What are your thoughts on the Civilization 7 Founders Edition? Do you think the practice of having multiple editions and pre-order bonuses is helpful or hurtful for the industry as a whole?
The early access part will be a great way for them to sell more of these founders editions. I suppose I'd say these multiple editions are helpful for the industry as a whole - they get more money and, though we might grumble about it, we still buy it anyway.
I purchased Civ 1-6. Won't be ordering this until it goes on sale. If at all. For double the money, they should have some way to put ME into the game, and create my own Civ based on cherry picking attributes of other civs.
You should do a follow up video after the DLC is released critiquing this video. Let us know if you believe the founders edition was worth it for the average player. I do not have a problem with multiple editions because I believe early adopters should get more content for a better value (I won't be buying the founders edition btw). That being said there needs to be more transparency on pricing for that idea to work. I also do not like missable items that are time-gated in games.
Civ 6 and 7 are the least of our problems. Easily over 1000+ hours of gameplay with infinite replayability. Companies like EA, Ubisoft and Epic are the true villains of the industry. (Feel free to mention others, but these are the ones that came to mind) Further to this, the companies that are predatory towards kids and their need to buy skins and various packs, that's just disgusting.
Another point i greatly despise about this current gaming industry is the whole concept of preordering. Back in the day you visited your local store to preorder because there were only a certain amount of physical discs carried by stores. The store didn't want to go ahead and order thousands of discs in case the game may flop so sometimes there wasn't enough to go around on launch day. Now preordering is solely based on these little bonuses because that's the only way to sell them before reviews come in. The store fronts certainly aren't gonna tell customers that the store is closed for today because all the games ran out...
I pre-ordered Civ 3 in 2001, because it was rare to see physical copies of civ games in my local store. It was a collectors edition that came in a large tin. The price was $60, which would be $106 in today's money. Civ 7 will be the first I don't buy at launch.
I'm not sure if I will preorder the game (with an additional discount it will cost me €62 here in Germany). First I want to see some actual gameplay. There are some content creators in my country that probably will be able to play and show gameplay before release. I I like the game I will preorder the cheapest edition because of this bonus (Tecumseh) for I have a personal relationship to it. I will not buy any of the more expensive versions - as Van said, if they value people who have played the older editions (and I am a veteran of CIV I) by letting them play some days earlier, fine. But I won't spend money for just having to wait five days less.
This is incorrect. And not predatory at all. As if there's a better option. What to not have preorders? Get real. I can buy a game on release. Great. Or I have an option to pre-order at my own volition to get something extra in advance. OK great. There is no evidence or anything that this could be wrong or unethical. It's a perfectly valid options that benefits consumers who like having it. And has no effect on anybody who isn't interested. Which is no different from the absolute complete and utter insanity of this entire video. Comparing Resident Evil not having additional options to a game that offers additional options. As if having additional purchase options prevents you from getting the base game. I absolutely guarantee if Resident Even 4 had additional purchase options like Deluxe and Foundational, then it would be perfectly fine. And more of a benefit to those who are interested. With absolutely no effect on anybody purchasing the base game. These rants such as this video are based in complete psychosis with no concept of reality or how ethics works. Civ 7 has a base game for $70. A high price that is perfectly fine for what they want to set. They offer additional content for $30, and more content for another $30. Great options for whoever is interested in them. So far, I have no interest in anything other than the base game. But depending on more info, I might go for the second option. I have no intention of going for the third option. However, it is perfectly valid for anybody who is interested in it.
I mean to be completely fair if we as a community and as a whole if people didn't pay for this shit we wouldn't have this problem. So of course companies are gonna push as much as they can because they know someone will pay for it.
That’s the point of regulations. Capitalism is an extortionate system, it relies on the most animalistic behaviors of humans. Humans are not going to change, so something more permanent like regulations have to be implemented.
Thing is, I can deal with a big up front cost, if all the following DLC's are included: if you are going to make people pay for DLC later, the base game price should be low... Edit: this being said that Civ tends to have multiple DLC
The true problem are the predatory investors and business suits that drive the decision-making. Games are expensive to make and the price needs to compensate that, however the games need to be catered to the consumer and not to try to maximize profit at all cost. They destroy careers and games themselves by doing these predatory practices, that's why the industry is in flames right now.
Definitely a well thought out opinion that I can get behind. It is starting to become a bit worrying. Hot take here, but I feel that this started once games were starting to be patched. It may be a great tool to fix a bug or glitch that may have slipped through testing, but when it becomes a situation where games are being released half finished because a patch can be released, that is not for the consumers benefit. Most in-game purchases too seem more predatory than actually about giving the consumer a proper product. Things like season passes come to mind, where you spend x amount of money to then have the ability to earn cosmetics, new items, etc, instead of getting what you pay for right then. Now you have to play and unlock the items you paid for in the pass or you may lose them, and what you spent on it. They seem more like anxiety generators and player retention devices more than anything.
Great points! As a fan of Civ since Civ 1 I find switching from “best fans in gaming” to “our loyal cashcows” quite disappointing to the level I will wait until the inevitable heavy discount of Civ 7 enjoying Civ 6 in the process.
Excellent analysis, and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I've been playing Civilization since the first edition and this is the first one that I am going to be actively avoiding, in a large part due to this Sims-esque, predatory pricing and gutting of the primary product in favour of DLC bombardment. I live in Australia, and the cost here is even higher than in Canada. It's just absurd and abhorrent in my eyes. They clearly see us, the consumers, as irrational marks and it's up to us to show them that we are the ones who actually have the power in this market.
Love how clear cut you put it. It's so disappointing to see FIraxis and CIV fall into the abhorrent mobilie-gaming-predatory-gotcha-schemes. CIV does not need this. They, above all, should hold the bastion of good and complete games as in the past, and show they and CIV have won the test of time.
@@Copper_Penny Yet I have seen nothing in the video that indicates anything predatory going on here Or Sims. Or some problem with the industry. Just loaded statements, but nothing explaining anything harmful going on. Since the first Sims, they realized they can make money off of expansions that bring fun enhancements to the game. So they went crazy with it in Sims 2. And have used it more in subsequent games. Yet nothing predatory or even harmful. Users benefit. The best example is RimWorld. A very independent game that started out with small budget. Four expansions have been released. But they're all more like evolutionary designs over the base game. So there pretty much mandatory. Especially the first and second one. However, there's nothing manipulative or harmful from the dev. They also update the base game with huge improvements/features every time they have released an expansion. Civilization is high priced. Which is based on solid success of previous games in the franchise. Which does not come easy. They can set a high price for a new game because of the quality they put info their previous games. Therefore, a high demand. There is completely nothing wrong with raising the price to what is most profitable for your hard work. The same goes for bonus content. Also high price. Yet there has been nothing whatsoever shown in this video of anything wrong. User is mad about bonus content, but is not aware, they have marked up the price no different from the base game. What you're getting is not unclear. The value of what you're getting is less than normal for the price But that also applies to the base game All of which are marked up. Normally, it would be $60. And $25 for each additional edition. Nothing is ambiguous here There's early access included in bonus content if prepurchased. That is in addition to what the prices are actually based on which is everything else you're getting. They have in no way shape or form manipulated anything regarding fear of missing out. And it is indeed an early access. Great. These offers and other games are great. And more like collector type bonuses They in no way shape or form undermine what you get from the base game. Which is beneficial for consumers to have an option to get. I have yet to see anything predatory or manipulative.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. I have been a huge civ fan for decades but I skipped Civ 6. A while back, I snagged the base game for like $6. I was watching your videos on how to plan out your districts and couldn't understand why I couldn't find the government plaza pin to plan my empire. Then, I learned that is only available as DLC content. So the scenario you mentioned in your video has already happened to me. Rather they just make an amazing game and set a fair price that will compensate them for their work and provide incentive for game development to continue, personally. I would have no problem paying $150 or even $200 every 5-7 years for an AMAZING, COMPLETE game I can get hundreds or thousands of hours of enjoyment out of.
