Support NeoGAF

[GhaleonEB]

Some comments are weird... Game development is expensive and this game looks polished as fuck. Price seems justified.

Hope it gets positive reviews.

Indeed. A small team spent 7 years building it, and it grew dramatically in scope during that time. Despite the project expansion, they maintained a very high bar for polish and quality. The previews have been excellent all around.

Given the scope and quality on display, that seems like a very fair price. I wonder how many people will get hung up on the genre, and refuse to pay more than X amount for a puzzle game.

 

[Chobel]

Shaking my head very hard at many posts in this thread, just because a game is digital/indie game doesn't mean it should be priced $20 or less.

 

[entremet]

The people are the problem, not Plus.

I agree, but consumer behavior is influenced by this stuff too.

You can't deny it.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

I think people really need to get out of the mindset that a game's like this should "cheap." I fear the No Man's Sky price reveal will be a trainwreck

Oh, it's absolutely going to be.

 

[HockeyDud]

Are we seriously complaining about a puzzle game that includes over 600 puzzles? That's a shit ton of content if you ask me. Blow expects it'll take players anywhere from 80-100 hours to complete every puzzle in the game...

 

[jett]

Same price as The Talos Principle, curiously.

Anyway, I like that there's no pre-order incentive whatsoever.

 

[komplanen]

I'm going to pay the price and play the game. I'll bitch about it afterwards if necessary.

 

[Tsosie]

I think I am in for 40. I do kind of hope we get a better idea of what the deep game puzzles may be like before release.

 

[FeelTheKick]

I wonder how many of you would throw 60$ at some 5 hour game just because it was made by a known company. Some of the comments here are pathetic.

 

[0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55]

so much salt

things cost money?

 

[reminder]

Was expecting 30€ - 40€, so it's still a day 1 purchase for me.

 

[TemplaerDude]

Didn't he dump all of his life savings into this? There's no way a game that took this long to make and cost that much was ever going to be a 20 dollar title, not in this day and age. I'm fine with the price and look forward to playing this!

 

[Get_craycray]

It's nice for folks with slower internet if they can preload in advance, but that's really the only reason I can think of

Yeah I forgot about that.

 

[YianGaruga]

Same price as The Talos Principle, curiously.

Anyway, I like that there's not pre-order incentive whatsoever.

I bet it would have been cheaper if Talos bombed. But it didn't, so its a good price point for this kind of game

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

If you want mid tier development back you have to be prepared to pay fair prices. Just like Talos Principle this is a day 1 for me.

Pretty much this

 

[Dicktatorship]

Dude went into debt to make this game, gotta get that money back somehow.

 

[wowzors]

The price is fine, was expecting $60. Now to wait on the impressions of framte rate. Looked a little low on ps4 so may be purchasing on steam.

 

[stuminus3]

That's only like $75,295 Canadian dollars. Nice.

 

[maquiladora]

Seems expensive at first but if there really is 25+ hours worth there then I guess that's good value.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Wow, all these people who were eagerly awaiting this game are balking at the price even though it's still $20 cheaper than most retail games and purportedly longer, too.

Will wait for sale? This is why we can't have nice things. Put up or shut up, I say.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Game started development in 2008 so it's been in development for the better part of a decade. Blow invested all of his money made from Braid plus some into its development. It has high profile voice acting and is apparently huge (with estimates of 50+ hours). Whether or not there's a market for a relatively big budget Myst: Evolved style game in this day and age is debatable, but you're nuts if you thought it was going to be a $10-$20 game.

 

[AmuroChan]

Holy shit!!!

Last gen, XBLA/PSN games were normally $10 or $15. This gen, they went up to $15 or $20 and now $40??? Are you fucking kidding me???

No thanks.

No, it's called progression. Indie games are taking the next step and getting bigger in both scope and production values. This game isn't a 5-hour 2D game that would normally cost $10-$15. It's a 100 hour game in a fully 3D world. Not all Indie games are created equal, nor should they be all priced the same.

 

[Doug Heffernan]

Didn't he dump all of his life savings into this? There's no way a game that took this long to make and cost that much was ever going to be a 20 dollar title, not in this day and age. I'm fine with the price and look forward to playing this!

I don't know about life savings, but I read that he used up all his Braid money on this.

 

[Disaster Nebraska]

For a ~100-hour game and what appears to be one of the biggest puzzle games in a long time, I don't think that's too bad.

It'll definitely limit it's market potential, but I think it's a good price for puzzle fans.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Some comments are weird... Game development is expensive and this game looks polished as fuck. Price seems justified.

Hope it gets positive reviews.

I really hate this trend of people wanting their media to be super dirt cheap without understanding the costs involved to bring them the quality they want. It's not just games but movies and TV too.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

And shaking my head very hard at many posts in this thread, just because a game is digital/indie game doesn't mean it should be priced $20 or less.

Yep.

Got The Talos Principle at launch and it is one of my favourite games ever made. Currently have 230+ hours in it and it was worth full price and more IMO. The Witness sounds like it's my kind of game and $40 is completely justified. Can't wait for the release.

 

[Venom Fox]

Guys and girls. Just because it's an indie game, it doesn't have to be priced the same as others when this game has 100% more stuff to complete. It's taken the team YEARS to bring us this game.

