fare increase? It's like they don't understand that increasing price also decreases demand and DOES NOT improve the revenue but has the opposite effect.

I defended the game as being worth $30 and it's probably worth $35 too. But this hits a little differently knowing how this Dev is seemingly against sales already.

Obviously, inflation is a real issue, but when it comes to a digital product and one this successful already it seems a bit needless to me.

They made the game so can price it what they want. And people can choose whether or not to buy it at that price.

Is what it is.

The "Last of Us Remaster Remake minus Factions Part 1" was never worth 70 quid, neither was the variety of barebones Nintendo Sports titles at 50 quid so I didn't buy them.

It is a really simple decision at the end of the day for everybody.

@Leecpfc I wouldn't wait, looking at the PC version it's never had a sale in years. Maybe ever.

Using inflation as an excuse makes sense IF it's still being worked on. If the game is remaining the exact same, saying it's because of inflation makes no sense, as the resources used to produce the game haven't changed.

@Jeff2sayshi They are still adding content to the game so

@HeadPirate "After 6 years and front loaded by a kickstarted, sales of this title have to be minimal at best. "

https://www.thegamer.com/factorio-sales-milestone/

Good games sell on their own, a while ago I had a discussion with a parent that complained how expensive some Nintendo games are, because by being old they should be cheaper.

Not to defend Factorio devs, I don't think they need this price increase.

Today's "people who would defend the idea of capitalism to their dying breath freak out at people actually doing capitalism" comments section brought to you by Factorio!

it has nothing to do with inflation btw. The game is selling at it's current price, so they are raising it. If it continues to sell, they will raise it again. This is the model most small studios should be using ("should" there meaning to get maximum sales and be good little capitalists, not a moral approval)

After 6 years and front loaded by a kickstarter, sales of this title have to be minimal at best. A large studio that had other projects in the works would heavily discount the game to get as much capital as possible for their next game as fast as possible.

This team just want as much residual income as possible from the single title. So no sales, and constant price increases.

I tried the demo and it felt too much like working and not getting paid for it

Kind of pathetic to see Twitter replies encouraging the developers to jack the price up even higher.

Looks like a toxic community. I had considered purchasing this title in the past, but now I will definitely be staying away.

@AlphaElite Nah not really that toxic, my partner plays this game sometimes and the community is actually very chill.

Compared to how toxic the Pokémon one has become (left that ages ago and started playing alone and with friends because of it)

And current Monster Hunter community is also not much better (played the games since Unite, but World and Rise brought people that made a mess of it)

I don't think hiking up the price is a good idea though, they do add some content to the game but not often enough to hike the price again.

Also I am not surprised some people in that Twitter encourage the devs to hike it up even more, my partner has only 800 hours in the game since it came out, but I know people that are way and above past the 5000 hour mark, while playing different games on other platforms too.

What I mean is that Factorio has really a ton of content if you are into such games, pretty much endless.

But not really something for me, I am more of a RPG and VN type of person, and if anything I like comes close to Factorio, maybe that would be Rimworld (great game though)

Seeing how different devs think about pricing is interesting. Digital games rarely see permanent changes in price, but there are still a variety of strategies when it comes to long-term pricing. If they're still actively working on the game, I guess it makes a certain kind of sense to increase the price as the product's quality improves. That being said, I have literally hundreds of indies wishlisted, and if I didn't buy them at launch, I probably never will without a heavy discount. I'd guess I've bought the majority of my Switch library for at least 75% off, and it's rare for me to pay more than $10 for anything past the month it releases; not because the games aren't worth their full price, but because there's always something else worth playing on sale.

It’s their loss tbh. Some people are ambivalent about some games and only get pulled in when the price goes on sale and their curiosity overcomes their reticence. Because of this and their no sale policy, I will not bother trying it. /shrug. Dyson Sphere Program is a better game anyway imo.

Probably for different reasons, but Tropical Freeze is $10 more on Switch than it was on Wii U.

I remember reading something where they proudly declared that they don't ever put this game on sale so I steered clear after that (and the demo was clunky)

This seems a little egotistical when we have devs like ConcernedApe. Devs deserve every penny they make, but there's something slimy about them that rubs me the wrong way.

And this probably makes me sound terrible, but with the world the way it is at the moment and many people choosing between heating and food, they should be grateful that games are selling at all, they are a non-essential luxury after all.

Well, I mean, as far as I can tell, at least this time a company raising prices for inflation doesn't also happen to be one that makes like 600 million dollars a year.

Yeah, the bar is genuinely that low.

