Dear paradox I am tired of waiting for discounts to buy content I want :D

[makaramus]

seriusly... I understand your price policy I know its populer but... I belive you are overdoing it a little bit too much?

I mean its common strategy that selling 5 $ production to 10$ and say "HEEY! %50 DISCOUNT! ITS ONLY 5$" I know but you are overdoing it and making us notice it way too much your discounts no longer feel like discount instead feels like "if you love your money then you betterwait for our products to fall to their original price or simply pay double"
atleast this is what I thought and wanted to share it... I dont say permantly reduce price of your old products to half price but ... it feels like you are tring to trick us way too much

when I saw your products first time I was like "what the hell! I would never pay that much to these products I gonna wait for discount"
then I noticed quantity of discounts I instantly understood why prices are high because they are not actualy price

 

[Ironside121]

I'd say half the DLC's are worth their price, whilst the other half are slightly too expensive.

I wouldn't say half price of the DLC's is the acceptable price for many of the DLC's.

 

[Kergan]

The DLCs are priced fine.

If I look at the hours I've spent on EU4 on the one hand side, and what I've spent on it and its DLCs on the other, I'm at under $.05/hour of entertainment. It's certainly cheaper than any number of other entertainment options.

Even the flatscreen TV my wife bought is 10x more expensive than that on an hourly cost of entertainment basis. Or for that matter, the parks I can go to "for free" with my kid (since I pay for those as taxes).

 

[makaramus]

I think many misunderstood me
I didnt say dlcs are too expensive... trouble is their prices are planned to be sold at discounts. Are you waiting for discount when you buy old paradox dlc? or simply buy it instantly. I wait for discount because what? they are putting their games on discount every 3 week or someting
hey! new dlc coming to europe? %50 discount. christmas %50 discount black friday %50 discount BAM random %50 discount Summer %50 discount winter %50 discount spring sales %50 discount
They are selling them above their meant price to put them on discount a lot thats what I mean Ofcourse new dlcs usually worth their prices but when they become old and no longer fulfill their value compared to today's standart?

 

[Kergan]

We perfectly understood you. You're presumably on a budget (or just cheap, but I'll assume the former).

The current prices are fine for the typical working adult who can easily afford to throw $20 on a game every few months.

The game and the DLCs are on sale from time to time as an introductory measure (that's how I initially dove in), so that you don't end up spending $300 to catch up when you discover the game, and so that students who aren't so able to afford the full price (but who, mysteriously, can afford an education in Anglo-Saxon countries) can also buy it.

There's nothing more to it than marketing/revenue maximization 101: sell at a high price to the audience who doesn't care much about price, and sell at a discounted price to the audience that does. As a bonus for both audiences, PDX gets more money and makes more/better games. Win/Win.

Worst case, skip a few nights out and a few Stackbucks breaks, and you'll have put enough aside to buy a DLC.

 

[grommile]

so that students who aren't so able to afford the full price (but who, mysteriously, can afford an education in Anglo-Saxon countries)

The reason they can't afford the full price is precisely because they are paying for an education in Anglophonia

 

[rinehime]

There's nothing more to it than marketing/revenue maximization 101: sell at a high price to the audience who doesn't care much about price, and sell at a discounted price to the audience that does.

Yup. It's simple price discrimination. (Note this is discrimination in a determination sense, not a prejudicial sense.)

The reason they can't afford the full price is precisely because they are paying for an education in Anglophonia

Also price discrimination. At least in the US, the sticker price of university is often much higher than what people actually pay, especially at private schools.

 

[kaasbris]

Frankly, PI follows excellent corporate strategy regarding price. They know that, their games are so addictive that users have no choice but to buy DLCs at ridiculous price, just like in-game purchase of japanese mobile games.

They won't change this price strategy nor being affected like EA's battlefront II, which gave up in-game purchase upon serious protest from gamers, as PI games are rather unique in theme and design that there is no alternative, unlike EA's.

 

[HRErceg]

@kaasbris More like, they know that playing the game without basic things like development, switching province controllers during wars etc. are basic things that should've been included in the base game but are another way to make your playerbase to pay more on a useless DLC, so that the biggest fangirls can later say "That DLC is worth the price because it has *insert game feature that should've been there from the begining but is in a DLC*"

 

[creativitypersonified]

So what do you want to change? Overpricing products on release and then reducing the price on numerous occasions ( or indefinetly) is basically a given for companies. It's a great business strategy. It is marketed as a discount because it's better for sales that way. Nothing makes new buyers excited like the word sales does. Everybody has to make money some way you know. Paradox handles this stuff with great care. Just discontinuing this would see a big drop in sales. Of course they could let products that have aged a lot be on a permanent discount but that loses them some money from the occasional buyer who buys when there are no sales and doesn't really come with much of a benefit except not having the hassle of changing prices I guess.

 

[Shadowstrike]

The DLCs only seem expensive, because more than half of their content comes out in the free patches. If you take into account the free patch changes, the DLCs are well worth it. Paradox made the choice to not have people get stuck at past iterations of the game if you don't buy the DLCs, which unfortunately, leaves the DLCs seeming far more expensive than they should be. You could easily imagine a less player-friendly model where the base game is always $40 and 3 expansions behind (i.e. you'd be playing 1.19 with just the base), and each of the last three expansions costs $20. That would actually make Paradox's job easier, as they wouldn't be stuck being unable to alter any DLC-based features after a year's time.

