Probably because Microsoft has now financed and published the thing itself and advertising as well. the thing has to recoup the costs and is a draft horse for the game pass.

well.... I was looking for this game but , two things :

1 AS USUAL in 2021, bugs bugs bugs..... It never gets old, hum ?
I'm pretty fed up to wait at least 3 or 4 months in order to get a "stable" game on PC....

2 I'll wait for a discount...

Regional pricing seems to be a bit of a mess...as always.

As to rogerT's comment. I actually jumped on this today to show support of getting more quirky single player platformers out there.

I think the last non-budget game I jumped on at or near launch was Deus Ex Human Revolution, so it's far from a regular occurrence for me.

Because they want to push you to pay for gamepass.
I see no other reason. I got a month of free gamepass with my pc (I don't even dream to pay for such a thing) so I tried this game yesterday and there is no reason for it to be 60€, it should be half of that at full price.
I'll wait for it to be under 20€ to buy it drm free on gog (I want to own games that I like to play them again in the future, I don't like subscriptions, I only used it because I got one month free and I don't like to waste this kind of promo).

I suggest you to just wait for a good sale, there is no real reason to pay that kind of money for a game that is just a more of the same, and I know it is also late when you look at the release date on the crowd funding campaign (not just that... If you make a crowd fund you should stay indie, I hate that both double fine and obsidian asked for money only to be bought by Microsoft... If you are not indie you should use the publisher money, don't ask anything).

I'm totally like you, LiefLayer !
I hate the subscription system , "à la Game pass". You are NOT in control and games come and go from this "Game pass".
I have the feeling that this kind of system is like some Chinese restaurants system : "Eat all you can for USD 10.00".
Besides, some games inside the Game pass are not that great (and it's perfectly normal : with this system Microsoft needs to emphasis on the QUANTITY and not on the QUALITY ... ).
As I'm getting older, I like to select my games..
If (and I'm afraid they can win...) this system is the future.... video games will be dominated by casual gamers, who likes to listen music on Deezer, watch TV on Netflix and play on game Pass.
Not a great news IMO....

Even more expensive in UK, £54.99 is definitely too much for a game from a small studio (even if it does have known developers).
Too many "independent" games are coming out at AA/AAA dev (which this is NOT) prices.
Shame as they already got a ton of cash from backers and now they want to milk buyer even more.

I will be buying it soon or later, but not at this price.

How much was the backer price?

$39 - here is a link to crowdfunding campaign: https://www.fig.co/campaigns/psychonauts-2

Magmarock, perhaps you may try to "gift" the game to yourself (select "GIFT THIS ORDER" during the checkout)?
Then it will cost the "region-free" price, which is $60, which is significantly less than 99 AUD.
Although I'm not 100% sure, that such trick works.

Yeah I know how to get around the price hick but I really shouldn't have to. Thanks for the tip though.

Regional price for Switzerland is 74 CHF on Steam and 74.09 on GOG, that’s more than 80 USD :( (Oddly, GOG added 9 cents shortly after the game was released.) Without regional pricing and with the current exchange rates, it should cost slightly less than 59 CHF even after adding the VAT. I find such a large difference unacceptable

Do you have any additional information on what you mean by this? I'm not even playing it on a real Windows and so far it has just worked amazingly well. There is one minor bug I noticed (last chest of Compton's Cookoff does not unlock, but apparently will in in post-game at least) and had one crash to desktop during level loading.

sorry ... i'm generally speaking.
All the AA and AAA are launched a specific day, because the Marketing director says so...

Examples ? well, Cyberpunk 2077, days gone ( on PS4 : i had to download 2 or 3 times the size of the full game in order
to get a "stable" game !! Unacceptable on a console... ), etc.
So My general rule is this : wait 2 or 3 months - at least - after day one, before buying a game.
Of course it's much more complicate to adapt a game on a PC : you have an infinite amount of configurations !!
but still... We , more or less, gamers use Windows...

Got it. You basically pick a couple of samples which confirm your preconceived bias, then go into a game's own forum and just vomit that bias in there without having any clue about the actual situation. After all, in times like these, what's even the point of facts or first-hand experience.

Lesson for developers: there is no point in trying for a remarkable smooth launch. The people who always complain, will complain no matter what.

There are multiple bugs one of them is on the diary menu that can get stuck. At least in Italy this does not work