@Stezimov Same situation with me. Sales basically get me to buy games that I would otherwise not be too sure of, that and there's a lot of games where I feel they simply aren't worth paying the full asking price. This is definitely one of those situations, for $30 there's much more interesting games I could buy.

I don't mind the no sale policy, but increasing the price of the game after launch seems like a d*** move.

Well, I guess it's a good thing I wasn't really interested.

I've spent hundreds of hours playing Factorio on Steam. The game is ridiculously engrossing. Worth $35? Easily for the amount of time I've spent playing the game. But, I understand the sentiment about raising prices on an existing game. They've pretty much made back their development costs from Steam and should be well into the profitability side of things. However, I could see if the port costs (publisher taking a cut I guess?) and Nintendo royalty aren't working out as they expected, then they'd be in an awkward position if they felt they needed to raise the price. Sales on Steam have surely tapered off by now. Maybe they need to reconsider the No Sales stance going forward.

@Tandy255

Probably exactly the same reason, Nintendo thought they could get away with it (like all Wii U ports) and so does this dev.

Can't deny it worked wonders for Nintendo and I bought most of them myself. At least they usually had extra content and added bonus of being fully portable.

Okay, I didn't know much about factorio, just thought it probably wasn't my thing... but really? Increasing the price of a game post launch? If you want to make more money, consider actually releasing a new product, instead of hiking up the price on your old one. Gosh even nintendo isn't this scummy.

@pupypup sure developing and releasing a new product would cost even more money and might make them experience losses?

A key aspect people seem to be overlooking is that this game is still in early access. So presumably, the team is still working on it. In that setting and given recent inflation, a price increase makes sense.

@HeadPirate It has nothing to do with capitalism, actually. It's called paying the rent.

Maybe greedy devs shouldn’t be fleecing people when inflation is a thing. The fact that they’re proudly public about this guarantees I’ll never look at this garbage.

Lol so technically the game LAUNCHED on a sale... and it's still kind of on sale until next week.

@Dr_Corndog ...I just checked its Steam page...it's not in early access.

@SBandy1 Yeah but there's a huge difference between first party Nintendo games and some 3'rd party game by an indie dev. The former essentially selling themselves while the latter is the type of thing that most people wouldn't even be aware of.

@JayJ

True, but that also means many people will not know the price of the indie game was ever increased in a few months time.

@SBandy1 Eh I'd argue that they would be more likely to notice, because a game like this isn't going to appeal to the casual masses the way a Nintendo game would. Games like this tend to appeal more to the type of people who would look into things like that.

Ha… I was waiting to pick this game up someday when it goes on a deep discount sale($10-15$)Now that I know it never will be….It has now turned into a physical or bust game for myself. I’m guessing I’ll never play it now unless the demo can really sell me on it. But still… I ONLY by digital on sale…. So yeah looked fun to me but no thanks.

What costs of theirs are affected by inflation? Is this game being updated regularly? Are there online servers they need to maintain?

@jsty3105 Well that's the way business works when you're trying to sell consumer products. New products is a necessity if you are interested in growing your business and making more money. Old products often become stagnant on the marketplace, especially when new competing products come along. This is far from being the only factory game on Steam, in fact I already got a few games like this that I bought in Steam sales over the years.

If they want more money, producing more products = more sales. You can't just have the same old thing on the market forever, keep raising the price, and expect sales to keep rolling in. The sales are going to drop naturally with time, and raising prices only speeds up drops in sales.

@Dr_Corndog It had it's full release on Steam in 2020. It's not in early access.

@JayJ

Also a fair point.

Those people would also be more likely to pay a higher price because it would be a game/genre they get more worth out of than others.

Like people who pay ridiculous prices for Limited Run Games just because they want to own an otherwise cheaper digital game physically.

Lmfao hahaha oh man. Just no. Inflation effects things like eggs, not the price of a digital item that came out 6 years ago.

Unleash the pirates on em, I say. Arrr.

@patbacknitro18 You do know that inflation is out of their control, yeah? Asking for $5 extra is nothing.

@SBandy1 Yeah but when you get into the whole limited run situation, then you are getting into the value of physical collectible goods, which is it's own market and separated from the whole digital sales market.

Like people buying digital games are simply buying games for their own personal enjoyment, resale value isn't even a thing when you're buying games that way. Physical sales however still attracts a collectors market, who might not even open or play the games a lot of the time, they just want to hold onto it as it's value becomes an asset in a sense.

@theModestMouse That's the trolliest comment you've ever written on here.