The term of "early access" is a straight lie. If you preorder you don't get any early access, you only avoid delayed access. Basically you pay extra to play on launch.
I felt this way all the way back at Civ2 or Heroes of might and magic 3. I felt like the full game was 2-3 expansions in, and playing the base game cd, was just the preorder so they had enough money to finish the game. There are some games where playing with the expansion is exciting, but Civ has long suffered from a "wait til the DLC pack" mentality. Both CIV 5 and CIV6 I waited to buy until there were multi pack expansions/DLCs and then hopped in. Civ 7 does intrigue me with the navigable water ways and more interesting "barbarians", but I don't want to pay up for some ludacris founders pack to get a DLC set, that might come with 2 others in a year for only $20, instead of the $80 perceived cost of the founders kit.
Late stage capitalism, all the guard rails have been torn off since 2008, and then throttle was slammed during Covid. We undid 100 years of regulations in 2 years, monopolies can charge whatever they want now. Supply and demand no longer work.
The whole "play the game early" thing is a complete scam. This isn't sold as a beta version, or a typical "the game's still going through development" early access, this is the publisher's finished product. This means the game is ready on the "early access" date, but the "official" release has been pushed back to extract money from the people who would pay extra. Essentially, you're not paying so you have access to the game earlier, you're paying so that others do not have access until later.
Agree with 100%!!! Just bought PGA Tour 2K23 in the sale and still was faced with the decision of which edition to buy. After some humming and harring, I settled on the Standard version as I really didn't need the cosmetics at double the price (even if they were on sale).
Young people will learn just the way I had to learn it..... don't pre-order games, and wait until a sale before purchasing a game.... I will wait a year and get the game patched and in much better shape for $39..... Play Civ6 it's still a great game..
Honestly, if it weren't for the Denuvo DRM, I would go ahead and preorder the standard edition. I'll pay for the two DLCs when they come out. As it stands, I will just wait until they patch out Denuvo.
I couldn't prove it these days, but I have been playing Civ since the original, and have bought all the main games and one or two of the non main branch games.
I am NOT going to purchase Civ 7 in any Edition for exactly the points you have raised.(until its on sale} Personally it`s refreshing that a gamer like you has pointed this out its true I`m still going to play Civ6 I don`t play Deity who knows I might try its because I want to max the enjoyment I get, buying Civ7 will not help here I`ll buy this edition when Civ8 comes out but at least it won`t because you had the integrity to say so.(that`s down to Faraxis) I will see what the likes of Spud McSpirit will say, (yeah I`m really excited duhhh) thanks mate from a Brit who intro` d in Civ6
You definitely make some good points. I'm probably still going to buy the founders edition sometime in the new year because Civ is the only video game I play these days, and I can afford the price. But i certainly do wish it was cheaper and fear there will be a ton of DLC packs. Oh and to the point about rewarding exisiting civ fans, i belive theyre giving anyone who plays the game from now until February a free Napoleon persona.
I understand that such a substantial upfront cash expenditure is risky with an untested company. But this is a Civ game, a Firaxis game, so I know I'll be buying the DLCs down the road anyway--I always have, because the quality of the games is good. And since I'm getting hundreds, if not thousands, of play hours out of each of their games, these are actually great deals.
Meh. I got Founders Edition without second thought. I've played every iteration since the OG. it is simply my favorite game series. And seeing as I'm in my 50s now and gaming is my hobby, and I know I'll get an unconscionable amount of time playing it, doesn't bother me. YMMV, of course.
will wait for the game to be complete and relatively bug free on a massive discount and it will still be a big purchase. 80% off on a 200 product is still substantial.
I buy all my games on sale sometimes years later. It’s worth it to wait because the costs are so much. I still play the same games for many years I’m just slightly behind on playing it when everyone else is. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing and keep up with the Jones so to speak. That’s the problem with everyone they have to have everything now.
I don’t plan on buying Civ 7 at all. One of the problems with having multiple “deluxe”editions, is that it cheapens the base game purchase. 90 CAD is a lot of money for me, but it won’t even feel good getting “just the base game” after spending what to me is a lot of money. Basically the publisher is saying “your 90 CAD are not good enough, so you’re getting the poor man’s version”. I don’t think I wanna fork out all that money only to feel inferior. I think I’m good, thanks. I think I’ll go spend my money on indie and AA games that are made with love, that don’t have any meaningless DLCs for whoever can pay more. Games that devs keep working on after release, without extorting money under the threat of “if you want long term support just pay us more”. Monetization models like Civ 7 only wanna play these games more, as it makes them feel soooo much more valuable, and make feel really good about buying and playing them❤
hmmm.... maybe it's just me, or maybe im showing my age, but i remember the days having to go into a store and buy a disc version of a new game, and if memory serves me correct the top shelf games at the time (think Civ 4, Medal of Honour or CoD 1 etc) retailed for a similar price today as new games on steam (anywhere b/w $50-$100), so factoring inflation, to me games have actually gotten cheaper! The bigger issue is having to pay for a constrant stream of DLCs, although this isnt a big deal with Civ as in the past there has only been 1-2 expansions per version. (I'm now looking at you Paradox! lol)
Servers are expensive but I'd hazard not as expensive as production of storage method, production of packaging, distribution, premises and the staff for all those steps vs digital distribution.
I have bought every major edition of Civ from 1 to 6, but I normally reckon to buy the base edition only. For two reasons. (1) If it turns out that I don’t like the base edition, I’m not going to want any of the extras. This happened with Civ 5, which I bought, but then I found that I didn’t get along with it. (2) Even if I like the base edition, am I really going to want more leaders, more civs, more wonders? Not necessarily. Adding more stuff to a game doesn’t make it a better game. If I do later feel the urge to add more stuff to the game, I can buy it later.
Im convinced that for most of the games the different editions exist only to make you think "huh.... i guess i`ll buy the cheapest one" and still buy the game Also early access on a game like civ7 is not a big deal... it is however when Diablo 4 does it and tells playerbase "hey, if you reach that level fast enough we will make a statue with your name and put it in the game" - thats bad... thats playing with anxiety
I will support Firaxis by buying the game when it´s at approx. 25% sale and diving deep into Stellaris (picked it up recently for some loose change), Millennia and the upcoming Franchise Hockey Manager 11 instead.
I disagree with you. In my opinion I just decided getting the game 5 days early was not worth it. I made the choice not to let it bother me and am happy.
Indeed. The market will decide and is fair. These practices wouldn't exist if people wouldn't pay for it. Which means the power is also in our hands based on what we pay for. Who cares about kindness in this sense. If I like to call the game publishers daddy and have them spank me financially, then that's my parogative. I personally never pre-order anything.
I actually feel quite differently about the first point. If people want to pay minimum 40 CAD in order to play a game 5 days early, then let them... I have money, but that's of no use to me. 5 days? Pfft. Whatever. If people want that go ahead. Their issue. It actually gives me confidence in the game because if its broken or doesn't work, then I'm gonna know about it and they won't get my money on poor people release day.
