Price Increase for All Artifex Mundi Games

It's their product and they have the right to sell it for the price they think is fair. I figure that they will sell fewer, though, so I wonder if this will pay off. I kinda doubt it.

dlCHIEF58 said:Yes, let the sales do the talking and ignore the people who most definitely know how this will end up for them. You could probably confidently say that someone at Artifex Mundi put a lot of thought into the price increase and fully expected the backlash from it, but also felt it was worth it even with that. Hence why we're even talking about it now. Or you could be right and this is their biggest mistake ever. Only Artifex Mundi will know in the next couple of months if it was the correct decision or not.

Sticking the price up is not always the answer, they would of been better off dropping the price down.

While I appreciate the rep responses, nothing they have said has justified raising prices on the already released games imo.

I can't think of any other company that has ever done this in the past. Usually prices go down, not up.

Wanting the prices to be consistent with the new games just doesn't seem like even close to a good reason. Again I have to ask, why do they need to be consistent? Game price has nothing to do the value and quality of that product.

I've paid 60 bucks for games that were terrible, and I've paid 10 bucks for games that were amazing. I would never assume a game is of poor or lower quality just because it's inexpensive to buy.

So, given the rep's response to me, I have a theory as to an unstated motivation behind this price change.

But first, there's been much mention of the polish zloty losing value relative to the the dollar. In the past year it's lost 20% of it's value which would erode AM's revenue (and reduce profits). It has lost less than 10% relative to the euro, and on it's own it doesn't full explain the repricing of the titles, but is a contributing factor to be taken into account.

For my theory, I'll posit that there are 2 types of buyers, fans and deal seekers:

Fans are the people that gladly pay $60 for new games when they come out, and AM fans likely own all of the games already and will gladly pay a little bit more for each game they release. Fans are the reason new game prices don't go down in spite of significant discounting shortly after release. If there is a significant percent of purchases that will be made for full price shortly after release then a company would be foolish to charge significantly less. I'm not a fan, but it explains why we continue to see the initial $60 price point for so many games even though discounts come fast and frequently.

I myself am a deal seeker. Deal seekers regularly look at the games on sale each week and look for the best deals. Major Nelson doesn't list absolute prices on games but does list the % discount on each title each week (which is not region specific). TA lists both the % discount and absolute price of the deals, and it's easy to sort by either. Microsoft often advertises their big sales by listing the highest percentage discounts. Likewise Steam and Sony often have big sales characterized by large % discounts. I often will look through the games on sale each week, paying particular attention to those with the biggest % off discounts. Raising prices allows AM to sell their games for $7.50 on sale, but with a 50% discount instead of a 25% discount. Likewise putting the bundles in a perpetual "sale" state allows them to highlight the amount saved instead of buying all the titles individually. If they decided to sell a $15 game for $5, it would be an 67% discount instead of a 50% discount. Reports of weekly sales show up on a lot of forums, so the higher initial price lets them take advantage of a lot of free publication about how sizable their discounts are when they do put their games on sale. I shouldn't, but I know that I regularly pay more attention to a $15 game on sale 67% off than a $10 game 50% off, so I can't really blame them for trying to use this to their advantage.

We won't know until the next time their games go on sale what their sale strategy is, but they seem to be hinting that they will still be putting their games on sale from time to time. It would make sense that they would try to improve their sales to both their fans and deal seekers to maximize their revenue.

DarwinX said:The problem is not that they raise the prices...thats their right...even on the old titles...i personally believe their games ARE worth the $15 mark also. unless they continue getting sloppy, and release the games with buggy achievements that they never fix, like they did with Eventide 2.

My issue is that you can not give discounts based on a regular price, until that price is in fact regular.

also..when a sale is permament, like they say the bundles are, then its not a sale.

DarwinX said:Replace "fans" with impatient. Paying extra doesn't make one a "fan". I'm happy to wait 2 months and let others do the beta testing. I wait a few months, get a patched game and a better price. Doesn't make me less of a "fan". It's the only smart choice to do. We all know that only Nintendo games keep their initial price. Everything else drops after 2-3 months (retail).

Throni360 said:spot on. i am a fan of halo, i used to buy the releases day one, after halo 4, i stopped that practice, picked up the collector edition of halo 5 with all of its goodies for 99 on a one day sale....same with gears, but after gears 4 i am done with that practice, just gonna wait for a sale

Stealth David said:I was thinking that the price increase won't bother you as you will still buy the games anyway. So will I

DarwinX said:Totally agree, was thinking this as well. StoreParser shows that something like 'Nightmares From The Deep 2' went as cheap as $9.99 -> $6.99 - save 30%.

Now, at the higher suggested retail, they can offer $14.99 -> $6.99 - save 53% and get the same net margin at the sale price. I think this is mostly smoke and mirrors to allow them to ratchet sales into higher percentage brackets. And no wonder. There are likely plenty of gamers like me who don't even bother with most indie games until the discounts are 67%-75%.