 

[clcro8821]

I Wish instead we had less but larger dlc/expansions with patches in between. Like art of war + common sense + wealth of nations, be DLC 1 for example.

 

[petertju]

I Wish instead we had less but larger dlc/expansions with patches in between. Like art of war + common sense + wealth of nations, be DLC 1 for example.

Then you would have an expansion of around 45 euros which would take around a year to make, if not more. Doesn't sound very attractive to me.

 

[Zephyrum]

The DLCs are priced fine.

If I look at the hours I've spent on EU4 on the one hand side, and what I've spent on it and its DLCs on the other, I'm at under $.05/hour of entertainment. It's certainly cheaper than any number of other entertainment options.

Even the flatscreen TV my wife bought is 10x more expensive than that on an hourly cost of entertainment basis. Or for that matter, the parks I can go to "for free" with my kid (since I pay for those as taxes).

Hours of entertainment do not equal value of DLC. Some of those DLC barely change the game to begin with and your price/hour would be even lower if you did not buy them (MN, WoN).

The current prices are fine for the typical working adult who can easily afford to throw $20 on a game every few months.

You can, if your only form of entertainment is Europa Universalis 4. Assuming you're trying to keep up with other Paradox games, make that 80$ for Stellaris, HOI4 and CK2. And that is still assuming, very pessimistically, that literally everything said working adult does for entertainment is Paradox grand-strategies. Don't even get me started on price difference if you're from any region other than the US.

The game and the DLCs are on sale from time to time as an introductory measure (that's how I initially dove in), so that you don't end up spending $300 to catch up when you discover the game, and so that students who aren't so able to afford the full price (but who, mysteriously, can afford an education in Anglo-Saxon countries) can also buy it.

It's a lot more predatory than that. They exist so people who - sensibly - believe the price tag is absurd, will end up buying it. Because creating a new copy of a DLC has basically zero-cost, selling them more and cheaper is a common strategy.

Problem is, this creates a culture that normalizes "seasonal purchasing" of DLC among the community. When you introduce a Paradox game to a friend, and they comment on the price, the typical response is "wait for a sale". Same goes for recommending DLC. People have just settled with getting used to wait for a very specific part of the month for buying stuff, and waiting.

 

[Magnificent Genius]

You can, if your only form of entertainment is Europa Universalis 4. Assuming you're trying to keep up with other Paradox games, make that 80$ for Stellaris, HOI4 and CK2. And that is still assuming, very pessimistically, that literally everything said working adult does for entertainment is Paradox grand-strategies.

This is me. 95% of my gaming time is PDX GSG. The other 5% is playing GTA:O.

 

[Badesumofu]

You can argue that the 'real price' is the sale price because the games and DLC go on sale so often. But as others have said, it's a straight-forward way of setting up prices so that people who can afford to pay more, do pay more. People who can't afford that pay what they can afford.

It's not as though it's a long wait between sales. If you can't wait then pay full price - you're paying a premium to get it right now. If you don't want to pay full price then wait - you're saving some money by being patient.

 

[Coffer]

The extreme obsession with making as much money as possible is a big problem across the entire industry, but EU4 is easily one of the more lenient cases even for those in, say, Eastern Europe who are completely shafted by the prices. Not only are the prices very acceptable for the content they provide (keep in mind that this is the kind of game that you're supposed to get hundreds and thousands of hours out of), but in multiplayer only the host needs them in the first place.

Be glad you're not playing Assetto Corsa instead.

but who, mysteriously, can afford an education in Anglo-Saxon countries

The loans help with that. A lot of those students are never going to come even remotely close to repaying them, which is exactly why a lot of people still go to study in, say, the UK even after the obscene post-2013 price hike. And even beyond that, it's all about priorities. A good education gets you far in life. A bunch of DLCs don't. It's the same reason why setting even a $1 price tag for a mobile app drastically decreases the number of people interested.

People have just settled with getting used to wait for a very specific part of the month for buying stuff, and waiting.

Since when is patience a bad thing?

 

[Telenil]

The DLCs only seem expensive, because more than half of their content comes out in the free patches. If you take into account the free patch changes, the DLCs are well worth it. Paradox made the choice to not have people get stuck at past iterations of the game if you don't buy the DLCs, which unfortunately, leaves the DLCs seeming far more expensive than they should be.

This.
And I don't imagine someone saying "dear movie theaters, I'm tired of waiting for a discount to be able to see all the movies that I want."

 

[Coffer]

This.
And I don't imagine someone saying "dear movie theaters, I'm tired of waiting for a discount to be able to see all the movies that I want."

Truth be told, that really is insanely expensive. The only thing that makes it acceptable is the social opportunity, since nobody in their right mind would go to a theater on their own.

 

[grommile]

And I don't imagine someone saying "dear movie theaters, I'm tired of waiting for a discount to be able to see all the movies that I want."

Indeed, I don't waste my breath complaining to cinema companies about a single ticket costing nearly as much as the standard-edition DVD.

I just don't go to the cinema.