John Kowalski
Banned
It fills my heart with joy to know that Blow will continue to make games.
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It looks like The Witness was priced correctly: week 1 sales tracking > Braid year 1
- Thread starter INTERNET
- Start date
I didn't think the price was right.
This will probably be the last time I buy a $40 digital game -- at least on day 1 of release. I'm just not having that much fun with it. There's not much satisfaction in just solving puzzle after puzzle with no direction and no narrative throughline. It is frustrating to sit down for an hour or more and come out of it having only solved a few puzzles. It is frustrating to get three dozen puzzles deep and get stuck on something that is just impenetrable.
If this were a retail release I'd probably be looking to trade The Witness back into Gamestop by now, but I may keep plugging away at it since I'm stuck with this game. I hope that Firewatch is both good and more reasonably priced......it's really hard not to feel burned by a digital purchase you don't enjoy.
This will probably be the last time I buy a $40 digital game -- at least on day 1 of release. I'm just not having that much fun with it. There's not much satisfaction in just solving puzzle after puzzle with no direction and no narrative throughline. It is frustrating to sit down for an hour or more and come out of it having only solved a few puzzles. It is frustrating to get three dozen puzzles deep and get stuck on something that is just impenetrable.
If this were a retail release I'd probably be looking to trade The Witness back into Gamestop by now, but I may keep plugging away at it since I'm stuck with this game. I hope that Firewatch is both good and more reasonably priced......it's really hard not to feel burned by a digital purchase you don't enjoy.
It was console warriors wanting more exclusives for their system of choice. Piracy was just another reason for them to try and bring it up.
Some indie developers are slowly but steadily taking the place of mid-tier publisher games that imploded in the last 4-5 years. That is though a very dangerous price tier to be in. Buyer expectations will bring some pressure to developers to increase budgets and the risks if sales fail to meet expectations will increase exponentially as indie developers won't have many additional sources of revenue as a backup plan.
I think there's a difference between the price being wrong and the price being wrong for you. The Witness is a 20+ hour game; I'm 32 hours in with quite a bit left to go. That is definitely worthy of a $40 price tag, as long as you actually enjoy the game. For me, I'm loving it. It might have the best gameplay of any game I've played in years, but that is of course a highly subjective opinion. What isn't subjective is the amount of content in The Witness, and as long as that content is appealing to you then it definitely earns its price.
I must say the price stung a little. I'm enjoying it so far and it looks phenomenal but I think 30 would have been the perfect price. At 37 I decided against it twice before biting the bullet out of sheer boredom. 3 hours in so far. Not sure when the line puzzle fatigue will kick in.
It seems to not kick in. It's like Pringles. You can't stop popping those bastards.
If you don't like the game, you don't like the game, that has nothing to do with the price being "right".
Reluctant-Hero
Member
I'm keen try to it out after initially deciding to hold off due to a tight gaming budget. But I'll pick it up on PS4 by the end of the week. Just need to pay my bills first.
And what would be the difference if the price was lower? As I see, your problem is not that the game is $40, is that you don't enjoy it and bought a digital copy that you can't trade/resell.
You even reinforce this where you say that you hope Firewatch is good and that is hard to feel burned by a digital game you don't enjoy.
Exactly. I don't see why he would have enjoyed the game more if it was lower in price. Sounds like he simply doesn't like the game.
slavesnyder
Member
40$ leaves great options for discounts.
Risky decision, but Well done.
Risky decision, but Well done.
It's been mentioned a few times, but isn't especially relevant to the question of whether The Witness was priced correctly. If it weren't, it would not have sold well an any platform, regardless of how many it was released on.
It matters when just comparing raw sales to Braid, but I think The Witness being Jonathan Blow's long awaited follow up to Braid - building on its success - and the maturing of the indie gaming market since Braid's release, are also quite important in the comparison.
I suppose it's easier to write off a cheaper game that you didn't enjoy as much, or write off one that you can resell/trade. The pricetag makes me feel obligated to keep slogging through The Witness just because I have so much invested in it already, whereas cheaper $20 titles I can kinda just give up on without much thought or worry. AAA retail games that suck can be traded in promptly for a net loss of $15-$20.
The price is bad specifically because it carries a higher risk than either cheap indies or AAA blockbusters.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
Who said anything about piss?
I understand the psychology of high prices = more obligation to enjoy/finish a game. But as i said, it think the biggest problem for you was buying a digital copy of the game (noted that's only digital available) as this made the risk much bigger.
If your copy was physical you could at least try to sell/trade it in the BST thread here on GAF.
I think some people touched in the subject of how a demo could benefit the game, as gamers who are not sure if the'll enjoy the complete product can at least have an idea of what they are buying.
The Witness is a game so different of what we are used to see (not being a shooter/adventure/ sports/rpg), that grasping what the gameplay will be can be very hard as most of us don't have a previous experience with this genre.
If they can get Braid ported to the PS4, surely chump change versus what they'll make back from making it so, then I'll be very happy! They can put even more money into the next game if they do so 
Plus I'll get my third copy of Braid for the PS4 so I have it on system I actually use these days!
Plus I'll get my third copy of Braid for the PS4 so I have it on system I actually use these days!
RedAssedApe
Banned
it sounds more like this isn't your type of game.
Surely you'll agree that half is better than nothing? Digital releases deprive us of our time honored property rights. To be frank, how much of a cut the developer gets is of secondary concern to my wallet if I can't resell a digital game in case I don't enjoy it. In this specific instance there isn't even a demo I could try before I buy.
As Limited Run Games has demonstrated, now more than ever there is no excuse not to have a physical release, which Blow has stated may be coming (and which is what I'm waiting for).
This thread is about a $40 digital release being properly priced - for me no digital game is worth that much.
In my region it's US$16 on steam. I wouldn't have bought it at US$40 but I'm having a lot of fun with this game.
It's hard to say whether it is 'worth' $40 I don't and can't really afford full price games these days. I think if John has done the math and it makes him the revenue he needs then it's his prerogative. Totally fair IMO.
It's hard to say whether it is 'worth' $40 I don't and can't really afford full price games these days. I think if John has done the math and it makes him the revenue he needs then it's his prerogative. Totally fair IMO.
Simbabbad
Member
This. My PC can't play it smoothly I guess, but I'll wait. There was a time games in this genre were full price games.
Also, his tweets about piracy are incredibly short and tame. Incredible the fuss some people tried to make about them.