@Purgatorium Inflation impacts all costs. So, if they have a new project they are working on, or if they just want to try to improve their state of living due to increasing costs of energy, groceries, rent, etc are both good enough reasons to justify 5 fracking dollars lmfao

Man, articles like this really bring out the trolls on this site!

@SonOfDracula sure, sure, but what is controllable is our decision to purchase the game. And maybe I'm in the minority, but typically game sales are what entices me to try out a new game. I mean if I haven't bought the game yet, why would a $5 price increase make me feel obligated to?

@JayJ

The point is mate that people pay over the odds for things they are big fans of. That is what this dev will be hoping for.

@AlphaElite only people who like the game would bother following the developer on Twitter. Since they've already payed, and presumably like the game enough to follow the developer, they're going to be positive towards anything that helps the developer out but doesn't effect the player whose already payed

There's nothing wrong with this, in my opinion. It is still half the price of an AAA game, while arguably offering better value, so unless the price hike put it over $60, I don't have anything to complain about.

@Purgatorium They do update the game regularly and release it on more platforms. Then, there are development costs for other games they are possibly working on, and this game is paying for those.

@pupypup You are making it sound like they can release a new game tomorrow if they want to. If anything, this is as transparent as it gets. If you don't like it, vote with your wallet and don't buy it.

@SonOfDracula I really just meant the game itself. You may have read a trolling tone into my comment that wasn't there and I guess should have been clearer. I don't know this game and I'm curious if it incurs ongoing costs from the developer.

@Switch_Pro Thank you for your response. It's a risky move on their part. As we can see there is some backlash.

I'm in the camp that believes discounts increase sales and that they are likely to make more money if they abandon their no sales policy. It's a good principle but, of course, not right in every case. I also understand not wanting to devalue your work. That's a perception of theirs though. I don't think many customers see it that way.

@Purgatorium I think the fact of the matter is that there aren't many games like Factorio, and it's a game that has legs and keeps selling, therefore, people that are looking to buy the game for the first time won't really care if it used to be cheaper or not. In fact, they will be none the wiser. If they want it, they will buy it.

I bought CrossCode for something like $2 when it was in early access and now it's many times that amount. The additional price reflects the improvements done on the game as well. It's a better product now.

I don't think I agree that it's risky, at least it isn't risky because of the backlash. If it's risky, it's because this price puts it at a higher tier which fewer people will be able to justify. That might be the case, but that remains to be seen, really. The price hike is quite minor though, so probably not going to make a difference.

@SBandy1 Well how would anyone be a big fan of this game unless they bought it? It's not like this is a sequel to a series of games, or this is a developer that made games before this. They aren't in a position where they got an established fanbase outside of people who bought this one game already.

@Switch_Pro There's actually a bunch of factory/assembly/business simulator games. This is far from being a unique concept.

@Switch_Pro You're right. It isn't much of an increase. It wouldn't bother me, personally. I can't say for sure if the difference between $30 and $35 mentally puts it at a higher tier for some. Though I think in general even a small difference shifts people's perspectives.

It would be interesting to see if it affects sales or not. We'll probably never know.

@JayJ I didn't say it's the only one in the market, just that there aren't many games like it. There are a couple noteworthy ones like Satisfactory. Factorio is one of the better ones though, if not the most feature complete in its genre.

@Purgatorium My suspicion is that it will have basically no effect and they will just get to keep a tiny bit more money for each sale. Keeping in mind, it will still go on sale after this price hike, so for instance if it's 50% off, then the price increase is only $2.5. Add all the deductions from eShop, taxes etc, and they will be lucky to see an extra buck from each sale, but that is exactly what they are looking for.

@JayJ

Not sure why you are getting worked up over this chief.

It is a game in a fairly niche genre (which you recognise yourself in your further comment) but it has had good reviews so people who like that kind of genre will be attracted to it and be willing to pay more than usual.

My point remains the same, people pay over the odds for things they are a fan of and that is what this dev is counting on.

Edit: Just checked, game has sold over 3 million, that generates its own word of mouth and makes a mockery out of my niche comment too. Bayonetta 3 wishes it could sell that well.

Is that 5 extra quid per sale really worth the bad press?
I never heard of this dev but now my first thought about them is they seem greedy.

@HeeHo

Time will tell, certainly a bold move.

It's a good game but not the right time for me to pick it up yet especially when there's other games my money is already engage to right now.

Runs like poopy on the switch anyways.