Starfield was the last game I preordered and never again! I'm going to put my big boy pants on and wait for the full release of Civ7. I'll get the additional leader later on when it's on sale, that's fine. I don't mind waiting one week for the reviews to come in and then decide if I want to buy it. That's how it's gonna be from now on and it's not about the money.
yeah i just can repeat what i wrote, and add more money, bling Bling in the eyes and more money. and they try to talk everything good, and everything always is just more amazing. even if they or the test players found some money bugs or other problems. but in every Presentation all is just good and better than ever... for those who want to know what i wrote in vids before: the game just looks messy, the leaders cheap, menus and lettering look both cheap and messy. i mean just look at the techs and city names, already going to order glasses...they had so much Potential in civ6 to get it to a legendary game like aoe2, in multi- and singleplay. you had to calculate/think about which resource you farm or where you place your districts. feel all u say about it, just search the best resource and let it go. of course i dont want to judge before its released but it kind of kills the civ vibe. what we see and feels like a hit in the face. its just Sample material but looks older like civ6 maybe even civ5 - ok wow u have more buildings and units on one tile. to get a negative "bonus" every age, no comment. the "leaders" and the option to select nations with no relation to the leader, no comment. religions, no comment. i feel just sad till now..and the thing i most looking Forward to is that they surely will bring tons of dlcs for several hundreds of euro and try to fill content. like the negative ages, this they sold us last time as an dlc, this time they will do it the other way around?! i think it should be illegal to grab so much money, and everyone should wait till u get the platium edition in the internet for less than 60 dollars even if loved the games before. and spend thousands of hours on it..i will wait and check out a lot if its released, but i think this will be a downfall. even the fog of war looks to "formal" and doesnt say "i am made with Love, explore me" like in civ6, already miss the unexplored map there. i mean what is this the unexplored map looks like coins of metal. of course with some changes they try to stop snowballing but why should stop a good play always, without any explanation. think they should have get civ6 to perfection with the critics of the players, like the builder or resource problems. and implement the things the players addes with their mods...but we will see, as we love sid and civ
Funny thing, this, which is that I nearly came in agreeing with your conclusion more than I did going out. You make a good point about the predatory nature of exploiting anxiety, but the notion that it is unfair to whales not to include the future price of DLC is rather petty. Odds are they are not going to release these DLC at prices that make their "Founders" collectively feel massively ripped off, nor grief the masses who didn't sell the farm for early access. You worry that game mechanics will "never be available" unless you buy the Founders Edition. Nonsense. Firaxis will release them to make more money. And if not, modders will recreate the same things. Firaxis has already stated they are committed to the mod community---which they absolutely should, as it is free labor.
Great video! No need to eat your shorts... forget about the Founder's Edition, the content I've seen so far doesn't even justify the standard $70 USD price tag. Seems like a lot of developers are jumping on the bandwagon of charging more for less, and making up for lost revenue through DLC. Since this inevitably results in poor game ratings and blowback from consumers, they deal with it through deep discounts at earlier and earlier points (I've seem some AAA games marked 50-60% off less than a year after release). Eventually, this will stop working for them as well, and the smart ones will hopefully go back to just delivering a good main product to begin with, like indie devs generally do now. Until then, I will wait and purchase this game when its discount reflects what I think it's actually worth, which is nowhere near $70. I could literally buy Red Dead Redemption 2 or Ghost of Tsushima at retail price for less than that. Do they really want me to believe that this game is of higher quality than those? lol
To me Civ5 is the pinnacle. The gameplay just feels right and it runs brilliantly on modern hardware. There is a ton of content there, even from day 1 without the expansions. On top of this, the Linux version on Steam is DRM-free. Download it, back it up, play it forever. I see no reason to get into Civ6 or 7.
I'd buy it if it were $40 but hell no I'm not getting a game that I'm not even sure will be any good for more than that even if I've played every Civ since Civ II
IMHO, although Civ VII has been highly anticipated, I don't believe it is as good as Civ VI, at least not from what I have seen of it so far. Yet, it is way more expensive than Civ VI was if you don't consider the cost of the subsequent DLCs. At this point, I think even the base version at $90 is way too expensive for what you will be getting. I'm taking a wait and see attitude. I bet the price will drop when they see their sales aren't what they expected.
The question I have is whether the market really wanted a Civ 6.5 or a Civ 7. I think in many ways 6 is the best game in the franchise yet, but it does have its problem areas and the engine is clearly showing its age. The question is whether we really wanted a 1/3 1/3 1/3 keep / retool / replace or whether it was more of a 1/2 1/4 1/4.
@@jyutzler I'm pretty sure many of the changes were made so the game would run even on the Nintendo Switch/all platforms. I expected changes, but not this drastic. From what I see, very little remains of Civ VI in the new game. Like I said, I'm going to wait and see before I spend $90 on a game I may not like at all.
Also, the Nintendo Switch release is $59.99, but the PS4 release is $69.99 because they're forcing you to get the PS5 version in a "bundle" with no option to get a PS4 only version. Just like 2K started doing with NBA 2K25 despite the game being inferior in more ways than performance and graphics on PS4.
Totally agree with everything here. I miss the days when video games came in a well designed box with cool artwork and a fun little booklet. Oh and games were complete and fully functional and fun to play at time of purchase! I didn't start playing Civ 6 until 2020 (suddenly had a lot more free time for some reason) I bought it, and every subsequent DLC, on sale. Seeing these prices, and having watched the recent disastrous rollout of City Skylines 2, I don't think I'll be buying Civ 7 until 2026 at the earliest, when all the bugs have been worked out, all the big DLCs have been rolled out, and the price is something more reasonable. I cannot fathom why anyone would pre-order a video game in this day and age?!? most of them seem to ship half finished and buggy as all hell and missing a lot of content. Stop encouraging this pre-order BS!!?!
A lot of this high monetization comes from fraxis parent company Take Two. They are extremely greedy, and have had class action lawsuits brought against them over anti consumer practices. Unfortunately, Take Two didnt learn their lesson, they simply changed their terms of service, and continued with doing what they were doing. Its sad that these mega corporations keep buying up studio's and forcing them to put out (at times) subpar games at higher cost, or just simply price gouge their customers.
First, early acces in single player games is silly, it's just a money grab. But what is even funnier, usually early acces days are buggy. Another thing, i got feeling, that base game is as minimal as it can be nowadays and evetything else is intentionally moved to dlc. This way devs wins double prize. They can sell base game and already got content for dlc without any effort. I think now we got something like this base game 2024 + DLC + DLC + DLC= any base game 2000-2020 Money, money, money!
What's the "new background" for the leader personas? According to all the material I've seen, they've eliminated backgrounds for leaders, haven't they?
It's very expensive to produce a high quality game, and I expect to pay a premium price for one. That said, subscription models, endless DLCs and extra and other ways of wringing more cash out of fans do feel exploitative. Wall Street loves keeping us all hooked on subscriptions, whether it be streaming services, pharma or "leader passes." On the one hand, I would be willing to pay upfront, discounted for "all the future DLC" and be happy about it. They get extra money. I don't have to pay for the DLC they will inevitably release down the line. Win. Win. But that would require trust I don't have and them willing to include everything. Pricing should be simple and upfront.
Just bought Dawn of Man. A four year old game that is completely mature - all wrinkles pressed out. For CAD $17. Loving it. My strategy is to look for older games with positive ratings. And wait until the sales for more recent games. Usually six to twelve months on popular games. Winter sale being a guarantee 15% to 20% off. Good news is a lot of games are being published. Selection has never been better. As far as CIV VII other 4X games out there look better. Won't be eager to invest in it. Too pricey.
Meanwhile, Ara: History Untold, which is of similar scope and looking really good, is fairly priced, doesn't come with Denuvo, and is designed for PC first and foremost. It's due for release on Tuesday.
