As The Outer Worlds 2 hits $80, director says "we don't set the prices for our games" and wishes "everybody could play" Obsidian's new RPG

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• M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  If its as light as the first one, all I can say is “YARRRG”

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• 4grams@awful.systems ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I really enjoyed the first game, not AAA new game price enjoyment though. I mean, I got as much fun out of it while playing as I have anything else, it just wasn’t as rich and deep as a fallout game. I give it a pass since it’s establishing a new universe but as much as I liked it, it’s most certainly a blue light special fallout clone.

  So, asking inflated AAA prices seems, somewhat short sighted. I’d absolutely pay what I did for the first game, 80 bucks is a hard no for me though. I might buy it when it’s cheaper, but by then I’ll likely have seen enough clips, read enough reviews and gotten busy enough to just forget about it.

  Bummer.

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• setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Setting aside prices, I’ve seen an unexpected amount of sourness directed at the first game. While the first game wasn’t a greatest of all time RPG and had flaws, I found it overall enjoyable enough and it was clearly a project with some passion that I didn’t regret sinking time into it.

  I expect similar of the sequel, with hopefully improvements based on feedback from the first game. I plan to have fun with the game, and it is a bit tiring to see things like the pricing prompting people to badmouth the game itself when they are separate things.

  Am I going to pay $80? No. No I’m not. This is a single player RPG though. There’s no FOMO of getting left behind on the multiplayer unlocks or the lore of a new season. It’s a singleplayer game. Put it on the wishlist and buy it on a sale. Simple as.

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  • zaphod@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The first game wasn’t bad, but it didn’t really feel like a full price title.

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    • any1th3r3@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      What does that even mean? And what do you consider “full price worthy” in that case?

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  • radix@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’ve always maintained that the first was a fine game that was tanked by the price. It was priced to drive gamepass subs, not sell the game. At $35-40, it would have been received much better, imo. Years later, now that it’s more appropriately priced, it seems to be more well-reviewed.

    Unfortunately the second is going down the same path. It may take 5+ years for the game to be appreciated to its fullest (assuming no glaring issues), through no fault of the devs.

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    • herrvogel@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It was a fine game that was tanked by the massive inconsistency of its quality as you progressed. The game starts out absolutely fantastic, but the quality takes a very sharp and sudden fall after a few hours, and then it just sorta ends not long after. It was a very weird experience. Definitely felt like something went very wrong during development and they had to make big changes.

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  • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I tried giving it a chance but it just felt like a bad Fallout 3 with Borderlands writing. Got to like the third planet I think and I dropped it.

    I really liked Avowed though, which elicited similar reactions.

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    • setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The expectation that it was an open world modern style Fallout game does seem to be a theme among people who didn’t like it. That wasn’t helped by pre-release marketing that emphasized it came from the studio that made New Vegas (despite the writers and game leads all being different).

      I went in to the game without expectations and found the structure of the game closer to a classic BioWare RPG. Rather than a single huge open world it was a series of curated hubs to travel between. At those hubs there was space to explore but it was more limited and curated than a full open world. The more curated approach meant that the game could be designed with certain builds in mind since players would interact with certain areas coming from known directions, allowing alternate routes or quest solutions for different builds to be placed.

      Accepting it as a hub based RPG that leaned into a specialized build made the game click for me.

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    • Screen_Shatter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Besides that I just kept feeling like it was “been here, done that”. I remember at one point there is a small village and you have to choose to pull their power source or leave it and it felt so damn familiar, I didn’t bother continuing much past that. I felt like if I hadn’t played a bunch of elder scrolls and fallout games it was probably great but for me it was so much retreading old ground I couldn’t stay interested.

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    • CMLVI@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I made it maybe 20 min before I un-installed. I don’t vibe with Fallout in general (but I’ll suffer through them) and with the writing style, just wasn’t my thing. Maybe the 2nd one is a bit more polished and I can get into it cause I heard good things.