Is this inflation due to covid? Or something like the war in Ukraine, or just does happen every year? Can we go back to simpler times when everything was below $3? This is ridiculous.

Or you can download the free version from gog free

@KingBowser you must be new to the world, it's because of covid and the war yes. But this happens anyways every 20 years or so.

@stevep likewise I tried demo and deleted pretty quickly.

Wonder what Pong would cost now then? Fair bit of inflation since then

@Purgatorium That's fair! I just am coming from the standpoint that the dev should increase prices for inflation, since it's such a widespread issue. If you weren't trolling I believe you; it's hard to get the gist from comments

@patbacknitro18 I wait for sales too, depending on the title. In the example of Elden Ring, I bought that blind at full price and never looked back. Other games, I wait for a sale. Just depends on my desire. I think it's fine that this dev increased pricing, though. They're still asking a reasonable cost for a game.

The markets getting more crowded + the cost of living is getting more expensive, so it's fair to increase the price. I expect to see more indie developers raise the base price of their legacy games going forward, and for indie games to cost more in general.

I never heard of this game, but I sure won't be buying it now.
The way to tactfully raise your price is just to raise it.

When you try to give such a "smart" reason for raising it, you just end up looking like a jerk.
Inflation happens when a physical commodity takes more money to produce and thus continue to sell.
A digital game does not naturally take an increasing amount of money to continue selling.
Calling it "inflation" is just a poorly thought excuse to not just say they're feeling greedier.

Also, Factorio devs, your pathetic excuse of "account for inflation" fails.
$20 in 2016 is $25 in 2022, not $35.

This isn't a joke? It sounds like a joke. What do they maintain really good servers or something?

At least there is a demo people can try before taking the plunge.

Anything released in the market for people to buy shouldn't be able to get a price increase especially when it's a 2016 game, and not believing in sales is just utterly stupid XD.

Lol, either a 'no shame move' or a last call to get some more sales.

Honestly I never heard of this game and that's okay...

@BTB20 @Joeynator3000 Makes less sense to increase the price, then. This article says it's been in early access since 2016, so I guess that needs to be updated.

All the talking points have already been covered down here. It's their prerogative to price it how they wish, but I usually don't pay more than 20 bucks for pc games unless it's a must buy for me, and this just isn't after trying the demo.

@Dr_Corndog

If it wasn't a capitalist system, they wouldn't have to pay rent ... so ..

Also in your fantasy world, you ignore the fact that Tomáš Kozelek has a net worth around 3-5 million? You can pay a LOT of rent with that.

When someone with 3 million dollars decides to make people already struggling with inflation pay MORE for their product that's not just capitalism, that's gold star, Olympic level capitalism.

And when someone DEFENDS that person, but can't go as far as to say what they did was justified simply because that's how the system works and has to include something like "well they need to pay rent", that's capitalist mentality at it's pinnacle. The inability to think outside the system you are trapped in. Even in a capitalist society, this is what "paying the rent" looks like.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/nintendo-execs-take-pay-cuts-amidst-poor-sales. This is COMMON in Japan, your profits are down? First step, pay the COEs less. Inflation mean you are making less money? That's fine, just cut pay at the top so that you don't have to fire people and don't have to change more for your product. It is what literally every company in Japan is doing right now.

Again, no MORAL judgement here. You have every right to support capitalism. I'm just saying that if you DO support it, you should reply with "This is an insanely rich guy who has decided he wants to be even richer at the expensive of the community that supported him, and I completely support that. It's what rich people SHOULD do. It's the system working as intended. He shouldn't even mention inflation because he doesn't need an excuse. I'm charging more because I want more money is reason enough"

And if you CAN'T make that statement ... maybe start to question if you really support capitalism?

@SonOfDracula No worries. Rereading my comment I can see I wasn't being clear and it could be reasonably interpreted as antagonistic.

Welp I will be removing from wishlist.

Without doubt one of the best games on switch and, while it does seem odd to adjust for Inflation on a completed game, it is unquestionably worth $35.

@HeadPirate This is not a moral judgement, either, but you should probably learn what capitalism is (and what it isn't) if you want to speak so strongly about it.

What is being factored in? The game is already made and no more work is being done. So why is the product going up in price to account for inflation? If the game were still in development, I can see setting the price slightly higher on release, but this late in the game seems money hungry. If you can't coast on the sales of your one game, make another one bro.

That's a nice move, honestly.

@Deviant-Dork I'm not new to the world as you said. I just have a hard time understanding what all this stuff is about all this inflation stuff. Every time I've been told that this happens every year or 10, or 20 years.