 

[entremet]

Didn't he dump all of his life savings into this? There's no way a game that took this long to make and cost that much was ever going to be a 20 dollar title, not in this day and age. I'm fine with the price and look forward to playing this!

Yes. He did the same with Braid.

More here:

http://www.polygon.com/features/201...-jonathan-blow-interview-ps4-playstation-4-pc

 

[More_Badass]

$40
The Witness
Kerbal Space Program
Divinity Original Sin
The Talos Principle
Wasteland 2
Planetary Annihiliation
Offworld Trading Company
Wreckfest

$30
Warhammer Vermintide
Prison Architect
SOMA
Endless Legend
Satellite Reign
The Age of Decadence
Descent: Underground

$25
Grim Dawn
Space Engineers
Chivalry
Infinifactory
Depth
Hand of Fate
Kentucky Route Zero
Else.Heart.Break
Broken Age

Why were people expecting $15-$20 again?

 

[GhaleonEB]

Didn't he dump all of his life savings into this? There's no way a game that took this long to make and cost that much was ever going to be a 20 dollar title, not in this day and age. I'm fine with the price and look forward to playing this!

Yeah, everything Blow made on Braid, and then some, went into the game.

I added some context about the size of the game to the OP.

 

[- J - D -]

No wait, I get it now. Wow, indie game culture has really sullied the well in terms of pricing expectations.

 

[DNAbro]

To the people saying its twice what you expected, have you been followIng the development? Its over 100hours to complete (100%), in line with a full fledged game. Myst games had less puzzles!

I would pay AAA full retail price for this game without blinking.

i haven't actually been following so I just expected a 10-15 hour game. It's cool but I'm not interested enough to pay $40 for it.

 

[WhoaIsThatMars]

I was expecting $60 so this is good news

 

[Pai Pai Master]

I hate this fucking arbitrary price ceiling that people place on a game just because it's "indie". To the people expecting as low as $15 for this game, what were you basing this off of?

$40 seems like a fine price for what they've made, the work that went into it and the amount of time and content involved in playing it. Is it mentalities like this that killed the mid-budget game?

 

[Ridley327]

Oh, it's absolutely going to be.

I really can't imagine anything less than $40. The scope is way too damn big for <$20.

 

[Disaster Nebraska]

If you want mid tier development back you have to be prepared to pay fair prices.

This is a very wise comment. Thank you.

 

[ramoisdead]

Dude sank all his money developing this game for all this time. I thought this was going to be priced at $30, to be honest. I'll wait for reviews and impressions before diving in since there'll be no special launch discount or preorder bonuses.

 

[farisr]

Disappointed.

Not at the price but at some of the reactions in this thread.

 

[Cyberia]

I'm not sure what people were expecting but Blow was very clear on the hours of gameplay the game will offer.

There’s a lot here. When we started making this game, I figured it would have between 8 and 12 hours of playtime. As it happens, the game we’ve finally built is around 10 times as big as that: if you are a completionist who wants to wring every last drop out of the game, you might expect to play for 80 hours, or possibly 100. For people who don’t want to go quite that far, the game’s still got plenty for you.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/09/17/the-witness-launches-on-ps4-january-26-2016/

 

[Cleve]

Wow, lots of people assuming the game is overpriced.

I have no idea how much content is included, but it's been in development a long time. I can't wait to try it out.

I never see this level of reaction to a price for most games. What makes you guys assume it should be priced at $15-$20?

 

[family_guy]

Not a bad price. I wonder how it will compare to Talos Principle. In that game, it was the story that motivated me to continue with the puzzles, but in this games it seems like it's just puzzles with a very light story, is that right?

 

[Sun Bather]

If you're that upset over the price just wait for a fucking sale. It's a video game, they drop in price quickly.

 

[AmaterasuOni]

Excellent price! Challenge accepted!

 

[Dingotech]

I still don't get the appeal of the game. If the whole thing is those line puzzles then it doesn't really appeal to me.

Happy to have it surprise me though.

 

[entremet]

I really hate this trend of people wanting their media to be super dirt cheap without understanding the costs involved to bring them the quality they want. It's not just games but movies and TV too.

It has to do with internet and piracy devaluing media. It's sad. Good art takes time, money and effort.

If you want amateurish stuff that's cheap go to Youtube and weep.

 

[Begaria]

I've seen The Talos Principle mentioned a few times here and that's absolutely an point comparison to make. Talos Principle took me about 30 hours to complete, and it's $50 on PS4/$40 on PC. If The Witness is as good and as long as Talos Principle, totally justified price.

Portal 2 was also a full priced game, and it's a first person puzzle game as well. Just to put this in perspective.

 

[fantomena]

Day 1. From what Ive been following it seems like Blow has put a shitload of time, money and resource into the game.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

That's pretty steep regardless of length because of indie game pricing expectations. I'm curious how much it will hurt the game's sales.

 

[pargonta]

sounds good, let's go!

I was in at any price though

 

[paperspace]

I'm not going to blame Sony for something Blow should have known. Much like his complaints about stuff on XBLA years ago, it's him and not the service at fault.

So you can't criticize it for being a bad system? I mean it's not an issue for Steam.