The lesson here for indie shops is not to set your MSRP too low initially. You can always have sales, bundles, etc to drop the price point, but customers don't like it when the regular price goes up for digital goods.

NO1KEV said:Actually that is not 100% accurate, I have bought some indie games even id@xbox games that theis prices have gone up (around 1 or 2 dollars) after I purchased them. And never saw $9.99 (for example) on the price tag when I made the purchase.

Edit: But to be fair, If I remember correctly in a couple of those, the developers said or stated that the price would go up 2 weeks or a month after release.

FOKENWOLFEN said:Are you sure you are not confusing Game Preview games which often DO raise their price just before or when officially released/out of early access? Also many games do offer discounts during the first week or two (or with pre-orders) then raise the price back up to the list price. That is an early adopters discount and pretty common anymore - not even close to these shenanigans.

I personally have NEVER seen any game's suggested retail price go up over time other than some PC game a few years ago which the developers announced that was the plan all along (launch at a low price only to gradually increase over time to spur earlier sales) - not sure how that worked out for them as I cannot remember the game or the developers now. I have seen some Season Passes do it, which is generally qualified by more content added than initially planned (whether true or not is another discussion), but never a game unless it was bundled with more content and re-released. But this is something new and a dangerous precedent as it confirms a lot of fears people have regarding an all digital future.

So rather than make $10, you're going to encourage people to wait till the game is on sale at 50-75% off so that you can make $5-7.50 back....brilliant

I’m just glad that I got the ones I did, when they were at a decent price. Every bundle they make, I have st least one or two already, so those don’t help me any. I understand pricing the new ones higher, but to raise prices on games that have been out for years is just dumb. $10 for ports and $15 for new is understandable, but to just raise them across the board is just goofy. I get disc games going up because they don’t make it anymore (2nd hand market) but to do this for a digital only game that costs you nothing to make a disc, case, artwork, shipping etc is just silly. Oh well, I’ll play what I have (eventually) and wait for sales on the missing titles. I wish the company well, but unfortunately won’t be supporting them with my wallet anymore.

Forrestal said:Hi,
... and what about Poland? How 14,99$ translate to 69,99 plz? Current exchange rate is about 3,4 plz for 1$ (not 4,67). How does it better reflect local price point when earnings in Poland are much lower than in the US?

I find it ironic Demon Hunter 2 for Windows 10 (which doesn't have achievements) is currently free.

lol seriously? Their B grade crap wasn't worth the old prices.

Flapjack waldi said:[write in Artifex Mundi language]
Rozumiem, ze jezyk Shakespeare nie jest Waszym rodowitym jezykiem, wiec nie rozumiecie co ludzie chca Wam w komentarzach pod ta wiadomoscia przekazac, to nakresle to w kilku rodzimych slowach:
- podnoszenie cen na kilkuletnie gry nie miesci sie w glowach, bo jeszcze nikomu na XBL czy PSN tego nie próbowal ale jak widac znalazl sie pierwszy (i ostatni)...
- mijanie sie z prawda i problemy z podstawami matematyki przechodzi w naszym pieknym kraju nad Wisla - w cywilizowanym swiecie juz nie...
- tlumaczenie sie placeniem podatku, ponoszeniem kosztów itd. itp. (czyt. januszowanie) dziala w "firmach" Krzysiu i Szwagier a nie na szerokich wodach biznesu. Brakuje pieniedzy? Zmien prace, wez kredyt, bo ja wiem...

A tak od siebie dodam, ze mam nadzieje ze osoba która wpadla na tak GENIALNY pomysl, szybko wyleci z firmy, bo szkoda by bylo by sama firma sie posypala...

Szkoda również ze takim zagraniem, nowych fanów nie zyskacie a starych stracicie (sam kupowałem Wasze gry praktycznie na premierze ale nie lubię jak ktoś robi ze mnie wariata i jeszcze opowiada ze przecież wszystko ok, bo mogę wydać ponad 2 razy więcej za to samo i powinienem się jeszcze cieszyć...) ale ktoś tą decyzję podjął, niech więc sam za nią ponosi odpowiedzialność.
[/write in Artifex Mundi language]

I dont agree with reason for price rise.... These games are already developed for PC... they´re getting really later on console... Everything is 2.5 times more expensive than on PC (at least in my country), but games is only remade for console and the price this higher probably kills it...

I understand some sort of higher price but getting from 269 CZK to 499 CZK is 85% up for??? I don´t know.... I will buy only in sale or not at all, but I liked these games and usually bought most of them Day 1 due to acceptable price...

Although I'm a bit disappointed, I'll continue my support for Artifex Mundi. These guys are doing an amazing job to keep my wife occupied ;) Please note, that you have to pay the same amount of money for many crappy games. Btw, I just finished one of them in 1,5 hour, and the 'pleasure costed me $12,99. My guess is, AM realized that their games are underpriced and decided to take this uneasy and controversial step.