From the developer's website:

http://compulsiongames.com/en/news/135/weekly-journal-august-update-date-and-price-heads-up

"Since we launched our Kickstarter and released the game on Early Access, We Happy Few has been priced at US$29.99. We have never put it on sale because we believe it isn’t fair for someone to get the game at a lower price than a Kickstarter backer or an Early Access backer while the game is still in development. Since 2015, we have made clear that the price would increase as we approach the final release, and that time has - finally - come. On August 16, the price for the game will become US$50.99."

This message brought to you by the new Compulsion Games CEO, Martin Shkreli.

As much as I want to get the game, I don't generally pay for unfinished garbage. This game was woefully unfinished the last time I played it. It isn't worth $30 now, and likely won't be worth $50 at release. The problem with Early access is that you waste your first impression on a broken unfinished product. Many customers won't distinguish between EA and release because the game technically released when it was made available in EA.
So when a new project comes to EA and looks interesting, but I pick it up and it sucks, I'm not likely to buy it again after getting my refund just because they changed the status from "completely broken" to "kinda works."

Nice algorithm, more cost, less interest.

Wow, that's way expensive.

No way am i paying that much for a Early Access game.

The smarter path is to sell EA for $5 or $10. Then give those customers that money + 10% in discount at release time. But then you don't get to pocket all the money today.

Nah, in this case the price would be US$509.9, not US$50.99. :p

$51 for that game is really pushing it, unless they removed all the "procedurally generated" junk and put in its place tons of real, hand-designed, story-based levels.

But I'm guessing they didn't, so tinyE is right. This is a Shkreli-pharmabro-esque move. I expect it will backfire and result in low sales numbers.

Ahahahahaha!
xD

What makes a game worth a certain amount of money is often relative, and I'm usually not one to complain about the price of a title (I don't mind paying €20 for Tacoma, for instance, I think it's a fair price, while others think it should be cheaper). I paid full price for Dying Light when it hit GOG and I still don't regret having done so. But, heck! $51 for this game does feel freaking expensive... I was mildly interested in it, but I'm definitely not paying €50+ for it... and I'm also not getting it for $30 until August 16th, since I'm saving my money for other titles I'm more interested in, right now.

This looks like a really odd thing to do, raising the price this much, are there that many people hyped for We Happy Few that will be willing to spend 51 bucks on it?! Maybe Compulsion Games should research their target audience market a bit better, before they shoot themselves in the foot by doing this. Just my two cents.

Theory: Their production budget is running low, so the "threat" of a significant price increase is meant to provide a boost to sales at the current price level. Once the game is officially released, they can still sell more copies at the current price, during sales a few months later... So, I guess this price increase is ultimately meaningless, at least to the patient customer.

The official base price of digital games these days is a joke anyway. The "sale" price is the new base price, while the full base price only exists so they can apply ridiculous discount percentages. At least that's how many of the major publishers operate.

Well, I didn't want to play CreepyMyst in the first place.

I'm not sure release sales have the same meaning for Early Access titles, as they did and do for traditionally published games. Either way 50 buckaroos is still less than most AAA games, especially on consoles, so I'm sure they'll find their share of happy(?) customers.

Besides, nowadays they have the option of making additional income with stuff like DLC items. Or they could "re-release" the game half a year later, as a new version ( back in the old days it was simply called a patch *cough* ), to make it back to the frontpage of all relevant stores.