We’re just a few days out from the much-anticipated Early Access launch of the current most Wishlisted game on Steam: Manor Lords. But despite the hype, no one knows how much the medieval city-builder will cost to play. The devs say that’s to prevent misinformation and pre-order scams.
PC players have flocked to Manor Lords ahead of release because of its naturalistic presentation and ambitious split between nitty-gritty settlement management and high-level strategy during battles. It will finally arrive in Early Access on April 26, with some initial reviews praising the game’s ambition and long-term potential. So it’s been extra-bizarre to not have any idea if the game will be $30 or $60.
Tim Bender, the CEO of Manor Lords publisher Hooded Horse, recently took to Reddit to explain the secrecy. Steam’s longtime issues around multi-region pricing, where costs are calibrated to local standards of living instead of just adjusted for currency conversion, is one of the big reasons:
For example, parts of Southeast Asia, many CIS regions, Turkey, many middle eastern countries, Argentina, many South American countries…all have prices in US Dollars but different from that of the US in order to provide some help for local customers be able to afford the game given the prices and wages in their country (though inflation is making that more and more difficult when local currency cannot be used).
So we don’t like to declare a price in advance of release. Because sharing the US price alone will lead to misunderstandings. People will be concluding the game is unaffordable in their region when at launch they will have pricing that will work for them.
Bender said the other big reason was potential scams. He blames the rise of “gray market/scam stores attempting to sell ‘pre-orders’” for forcing the publisher to keep its cards close to the vest. “We don’t want players to get scammed or cheated by such sites, and giving them a definite price to plan around would probably just increase their proliferation and marketing of these ‘pre-orders,’” he wrote.
All that said, the CEO tried to assuage player fears that Manor Lords will be priced like a big-budget AAA game. He teased a lower overall price point and an Early Access discount for early adopters. Also, there will be no deluxe versions or content locked behind additional paywalls. “We’re not trying to squeeze every last dollar out of people, we won’t be putting up 5 editions with a spreadsheet needed to understand them or locking up content into Day 1 DLC or any of that crap,” Bender wrote. “There’s going to be a fair price there at launch with a fair discount.”
Update 4/26/24 10:55 a.m. ET: Manor Lords is now out and costs $30 for the first two weeks of Early Access. After that it will go up to $40.
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