Manywhelps: Why would you be insulted by a game costing more than it did previously?
Truth is, the game has tripled in size and quality since launching in Early Access. We post weekly updates talking about what we have, including the three character stories that have been in development since 2015. Again, we'll explain the major reason on the 16th, but increasing scope and quality of a game is a pretty good reason for a price increase.
Are you a current player, or have you been following development? Because if you haven't, then I think the sticker shock makes sense. Otherwise, I'd love to hear what you think about the game itself.
I usually have nothing against a game increasing price. *If* something happens that I feel justifies it. You, though, have a game in development. Adding more content is pretty much expected and required from Early Access games. I don't know of a single one who went through this steep a price increase just because the devs added more content. And whatever content you're adding, I have trouble believing it's worth a whole extra $20. That's basically the asking price for most games released today, so you'd better be adding an entire game's content this upcoming 16th... and even if that happens, again, it's a game in development -- it's *expected* of you to add content without having to increase the price. I'm not saying it's fair, or anything, but it's what customers have grown accustomed to. I bought a lot of In Dev games here on GOG, and most -- if not all -- of them received meaty updates before release, that never was motive for the devs to increase the price, and even if they had increased it, I highly doubt any of the dev studios of the games I bought would have been so careless and unaware of their target audience as to suddenly increase the prices of their games up to $50. Even the most "high-profile" game of the ones I bought, The Long Dark, which has a theoretical endless mode in the form of its sandbox survival, a game which received *LOTS* of updates during development, only increased price *after* release. Not during Early Access, despite receiving huge content updates. After release. And even when it released, its price isn't nearly as absurd as what you're asking for We Happy Few. The Long Dark is being sold for €31.99 in my country/region. That's roughly $20 less than what you're asking for your game. So, approximately $30 for a potentially endless game, with its sandbox survival mode, plus a genuinely interesting story mission, the first two available episodes of which take around 15-20 to finish, with three upcoming episodes for free (I guess Compulsion games would ask $20 for each extra episode, if you guys were Hinterland Studio?) -- this should put the whole story mode, once completed, at 37,5-50 hours long, if they maintain the average size of the episodes consistent. That still beats your 30 hours of story (10 per each character, if I remember correctly?), and it's also not a cheap padding out technique of "play this three times with three different characters", it's just *the main story*. So, yeah, as a potential customer (I *was* intrigued and slightly interested in We Happy Few before this announcement), I feel insulted and offended by this price increase, and you most definitely lost a customer in me. I think it's safe to say you lost a lot more customers, too, not just me, but that's just speculation on my part. Time will tell, I guess, whether people will vote with their wallets and punish or reward you for this risky move. I'm inclined to think the vast majority of people are more suspicious of devs and publishers pushing a "No Man's Sky" or something similar, and it is my belief that you'll regret this decision in the long run.
I don't own your game, but I definitely would have wanted to try We Happy Few. I like the dystopian setting a lot (George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of my favourite books ever), the game looks fun to play, the art direction is gorgeous -- even if it isn't the most stunning game I've laid my eyes upon, from a technical standpoint --, in short, it does seem to have a whole lot of stuff I like a lot. At this price, though? Nope. And buying it afterwards when you won't make enough money and it will (inevitably) go on sale would just be "rewarding" you, which I won't be doing, either.
I can't stress this enough: I've watched a lot of footage of We Happy Few; I loved most of what I saw, even if the game is still clearly in a very much unfinished and unpolished state. I was mildly hyped for it, at some point. But, as much as I enjoyed what I've seen, I don't feel $50 is a fair price for it. I sincerely apologize for being blunt, but it's my honest opinion. A lot of other people apparently agree with me, too, and a few of us fit in the target audience for the game, so maybe this decision wasn't as right as it might have felt when you initially took it.
Still, sincerely, best of luck. I have a feeling you're going to need lots of it.