Cs2 was the last pc game I’ll ever buy at full price. I was stupid and bought the deluxe edition, and again,that will never happen again. Gaming companies no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt because profits over experience will always rule the day. I’ll stick with Civ 6 until the sales start to roll around because I have no reason to believe the game will be a complete game at release. Hopefully I’m wrong, but again, no gaming company deserves the benefit of the doubt anymore because they’ve shown no reason to
As a person who generally buys deluxe stuff, i just dont see the value here. As a devout civilization fan, i also know that Civilization usually launches with a LOT of problems, sometimes so much it isn't even playable. I will not even preorder this game, because i was so disappointed to see their 85% mark up, for almost no value at all (imho). And a thought of your video, i found it annoying that you were playing with the zoom and jumping out, and zooming in slowly and jumping out, over and over and over again :) But, great video nonetheless :)
So you're telling me they made a game they reckon is worth $167, removed 4 leaders, 8 civs, 8 wonders, and told everyone else if you can't afford that ridiculous price, you can play a scraps version of the game that doesn't have its true balance? Nice.
Yea, it's a problem... But I still want to pre-order the basic edition for one reason only: Exploration Age. Apparently, in Civ7's Exploration age, you get to make a religion. And just like with Civ5, Civ6, Millennia and Humankind... I want to create my SCUBA gear cult religion ONCE MORE but in Civ 7 and use it to motivate my virtual people. I am Serious about this!
Its Even expensive in Brazil... Its half a minimum wage here... I never purchase an videogame more than R$100... and the base game costs R$350 in Brazil
On one hand it is a bit shocking to see what a AAA game costs these days but on the other hand when you compare it to prices of other things it's really not that bad. I remember in the early 80s Pac-Man came out for the Atari 2600 and if I remember it was 34.99 which is $106 today. Inflation isn't a perfect science with all the inconsistencies, etc but this is from an official calculator. If anything that $106 is a bit low. Also, based on the number of hours a player might enjoy a game it comes out as incredibly cheap entertainment, much better than just about anything else except maybe whipping an old tire down the street with a stick. The biggest problem is that so many games come up short these days. They either don't work right away, aren't complete or are just plain meh or worse. Pre-Ordering is a risky venture. It might be less so with Civ than most others but still. Everything is costing more so put that in perspective. None of those benefits or leaders are going to make that big of a difference and you can always buy them later.
I agree 100%. I’ve been playing since version one and find these prices ridiculous. They are taking advantage of the fans. I will wait a few years until the price drops to a reasonable level. Sid got greedy!
While I agree I wish games felt like less of a hit to the budget and complete on release the same way they did when we were younger, your price comparison doesn't account for inflation. Assuming you purchased RE4 new back in 2005 when it was originally released and spent ~$72 Canadian that would be equivilent to a purchase price of ~$115 today adjusted for inflation. So to be fair $90 is actually cheaper than your example of RE4 when accounting for inflation. I purchased Civ 5 back in 2013 on sale for $50 but even that is about $17 more when adjusting for inflation only about 10 years later. In my scenario Civ 5 would have been about 3 years old on sale and still about what a brand new switch game sells for today.
Steam, Spotify, Netflix, Prime, etc. contributed a lot to strangle the piracy of games, music, movies, etc. What these publishers are doing now is ushering forward a new era of piracy. Continue along these lines, and piracy will flurish once again. That is until AI gets good enough to create content with an audience of one. But that is waay down the line. At least 2 years...
15:07 - Are they really trying to put f2p elements in a game that has as its cheapest option for USD70.00? MENTAL I'm 90% sure that they are going to sell these cosmetics separately and it's not going to be cheap. That's OUR fault for not getting more vocal earlier.
The Founders Edition is just the base game plus a couple of future DLC packs. You are pre-paying for the future DLCs. This has been the model for Civ game releases since at least Civ V.
I think gaming companies have become roime examples of corporate greed. I can easily buy the 90$ version but instead ill wait till its on a giga sale to spite them
I mean, I'm only buying it when Denuvo is gone, which if tradition for alot of games hold, is six months post release, so why would I ever buy 5 days early access, or dlc I have no details on, for a game I have next to no details on, especially when alot of those details give me pause. I trust Firaxis enough to try the game despite my reservations, but not enough to buy all this dlc for it when I don't even know much about the base game, not even considering how long I'll have to wait for them to drop the malware off of it, assuming they ever do. There's a solid chance Denuvo stays and I'll just have to skip this game.
I understand that pirates will give you all dlc's content of the game with no added price🏴☠ Otherwise we are thankful to people ready to pay deluxe, founders and Sally editions, they keep Earth moving!
I'm really looking forward to Civ 7. I'll probably buy it in 2026 when the price comes down. Yes, I want to play it, but I don't feel so hyped about it that I need to play it the second it releases. Also, while I'm probably a "whale" in some sense when it comes to Civ 6 (I have every DLC, including all of the leader packs), I'm not going to get some special early edition of Civ 7 just because it has limited-time offer of new leaders or leader personas. Any time a game tells me "buy this now or buy it never", I will choose "never" every single time just as a matter of principle. I don't care if I love the franchise or that I have good feelings towards the company behind it. I'm a fan, I'll buy the game, but I'm not going to reward this sort of scummy behaviour.
What are your thoughts on the Civilization 7 Founders Edition? Do you think the practice of having multiple editions and pre-order bonuses is helpful or hurtful for the industry as a whole?
The early access part will be a great way for them to sell more of these founders editions. I suppose I'd say these multiple editions are helpful for the industry as a whole - they get more money and, though we might grumble about it, we still buy it anyway.
I purchased Civ 1-6. Won't be ordering this until it goes on sale. If at all. For double the money, they should have some way to put ME into the game, and create my own Civ based on cherry picking attributes of other civs.
@@Shauma_llama I feel the same way. I bet I will get it eventually, but I don't really feel excited for it.
Well, here's one thing, they know every Civ RUclipsr will be paying for early access. Nobody wants to get a week behind Potato McWhiskey, right?
You should do a follow up video after the DLC is released critiquing this video. Let us know if you believe the founders edition was worth it for the average player. I do not have a problem with multiple editions because I believe early adopters should get more content for a better value (I won't be buying the founders edition btw). That being said there needs to be more transparency on pricing for that idea to work. I also do not like missable items that are time-gated in games.
Civ 6 and 7 are the least of our problems.
Easily over 1000+ hours of gameplay with infinite replayability.
Companies like EA, Ubisoft and Epic are the true villains of the industry. (Feel free to mention others, but these are the ones that came to mind)
Further to this, the companies that are predatory towards kids and their need to buy skins and various packs, that's just disgusting.
imma just buy the game in like 2.5 years when its finished and on sale for like 50%
Facts 😂
And most importantly, after they remove Denuvo DRM from it.
50% off plus $100 of added DLC
@@crixus8183 right😅 civ six is 5$ right now on Xbox and 15$ for all the dlc
And also when I have a computer that can run it....
Another point i greatly despise about this current gaming industry is the whole concept of preordering.
Back in the day you visited your local store to preorder because there were only a certain amount of physical discs carried by stores. The store didn't want to go ahead and order thousands of discs in case the game may flop so sometimes there wasn't enough to go around on launch day.
Now preordering is solely based on these little bonuses because that's the only way to sell them before reviews come in. The store fronts certainly aren't gonna tell customers that the store is closed for today because all the games ran out...
I pre-ordered Civ 3 in 2001, because it was rare to see physical copies of civ games in my local store. It was a collectors edition that came in a large tin. The price was $60, which would be $106 in today's money. Civ 7 will be the first I don't buy at launch.
