Regional Price Adjustment - January 2024

[MattiasPDX]

Are CIS and RU the different regions for your prices? Or CIS includes Russia?

The Ruble and CIS USD are separate.

I'm curious why prices in rubles will be increased by 70%?

Let me elaborate on my previous answer to a similar question. Our benchmarks are based on several different aspects, such as comparisons to peers within the industry and partners, but we also look at purchasing power parity including other industries and the currency’s fluctuation. Based on that, we make an overall assessment to determine the conversion we will use for each currency, which then translates into a local price.

Our ambition is to align currency conversions across products, but as games are released at different points in time, they may use different currency conversions, which is why price adjustments could vary in percentage between games. For example, Victoria 3 and Crusader Kings III both have the price $49.99, but today one costs 2499 RUB and the other 1600 RUB. On January 16th, both will have the price 2799 RUB, where one increases more than the other.

Can you provide more information about Stellaris in RUB?

The Stellaris base game will increase about 70 % and DLC will increase about 40-50 % in RUB.

What is the change for CAD? I’m mainly curious about EU4, Stellaris and CK3.

The CAD will increase about 5 % on average for those games and DLC.

 

[pjerbezukhov]

How convenient to use the exchange rates from when the change occured, and not when it was decided. That just so happened to be the week the ruble spiked significantly compared to USD and EUR...

Do an early December to early December comparison and you end up with around 50%...

I checked Dec to Dec and saw 34% RUB/EUR and 32% RUB/USD

The ruble is fluctating wildly and Paradox certainly is not to blame for that.

Sure, I don't blame Paradox, just asked a question.

That is also the case for the USD price of the games. While you can argue that Paradox products are too expensive compared to some other games, that isn't really related to local/regional pricing.

I am an ordinary man and I have my own benchmark - prices of other game developers and publishers.
And their behavior.
Russia is a top-2 audience of BG3 (while we can't buy it on offical platforms), but Larian have NEVER adjusted prices even for Divinity 2, the RUB price is still the same since the release date.
Are they poor? Are they unknown? Do they have a lack of sales or investments? I don't think so.

Spoiler: Research

And Valve - Russia and CIS is 5% of Steam revenue, and they still sell their games with a rate 1 USD =~ 38.5 RUB. They have increased RUB prices only once for all time. Everyone loves them.
Lovely CD Project Red - Guess how many time did they increase RUB prices for The Witcher 3 or Cyberunk 2077 (before they were forced to leave the RU market)? Zero!
Ruble was shaken significantly back in 2020.
So I have a fair question - why some companies offer me a nextgen masterpiece for 2k RUB, and other companies (Sony, Sega, etc, not Paradoxes) offers a piece of [moderation] for 4k RUB with DLC for 1.5k RUB? The choice of what to buy for a simple Russian hard worker is obvious.

 

[pjerbezukhov]

Let me elaborate on my previous answer to a similar question. Our benchmarks are based on several different aspects, such as comparisons to peers within the industry and partners, but we also look at purchasing power parity including other industries and the currency’s fluctuation. Based on that, we make an overall assessment to determine the conversion we will use for each currency, which then translates into a local price.

Our ambition is to align currency conversions across products, but as games are released at different points in time, they may use different currency conversions, which is why price adjustments could vary in percentage between games. For example, Victoria 3 and Crusader Kings III both have the price $49.99, but today one costs 2499 RUB and the other 1600 RUB. On January 16th, both will have the price 2799 RUB, where one increases more than the other.

Good explaination, thank you.
I thought that new games are more expensive because development and support with new technologies are more expensive + inflation.

According to this logic DLC Tours and Tournaments will have the price ~1200 RUB, right?

If the ruble rises, will you reduce prices? Or doesn't it work the other way around?

 

[Cuke]

Our ambition is to align currency conversions across products, <...>

The Stellaris base game will increase about 70 % and DLC will increase about 40-50 % in RUB.

Price of Stellaris base game and DLCs follows the same pattern as EU-4 base game and DLCs (and HOI-4: 1300 / 385 / 550 / 710). So, can we expect the same increase for EU-4 as well?

