Factorio price increase - 2023/01/26

[FactorioBot]

Good day Engineers,

Next week, on Thursday 26th January 2023,
We will increase the base price of Factorio from $30 to $35.

This is an adjustment to account for the level of inflation since the Steam release in 2016.

[DarkShadow44]

Sounds fair to me. Do we get another "price change effect on sales" afterwards, like we had 2018 (FFF 247)?
Also, does this mean the planned price for expansion is $35 as well?

[Amarula]

Still an incredible bargain!

[lyvgbfh]

Thanks for the forewarning. My question is, is there a reason for the relatively short notice period?

The reasoning for my question is that this comes across a bit like a "reverse sale" - buy now before an increase. Given that Factorio has generally eschewed practices like fear-of-missing-out sales and ending prices with $.99, this seems out of place - thus the question of if something has dictated this timeline.

[steinio]

Thanks for the forewarning. My question is, is there a reason for the relatively short notice period?

The reasoning for my question is that this comes across a bit like a "reverse sale" - buy now before an increase. Given that Factorio has generally eschewed practices like fear-of-missing-out sales and ending prices with $.99, this seems out of place - thus the question of if something has dictated this timeline.

eXpAnSiOn

[maneyy]

Makes sense, AAA titles are now often 69,99

[quyxkh]

There are like three games whose Next Big Iteration are an auto-buy: Factorio, KSP, Dwarf Fortress. The prices for all of those are set right According To The Great And Wonderful Me: they're between "glad to pay that" and "willing to pay that". Getting too close to either of those rails starts raising questions. $35 feels like a better price than $30. Wube so far seem to be the sort who make money to do things rather than the other way 'round. Live well, and prosper, you all.

[MiniHerc]

Per this 'Price Increase' blog post

After careful consideration, we have decided to set the new price of the game to 30 USD (or your regional equivalent). This change will become effective as of the 16th of April 2018. This is the final Factorio price update, unless something unforeseen happens, so it will also be the price for the game for 1.0 release.

Inflation is not unforeseen. You broke your promise not to update the price again.

Also, what happened to this philosophy?

our (or at least mine) approach to money is, that once you have enough to live comfortably, and enough to financially support the ongoing (and future) projects you want to do, you don't really need more. There is no reason to squeeze the extra $ just to get yacht bigger then the next millionare, or to buy the overprised expensive stuff when you buy it just to show off. And this has some deep implications, because once you feel that you have enough, you can safely ignore all these people trying to buy % of your company for big cash. I actually reply to these kind of offers with the sentence "Thanks, but I have no use for the extra money".

[Arjen]

@Devs: bought the game again.
It is the only game I play year after year, it seems that I will never get bored.
It is my way to support you and show my appreciation for this great game.

And if we calculate price per played minute ... this is a really cheap game, even when I own two key's

[Koub]

Inflation is not unforeseen.

The kind of inflation we get nowadays is unforeseen.

30 years of inflation in the euro zone

inflation.jpeg (64.12 KiB) Viewed 22467 times

Source : https://www.capital.fr/economie-politiq ... ro-1438199
Sorry for the French source

[jodokus31]

Total fair.
However, I'd have announced it bit earlier.

[CureSafaia]

I don't think that's a good idea, we are on this forum because we love Factorio and we already own the game so probably not many people are going to discourage you to do that but I will say, I bought the game when I was a student for 20 bucks, because it was 20 bucks, now it's 30 going to be 35, I would not have bought the game for 35, you blame inflation but the inflation isn't that, and let's not blame everything on inflation, the problem with the economy is that the salary is not inflating as much as the cost of living and people have less money to spend on leisure, not more, and I think the price hike will make new players run away.

Also comparing full price is not fair as Factorio is old and never on sale, you can buy a half done AAA for more than Factorio if you want to, but we all know that's a bad idea, Factorio is no exception, well, the exception is that you have to buy it at full price.

I liked the no-sale policy as it felt the game was well priced all year round instead of sometimes but now that the price is almost double the one I bought the game at, it feels like it's never well priced anymore and feels like people are getting punished for not knowing the game earlier, just like missing a sale, but worse because they can't wait for the next one.

I had trouble convincing friends to even try the demo because the price is already steep that they don't even feel like tempting themselves to such a purchase but now it's going to be even worse.

There are many other good games and Factorio is not even unique in its genre now and even then, people are probably not shopping for an automation game specifically and will probably happily go somewhere else.

[jodokus31]

Also comparing full price is not fair as Factorio is old and never on sale, you can buy a half done AAA for more than Factorio if you want to, but we all know that's a bad idea, Factorio is no exception, well, the exception is that you have to buy it at full price.

