This just reeks of shameless price gouging on the part of Gearbox Software and Compulsion Games. For those who do not know “We Happy Few” is an action/adventure game from indie studio Compulsion Games, which was successfully crowd funded a few years back. And now is an early access title on Steam for $30. They recently announced that Gearbox Software will be publishing their game, and you guessed it just as the announcement drops the price increases from $30 to an astronomical $50.99. It probably doesn’t help Compulsion Games cause when Gearbox Software step out of the shadows just as the price is jacked up by more than 40%. It is like having your blood pressure meds nearly doubled in price, only to find out Martin Shrkeli purchased the company responsible for creating your medication.
Those people like me who don’t trust the game’s newly-revealed publisher feel it’s a shameless cash grab. And it may well be, the fact of the matter is the price increase announcement coming right of the announcement that Gearbox Software will be the publisher seems far too coincidental to me at least. Having said thay We Happy Few was woefully unfinished the last time I played it, and yes I realize it is an early access game. It isn’t worth the $30 I paid for it, and likely won’t be worth $50 at release. This looks like a really odd thing to do, raising the price this much, are there that many people hyped for We Happy Few that will be willing to spend $50.99 on it?! I know I won’t. If I was part of Compulsion Games marketing team I would have done some research regarding my target audience market, before they shoot themselves in the foot by doing this.
I usually have nothing against a video game increasing in price. If something happens that I feel justifies that increase. And personally, I think it is a bad move on Compulsion Games part at $50.99 they will be competing against various Triple-A titles including Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, F1 2017 and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite just to mention a few. Compulsion Games is an unproven developer producing an unproven franchise. I think it is pretty safe to say Compulsion Games will lose a lot of costumers due to these rather bizarre financial choices. But I am guessing time will tell, whether people will vote with their wallets or not. And if Compulsion Games were sincerely expecting no one to react adversely to this sequence of events, then they were clearly mistaken. Judging from the online reactions I am inclined to think they will be losing a vast majority of their supporters.
[Editorial Note:] I am well aware that Compulsion Games said the games price will increase when finally released. But by more than 40%, not to mention the timing seems awfully suspicious to me…