 

[Brynjar]

I checked Dec to Dec and saw 34% RUB/EUR and 32% RUB/USD

Which means Paradox made about 50% more money from the same sale in RUB a year ago than they do now.

I am an ordinary man and I have my own benchmark - prices of other game developers and publishers.
And their behavior.

As do we all. That still has nothing to do with regional pricing. I stopped buying Paradox games a few years ago because they don't no longer deliver the quality I expect when I buy a game. That still doesn't mean they should go back to their old regional pricing model where their games were sold significanlty cheaper in NOK than they were in USD and EUR.

Russia is a top-2 audience of BG3 (while we can't buy it on offical platforms), but Larian have NEVER adjusted prices even for Divinity 2, the RUB price is still the same since the release date.

If your argument is that Paradox should stop doing annual price changes to their existing products, I'll support you. Some of the price increases on old products have been ridiculous. That's not the argument you are making though. You are arguing against the price hike for their games in Russia specifically. As long as they insists on sticking to the annual price adjustments, the announced price adjustment for Russia makes sense.

So I have a fair question - why some companies offer me a nextgen masterpiece for 2k RUB, and other companies (Sony, Sega, etc, not Paradoxes) offers a piece of [moderation] for 4k RUB with DLC for 1.5k RUB? The choice of what to buy for a simple Russian hard worker is obvious.

So you are saying Paradox is charging less than Sony and Sega, while other companies, like Activision Blizzard and CD Project Red choose not to release in Russia at all? To me that sounds like Paradox are treating their Russian customers better than a lot of the companies you are trying to compare them to...

If the ruble rises, will you reduce prices? Or doesn't it work the other way around?

That's a terrible question considering currencies fluctates up and down all the time. You probably won't get a better answer than what they gave last year:

Lastly, for some currencies, our benchmarks show that we are currently above where we think we should be, so we’ll reduce prices there to be in-line with our price strategy. The currencies affected are the Peruvian Sol, Costa Rican Colon and Singapore Dollar, where there will be moderate price decreases. More often than not when we adjust prices, it’s going to be an increase, but there will sometimes also be cases where we adjust this the other way around.

 

[Belonogy]

I bought all the DLC at full price for Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis 4, Stellaris, Imperator, bought the extended version of Crusader Kings 3, Victoria 3. Now it’s all over, I can’t afford such expenses, given the miserable existence in [...] Russia

/mod-edit: Removed some parts.

 

[deep_d]

Same here, spend a lot of money for years to support Paradox, in return i get 70% increased prices after 70% increased prices already, its insane, a spit in a face. I hope you know what you doing, but you lose all respect. [...]

/mod-edit: removed some nasty bits

 

[Bohory]

@MattiasPDX
I play most of your games and I am very concerned about the price increase in my area (UAH), especially in the range of 40-70%.
Where can I find a list of games/dlc that will increase price?
P.S. With Vic3's experience and unexpected price increases, buying your games becomes very questionable.

 

[Corpus Festerheart]

Ah, it brings memories. Last time it resulted in a pandemic spread of piracy when it was almost withered to nothingness due to prices being acceptable regionally. Last time decision have been reversed due to backlash but not until damage have been done as multiplayer players is a tiny fraction of a main playerbase and those who cannot afford it simply saw no reason to go back to buying even when prices were reduced.

Its like YouTube adblock campaigns with Barbara Streizand effect - a lot of users watched videos with ads but then suddenly YouTube started rolling announcments like "All AdBlock users will be punished!" and "Using AdBlock is stealing!"
And then everyone knew that ads could be, actually, blocked and that there are tools for it.

Management decision is understadable. There are other instances of management decisions, like with Creative Assembly's recent price increase:

The results were predictable

 

[MattiasPDX]

Price of Stellaris base game and DLCs follows the same pattern as EU-4 base game and DLCs (and HOI-4: 1300 / 385 / 550 / 710). So, can we expect the same increase for EU-4 as well?

Yes, Stellaris, HOI4 and EU4 will use the same currency conversions and the same local pricing.

Where can I find a list of games/dlc that will increase price?

We have many products and we support many currencies, which means the list is long. When it comes to UAH, it’s one of the currencies where we are the most behind our benchmarks at the moment and active titles will increase around 70% on average.

