It might help to say that I am an avid Steam customer, I buy at least a couple of new games each month and I have a decent (on and off Steam) collection of more than 300 games all bought in the last 10 years. So I am familiar with game prices, and I have a good feeling of what prices we gamers perceive as "right" in terms of game value when we consider making a purchase.

I think the best thing that could happen to this game would be a price drop. Currently at 40$ most people think "at 42$ I can get total war or similar game of this genre instead", they never think twice about buying a new game from an unknown developer. I have been eyeing this game for months now, but each time I had money to spend I ended up with another game instead (Mass Effect 2, Anno, Bioshock 2, Napoleon, Civilization pack, Dragon Age, etc). Because at 40$ it just seems better to add 10$ and buy a big name / guaranteed value, or one of the smaller/cheaper games than take a risk.

Many games (DrakenSang at 29$ at launch, or Torchlight at 19$ to name a few) have used an agressive price strategy and got great results.

Given the nature of the game (RPG/RTS hybrid), its state (need some polish + bug and quests fixing), its low visibility (I found it by accident and none of my gamer friends heard of it, even if we are all fans of this genre of games), and the fact that this is a great year for gaming and the current wide selection of quality "big name" games being released, my feeling is that this game in its current state should be sold between 20$ and 30$... 20$ is the instant-buy price (for most of us who are into RTS or RPGs/story driven games, even for that little pen and paper D&D flavor), and 29$ should be a maximum price. Above 30$ you discourage buying because the game will be constantly compared to other games and seem like a risky investment.

Don't get me wrong, the game is great, original, and deep. It has a few flaws, but in the end it is fun and all that is missing is a good price/value ratio to make it sell well, or just plain "better" if it is already doing fine. So My suggestion is a price drop to 29.x$, with the occasional 14-19$ (<50%) weekend sales.

Maybe it's just me, but here the other day I checked Steam and it sold for 29.90 Euro's or 31.90 with the DLCs. I think this price is dirt cheap, really. There was a sale not so long ago as well.

Empire Total War still sells for 49.90 Euro, and that game is quite inferior in many aspects to KA. Especially the battle AI. I've been a TW-fan since Shogun, have all releases, and yet KA just swept me away Even Darth loved it (for those that know one of the greatest modders in TW-history).

While I do think the occasional sale is nice, I think KA is priced just about right. But hey, that's me! When the game is one year old, I'd expect it to land somewhere between 19.90 and 24.90 Euros.

KA price is back to 39 USD after a short time promotion. But has you say, should Neocore had been more effective at promoting and polishing its game it would have deserved its current price.

As for now, I agree with you, the price and the one of its add on, are too high, in regard to the game profile , to compete with blockbusters such as NTW.

This is your opinion after playing both games, meaning you already bought them.

Someone who has played none of them and has to decide between total war and KA just from reputation and with little information. He will go for the well known name because "for a near equal price" the familiar name is less risky.

- A new title from a new developers means higher risk -> lower sales. You have to compensate this with lower prices to tempt the buyer with a good deal.
- Also the most important thing for a new studio is visibility. On the long run it is more profitable for a new studio to "cast a wide net" with a cheaper game that will sell well and get their name out there than plan from the get go to sell a lower number of copies and compensate with higher profit margin on each copy.
- Also since they are releasing DLCs it is better to sell more of the original game so there will be more buyers for the additional content. Here the risk for the buyer is very low because they are already familiar with the game, so the DLCs can be priced higher and make more profit.

There will probably be a Steam all-in-one sale some time after the next DLC/Expansions, or maybe at the same time for all I know. Steam often does that sort of thing.

When I buy a new game, I never buy the one that is most familiar to me or most known just by that fact alone. I search the Internet for new games, and try to read up on the reviews available from both users and magazines. When I read an article, it is easy to read between the lines if the author is obsessive with the game and thus may give it an unnatural high score or the opposite and a unnatural low score is given. Or if it is truly a balanced review, which brings forth the good and bad sides equally. And I really do not need to find many different ones to make up my mind, a few reputable and known sites is enough. Which KA already has. Based on this, I would easily deduct that at this current time KA would be a better buy than ETW, for example, if I want a superior tactical battle AI, a great story and otherwise a change of scenery from the TW-games.

Now, I might of course be a very special kind of gamer but I don't feel that I am. I think people that are serious for gaming would research a game in the same manner. I don't think people that pick up games in the bargain-bin will be playing this or any game on a regular basis in a greater number than those that are actively searching for this kind of genre and play it vigorously. But, of course, I might be totally wrong. It is just my opinion.

And I do think 30 Euro's is cheap. Here I can't buy more than four beers for that sum of money, if I'd ever go to a bar

Gabe Newell said about the steam sales when a game is 75% off it sells 400% copies that weekend and makes 15% more profit. Or something similar in his keynote speech at a recent conference.

He said many games out sold their opening weekends when they went on sale, Left for Dead 2 being one of them and everyone made more money.

Price on Steam : £29.99
Price on impulse: £13.79

That's quite a disparity. Unfortunately I can't buy the whole game from impulse - the DLC isn't available there.

Price of DLC 1 on Steam: £1.49
Price of DLC 2 on Steam: £1.49

I hate buying part of a game. To me DLC is just a bit of the game that should've been included in the original game or provided as a post-release value add. If you want more money, create a proper expansion that justifies the effort of pulling a card out of my pocket.

Luckily Steam does give me the option of buying the game + DLC 1 + DLC 2 as a single pack. So my criteria (buy the whole game is met).

Slight problem. To quote Steam:


Yep. Steam would like to charge me an extra £3.52 for the privilege of making a single purchase instead of three.

I think it's safe to say that this represents a lost sale.

Like to know if KA will get sale when the new dlc, played the demo which was fantastic but hoping to get the game and all the dlc

KA is still 49.90€. When it was first released (not in central europe mind you) I'd say it would've been worth the money after I've seen WEEKLY updates and patches.
Now you have to wait MONTHS for something to come from the devs and the price is still the same.

A heavily singeplayer-oriented game with next to no support isn't worth 49.90€ nowadays.
Also: I don't want to support Steams 1$=1€ policy,which is just bullshit and a rip-off.

Steam makes the price not Neocore, so complain about the price in the steamforums ...