I'm not sure if I will preorder the game (with an additional discount it will cost me €62 here in Germany). First I want to see some actual gameplay. There are some content creators in my country that probably will be able to play and show gameplay before release. I I like the game I will preorder the cheapest edition because of this bonus (Tecumseh) for I have a personal relationship to it. I will not buy any of the more expensive versions - as Van said, if they value people who have played the older editions (and I am a veteran of CIV I) by letting them play some days earlier, fine. But I won't spend money for just having to wait five days less.
This is incorrect. And not predatory at all. As if there's a better option. What to not have preorders? Get real. I can buy a game on release. Great. Or I have an option to pre-order at my own volition to get something extra in advance. OK great. There is no evidence or anything that this could be wrong or unethical. It's a perfectly valid options that benefits consumers who like having it. And has no effect on anybody who isn't interested. Which is no different from the absolute complete and utter insanity of this entire video. Comparing Resident Evil not having additional options to a game that offers additional options. As if having additional purchase options prevents you from getting the base game. I absolutely guarantee if Resident Even 4 had additional purchase options like Deluxe and Foundational, then it would be perfectly fine. And more of a benefit to those who are interested. With absolutely no effect on anybody purchasing the base game. These rants such as this video are based in complete psychosis with no concept of reality or how ethics works.
Civ 7 has a base game for $70. A high price that is perfectly fine for what they want to set. They offer additional content for $30, and more content for another $30. Great options for whoever is interested in them. So far, I have no interest in anything other than the base game. But depending on more info, I might go for the second option. I have no intention of going for the third option. However, it is perfectly valid for anybody who is interested in it.
@@exceligencecompletely agree. The power is in the consumers hands and business practices adapt to our own dumb behaviour.
"Slap my ass and call me Sally edition." That was pretty funny and unexpected.
I heard Sven delivered that service personally when someone bought the special $999.00 version of BG3.
I mean to be completely fair if we as a community and as a whole if people didn't pay for this shit we wouldn't have this problem. So of course companies are gonna push as much as they can because they know someone will pay for it.
That’s the point of regulations. Capitalism is an extortionate system, it relies on the most animalistic behaviors of humans. Humans are not going to change, so something more permanent like regulations have to be implemented.
Thing is, I can deal with a big up front cost, if all the following DLC's are included: if you are going to make people pay for DLC later, the base game price should be low...
Edit: this being said that Civ tends to have multiple DLC
I thought the same, there will be more dlc.
Firaxis is selling the game NOW, but they haven't released the minimum and recommended system requirements.
They just released the pc system requirements if you are still looking for
Honestly, I don't really care if someone else gets to play the game 5 days before me.
Bro... i'll get it in two-three years on sale in bundle. fuck these companies
The true problem are the predatory investors and business suits that drive the decision-making. Games are expensive to make and the price needs to compensate that, however the games need to be catered to the consumer and not to try to maximize profit at all cost. They destroy careers and games themselves by doing these predatory practices, that's why the industry is in flames right now.
Wall Street loves subscriptions. They don't like "we make game, you give us money for it" simplicity. They want people hooked.
The Lack of hot seat is tragic! My family and I sit down and play together in the living room. Or my husband and I play in bed on a laptop.
you know what hasnt gone up? the cost of piracy
No way am i paying more than 50 smackers for any game, if they keep forcing the price up i will go back to finding other ways to play the game.
Having day one paid dlc is like selling one complete game in several pieces
1st and only preorder I made was Cities Skylines II. Learned my lesson. You are not a bank, do not give them credit in advance
100% agree with your take on it. I’ll be waiting until it’s on sale. New game prices are ridiculous now.
Definitely a well thought out opinion that I can get behind. It is starting to become a bit worrying.
Hot take here, but I feel that this started once games were starting to be patched. It may be a great tool to fix a bug or glitch that may have slipped through testing, but when it becomes a situation where games are being released half finished because a patch can be released, that is not for the consumers benefit.
Most in-game purchases too seem more predatory than actually about giving the consumer a proper product. Things like season passes come to mind, where you spend x amount of money to then have the ability to earn cosmetics, new items, etc, instead of getting what you pay for right then. Now you have to play and unlock the items you paid for in the pass or you may lose them, and what you spent on it. They seem more like anxiety generators and player retention devices more than anything.
I bought Civ6 three months ago for 3€. This was a much better value than the price I have to pay now in order to play Civ7 four months from now.
Great points! As a fan of Civ since Civ 1 I find switching from “best fans in gaming” to “our loyal cashcows” quite disappointing to the level I will wait until the inevitable heavy discount of Civ 7 enjoying Civ 6 in the process.
All three editions include the bonus of Denuvo DRM too.
In the UK, the "Founders" edition comes up to 119.99 GBP which translates to over 216 CDN$
70, 100, 130 EUR repsectively.
Holland founD edition 129.95 € i have every civ version ever have over 10.000 hrs civ time.. but no way i will do this
Excellent analysis, and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I've been playing Civilization since the first edition and this is the first one that I am going to be actively avoiding, in a large part due to this Sims-esque, predatory pricing and gutting of the primary product in favour of DLC bombardment. I live in Australia, and the cost here is even higher than in Canada. It's just absurd and abhorrent in my eyes. They clearly see us, the consumers, as irrational marks and it's up to us to show them that we are the ones who actually have the power in this market.
Love how clear cut you put it. It's so disappointing to see FIraxis and CIV fall into the abhorrent mobilie-gaming-predatory-gotcha-schemes. CIV does not need this. They, above all, should hold the bastion of good and complete games as in the past, and show they and CIV have won the test of time.
Isn't that what US capitalism is all about since day 1?
@@Copper_Penny Yet I have seen nothing in the video that indicates anything predatory going on here Or Sims. Or some problem with the industry. Just loaded statements, but nothing explaining anything harmful going on. Since the first Sims, they realized they can make money off of expansions that bring fun enhancements to the game. So they went crazy with it in Sims 2. And have used it more in subsequent games. Yet nothing predatory or even harmful. Users benefit. The best example is RimWorld. A very independent game that started out with small budget. Four expansions have been released. But they're all more like evolutionary designs over the base game. So there pretty much mandatory. Especially the first and second one. However, there's nothing manipulative or harmful from the dev. They also update the base game with huge improvements/features every time they have released an expansion.
Civilization is high priced. Which is based on solid success of previous games in the franchise. Which does not come easy. They can set a high price for a new game because of the quality they put info their previous games. Therefore, a high demand. There is completely nothing wrong with raising the price to what is most profitable for your hard work. The same goes for bonus content. Also high price. Yet there has been nothing whatsoever shown in this video of anything wrong. User is mad about bonus content, but is not aware, they have marked up the price no different from the base game.
What you're getting is not unclear. The value of what you're getting is less than normal for the price But that also applies to the base game All of which are marked up. Normally, it would be $60. And $25 for each additional edition. Nothing is ambiguous here
There's early access included in bonus content if prepurchased. That is in addition to what the prices are actually based on which is everything else you're getting. They have in no way shape or form manipulated anything regarding fear of missing out. And it is indeed an early access. Great.
These offers and other games are great. And more like collector type bonuses They in no way shape or form undermine what you get from the base game. Which is beneficial for consumers to have an option to get. I have yet to see anything predatory or manipulative.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. I have been a huge civ fan for decades but I skipped Civ 6.
A while back, I snagged the base game for like $6. I was watching your videos on how to plan out your districts and couldn't understand why I couldn't find the government plaza pin to plan my empire. Then, I learned that is only available as DLC content.
So the scenario you mentioned in your video has already happened to me.
Rather they just make an amazing game and set a fair price that will compensate them for their work and provide incentive for game development to continue, personally.
I would have no problem paying $150 or even $200 every 5-7 years for an AMAZING, COMPLETE game I can get hundreds or thousands of hours of enjoyment out of.