 

[Blaeys]

Hello everyone,

We’re getting closer to year end, which also means that our annual regional price adjustments are approaching. As a reminder, this is the time when we adjust the prices of our games and DLCs for markets and currencies that have fluctuated off our pricing benchmarks.

This time, the price adjustment will come into effect on the 16th of January 2024. As always, we want to give you an early heads-up, so you know what price changes to expect, aren't caught unaware and have a chance to make informed purchases in the coming months.

This time, we’re adjusting prices for two distinct categories of our products. Our live games, which are actively supported and, so called “Legacy” titles, i.e. games that are no longer actively supported. Each category will have different levels of adjustment, which I’ll get into below.

Active titles:
As in the previous years, our active games will see price adjustments of varying degree, depending on the market and currency involved. There are a lot of titles and currencies, and that makes it difficult to list every single change in an easily readable way. Below we’ll try to list all affected currencies in broader terms, and if either of you would like to get a more detailed breakdown, for any specific currency, feel free to ask in the thread and we’ll try to answer.

This time around, we'll see an increase of about 40% to 70% on average or more to five currencies: THB, RUB, MYR, UAH, ZAR.

More moderate level of increases can be expected for SGD, PEN, VND, COP, QAR, IDR, KWD, PHP, SAR, UYU, JPY, KZT, CRC, CLP, INR, BRL, South Asia USD.

Smaller price increases will affect TWD, HKD, MXN, CNY, AED, KRW, CAD, CIS USD.

There are also currencies that will see no price changes: USD, EUR, GBP, NOK, PLN, CHF, ILS, AUD, NZD as well as MENA USD and LATAM USD.

Legacy titles:
Unlike our active games, the legacy portfolio didn’t see a price adjustment in the past few years. That means the prices of most of these games are much behind our pricing benchmark in some markets. To have them with our overall pricing, we need to adjust their prices significantly in many currencies.

The number of both games and currencies involved in this adjustment is very high, so we can’t effectively list each of them here, but below I’ll try to give you an idea of adjustments for a few base game legacy products that we believe might be of particular interest to all of you:

	South Korean Won	Norwegian Krone	Indian Rupee
Age of Wonders: Planetfall	10%	60%	150%
BATTLETECH	10%	60%	150%
Victoria II	5%	60%	80%

If you have any questions about the details of any game’s or currencies’ price increases, feel free to post in the thread below and we’ll try to answer.

Okay - now address the fact that you sold us a DLC for Empire of Sin three years ago that you still havent delivered. Maybe make good on your past sales before worrying about future transactions.

First make good on what you owe your players - then you can start talking about future sales prices.

 

[yapxingguan]

It's almost funny that most of who are getting rattled by this development are old pdx gamers

 

[Cuke]

It's almost funny that most of who are getting rattled by this development are old pdx gamers

IIRC it's called "price anchoring". The old gamers know the old prices and therefore get rattled by increases.

 

[Avgystor]

Hello! Will the price of Age of Wonders 4 be increased in rubles in Russia?

 

[Corpus Festerheart]

Well, after checking new prices there's really no reason to buy any DLCs or games anymore save for -50% Steam sales.

 

[Lost TeG]

Well... I've got all Stellaris, EU4, CK3, Hoi4, Victoria 3 and half of the other grand strategy dlcs, Now, i can't afford it. Even on sales. Hello from Russia.

 

[Ujin]

Right now EU 4 without DLC costs 10% more than Baldur's Gate 3

 

[Bangy88]

This sale was my last one. An increase of 40% for DLCs is a joke. I suppose that I must feel not so bad because, according PDX the increase in my currency was "in a moderate level".
I prefer to move on from greedy politics.

 

[caksz]

What a meh move ... old game price should be drop not increase , twice price increased in 2 years for me

 

[Comrade Suhov]

As Paradox increased the prices as they promised, I have, as promised, removed all PDX games and DLC's from my wishlist on Steam.

The current prices set for DLC's are unreasonable and brutal, they are 30-40% above Valve's suggested regional prices (and they are set too high since October 2022 to begin with). Players are not made of money. I guess, Paradox will understand that with incoming decrease in sales numbers.