No Rest for the Wicked, the Diablo-style RPG from the creators of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Moon, won't cost $70. CEO Thomas Mahler says the game's price is down to the nature of the team, their overall stance on rising game prices, and the notable absence of shareholders to weigh in on the company's books.
We've been hearing gamers complain for a long time that $70 is the new normal. We also regularly see $70 games with microtransactions on top, and players usually hate it.
I've also been vocal against some of the ridiculous things that happen with developers charging prices of $65 and up for purely cosmetic items.
Since we're releasing Wicked in Early Access, we didn't think it would be smart to cheat players by charging full price right out of the gate. We try to be very efficient at Moon. We don't hire hundreds of people just to give shareholders the illusion that we're growing. We don't have any shareholders. If we can make better products at a lower cost than AAA studios and can therefore charge lower prices, that's a sign we're doing something right.
Mahler gives the example of two Ori games: Blind Forest and Will of the Wisps, whose launch prices were $20 and $30, respectively. The CEO thinks that's "less than we probably could have," but claims that "we've sold about 10 million copies because of the quality of our games, and also probably because we try not to be greedy.".
No Rest for the Wicked will cost $39.99 at launch, presumably with the standard Steam weekly discount (and an affiliate discount for content creators distributing the game). The Steam page confirms that the price will increase once the game leaves Early Access, but we don't know by how much. But, according to Mahler, "No one forced us to offer a discount, we thought it would be a great gesture!"
While many publishers are reporting record profits, the invisible hand of shareholders and investors has become a particularly hot topic lately.
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