The term of "early access" is a straight lie. If you preorder you don't get any early access, you only avoid delayed access. Basically you pay extra to play on launch.
Just an FYI
Civ 6 platinum edition is on sale on PSN right now for less then $10. All DLC. All expansions. Sale ends very soon.
I felt this way all the way back at Civ2 or Heroes of might and magic 3. I felt like the full game was 2-3 expansions in, and playing the base game cd, was just the preorder so they had enough money to finish the game. There are some games where playing with the expansion is exciting, but Civ has long suffered from a "wait til the DLC pack" mentality. Both CIV 5 and CIV6 I waited to buy until there were multi pack expansions/DLCs and then hopped in. Civ 7 does intrigue me with the navigable water ways and more interesting "barbarians", but I don't want to pay up for some ludacris founders pack to get a DLC set, that might come with 2 others in a year for only $20, instead of the $80 perceived cost of the founders kit.
Really tired of the constant gouging in every industry
Late stage capitalism, all the guard rails have been torn off since 2008, and then throttle was slammed during Covid. We undid 100 years of regulations in 2 years, monopolies can charge whatever they want now. Supply and demand no longer work.
The whole "play the game early" thing is a complete scam. This isn't sold as a beta version, or a typical "the game's still going through development" early access, this is the publisher's finished product.
This means the game is ready on the "early access" date, but the "official" release has been pushed back to extract money from the people who would pay extra.
Essentially, you're not paying so you have access to the game earlier, you're paying so that others do not have access until later.
^ This.
Agree with 100%!!! Just bought PGA Tour 2K23 in the sale and still was faced with the decision of which edition to buy. After some humming and harring, I settled on the Standard version as I really didn't need the cosmetics at double the price (even if they were on sale).
Young people will learn just the way I had to learn it..... don't pre-order games, and wait until a sale before purchasing a game.... I will wait a year and get the game patched and in much better shape for $39..... Play Civ6 it's still a great game..
‘Young people’ lmaooo. kids and adults under 24 don’t have modern pre-order money to spend.
Young people dont play civ
Young people dont play civ
Honestly, if it weren't for the Denuvo DRM, I would go ahead and preorder the standard edition. I'll pay for the two DLCs when they come out. As it stands, I will just wait until they patch out Denuvo.
You're not that young if that's what you learned. In my day, we pirated everything until we started earning a living wage.
Just add it to your wish list and buy it when it's on sale.
I couldn't prove it these days, but I have been playing Civ since the original, and have bought all the main games and one or two of the non main branch games.
I am NOT going to purchase Civ 7 in any Edition for exactly the points you have raised.(until its on sale} Personally it`s refreshing that a gamer like you has pointed this out its true I`m still going to play Civ6 I don`t play Deity who knows I might try its because I want to max the enjoyment I get, buying Civ7 will not help here I`ll buy this edition when Civ8 comes out but at least it won`t because you had the integrity to say so.(that`s down to Faraxis) I will see what the likes of Spud McSpirit will say, (yeah I`m really excited duhhh) thanks mate from a Brit who intro` d in Civ6
A true Canadian, so apologetic for being right , stating facts.
While finance is trying all the ways to suck people’s blood and manipulate their emotions, PR is asleep. 💤
You definitely make some good points. I'm probably still going to buy the founders edition sometime in the new year because Civ is the only video game I play these days, and I can afford the price. But i certainly do wish it was cheaper and fear there will be a ton of DLC packs.
Oh and to the point about rewarding exisiting civ fans, i belive theyre giving anyone who plays the game from now until February a free Napoleon persona.
I understand that such a substantial upfront cash expenditure is risky with an untested company. But this is a Civ game, a Firaxis game, so I know I'll be buying the DLCs down the road anyway--I always have, because the quality of the games is good. And since I'm getting hundreds, if not thousands, of play hours out of each of their games, these are actually great deals.
Tysm for discussing this
I was interested in the founders edition with all the bells and whistles but backed out when I realised it would cost about £400 to import to UK.
Pretty sure it's just £130
@@sportzak5886 the import tax fee is more than the game believe it or not.
its not worth, im going to wait for the 90% discounts
The "5 days early access" is just an insult. They're basically holding the game hostage unless you pay them extra money.
I never buy new games. I wait several years until there's a deep sale and a game has been reviewed to death.
I just bought Civ 6 with all the expansions and dlc for 20$ USD on the Switch. I'll check out Civ 7 in 8 or 9 years lol
You're absolutely right, but more than a little repetitive. This could have been a 10 minute video at most.
Meh. I got Founders Edition without second thought. I've played every iteration since the OG. it is simply my favorite game series. And seeing as I'm in my 50s now and gaming is my hobby, and I know I'll get an unconscionable amount of time playing it, doesn't bother me. YMMV, of course.
will wait for the game to be complete and relatively bug free on a massive discount and it will still be a big purchase. 80% off on a 200 product is still substantial.
I buy all my games on sale sometimes years later. It’s worth it to wait because the costs are so much. I still play the same games for many years I’m just slightly behind on playing it when everyone else is. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing and keep up with the Jones so to speak. That’s the problem with everyone they have to have everything now.
I don’t plan on buying Civ 7 at all. One of the problems with having multiple “deluxe”editions, is that it cheapens the base game purchase. 90 CAD is a lot of money for me, but it won’t even feel good getting “just the base game” after spending what to me is a lot of money.
Basically the publisher is saying “your 90 CAD are not good enough, so you’re getting the poor man’s version”. I don’t think I wanna fork out all that money only to feel inferior. I think I’m good, thanks.
I think I’ll go spend my money on indie and AA games that are made with love, that don’t have any meaningless DLCs for whoever can pay more. Games that devs keep working on after release, without extorting money under the threat of “if you want long term support just pay us more”.
Monetization models like Civ 7 only wanna play these games more, as it makes them feel soooo much more valuable, and make feel really good about buying and playing them❤
hmmm.... maybe it's just me, or maybe im showing my age, but i remember the days having to go into a store and buy a disc version of a new game, and if memory serves me correct the top shelf games at the time (think Civ 4, Medal of Honour or CoD 1 etc) retailed for a similar price today as new games on steam (anywhere b/w $50-$100), so factoring inflation, to me games have actually gotten cheaper! The bigger issue is having to pay for a constrant stream of DLCs, although this isnt a big deal with Civ as in the past there has only been 1-2 expansions per version. (I'm now looking at you Paradox! lol)
Servers are expensive but I'd hazard not as expensive as production of storage method, production of packaging, distribution, premises and the staff for all those steps vs digital distribution.
And you can not sell your purchase after to someone else when you no longer play said game.
I have bought every major edition of Civ from 1 to 6, but I normally reckon to buy the base edition only. For two reasons. (1) If it turns out that I don’t like the base edition, I’m not going to want any of the extras. This happened with Civ 5, which I bought, but then I found that I didn’t get along with it. (2) Even if I like the base edition, am I really going to want more leaders, more civs, more wonders? Not necessarily. Adding more stuff to a game doesn’t make it a better game. If I do later feel the urge to add more stuff to the game, I can buy it later.
Im convinced that for most of the games the different editions exist only to make you think "huh.... i guess i`ll buy the cheapest one" and still buy the game
Also early access on a game like civ7 is not a big deal... it is however when Diablo 4 does it and tells playerbase "hey, if you reach that level fast enough we will make a statue with your name and put it in the game" - thats bad... thats playing with anxiety
This is why we need to support STOP KILLING GAMES initiative by Ross Scott. We need to take our consumer rights back!