Only because AAA titles loose their value due to sales, doesn't mean, that factorio looses value. Infact, it only gets better and more.
Even most AAA titles are more worth, than their sales price, but it's the companies, who want to squeeze out more, because software can be duplicated without additional cost. So, the problem lies in the sales strategy of other games and not in Wube's.
If Wube wanted to make quick money, they would go on sale with this game. It would be even a good moment, before the expansion.

But, the no sales strategy is also good, because it's known to be not on sale, so people, who really want, buy it and actually value it more. Because the real value does not diverge from the price so often like other games.

[DarkShadow44]

the problem with the economy is that the salary is not inflating as much as the cost of living and people have less money to spend on leisure, not more, and I think the price hike will make new players run away.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but should the takeaway here be that people should be paid more? It's not that easy of course, but I can't really blame people for trying to counter inflation by charging more.

[aka13]

Complete radio silence on the expansion, and the base now costing 35 makes me assume, that the expansion will be 35 euros as well.
Really curious, how the expansion will sell at that pricepoint and what it will contain.
x2 curious, how the sales for new people discovering factorio will look. There are a couple of studios famous for their really expensive, trillion dlc games, and they are still alive.
Nevertheless, if I discovered factorio with dlc priced at 70, or 60 euros , I doubt that I would have bought it, even at the current level of polish.
After all, you never kow, how much you will like the game. Some games of the genre just stop being fun and lack depth after 50 hours into them.

Seems to me, that for most players same fits for factorio - only 3,4% of players have the mass production 3 achievement.
While an increase was expected, and I already own the game, and I own it since before the times of steam, and I got thousands of hours of entertainment, I am not complaining, merely interested in the financial aspect of this decision and future plans.

[FuryoftheStars]

Seems to me, that for most players same fits for factorio - only 3,4% of players have the mass production 3 achievement.

When are people going to learn? Achievements earned means jack all for anything.

I have nothing for achievements, yet have thousands of hours on record. I use mods constantly, and of the times that I do something vanilla that results in an earned achievement, I use the delete achievements feature to reset it.

[aka13]

Seems to me, that for most players same fits for factorio - only 3,4% of players have the mass production 3 achievement.

When are people going to learn? Achievements earned means jack all for anything.

I have nothing for achievements, yet have thousands of hours on record. I use mods constantly, and of the times that I do something vanilla that results in an earned achievement, I use the delete achievements feature to reset it.

When will people learn, that their subjective perception of reality means jack all? I have thousands of hours if not tens of thousands, and propably only hundreds with mods. If you are a player, who uses mods, does not mean that you can extrapolate on the whole community. Steam achievements, aside from devs aggregating data on their side is always the most accurate source of data available.

[FuryoftheStars]

Seems to me, that for most players same fits for factorio - only 3,4% of players have the mass production 3 achievement.

When are people going to learn? Achievements earned means jack all for anything.

I have nothing for achievements, yet have thousands of hours on record. I use mods constantly, and of the times that I do something vanilla that results in an earned achievement, I use the delete achievements feature to reset it.

When will people learn, that their subjective perception of reality means jack all? I have thousands of hours if not tens of thousands, and propably only hundreds with mods. If you are a player, who uses mods, does not mean that you can extrapolate on the whole community. Steam achievements, aside from devs aggregating data on their side is always the most accurate source of data available.

The same can be said right back at you. They may be dead on accurate, or they may be all crap. As such, achievements are actualy the least reliable source.

[Chindraba]

Steam achievements are unreliable, as a source of data about the player base of the game. First, buy the game from WUBE and never use the Steam key and all achievements are silently acquired. Play the game with any mods on, even while live on Steam, and the achievements are silently acquired. Use the reset button, and type "DELETE", and the achievements recorded, if any, never existed.

I've done the first for a few thousand hours, then I've done the second for a few more thousand hours. Finally, I played a while on the Steam version. Now I've done the last. Reset all the Steam achievements and started a run for the spoon. Want to see how many I can get and still be inside the 8hr limit for a spoon. It's easier to let Steam track it than for me to count them at the end.

I haven't looked for user/player data about the game, don't care. I suspect that the devs have access to solid, realistic, numbers they can use to make their decisions.

Since I'm waiting for the expansion, can't say I applaud the increase. I do support their ability to have one, however. After a few years working for the same place I'd like a pay increase myself. And, as someone posted already, the current inflation is a beast. Costs of everything they use to support the current players, servers, electricity, office rent, &c., has to be going through the roof as well.

[MiniHerc]

Edit: Redacted because of misinformation.