DeestanThe Story of Factorio, the Game that Only Increases in Price
SentinianThis game gets universal praise and I'd love to play it but as a PC gamer I refuse to as I wouldn't want to support a dev who not only never does sales but raises the price because of "inflation"
Why did you put inflation in quotes like it isn't real?
https://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/usa-inflation-rate/
At $35 right now the game is reasonably priced for the amount of value you will get out of it. I believe there is an expansion on the way as well...
insomniac_lemonThey probably used quotes because it's only one part of the equation. If wages are stagnant like they have been for a while (at least in USA), money has less purchasing power and people have less savings/spending money.
Raising the price in economic situations like this is squeezing the customers (whether it's intended or not), and I doubt most prices hikes with successful things are just to keep the lights on. Which is the big issue now with rising inflation and record profits.
Wube is Czech, located in Prague, it's not like their grocery bills got smaller. Inflation figures actually don't make up for that the Crown is quite stable against the USD, both are dropping against the Euro, and Eurozone countries are Czechia's main trading partners, by, like, an enormous lot. Me buying some Czech beer doesn't really make up for importing Spanish and Italian tomatoes.
If you want to complain about rising prices blame Nestle et al as well as real estate speculation.
Czech Republic Food Inflation - May 2023 Data - 2000-2022 Historical - June Forecast
Food price inflation in the Czech Republic slowed to a 13-month low of 14.5% year-on-year in May 2023 from 17.3% in April, as prices moderated for bread (15.8% vs 21.1% in April), meat (8.7% vs12.7%), semi-fat long-life milk (5.4% vs 19.2%) and eggs (32.3% vs 41.2%). Food Inflation in Czech Republic averaged 3.12 percent from 2000 until 2023, reaching an all time high of 26.00 percent in November of 2022 and a record low of -6.50 percent in July of 2009. This page provides - Czech Republic Food Inflation - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.
I mean it seems like it's been a household name for a while (I say as someone who does not closely follow pop-culture). Has their food/beer/housing money run dry? By all data that I can see, there is something wrong if they're not a multi-millionaire. That's putting it mildly as I'm sure they reached the "can live off this for the rest of my life if I don't blow it" point many times over very quickly even if you pretend early sales don't count.
Also low-cost gamedev is a lot more viable now thanks to gratis tools+internet help+modern funding options etc. Mindustry comes to mind. Price hikes aren't(/shouldn't be) needed to buy a dev a coffee/beer.
Though honestly my main reply was about the inflation claim in general that people like to use (common AAA conversation).
It's not just the three original devs any more they actually have a payroll to worry about and are easily burning through a million a year.
Raw sales (assuming 500K at $30) is $15M though. This seems far from struggling territory or even breaking even, and is probably diminishing returns/unnecessary.
Even if you think it's worth it, that's a different argument than inflation. To me it sounds like a lie for continuously growing profits just like any other company.
5M easily go to taxes, steam takes another 2M and with the 33 people that are listed on their site they probably loose 2M on salary alone. Then there is another 0.5M for license, real estate and infrastructure. While it still leaves 5.5M per year average, that's an extremely tight budget for the development of a new game.