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  • GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The first game got heat for no other reason than it was an Epic exclusive. Pissy pants gamers were upset it wasn’t on their monopoly.

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    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I got it for cheap layer (I almost never buy new games) and found it kinda shallow and boring. I wanted to like it, I love the theme and settings but ehhhhhhhhh

      It was hyped up to be Space Fallout and I did not get Space Fallout out of it. Even like… Space Bad Fallout. I just got mediocre space game.

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    • endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It also wasn’t up to the obsidian standards we come to expect.

      But then again i understand not being able to realise it was not a well written or designed game as a large chunk of people think starfield wasn’t that bad.

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    • ms_lane@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Also it was just… Boring.

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  • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I know a lot of people hyped up Outer Worlds as a spiritual successor to New Vegas and were disappointed when it didn’t reach the same height of writing. Obsidian not being given any time to make New Vegas and then missing their contracted bonus payout by a single Metacritic point was brought up a lot before release, and gamers trumpeted this new game as what Obsidian could have made without Bethesda mismanagement. Then it came out and had the temerity to be average.

    It wasn’t Obsidian’s or the game’s fault that people decided it had to be a 10/10 masterpiece, it just got caught up in a stupid fanbase war against Bethesda and its reputation suffered as a result when it couldn’t meet people’s sky-high expectations.

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    • ms_lane@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Obsidian themselves were hyping it up…

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  • Lesrid@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The first game was like RPG soul food. It didn’t do anything new, the gameplay was fine and the story wasn’t bad. Nothing innovative but nothing poorly executed. I think people should look to the game as explanation for why Nintendo doesn’t make the ‘normal Mario game’ they want. Innovation is the simplest way to dress up a game, even if you like the loop it’s healthier if the sequel is different.

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    • katze@lemmy.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I honestly don’t know why so many game journalists and bloggers are obsessed with innovations, and judge games based on that. A game doesn’t need to reinvent a genre to be good and enjoyable.

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• Newsteinleo@midwest.social ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  If you assume 25% of player will buy at 80, 50% will buy at $50, and 25% will buy at $20. Per 100 buyers they stand to make $5,000. However if they start at $50 with 75% of buys buying at that price, they will make $4,250. This is about maximizing profit by selling to fans with deep pockets first then discounting latter to captured the rest of the player base.

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  • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    That tactic would work if it was a multiplayer game or a major franchise but with a single player cookie cutter game there’s no urgency for me to get started and no FOMO. It just isn’t that interesting of an IP

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    • Newsteinleo@midwest.social ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      right, so that would put you into the 50% or the lower 25%, but there are people that will buy higher price, and as long as there is 1% willing to buy before the first sale it is worth it for them.

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    • swelter_spark@reddthat.com ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Space rats make it an buy for me, but I’ll still wait until it’s 75% off.

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    • billwashere@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Also very true. I’ll just wait.

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    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      People still will, because lots of people spoil, some like watching streaming etc. When new stuff comes out and I’m not ready to start it, it often also involves stop visiting certain communities, discords, etc.

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  • billwashere@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    But what they don’t take into account is that 75% all at once creates an excitement buzz around the game that ends up causing even more sales then would ever happen otherwise. Look at games like Pokémon go or PalWorld that generated so much buzz. I tried both of them because of the hype and I normally wouldn’t have bothered otherwise.

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    • Newsteinleo@midwest.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      With a game like there has probably been existence market research to account for how much buzz the game will get. They may even be counting on the buzz to sell more copies at full price.

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  • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    So if we assume the world is a magical place where poor people don’t exist, it makes perfect sense.

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    • Newsteinleo@midwest.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      That is exactly how people making these decisions think. Its all numbers to them, there are no people involved in their thinking.

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• FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  With all due respect, outer worlds is a $40 game at best.

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  • Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    As a huge fan of Obsidian I strongly agree with you.

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  • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I think I had it on my wish list because I was never going to pay full price and then when it came down in price I looked again at it and I just thought nah, I actually don’t care. So I never bought it.