I will support Firaxis by buying the game when it´s at approx. 25% sale and diving deep into Stellaris (picked it up recently for some loose change), Millennia and the upcoming Franchise Hockey Manager 11 instead.
I disagree with you. In my opinion I just decided getting the game 5 days early was not worth it. I made the choice not to let it bother me and am happy.
Indeed. The market will decide and is fair. These practices wouldn't exist if people wouldn't pay for it. Which means the power is also in our hands based on what we pay for. Who cares about kindness in this sense. If I like to call the game publishers daddy and have them spank me financially, then that's my parogative. I personally never pre-order anything.
I actually feel quite differently about the first point. If people want to pay minimum 40 CAD in order to play a game 5 days early, then let them... I have money, but that's of no use to me. 5 days? Pfft. Whatever. If people want that go ahead. Their issue. It actually gives me confidence in the game because if its broken or doesn't work, then I'm gonna know about it and they won't get my money on poor people release day.
Starfield was the last game I preordered and never again! I'm going to put my big boy pants on and wait for the full release of Civ7. I'll get the additional leader later on when it's on sale, that's fine. I don't mind waiting one week for the reviews to come in and then decide if I want to buy it. That's how it's gonna be from now on and it's not about the money.
yeah i just can repeat what i wrote, and add more money, bling Bling in the eyes and more money. and they try to talk everything good, and everything always is just more amazing. even if they or the test players found some money bugs or other problems. but in every Presentation all is just good and better than ever...
for those who want to know what i wrote in vids before:
the game just looks messy, the leaders cheap, menus and lettering look both cheap and messy. i mean just look at the techs and city names, already going to order glasses...they had so much Potential in civ6 to get it to a legendary game like aoe2, in multi- and singleplay. you had to calculate/think about which resource you farm or where you place your districts. feel all u say about it, just search the best resource and let it go. of course i dont want to judge before its released but it kind of kills the civ vibe. what we see and feels like a hit in the face. its just Sample material but looks older like civ6 maybe even civ5 - ok wow u have more buildings and units on one tile. to get a negative "bonus" every age, no comment. the "leaders" and the option to select nations with no relation to the leader, no comment. religions, no comment. i feel just sad till now..and the thing i most looking Forward to is that they surely will bring tons of dlcs for several hundreds of euro and try to fill content. like the negative ages, this they sold us last time as an dlc, this time they will do it the other way around?! i think it should be illegal to grab so much money, and everyone should wait till u get the platium edition in the internet for less than 60 dollars even if loved the games before. and spend thousands of hours on it..i will wait and check out a lot if its released, but i think this will be a downfall. even the fog of war looks to "formal" and doesnt say "i am made with Love, explore me" like in civ6, already miss the unexplored map there. i mean what is this the unexplored map looks like coins of metal. of course with some changes they try to stop snowballing but why should stop a good play always, without any explanation. think they should have get civ6 to perfection with the critics of the players, like the builder or resource problems. and implement the things the players addes with their mods...but we will see, as we love sid and civ
I appreciate the video, how you looked at these editions with a fine-toothed comb.
Funny thing, this, which is that I nearly came in agreeing with your conclusion more than I did going out. You make a good point about the predatory nature of exploiting anxiety, but the notion that it is unfair to whales not to include the future price of DLC is rather petty. Odds are they are not going to release these DLC at prices that make their "Founders" collectively feel massively ripped off, nor grief the masses who didn't sell the farm for early access. You worry that game mechanics will "never be available" unless you buy the Founders Edition. Nonsense. Firaxis will release them to make more money. And if not, modders will recreate the same things. Firaxis has already stated they are committed to the mod community---which they absolutely should, as it is free labor.
Great video! No need to eat your shorts... forget about the Founder's Edition, the content I've seen so far doesn't even justify the standard $70 USD price tag. Seems like a lot of developers are jumping on the bandwagon of charging more for less, and making up for lost revenue through DLC. Since this inevitably results in poor game ratings and blowback from consumers, they deal with it through deep discounts at earlier and earlier points (I've seem some AAA games marked 50-60% off less than a year after release). Eventually, this will stop working for them as well, and the smart ones will hopefully go back to just delivering a good main product to begin with, like indie devs generally do now. Until then, I will wait and purchase this game when its discount reflects what I think it's actually worth, which is nowhere near $70. I could literally buy Red Dead Redemption 2 or Ghost of Tsushima at retail price for less than that. Do they really want me to believe that this game is of higher quality than those? lol
To me Civ5 is the pinnacle. The gameplay just feels right and it runs brilliantly on modern hardware. There is a ton of content there, even from day 1 without the expansions. On top of this, the Linux version on Steam is DRM-free. Download it, back it up, play it forever. I see no reason to get into Civ6 or 7.
I'd buy it if it were $40 but hell no I'm not getting a game that I'm not even sure will be any good for more than that even if I've played every Civ since Civ II
IMHO, although Civ VII has been highly anticipated, I don't believe it is as good as Civ VI, at least not from what I have seen of it so far. Yet, it is way more expensive than Civ VI was if you don't consider the cost of the subsequent DLCs. At this point, I think even the base version at $90 is way too expensive for what you will be getting. I'm taking a wait and see attitude. I bet the price will drop when they see their sales aren't what they expected.
The question I have is whether the market really wanted a Civ 6.5 or a Civ 7. I think in many ways 6 is the best game in the franchise yet, but it does have its problem areas and the engine is clearly showing its age. The question is whether we really wanted a 1/3 1/3 1/3 keep / retool / replace or whether it was more of a 1/2 1/4 1/4.
@@jyutzler I'm pretty sure many of the changes were made so the game would run even on the Nintendo Switch/all platforms. I expected changes, but not this drastic. From what I see, very little remains of Civ VI in the new game. Like I said, I'm going to wait and see before I spend $90 on a game I may not like at all.
Also, the Nintendo Switch release is $59.99, but the PS4 release is $69.99 because they're forcing you to get the PS5 version in a "bundle" with no option to get a PS4 only version. Just like 2K started doing with NBA 2K25 despite the game being inferior in more ways than performance and graphics on PS4.
Totally agree with everything here. I miss the days when video games came in a well designed box with cool artwork and a fun little booklet. Oh and games were complete and fully functional and fun to play at time of purchase!
I didn't start playing Civ 6 until 2020 (suddenly had a lot more free time for some reason) I bought it, and every subsequent DLC, on sale. Seeing these prices, and having watched the recent disastrous rollout of City Skylines 2, I don't think I'll be buying Civ 7 until 2026 at the earliest, when all the bugs have been worked out, all the big DLCs have been rolled out, and the price is something more reasonable. I cannot fathom why anyone would pre-order a video game in this day and age?!? most of them seem to ship half finished and buggy as all hell and missing a lot of content. Stop encouraging this pre-order BS!!?!
A lot of this high monetization comes from fraxis parent company Take Two. They are extremely greedy, and have had class action lawsuits brought against them over anti consumer practices. Unfortunately, Take Two didnt learn their lesson, they simply changed their terms of service, and continued with doing what they were doing. Its sad that these mega corporations keep buying up studio's and forcing them to put out (at times) subpar games at higher cost, or just simply price gouge their customers.
I really wanted to play it Christmas morning.
Full size civ dlcs are usually about 20-30 usd
First, early acces in single player games is silly, it's just a money grab. But what is even funnier, usually early acces days are buggy.
Another thing, i got feeling, that base game is as minimal as it can be nowadays and evetything else is intentionally moved to dlc.
This way devs wins double prize. They can sell base game and already got content for dlc without any effort.
I think now we got something like this
base game 2024 + DLC + DLC + DLC= any base game 2000-2020
Money, money, money!