    They’re not exactly starting from a solid foundation.

    If any game was going to get away with being $80 it’d be something like grand theft auto or one of the next call of duties, not this one. But maybe they’re trailing it on a game that they know will only be moderately successful at best anyway, that way they don’t lose huge amounts of money if it fails to win over players.

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• Phegan@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Bummer, but that’s gonna be a no from me, dog.

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• Owlboi@lemm.ee ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  i will continue to enjoy my indie games that cost me 5€, thanks.

  better yet my free games like warframe that have cost me nothing and given me thousands of hours of enjoyment.

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  • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Seriously! I got a $50 steam gift card for Christmas, bought one full price dlc (Shadow of the Erdtree) and like five or so indie games that I’ve put way more time in!

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• Bentheredonethat@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  When game prices reach 80 dollars, I reach an era where games have ceased to be that important. Path of exile all year long

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  • M137@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    You don’t need to get just new games. Do what a ton of people do: wait till they’re on sale. There is literally no hurry, wait till any game reaches the price point you think its worth. And then you get the best possible version of the game, both in terms of patches and most of the time with DLC included.

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• Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Wishes everybody could play

  Good news!

  As long as it doesn’t have Denovu, we can!

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  • Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    What is Denonvu?

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    • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      A DRM that is notorious for being not only hard to crack, but also causes performance issues in the games that use it.

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  • Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Fit Girl Repacks here we go.

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• DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  “this is Microsoft fault. Please don’t blame us.”

  Gotta say props for having the balls to say that

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  • BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    It sounds nice, and yeah, that’s primarily publisher responsibility, but developers are allowed to talk to their publishers about pricing strategy. Framing it as if they have zero responsibility is a bit of a cop out. Limited comments and we don’t have the full story, but it makes it kind of sound like they didn’t even bring it up.

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    • DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      We don’t know if they tried to “talk” to Microsoft and they said “do as your fucking told.”

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    • MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Absolutely. Sure Publishers want their cut, but it’s an agreement between Dev and pub. This just feels like Bungie blaming Acti-Blizz for all the things people didn’t like about Destiny.

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    • katze@lemmy.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      You’re trying too hard to put the blame on the wrong party.

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    • kortex64@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Microsoft isn’t their publisher, they’re their owner. You’re utterly deluded if you think Obsidian is in any capacity to talk the price down with Microsoft, especially after Avowed failed.

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• endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Microsoft makes the world worse again. Fuck ms, go linux.

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• But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Support your local libraries. My city’s library system is so good that I borrow games on release day all the time. You get them for 1-2 weeks, Most games that are older than a few weeks you can keep for up to 3 weeks, which gives me plenty of time to knock them off my list. Im sure I’ll get this one soon enough, im currently playing AC Shadows which I borrowed

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  • Psythik@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Borrowing games from the library? How does that even work? Do they give you a Steam login and just change the password every 2 weeks or something?

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    • But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Ah, you’re one of those who think only pc gaming exists

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    • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      There’s these things called consoles, that let you put a disk in, they both contains the game and a license to play it.

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    • mesitoispro@ttrpg.network ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I honestly don’t know, but my local library apparently has something similar.

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    • Panda@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Not sure how it works nowadays, actually! As a child I would borrow PC and PlayStation games from the library. They were physical copies of course. But with Steam keys and all I’m not sure!

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    • Jankatarch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Imagine they just crack it.

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• notgivingmynametoamachine@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Yar har fiddle dee, 80 bucks a game just ain’t for me, yar har fiddle and fat, I’ll just fucking sail the high seas numbnuts publishers, good job trading the 60 bucks I was willing to pay for the 0 you’ll be getting from me now.

  And remember kids, if buying isn’t owning, pirating isn’t stealing.

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• als@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Everyone can play your game 🏴‍☠️

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• zecg@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Just as heads up, Obsidian, I’ll require this to be at least 75% off if it’s good and over 20 hours of single-player campaign. If it’s shorter, I can be enticed at 90% off. I’ll wait for a few years, no problem, my family group backlog is in the thousands.

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  • Goodeye8@piefed.social ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Them: "we don't set the price".

    You: "I'll buy it if you set a lower price".

    So people don't even read the headlines anymore?

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    • zecg@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      No, I’ve seen it, that is feedback and it should be invaluable to all interested parties, not only those who set the price.

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• LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I won’t buy this at full price, when Outer World’s two goes on sale at 50% or more off, that is when I will buy it! By then, all the major bugs should be resolved, and new content will be making this game even better. I blame Obsidian Games from not trying to shout down Microsoft and fight them in a Waffle House parking lot over this price.

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  • MimicJar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    While the company would love you to buy it at launch for $80, they’re fine if you wait for a (first party) sale.

    Look at the first Outer World. At launch sold for $60. Three months post launch, $50. Six months post launch, $40. One year post launch, $30.

    If this new game sells the exact same, but starts at $80, they’re ahead. Even if the $80 number scares away a lot of people, they’re ahead. Only if it scares away a shit ton of people will it be a problem.

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    • LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      In a way, I hope it scares enough gamers away that it sends a message. I want there to be repercussions, Nintendo might get away with it (due to fanbase), but other companies need to be curtailed and fast!

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  • Lemminary@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    !patientgamers@lemmy.world

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• echodot@feddit.uk ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Wasn’t the first game entirely average? And now he wants $80 for the sequel.

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  • Widdershins@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The only thing that stands out thinking about the game is the dialog choices you get when you play through the game with really low intelligence. I think it gets the best ending.

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• sevan@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I bought the first one for $20. For the second I’ll play on Game Pass, if it is available, or again wait for $20. Maybe even less if I forget about it, which I might.

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  • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    One of the theories behind this game’s price is Microsoft is trying to force more people onto the premium game pass.

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• Antaeus@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  80? What the hell?

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  • mesitoispro@ttrpg.network ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Some analyst determined people are willing to pay it, so that’s what they’re going to charge.

    It has nothing to do with the actual costs of production.

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• inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Pretty much. Greedy publishers are just following Nintendo’s lead that they can fleece gamers for more.

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  • endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Its cause absolute idiots keep preordering digital products at full price.

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• DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Then why DRM?

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• commander@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I’ll play the game in like 4-5 years like how I played the first one years later for way cheaper. So cheap I couldn’t be disappointed with the writing and just enjoyed the solid but unremarkable game

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• normalexit@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  It’ll go on sale for $15 eventually. I can wait.

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• NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The evolution of game design has basically been dead for a few years now, so shouldn’t the process just get cheaper?

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  • Lemminary@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    For AAA games, maybe, but not for indie. The best and most innovative games out there are not made by major studios.

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    • mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Obsidian hasn’t been an indie for at least 7 years now.

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    • ms_lane@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      This is a ‘AAA’ game.

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  • abbotsbury@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Fidelity and it’s consequences have been a disaster for the budget size

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• valkyrieangela@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  GabeN save us

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  • GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Yes. The libertarian monopolist will save gaming.

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    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Ah yes, classic Steam, paying devs big money to make their new release exclusive to Steam and unable to be purchased on any other lau—oh wait, that was another company?!

      Well, at least now you have the capitalist monopoly here to save you! All hail!

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• MITM0@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  But can we focus on optimizing games so thst it runs on the most potato of potato PCs ??

  I think that’ll work wonders along with the pricing

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• falynns@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Games were $60 three decades ago, inflation hits us all.

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• Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  It’s gonna be on gamepass, thats the cheap option.

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  • ms_lane@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    FitGirl will be the cheap option.

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• fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Heavy respect to obsidian. Outer worlds is a great game, i wish i could buy full price going to obsidian only. Fuck M$

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• Gwingollor@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Doesn’t matters the masses will complain online, bit still pay it.

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