What's the "new background" for the leader personas? According to all the material I've seen, they've eliminated backgrounds for leaders, haven't they?
It's very expensive to produce a high quality game, and I expect to pay a premium price for one. That said, subscription models, endless DLCs and extra and other ways of wringing more cash out of fans do feel exploitative. Wall Street loves keeping us all hooked on subscriptions, whether it be streaming services, pharma or "leader passes." On the one hand, I would be willing to pay upfront, discounted for "all the future DLC" and be happy about it. They get extra money. I don't have to pay for the DLC they will inevitably release down the line. Win. Win. But that would require trust I don't have and them willing to include everything. Pricing should be simple and upfront.
Just bought Dawn of Man. A four year old game that is completely mature - all wrinkles pressed out. For CAD $17. Loving it. My strategy is to look for older games with positive ratings. And wait until the sales for more recent games. Usually six to twelve months on popular games. Winter sale being a guarantee 15% to 20% off. Good news is a lot of games are being published. Selection has never been better. As far as CIV VII other 4X games out there look better. Won't be eager to invest in it. Too pricey.
Oh by the way. Oriental Empires is a great 4x game. Still fun. Great graphics. Historical tech tree based on oriental development path is fascinating.
Meanwhile, Ara: History Untold, which is of similar scope and looking really good, is fairly priced, doesn't come with Denuvo, and is designed for PC first and foremost. It's due for release on Tuesday.
Cs2 was the last pc game I’ll ever buy at full price. I was stupid and bought the deluxe edition, and again,that will never happen again. Gaming companies no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt because profits over experience will always rule the day. I’ll stick with Civ 6 until the sales start to roll around because I have no reason to believe the game will be a complete game at release. Hopefully I’m wrong, but again, no gaming company deserves the benefit of the doubt anymore because they’ve shown no reason to
As a person who generally buys deluxe stuff, i just dont see the value here.
As a devout civilization fan, i also know that Civilization usually launches with a LOT of problems, sometimes so much it isn't even playable.
I will not even preorder this game, because i was so disappointed to see their 85% mark up, for almost no value at all (imho).
And a thought of your video, i found it annoying that you were playing with the zoom and jumping out, and zooming in slowly and jumping out, over and over and over again :)
But, great video nonetheless :)
Thank u for video. I noticed this a few weeks ago
I pre-ordered it. Whatever keeps the video game industry alive. Do you not notice how many video games studios are collapsing and dying?
So you're telling me they made a game they reckon is worth $167, removed 4 leaders, 8 civs, 8 wonders, and told everyone else if you can't afford that ridiculous price, you can play a scraps version of the game that doesn't have its true balance? Nice.
Luckily, as an adult, I don't have to worry about the price of a game I'll spend hundreds of hours on. How much do you spend for dinner and a movie?
don’t spend $170 on a video game pre-order.
don't forget the collectors edition; around 300 bucks if I'm not mistaken ...nuts
Yea, it's a problem... But I still want to pre-order the basic edition for one reason only: Exploration Age. Apparently, in Civ7's Exploration age, you get to make a religion.
And just like with Civ5, Civ6, Millennia and Humankind... I want to create my SCUBA gear cult religion ONCE MORE but in Civ 7 and use it to motivate my virtual people.
I am Serious about this!
Its Even expensive in Brazil... Its half a minimum wage here...
I never purchase an videogame more than R$100... and the base game costs R$350 in Brazil
On one hand it is a bit shocking to see what a AAA game costs these days but on the other hand when you compare it to prices of other things it's really not that bad. I remember in the early 80s Pac-Man came out for the Atari 2600 and if I remember it was 34.99 which is $106 today. Inflation isn't a perfect science with all the inconsistencies, etc but this is from an official calculator. If anything that $106 is a bit low. Also, based on the number of hours a player might enjoy a game it comes out as incredibly cheap entertainment, much better than just about anything else except maybe whipping an old tire down the street with a stick. The biggest problem is that so many games come up short these days. They either don't work right away, aren't complete or are just plain meh or worse. Pre-Ordering is a risky venture. It might be less so with Civ than most others but still. Everything is costing more so put that in perspective. None of those benefits or leaders are going to make that big of a difference and you can always buy them later.
In fact it is that bad. There is no excuse for enabling and excusing corporate greed.
I agree 100%. I’ve been playing since version one and find these prices ridiculous. They are taking advantage of the fans. I will wait a few years until the price drops to a reasonable level. Sid got greedy!
A Canadian politely outraged about the world being "not very nice" is so on brand.
Don't get me wrong, I'm here for it.
The value is dependent on each person, some people care about cosmetics, some don't!
While I agree I wish games felt like less of a hit to the budget and complete on release the same way they did when we were younger, your price comparison doesn't account for inflation. Assuming you purchased RE4 new back in 2005 when it was originally released and spent ~$72 Canadian that would be equivilent to a purchase price of ~$115 today adjusted for inflation. So to be fair $90 is actually cheaper than your example of RE4 when accounting for inflation. I purchased Civ 5 back in 2013 on sale for $50 but even that is about $17 more when adjusting for inflation only about 10 years later. In my scenario Civ 5 would have been about 3 years old on sale and still about what a brand new switch game sells for today.
Steam, Spotify, Netflix, Prime, etc. contributed a lot to strangle the piracy of games, music, movies, etc. What these publishers are doing now is ushering forward a new era of piracy. Continue along these lines, and piracy will flurish once again.
That is until AI gets good enough to create content with an audience of one. But that is waay down the line. At least 2 years...
15:07 - Are they really trying to put f2p elements in a game that has as its cheapest option for USD70.00? MENTAL
I'm 90% sure that they are going to sell these cosmetics separately and it's not going to be cheap.
That's OUR fault for not getting more vocal earlier.
The Founders Edition is just the base game plus a couple of future DLC packs. You are pre-paying for the future DLCs. This has been the model for Civ game releases since at least Civ V.
I think gaming companies have become roime examples of corporate greed. I can easily buy the 90$ version but instead ill wait till its on a giga sale to spite them
I mean, I'm only buying it when Denuvo is gone, which if tradition for alot of games hold, is six months post release, so why would I ever buy 5 days early access, or dlc I have no details on, for a game I have next to no details on, especially when alot of those details give me pause. I trust Firaxis enough to try the game despite my reservations, but not enough to buy all this dlc for it when I don't even know much about the base game, not even considering how long I'll have to wait for them to drop the malware off of it, assuming they ever do. There's a solid chance Denuvo stays and I'll just have to skip this game.
Its not early release for the founder's edition, its delayed release for the base game!
NGL I think i got every game originally as a non legit copy lol, they would call me the bad guy, not their pricing structure...
and at the same time, people want to see game devs work reasonable hrs at good pay, and video games need to be profitable
I understand that pirates will give you all dlc's content of the game with no added price🏴☠
Otherwise we are thankful to people ready to pay deluxe, founders and Sally editions, they keep Earth moving!
I'm going to wait for the Sid Meier addition, sure it's $1000 + tax but I hear Sid Meier himself will thank you when you purchase it.
I'm really looking forward to Civ 7.
I'll probably buy it in 2026 when the price comes down. Yes, I want to play it, but I don't feel so hyped about it that I need to play it the second it releases.
Also, while I'm probably a "whale" in some sense when it comes to Civ 6 (I have every DLC, including all of the leader packs), I'm not going to get some special early edition of Civ 7 just because it has limited-time offer of new leaders or leader personas. Any time a game tells me "buy this now or buy it never", I will choose "never" every single time just as a matter of principle. I don't care if I love the franchise or that I have good feelings towards the company behind it. I'm a fan, I'll buy the game, but I'm not going to reward this sort of scummy behaviour.